Humans and Ponies, two sentient species, peacefully co-exist on the planet Earth without much trouble.
However, as much as this is true, the past tells us of a different tale, unrecognizable by today's minds and eyes, where only a few seem to know about it.
In the United Kingdom, school day proceeds as normally as it ever could be, except for a class of students, who unwillingly stumble upon the truth of the past.
Very history rich, may bore you to death (or not, depends if you're interested in knowing about this little world I've created.)
Cover made by me.
Chapters (6)
i usually hate history, but i will read one or two chapters more to see where this is going
Hmmm. Can't say I'm thrilled with the pro-conversion part of the story. Human beings sin - there is no mere human being who does not - but as the show allows us to see, so do ponies and the other species. Even the history shown here shows that ponies "conquered" native tribes by essentially claiming the land near and around them and trying to force them into their society, and then killing them when they resisted. The true root of the problem is sin, not humanity.
I did like the part at the end about Victoria 2 and Crusader Kings 2 (both of which I've played, to much enjoyment). I figured the map came from that, or something like it.
7661076 Remember that both species have their flaws, that they are not perfect, and that they have their own view of things, The simple fact that the whole of Ponykind is under one flag, may dictate how ponies around the world (who do not have a nation of their own besides Equestria) think about certain things.
I may have hinted towards certain parts of history, told at the end by Blaze, were not public to everypony within Equestria, as he did not know what dragged Equestria into WW1.
Either way, it was clearly meant to be biased, apart from the memory. And the mention of Bureaus in this story serves as a simple warning to whats to come in the future.
Thank you for viewing my story. It means alot.
7661773 You are welcome, and I apologize if my words sounded like they were bashing you. I realize, through a lot of study, that history has a lot of what we'd call dark days, and in many if not most cases both parties have some fault in it.
May God go with you
I like it... Twice.
Teaching with a new approach like this might be rude for most teachers but surely must be efficient. You made me feel it's possible to adapt this method IRL (if technology permit it).
Second though :
Personally, I doubt that a military (sergent ?) was able to react with a "matter of factly" thinking. Human cannot stand for now this level of mind breaking. Like it takes over 1 or 2 thousand years to accept that Earth is not a pizza.
So, I really like it !
7673121 Appreciated!
Stop... Equestria won a first World War but for some reason pay for all damage caused by war? What?
7685990 If you think about it, in real life, despite we knowing what caused the first World War, Germany was blamed for everything that happened during that period. It isn't much different here for Equestria, specially so when the two opposing sides are different species, hence higher chance of rivalry and/or intolerance.
And in the case of paying off their debts and the like, humans and ponies are different species, with different ways of thinking, viewing the world around them etc. And as such, Equestria most likely saw no need in foreign help, specially from humans, in order to rebuild their country. They would do so with their own wealth, population, materials and the sort.
7686059
Germany lose, Equestria (as far as I understand) won. That the difference. If Equestria for some bizzare pony reason chose to not demand any reparation - OK. But why exactly winners pays reparation to losers?
7686079 Well, sorry to say, but I can't spoil you all of the details right here. Maybe in the future you'll understand what really happened back then.
So far, I'm getting a feel similar to my vague memory of a short story where events unfolded differently and, instead of the British-derived U.S.A., there was a superpower built from the various cultures of the North American native peoples. You have my curiosity.
(I'm not positive, but I think it was in my copy of ReVisions, edited by Julie E. Czerneda and Isaac Szpindel.)
And now the story's shaky but "successful more often than not" effort to build that distinctive "alternate history" feel (which you find in professionally published original fiction) comes crashing to the ground.
Also, the pseudo-flashback felt like it was moving much more slowly than the first two chapters, so I started skimming over it to get closer to the speed of progression I'd gotten accustomed to.
7687447 I see, a quick question though, how do you find crashing to the ground? I'm not completely sure what you meant by that.
Anyhow, thank you for commenting, helps me get some perspective on the story.
Ooooooo! History! I'll have to read this soon!
This had so much potential to work well as its own thing with a feel similar to professionally published AU fiction but, every time you mention the bureaus, the house of cards collapses... and there was no need for them to be mentioned!
If you were to cut them out and replace the one "reason character X doesn't like ponies" point with some more mundane rationale, the story would get better. (It wouldn't be difficult. Humans are creatures of cognitive habit and learning to favour reason over emotion is a difficult and ongoing struggle. That's where prejudice comes from.)
I'll give it an upvote because I can mostly ignore it, but, because of that, it falls short of the standard of quality for my recommendations group.
7703263 Every word you've written will have an impact on future projects I may write regarding this world. I shall attempt to strike a balance between the Conversion Bureaus and the world itself and its reality.
This story, however, serves as a prelude to a bigger, much in-depth story that I currently plan to publish within the next three months. The conversion bureau universe simply serves to justify some events that shall be played out within that story, it is not meant to be all that relevant in the grand scheme of things, but something that you might notice along the way once in a while.
Like I said, this is more of a prelude to that, and made with that in mind. Sorry if it did not reach your recommendations, but I do appreciate all forms of criticism, specially if they have valid reasons behind them.
Well that was weird. I hate "world history" because it's always about who killed who and never asking why. I liked the nod to the original TCB.
8440650
Me too, liked!
Long ago, two races ruled over Earth...
Woah, this feels like a waste of time.