Chapter 4: The Ideal Kingdom
A Little reminder:
Recording Quartz (RQ): Historian/Sociologist
Firm Marble (FM): Journalist
Flame Ruby (FR): Political activist/Maid
Jewel Joy (JJ): Civilian
Crimson Cut (CC): Officer
Lasting Marble (LM): Teacher
Pitch Perfect (PP): Singer
Golden Claw (GC): Griffon immigrant
Special Ore (SO): Earth Pony immigrant
Lord Yellow Pyrite (LYP): Farming Landlord
Lord Polished Gem (LPG): Mining Landlord
The Distant Past
It's been a few weeks after the assassination of Lord Crystal Sapphire and 6 months since the elections. The ponies were enraged, but they did nothing, they feared that the KP would do to them what they did to Crystal Sapphire, but there were two ponies who didn't liked what happened and had enough power to say something about it without the threat of the KP.
Golden Strike and Amor Candente were going to the throne room to have a discussion with the king Swift Rise. They were both angry for a very simple reason: it reached to their ears about the murder of Crystal Sapphire and it was inconceivable. Crystal Sapphire was one of the most caring, kind and sophisticated ponies the Crystal Kingdom has ever met, there was no way that he was sided with Sombra when, in fact, he supported Pure Diamond in the Military Strike against Sombra. To think that Crystal Sapphire was conspiring against the new reign was unthinkable.
They both were going to tell the king their opinion on the matter and ask him who made such defamation on Crystal Sapphire's image. They were about to open the door to the Throne Room when, suddenly, it opened and, to their chagrin, they saw Stray Stone leaving the throne room while, to both ponies dismay, he was smiling and holding on his mouth a paper that could, very well, be a new law that would benefit him, no doubt about it.
Mi Amor Candente, being the diplomat she has become over the years, knew that talking to him right now wouldn't be too beneficial neither would go anywhere so, instead, she preferred to address him as the civil code dictates and then proceed to talk to the king. So she looked directly at Stray Stone's eyes, made the best poker face she could muster, and greeted him:
"Greetings Stray Stone." - She said in the calmest and melodious voice she could make, - "how have your day been? I guess that it's just going to improve now, doesn't it?" - Stray Stone looked at her, his eyes always showing as if he was having some kind of never ending fun, he put the scroll on his left foreleg and responded with his usual smug and confident voice. - "Greetings Candente and, indeed, I had a very good day. Ever since my division showed justice to that criminal, the citizens have started to become more adjusted to the law and the terrorist attacks had started to decrease, very soon I will have completed the challenge the king invested upon me".
Candente, for all of her anger, managed to show a face of peace and calmness and if it were for her, she would have then said her goodbyes and proceeded to talk to the king but, sadly, that patience wasn't shared by Colonel Golden Strike who, even now was still holding himself up, decided to retort to this stuck up pony who thought to be more than he was actually worth. - "Crystal Sapphire never was a criminal! He was always caring of the citizens of the kingdom, he helped me to get into the Crystal Guard and if it weren't for him, Sombra would have stayed in power because Sapphire gave us the support we needed to make the coup." - By this point Golden Strike was very close to Stray Stone and was starting to expel steam from his nose but, from all of this, Stray Stone not only wasn't fazed by this, but he actually kept his smile.
"Oh, my apologies Strike-" - "Colonel Golden Strike to you." - interrupted Strike in the coldest voice he could make, - "Colonel Golden Strike..." - proceeded Stray Stone. - "It is understandable that you may think that Sapphire was an honest pony, trust me, I was also surprised by this, but I do have a confession and after raiding his house we found a lot of deals that not only confirm our suspicions, but also shows that he wasn't the nice stallion he claimed to be." - At this Strike was going to retort something among the lines of that evidence must be false, but before he did that, Amor Candente interrupted them and stopped the bickering.
"STOP." - she said in a high voice that somehow managed to not be a scream. Both stallions looked at her (Golden Strike was surprised of seeing her friend this angry while Stray Stone was keeping his smile) and she decided to finish the discussion once and for all "Stray Stone, I know you have your evidence, but could you please stop teasing others, this won't get you anywhere and, instead, will separate you from others and YOU Strike, please, be more patient, I'm aware the battlefield hasn't given you time to wait and you must be prepared to respond immediately, but you don't have to act like that in here, there are some benefits in patience."
