This story is a sequel to The Coming Storm
Note: You don't have to read the other stories in this series to understand this one.
Eighty years after the discovery of the Elements of Harmony and Celestia being dethroned, Equestria has transformed, penitentiaries and jails dot the landscape.
As the recently ascended Starlight tries to manage a country falling into racial and gender based strife, a pony calling himself "Harmony's Clown" is destroying her jails, declaring her and her entire government in gross violation of pony rights. She would ignore this small time terrorist but a rebellion is forming around him... Oh and joy of all joys, one of the old matriarchs, Rainbow Dash, just lost her little colt- grown stallion more like it, dumb sentimental mare, but the conservatives will have Starlight's head if she doesn't find him.
All she has to do is catch this weirdo, find a missing pony, keep the country from falling apart, keep herself from going to a tribunal... when it rains it pours... well, she did say she could bring equality and do it all better than that racist, sexist, biggoted dinosaur Twilight, you can do it girl! Remember, you're the good gal, you're the good gal.
So this story is meant to make you think about several things.
1. Does the government of a country have the right to punish criminals however it deems fit, so long at the people don't object? Or is there an independent standard of what is "cruel and unusual" as stated in the US Constitution and I'm guessing a number of other country's founding documents, that world governments must be subject to?
2. If a government is perpetrating cruel and unusual punishment, is that a human rights violation by itself, regardless of severity?
3. Could a poorly conceived penal system cause corruptions beyond just jails themselves?
4. Would you rather a penal system determined by facts, or feelings? If a man commits murder, not in self defense, then the fact is, he committed murder, and his sentence, by most moral codes, should be death. However, all kinds of circumstances could have motivated that, so wouldn't we feel death could be too harsh of a punishment? What about mercy anyway? Isn't that something the greatest world religions and philosophies espouse above all else? If a man commits theft, a good punishment would be to pay the victim a set amount based on how much was stolen. However, that theft could have ended a fifty year family business that can't be brought back by just that payment, doesn't that feel like not enough? Isn't the point of justice to restore victims and stop crime? But then, if punishments aren't set, how you feel about someone, say, how you feel about their gender or skin color, can matter more than what they actually did, and a person can be essentially punished for how they were born, their crime being little more than an excuse to exercise our prejudice. What one person feels is a good punishment, another will feel is cruel and unusual. If we have no determining factor, how do we say which feeling is right? How the hell would we even know what someone is feeling when making a punishment?
5. If we want a determining factor for punishment, what should it be?
oh god.... 18 counts of... I'm gonna be sick. To his own DAUGHTER no less...
Before I read this, what is the Dark tag for ?
And how bad does it get ?
8359783
In particular, I changed one scene in the begining. Nothing was "shown" per say, but Forward Star was implied to have been castrated and left to get medical attention on his own, if he could. Kinda cut that for a number of reasons. One, it gave more of a "Punisher" vibe than an "eye for an eye" vibe and this character isn't out to punish, per say, just set things right. Second reason, I think scenes THAT over the top could force a mature rating- yep, I PG13ed myself.
Clown does the "judge and jury" thing a quite a few times and, I'm sure it's not a surprise to hear, the oh so subtly named character, Light Angel (if you don't get it, look up "angel of light") is gonna be showing up again and doing some nasty stuff. Basically this is a future Equestria that is using a system of "crime prevention" similar to the US and other western countries, that is resulting in mass incarceration. I'm not sure how "dark" that all sounds to you, but I thought it qualified.
I find I need to say something, just in case confusion arises. Yes, pegasi are a metaphor for white people here, that's fairly obvious. However, NO, NOT EVER, would I endorse saying there are things white people can do that other races can't. I'm working within the laws of the pony universe here. In Equestria, racial differences are profound and at least physically, meaningful. In the real world, they're mostly superficial. IE, white people are usually taller than Asians, but this amounts to only a few advantages that can easily be overcome in most non-extreme cases. Not having the power of flight would be a brick wall, rather than the pot hole most real racial differences might represent. That being said, Starlight shutting down Cloudsdale for perceived racism, could still easily be seen as an allegory for aggressive patrolling against ableism (ie, I haven't seen this happen, but yes, crane operation is something you need vision to do, so that blind people aren't hired as crane operators isn't ableism, it's practicality) and failing to recognize other reasons for racial/gender quotas not being met. For instance, the real reason a restaurant in say, Ohio, doesn't have 13% black employment is that there aren't enough black people in the area for that to happen anyway, or black people in the are simply didn't apply, or black people have other jobs and thus better things to do than apply for a restaurant when they already have other employment that they are satisfied with. Starlight is constantly assuming malicious intent, which shows incredible close-minded-ness.
I honestly don't know if I'm going to finish this story either. A part of me wants to try again with the story of Twilight's marriage, but again, I really don't like introducing a story with sexuality as such an essential element to this universe. I'm returning to the reviews for now. If someone is really interested in this, let me know...
My problem this time is that nothing in this story needs the pony universe. The prison system being referenced is directly a reflection of the US prison system. It's such a direct criticism that I would do better just starting up political writing, which, I might start doing. In any case, of all my recent stories, my review series shows the most promise on ratings, and I shouldn't just abandon it while I'm still doing pony stuff. I'm leaving this here until I decide what to do.