Both stallions took her word and decided to listen. While nopony knew what Stray Stone was thinking at that moment, Strike remembered the many times Swift Rise would tell him that patience was the key to victory and, apparently, he wasn't the only one who thought like that. The pink unicorn was really showing signs of knowing which battles to pick and which battles to avoid.
"And now, if both of you are done with this, I would like to proceed to the court of the King, we were going to have a conversation of the recent developments in the kingdom and how they were starting to affect the Crystal Guard and the Crystal Ponies so the King could make a more effective pace in the progressive movement he has started, good bye Stray Stone and have a good day."
Stray Stone looked at her and, still keeping his smile, said his apologies and went on. Golden trike couldn't miss the opportunity and managed to see a fragment of the paper Stray Stone was holding. The soon to be colonel almost paled when he managed to see the word "curfew" in it.
After a few minutes of waiting to enter, Strike decided to speak to the pink fury besides him. - "Candente, look, I'm sorry for doing that, it's just that, Sapphire was a figurehead for me, he taught me all I know and I wanted to defend him."
"It's alright Strike, I understand, the problem is that you were falling in his trap and you didn't even realized it. You must be careful, he is the type of pony who plays with others and uses them to get in a higher position. That is what happened to my father and I fear that it's just what it's happening to Swift." - By this point, she was starting to get angry at that Stallion. From where did he came from? Sometimes he would just appear out of nowhere, and that smile, was it possible to smile for that long? He was so different, it was like if he worked on a different logic system, what did Swift Rise saw on him?
"So you have gotten a bit more interested in your new friend?" - Teased Golden Strike and, unlike other times, the pink diplomat started to become red and stuttered a response that showed how easily Golden Strike broke through her defenses. - "Wh-what?, no-I mean- yes, I do care for him, but not like that, he is only a-"
In that moment Strike shut her mouth with his hoof and said in a very low volume. - "Look, don't say stuff like that so close to him. He might hear you and it may not look like it, but he has a fragile heart. So be careful with what you say close to him, ok?" - At this Candente nodded and decided to remember it for later.
At that moment the door started to open up and a guard told them that they could finally enter but, before entering, Golden Strike told her in an even lower volume. - "And you didn't heard this from me, but he thinks you look cute." - And moved fast to the throne room, leaving a pinkish red unicorn trying to keep her head straight on the actual subject at hoof: the necessity to improve the lifestyle on the crystal ponies and to reduce the power of the KP.
4 months later
King Sombra was fuming with anger because, somehow, the Crystal Ponies have managed to repel all of his attacks. No matter what he did, that pegasus would always react on time to his moves and reject him, but what was the more surprising weren't his tactics or how efficient he was. It was the equipment of the Crystal Guards: those gems that allowed non-unicorns to shoot lasers were mind blowing, those wing-blades for pegasi were surprisingly useful (he should have listened to Pure Diamond back then) and the gems to amplify the power of the unicorns was great, once he came back to power he was going to use that to invade Equestria.
But that also brought up something that was being a big concern to him. The subjects loyal to him inside the Crystal Kingdom stopped sending information to him months ago, and these weren't common ponies, these were high ranking officials and very important figures (not including the lower ponies that were still loyal to him) so, what happened to them? They were very good at hiding and some of them were his best spies during his reign. They couldn't have been captured, could they? Probably they were waiting for the right moment to send their reports to him, yeah, it probably was that but, still, he had to prepare for the next attack, he would not repeat the same mistakes he did before.
In that moment a Red Griffon with a Harpy head came to him and gave her report to him:
"Sir, all the griffon clans loyal to you has been called, they will take over a few months to come. I also report to you that a few minotaurs have decided to join us and will aid in in our cause".
At this, Sombra started to smile with the same confidence he had the day he was exiled and the day he was defeated on his first invasion attempt to recover the throne. - "Excellent, when all of them finally get here, we will take another couple of months to prepare ourselves for the next fight. I will not repeat the same mistakes I did last time, no I will win this and I will reclaim my Kingdom and you will ll get the reward you deserve".
"Thank you my lord" said the Red Harpy.
"And now, before I forget, did you obtained the objects I ask you to get?"
"So far, we only found the Centaur's blood and the 50 horns from Unicorns who were exploring this lands. We didn't leaved a single witness alive but we're still lacking the other objects, but once we find them we will give them to you my lord."
"Excellent, now, leave the objects there and start the preparations of what could be the longest war your clan may have ever known."
The leader of the Blood Wings obeyed and left the cave Sombra was residing in and hoped that this was the best solution for her clan, she was recently appointed as the new Tribe leader and all she could do now was to see her fellow clan members to die after that brutal retaliation the Crystal Kingdom gave them. Maybe they were merciful? She hoped so, because this new fight didn't had any signs of being better than the last one, only bloodier and with more casualties than ever.
Meanwhile, at the same time
The curfew was finally over and Jewel Joy couldn't be any happier, she finally found a good job in one of the new factories that were recently built, a factory dedicated to refine the gems and improve in their use. She also tried a job on the cloud factory and the new electric factory, but she didn't had the requisite the jobs required and, on her way to her new job, she saw a new store selling one of those new items that used electricity, this was something like the Crystal Speaker, but this was called "radio" or something like that, it also sung music.
"What a good song, I really like this band, now how are they called?" - She said as she mused in the song. A song that really gave her a deep desire to dance over and over with somepony but, before she could begin to move her hips like many other foals has done whenever they heard this band, a voice stopped her from doing that:
"They're called the Billo's Crystal Boys" - Said a male voice behind Jewel Joy. She turned around in fright only to find one of the KP guards and, for a moment she was scared until she remembered that voice. - "Obsidian Edge?" - She asked, the stallion nodded and this made Jewel Joy get very happy. - "Oh Edge, I'm so happy to meet you, what are you doing here?" - She asked to her very close friend and, after that fateful encounter, they started to walk together through the beautiful streets of the Prism Avenue and, in the process, they passed by a jail. If it weren't for the high volume of the music of the stores that were on both sides of the jail, they would have listened some very terrifying screams. Meanwhile, the Obsidian guard started to answer his very close friend's question:
"Doing my official rounds, I'll finish in a couple hours and then I'll have the rest of the day free, so, since I found you here, I was wondering, will you have this afternoon free?" - This made his eyes looked hopeful at the possibility of advancing with this beautiful mare that invaded his dreams and drove him mad with never felt before emotions.
Jewel Joy looked downwards, gave it a thought, and said. - "Sure, today I got my new job and I will start tomorrow, so why not celebrate? I'll be waiting for you at the fountain at 6pm, deal?" - Obsidian Edge couldn't be happier at this turn of events. - "Deal, 6pm, I'll be there, promise." - He then decided to proceed on his round and said his good byes to the mare that outshone the moon itself in terms of beauty. - "See ya soon my lady".
Jewel Joy blushed a bit and responded accordingly to the Stallion that gave her the safety she always wanted. - "Goodbye handsome." - And after seeing a big blush coming from the stallion, she decided to proceed and tell his fathers the news: She finally got a new job and a date. Her father was still a bit annoyed that she hadn't found her cutie mark yet being a big mare now, but she didn't cared, cutie marks were useless now and there was nothing wrong with that. She could walk on the streets without fear of getting mugged, the weather was regulated to the point you knew the weather a month in advance, the government was going to rebuild all the houses in the Kingdom so they not only were more durable with its stone conditions, but they were also going to have this new electricity to improve on the ponie's well being.
While she was going back home, she looked at one of the new stores and saw a very nice dress, it was very cheap (only 2 pieces for it) and she would look very nice in it while dating Obsidian Edge.
She looked around and noticed that each day there were more and more ponies wearing clothes, originally only the nobles were allowed to wear clothes as a sign of their wealth in the kingdom. But now the clothes were so cheap and easy to get that almost everypony (and even griffins and some minotaurs, whenever they could find something of their size) were using them. So, why not join them? That way she would give Obsidian Edge a very nice surprise.
After buying that dress and taking the package to her home, Jewel Joy couldn't but notice how much the Kingdom has changed from how her parents told her everything was before Swift Rise (or even Sombra) came in:
A Sewer Channel, Hospitals, Railroads, stone made avenues, new military advancements, Plazas, better housing for everybody and much more, this new king was sending this kingdom to places she never thought could even be dreamed and it looked like he wasn't stopping; apparently he was planning to use the Crystal Heart to it's maximum efficiency, so Sombra could ever come back again and it would require the ponies to do so. Jewel Joy felt so happy she had so many things that could improve on her life, she was proud of this new lifestyle, this new king, this new kingdom, she felt like living in the best Kingdom ever, the ideal kingdom and she hoped this would never stop.
The Present
As the air condensed on the movie room, the individuals residing it were becoming prey of the shock caused by the reveal of the types of monstrosities that they knew Sombra must have done but they never expected to see on their life. They knew that individuals like Sombra and, apparently know, Swift Rise were the kind of despots that would crush any type of opposition and/or hero daring enough to challenge their tyrannies and try to stop them, but they never expected to see it so directly on that movie.
Just seeing the images and shades drawn by the movie were strong enough to freeze their minds and wonder what kind of world was this one they were now seeing, was it right to create something like this to be seen by the very citizens that lived through it? Should they see this and remember a time that may be better forgotten?
As Spike was watching this, he no longer felt as he was seeing a boring documentary, he now felt as if he was now seeing a distant world that could have been had he fail to stop Sombra back then. Twilight and the other ponies were wondering how cold must a heart be to take away a pony's life? Those were questions that neither of them wanted to know. Meanwhile, the Griffon Princess was feeling a deep sense of familiarity that crawled up her body as she remembered the monster that took away her family from power and sent them to exile for many years.
Nonetheless, by this point the audience was too enthralled in the movie to actually try to stop it, everybody wanted to keep watching to see if they could finally see something that could give them a respite and that maybe, just maybe, this wasn't going to be as bad as it looked like.
The Movie
"The murder of Crystal Sapphire causes great bewilderment among those who are against the new king, it reinforces the image and power of the Kingdom Protection and its director: Stray Stone. Each time more, the new reign is reflected with this police institution."
Amor Candente is shown talking to the ponies in one of the districts of the kingdom, the ponies look like they're angry, but they're listen very carefully to what Candente is saying.
"Meanwhile, Candente is doing her usual job to keep the masses calmed saying that she disapproves this crime from the Kingdom Protection and promises that she was going to talk to the king to ask for a rectification for this crime".
RQ: "Candente was the bridge between the citizens and the King. She would always go to the streets and listen to what the ponies wanted and she would communicate it to the King since he wasn't a social pony."
"Whether the king listened or not to his Speaker, it didn't passed too much before we knew the next move of the King to solidify his power: a Curfew."
JJ: "I remember that curfew. It was very annoying because I always finished my classes very close to the curfew and I almost get in trouble with one of the KP." - After saying that, she started to blush.
"Under the excuse to catch the remnants of the Sombrist and pacify the kingdom. Swift Rise started a curfew and allowed the Kingdom Protection to arrest anypony who was a suspect of being allied with Sombra. The results start to show very quickly."
A Grey Unicorn is walking on the streets of the kingdom late at night when suddenly an earth pony takes him down and put a restraining ring on him.
LPG: "I was captured during one of those curfews and was charged of being a sombrist even though I never sided with Sombra in the first place."
A Butter coated unicorn was talking to a group of ponies when suddenly the door are busted, 4 earth ponies wearing tuxedo and gem pieces start pointing to them. all the ponies in the room lay to the ground and are immideatly arrested.
FM: "I was doing an interview to a group of workers for one of the old farms of Crystal Sapphire when, suddenly, the KP showed up and arrested all of us under the pretext of being sombrist. We shouted that it wasn't true, but they didn't listened and arrested us anyway".
"The police raids spread like fire and arrest many ponies, some are released quickly, others not that quickly."
LM: "My husband got caught on the curfew once. He was on the corner of the main street, late at night when, suddenly, he was grabbed from behind, I waited and prayed for him to appear again, but I never saw him again." - The old mare started to drop tears and added with a broken voice. - "I had to explains to my grand daughters that they weren't going to see their grandfather ever again." - And she started to sob.
A battalion of Crystal Guards are shown marching through the fields, preparing themselves and showing their discipline to the king.
"The following 4 months are of terror as nopony leaves, nopony complains and nopony moves. The kingdom is silenced and the new king is solidified as the new ruler of the kingdom. All of this with the support of the Crystal Guard, who are getting more and more prominent in the life of the citizens."
The scene fades to black and then it starts showing the face of Stray Stone, smiling like if he were having a party.
"Stray Stone, a Unicorn of good manners and well behaved, with his almost supernatural abilities to control of the Kingdom Protection and track down insurgents. He has managed to find all of the sombrist and arrest anybody who dared to complain against the new king."
The Scene fades again and this time, it shows a jail. A KP unit (holding a club in its mouth) is trotting down a hallway with every cell being filled with at least one pony. Suddenly, one of them speaks something and, in response, the KP unit hits the cell bars, scaring away the pony.
"The Jails of the Kingdom Protection are soon filled with dissidents and political enemies."
RQ: "Those were one of the scariest moments of the kingdom, the citizens were afraid of even talking to Candente for the fear of being caught by the Kingdom Protection and nobody knew when the curfew was going to end".
"But the terror ends or, at least, soften up a bit after the first 4 months of the curfew being installed when it finally cease along with the raids."
FR: "I still remember how, a few days before the curfew was stopped, I was dusting the hallways in the throne room when, suddenly, I hear the King and the Chancellor having a fight. I couldn't understand what they were fighting about." - She then showed a sly smile. - "But a few days after that fight the curfew was released."
"Everypony starts to celebrate with the new invention of the king: The Radio."
CC: "Yeah, the king was busy during those 4 months. I still remember how he started a new branch in science dedicated EXCLUSIVELY to the Crystal Guard so we could defend ourselves better from any type of invasion, Sombra would've never see it coming".
"During those 4 months the king started to begin the construction of weather factories, gem refineries, food processing and one of the best industries in the history of the kingdom: The Electric factory. A factory designed to take the electricity of the clouds formed in the weather factory of the pegasi, would be refined and transported to the other factories by the unicorns and lastly, the earth ponies would provide the whole kingdom of the electricity to light the streets with lamps, create heaters, electric stoves, power up the plummeting and much more, this ideas, are just the beginning."
RQ: "The electricity is one of the key features of Swift Rise's kingdom. It allowed to any non-unicorn to have a better life with almost all the benefits that had being a unicorn."
"Very soon, the kingdom start their celebrations for the anniversary of the founding of the Kingdom and (conveniently) the first year of the end of King Sombra's tyranny."
Ponies are shown dancing with each others the songs of the radio.
Unicorns, pegasi, earth and Crystal ponies are shown sharing drinks and talking very amicably.
Griffons, minotaurs and ponies are competing in a dance party and having drink contest.
In one of the dances, the king could be seen dancing with a pink unicorn that looked very red on her cheeks and was trying to avoid the cameras.
The scene changes again and now it shows the King walking with a squadron of guards and KP units escorting him while a voice could be heard: "The King Swift Rise is heading to the Congress to start his renditions and start a new year as a King".
"With the first official year of his rule done and the Congress recognizing his rule as king of the Crystal Kingdom (to make it even more official and legal), Swift Rise decides to make a rendition of accounts to prove how effective his rule has been."
The King pulls out of his saddlebags a paper and once it's placed where it must be, he starts to read all the things he has done to the kingdom.
"What the list is the most filled about is the amount of infrastructure and progress has been made in the kingdom and after saying how he pretends to keep this project to help the Kingdom he decides to end his speech":
"For the enrichment of the Crystal Kingdom, I summon the grace of the Almighty Creator so those new fruits incarnate in the new ideal kingdom, keep determining our acts and establishing firm and longstanding bases for our institutions." - After finishing his speech, everypony in the Congress start to stomp the ground in cheers while Swift kept his face serious in front of the cameras.
Earth Ponies are shown digging the lands and destroying boulders outside the Kingdom while bringing construction equipment.
"Construction of public works is the easiest face of the government that now uses the imprecise, indoctrinate slogan of 'The Ideal Kingdom'. It can be translated as the transformation of the physical media with facts and works to create with the passage of time into the new crystal pony."
Crystal Ponies inside a big building are using schematics, compasses and other materials used for architecture schematics.
"From the offices of the Crystal Projections, the planifications for the improvements of the kingdom are being made."
What looked like a city was being built.
"It's being constructed the College City."
The Big Tower that was very familiar to Twilight and the rest of her friends was shown.
"The new Tower for the Crystal Palace."
The Stadium where the future Equestria games were going to be held.
"The conclusion of the Stadium."
The Library that Twilight loved so much was also being shown.
"The Crystal Library."
Many construction ponies with some minotaurs were working in a railway.
"The Southern Railway."
Old houses and buildings are getting demolished.
"The old is demolished to build the new, and the King decides to inaugurate the buildings in the exact day of the anniversary of the dethroning of King Sombra and he does it every year."
Swift Rise is shown cutting the ribbons to inaugurate the buildings with a pair of scissors.
"Like the Circle Guard, a social club for the Crystal Guard; made to give joy and comfort to the branch that holds the power in the Kingdom"
Many Crystal Ponies, all of them from the military, are dancing on the room along the King and Amor Candente.
"But the most emblematic public work is the new road that connected the Kingdom to the sea a marvel built in only 3 years."
Ponies working on the Road are shown making two roads: One made of Marble for the ponies who wanted to take their time and another one of Rails for those that wanted to get there fast.
During the construction, a lot of journalist ponies, griffons and minotaurs are taking pictures and showing their amazed faces at the construction workers not only making the road with stone, white marble and precious gems, but also because some of those gems could glow at night and that the workers were making electric lamps to illuminate everything in a 10 mile radius with guards patrolling the areas.
The King appears during one of this constructions to inspect it and smiling at the efficiency of his ponies.
RQ: "The Road to the Sea was a dream for the citizens because, for the first time, they would be able to travel to the Sea, safely, and have some very nice vacations with a look to the sea, a beautiful sight. The mystery of traveling on the road, even if you got caught by the night, nothing would happen to you."
More construction ponies are working in the city, eliminating the dirt roads and placing rocks that shines like Crystal.
"While the Kingdom isn't that close to the Sea, that it's fixed through the constructions of more houses and buildings, expanding the capitol and, in doing so, the creation of new icons for the city."
The workers quickly build more plazas on the outskirts of the kingdom and surrounding it with more houses and each one taller than the one before. Each Plazas are filled with fountains, Gem-made statues, clock towers, etc. Then, the scene fades to black to be filled with a new voice:
"Crystal citizens." - Says the King who is speaking through a series of mics to the radio and Crystal Speaker. The scene starts to show images again, a radio sounding the king's voice inside a house while a few letters appear to give the audience an idea of how much time has been since the construction scene.
One year later
"During this year, the kingdom has rejoiced in the necessary progress to-"
"Without the fear of political adversaries. The government announces that everything is going well."
"-in the unity of the Kingdom, and to those who has participated in this progress by joining the working class, I give you all a cordial salutation and wishes for the best in the new year."
the King ended his speech and is greeted by stomps and cheers.
FR: "There is a point between the second year of Swift Rise's reign, to his fifth year, where nopony said anything against him."
RQ: "And the truth is that, in the Kingdom, not even a fly was moving. The king's control over the life of his citizens was total and complete."
LYP: "The Sombrist were swept away along the nobles, but specially the sombrist, and since the very first year Swift Rise takes control of the kingdom, Lord Crystal Sapphire is murdered and, later after him, Stable Peridot and Strong Garnet, the historical leaders that has always been involved in the politics of the kingdom, while the rest of them were exiled from the kingdom".
LPG: "So the kingdom enters into a state of calm, of rest in politics. The citizens no longer thought about politics in the streets in terms of civil administration or direction of the country or political figures."
FR: "The few things that were done were clandestine moves, those papers that circulated in the streets."
CC: "They were all underground gangs, painting the streets, passing papers, but the great mobilizations that were done before Sombra, those were no longer capable to be done."
LM: "In those moments we were caught by the police, and I was taken to the Central Jail of the kingdom where I was foalnapped for 6 months."
FR: "My friend Clearing Onyx and I got into a fight, he claimed that this new king was worse than Sombra and I disagreed with him, I told him that Swift Rise was a savior and that, if it weren't for him, Sombra would have destroyed the Kingdom and all the other lands surrounding us." - Ruby Flame then started to look down while her ears folded back and started to tear up. - "He told me that I was a traitor to the cause and... other mean things... I had no other choice but to turn him over to the Kingdom Protection."
FM: "I still remember that when I was captured I was told that a double agent that worked for the Kingdom Protection and also for the Newspaper where I worked, "The New Vision", found me out and turned me in. I was accused of being a sombrist even though I never was." - In that moment he started to give a stone look at the camera and looking at it with the biggest seriousness he could muster. - "The were no courtrooms, only prisoners, thousands of prisoners, and, they were sentenced by the police".
CC: "The Kingdom Protection transformed into a monster." - The guard then started to show all of his disdain by frowning a scowl in his face, pausing on his sentences to give more strength to his words. - "In a machine. Of BRUTAL repression. Bloodthirsty. Where torture was the order of the day." - He started to remember all of the prisoners he saw whenever he went to make an inspection, all of the innocents ponies he saw in there. Their screams as they were being tortured and he remembered how his Colonel tried multiple times to release them but couldn't and started to tear up from the impotence. - "The Cross, The Eraser, The Shocker, the Whip Slashes, the Exiles."
FM: "It was a torture without interrogation, because the interrogation were already done."
LYP: "The Crosses were some tall, thin and sharpened crosses that were put in the ground and you were stepped in it." - The Noble started to remember the pain.
LPG: "You were left in it for hours and hours until you dropped." - His legs started to strain from the memories.
LYP: "At the beginning you laughed at it because you thought that it was something dumb."
LPG: "But you later realized that it was extremely painful, especially for how it was piercing your hooves for months and months."
FM: "I always had weak legs so I couldn't stand for too long on the crosses." - And the more he spoke, the slower and slower he made his sentences to make sure that the audience could absorb the information he was giving but, as slow as he was speaking and as old as his voice sound, his voice was as clear as day.
LYP: "Until you finally give up and drop because you have no other choice."
FM: "Then it was a beat down with their hooves and sometimes with Iron. They were very hard. They always hit my face and it deformed it".
LPG: "My friend Brilliant Amethyst was tortured in the the Jail The Fountain in a brutal way since he was 'erased', one of the worst things that could be done."
FM: "Being 'erased' basically was that your Cutie Mark would be scorched so nopony could ever see it again, your special talent, what represented who you were, was taken away from you, I was erased." - In that moment he moved aside to show his flanks and show how in the place where his Cutie Mark was supposed to be, there was instead a black hole. - "There used to be an eye with a scroll shaped pupil to symbolize my search for the truth and knowledge, now there is nothing there." - If the movie could be paused just in the right moment, the viewer would notice how his eyes got a bit watery as he spoke. - "Torture is the most depressing thing there is, the most horrible. The torturers are beings that always goes crazy."
A moving picture of four crosses are thrown into the center of the picture and afterwards, four hooves starts to slowly be placed in them with a resounding BOOM when they finally touches the crosses.
The Crystal Palace has now been rebuilt and now it looks more like a big Castle that shines in all it's glory, but the cardboards and maps still calls it the "Crystal Palace" and from there the scene quickly starts to move towards a new building.
"Outside of the horrors of the jails, the outlook is different. The College City has been finished and all the attention is centered in its great theater, heart of modernism and the government is taking advantage of this using it as the site of the first Conference of World Culture."
The Theater is filled with many crystal, equestrian and southern ponies, griffons, minotaurs, zebras, dragons and many other species.
"A Conference designed to work with other governments to share ideas for the development of culture and strengthen relationships between the nations of the whole world, but in the end is just an excuse for the king to show off his kingdom, the Gem-exporting government really likes to brag about its wealth to the other kingdoms, tribes and clans that has come to this fascinating idea including the Kingdom of Equestria whose princesses has finally defeated Discord and are now focusing on the reconstruction of their kingdom, but to not lose the chance of this, they send a delegate instead of them".
"With this conference the Kingdom of Swift Rise tries and success in getting recognition of his rule on the world stage."
The Ponies are using a machine that are unrecognizable and are aiming to the Center of the Stage.
"And there's in the conference a new and very powerful intruder, the TV."
The weird machine is now pointing towards a group of ponies who are dancing in front of it.
"The first shows are filled with theaters and educational purpose."
A Mare unicorn is hitting another mare pegasus with a spoon.
"Of politics, only the 'official one' is spoken, and is never shown any type of news that critique or angers the government."
A well dressed unicorn stallion was sitting behind a desk in a very well organized room, he focus on the camera and starts speaking.
"One of the fundamental elements of celebration in this holidays, is the crib".
Two earth ponies, two unicorns, two crystal ponies, three pegasi and one griffon are competing on who can win a race, a pegasus is winning but is hard to see its features because the screen is in black and white.
"Over time, the shows that gain the biggest audience are sports like races, gladiator battles and strength competitions."
Two minotaurs are seen fighting each other on a ring, suddenly, one of them throws the other to a deformed part of one of the walls in the ring, the minotaur is then putting his hand on his back, trying to ease the pain while the mares and female minotaur start booing to the other minotaur, all of this while the narrator of the battle is speaking about it.
"OW! That's gotta hurt, boo to the wall breaker, the ladies dislike him but don't worry, on the next fight, it will be the chance for the good ones."
The narrator stop speaking and the scene pass to the houses watching the fight.
"And if those boxes are filling the houses, then the streets are being filled with theaters and movies with the citizens always filling them to see their favorite stars and also to be seen."
A theater could be seen with lot of well dressed ponies and griffons entering, while they're entering to the theater a lot of cameras are seen taking shots at them, some of this ponies take a mic and sings while others just seat and start to wave their hooves in a way to say hi.
PP: "We were the most popular artists and Soft Voice was the favorite tenor in the crystal kingdom."
LM: "Soft Voice was the singer of the moment and ALL the mares died for Soft Voice."
JJ: "Especially Soft Voice, he was something amazing."
A great Ballroom is filled with griffons, minotaurs, zebras and ponies of all kind, in the center of the ballroom, there's an earth pony stallion. While the image is in black and white, it can still be seen that he is wearing a black and white tuxedo with a white rose in his chest, he is singing with a lot of energy and showing all of his abilities in it, the audience is listening with great focus, glad and cheering for him and enjoying all of his talent for that one night and prepared to remember it for as long as they can.
A gladiator Pony, the same one from the beginning of the movie is seen fighting against a Unicorn, dodging his spells while trying to get close to him.
"Other celebrities are also getting a lot of recognition lately, like Black Diamond and Piercing Magic, as a great rookie in the big leagues."
The King Swift Rise is seen with Amor Candente in a room, Candente is wearing a wedding dress while the king is wearing a wedding suit, the camera Zooms out to reveal that the wedding is happening in front of the Crystal Palace.
"But what took all the attention from the press, the citizens and the military, was the wedding of the king with the Ex-Princess Amor Candente."
Golden Strike (who's smiling) and his guards are on the left side of the Bride, while Stray Stone (who's smiling more than ever) and his Kingdom Protection are on the right side of the king, in the center of the wedding are the citizens of the kingdom with the air being surrounded by pegasus and griffons while on the ground there are unicorns, crystal and earth ponies, zebras, dragons and if you could look closely, you could see in the corner of the camera a small bug like pony.
RQ: "It wasn't that surprising when you take in account that the only mare that Swift Rise ever met (that was single) was Amor Candente, and he was lucky that she said yes, because is hard to tell who would have married him."
CC: "The King always had a soft spot for her since she wasn't like the other mares who only cared for money or any of those stuff the nobles didn't liked to mingle with anything outside their social caste."
FR: "Those two would always talk in their free time, rumors of them being in love started to spread among the staff." - She then started to make a sly smile.
PP: "I remember that, I was originally going to sing in the party, but then the new queen said that she would prefer Soft Voice. But I was still invited along the rest of the kingdom".
The king and the queen make their vows and kiss, while they're at it, the whole kingdom cheers and celebrate.
"But there are places where the wedding isn't being celebrated."
A jail is focused, after entering, the images start showing ponies in the cells looking at the ground in sadness or being beating by the KP.
"The prisoners, aren't aware of what's going on, they live in a different world than the one in the outside and, sadly, the ones in the exterior doesn't know either, or doesn't care at all. For them, all they do is living in the new kingdom created by Swift Rise, all they care is the happiness and improvements in their lives that Swift Rise is providing them with. All they now is the new Ideal Kingdom."
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Nice story