Earning Freedom

by Daxisle

Gods of Government

Gods of Government

Malich sat at his desk, reading over reports of strange activity in Zeborica. The changelings there had become more invasive of the local zebras. The problem had gotten so bad that the zebra chiefs had sent out runners to raise an army and combat the threat. Raids on various tribes, foals being taken or devoured in front of their families. Actions that were far too brutal and out of character for the typically docile bugs was becoming almost common place.

The changelings there thrived on the emotional energy waves of fear, and they were installing alot of it. Though, it was also counter intuitive, considering they were killing their live stock as well as the food source. They had to know what they were doing was foolish in nature, their queen, from what had been observed, was an intelligent being.

There was nothing indicating the cause, but Malich had a small pit in his stomach that he knew why. When you'd captured a colony's queen, they were sure to get restless in trying to find her. But that theory didn't make sense either. They had a queen already, they must have, how did they breed without one?

The stallion placed the reports down and placed his head into his hooves. What did he care? There was a good thousand miles of sea between the Federation and Zeborica. The changelings there were of little concern, save the test subjects they brought. Speaking of which, the arrival of new specimens should have been delivered to the facility earlier today. Which was a good thing, considering what had happened to the rest.

It was fascinating, terrifying and heartbreaking. Everyone in the facility was so busy gawking at the newly born queen to take notice at first, but the fact was more than apparent once the swooning was done.

Every single hosting Zebra had died simultaneously as the first queen was birthed, and with them, the parasites within. Elsa demanded the authority to dissect the hosts to find out why the deaths had occurred. This lead to quite a shocking revelation, the parasites, each and every parasite that had matured enough showed signs of becoming queens themselves.

It was baffling to every single scientist who worked on the project. Even Voltare was at a loss for words. It didn't make any sense, why would there be so many queens in one place? But that's when it hit Malich, it made perfect sense. How did a colony expand? By sending a queen outside of its territory to form her own brood. He hypothesized that there was a link of some kind that connected the brood mother to the parasites and if that connection was ever severed than the parasites would develop passed the point of a drone and into a new colony matriarch.

What solidified that theory farther was that the dead queens had infact died just as, or a few minutes after, the surviving changling was birthed. He figured that they picked up on the wavelength of the new matriarch and simply stopped their cycle of birth. It made sense, competition of newly born brood mothers wasn't a good thing, so mass suicide of the unformed competition was in order if they weren't to kill each other over resources and control of the brood.

Still, that left them with seventeen dead zebra and no way to tune into the bio frequencies on which the queen operated. They'd need to wait for another shipment and hope that the parasites would accept the new queen as their own and that their infection being from another mother wouldn't result in alien rejection. Malich wasn't above infecting illegal immigrant zebras or prisoners to acquire his goals, but he'd rather avoid it if he could. What they were doing was already illegal in the eyes of the Federal Senate and most every citizen in the country. Abducting fellow countryfolk would arise suspicion and make citizens start asking questions.

Questions were never a good thing. Well, they were, but not to his plans, and certainly not now. Soon he'd bask in the questions the populace would be asking, he'd be happy about their intelligence and wisdom. It was the whole point of this, after all. But not yet, not yet. There was still so much to do, so much work to be done and time was running out.

Triple M. had been propping up the entire North New Equine economy for the past three months. Some time ago, Malich had ordered a Rothschild Raid on the market. Selling high and buying low in an attempt to purchase every lick of stock he could get his hooves on. The Liberty Syndicate, a HUGE thorn in his side, must have received word of his plan and organized a buy back counter initiative. It didn't matter though, the Rothschild run was about a mass acquiring of stocks for penny's one the bill, and his company bought new stocks each and every day. When the time finally came for him to enact his plan, he'd have more than enough to wreck the economy and send the entire nation into chaos.

Their efforts to stop him would mean nothing in the end.

The vice president smiled and pushed up from the chair as he locked the door to his office and found another place to sit. A rather nice and cushy bean bag chair, it was childish and would make him the laughing stock of the business world if he was ever found in such a compromising situation. But he'd locked the door, so it was all good.

His thoughts drifted from all the work he was in the middle of and all the work that was left to be done and shifted to memories back in time. Back in time to a single moment, the moment that inspired everything he was doing, everything he was working so hard for.

---

"Sinny? Can you tell me the story of the Run of the Centaur again." A younger ashen colored earth pony asked solumly, devoid of the life and innocence he once held so long ago. His brother had been avoiding him more and more lately, he spent so much time in his research that the foal barely ever talked to him about anything outside of topics like government and history.

"For the last time, stop calling me that. Just call me Sin." The brown coated pegasus decried. using a manipulation horse shoe to continue his writing. "And why do you want me to tell you that again? I've told you a hundred times."

Malich scuffed his hoof against the wooden floor of Sin's room. "Cause there's something I don't get."

Sin scoffed, muttering how children not understanding something wasn't new. "Fine what part?"

"Why did the citizens hate each other so much? Why were they so afraid when they didn't do anything to each other to begin with?"

Sin's pen stopped moving and he gently sat the utensil down. Malich didn't see it at first, but his brother also closed a book called "Why is Life?" A book he'd soon come to be obsessed with.

"Because, Malich, all races: ponies, griffons, minotaurs, dogs, buffaloo, donkeys, and even the centaur are all idiots." Sin stated bitterly. "They are so consumed by their gods t that they can't see past their own ignorance."

"Gods of Government?" Malich asked, tilting his head ever so.

His older brother nodded. "Fear, Apathy and Dogma. All leading to the true god: Complacency. These are the down fall of all sentient civilizations. Fear of the unknown, the Dogma of authority to bring certainty to that fear, Apathy in what is too difficult to change or understand and Complacency to sit back while those in power continue to rule." He narrowed his eyes. "Even if it means ruling the country right into the ground."

Malich, the nine year old colt he was, was hard pressed to comprehend what his brother was saying, but while the words were big, he did understand alot of it, especially Sin's anger. "So, what you're saying is that ponies and them were ready to fight because they were afraid because they didn't know if the others were going to hurt them. And because of being afraid they accepted it when those in authority said they should fight, they were willing to hurt others because they were told to?"

Sin smiled and ruffled his brother's mane. "Hey, you're starting to get it."

While the oaken stallion may have seen the gesture as a simple show of affection, Malich relished in it. He'd wanted his brother to be proud of him, to show that he was just as smart and capable as he was. The praise he was getting was beyond words as to the joy it brought. Though that also posed another question. Why did governments exist in the first place?

"For the same reason." Sin answered. "They are the Authority everyone craves the Dogma of, and shift responsibility onto so they can be Apathetic and not have to deal with the Fear of it All. Ultimately leading to them falling into Complacency in their illusion of security."

The stallion sighed and looked down at his book, Malich knew he had to have read it at least a dozen times but each time he came to a new conclusion. He suddenly found the book in front of him and looked up at his brother. "Take it." He smiled. "Something to remember me by."

"You're leaving?" The ashen pony gasped. Sin nodded his head and explained that his years in secondary school would be with Mandylion. "Oh, okay then."

He was heartbroken, Malich didn't have too many friends. None of them were interested in the things he was interested in. They were too busy playing hoofball and talking about the latest plays that came to town. They couldn't even define the word economy, let alone understand it enough to talk about it.

Sin gave his brother a hug, making promises to visit around Hearths Warming, if their father allowed it that was. Gemini had little love for his eldest son ever since what he'd done to his wing. Malich wanted to tell him that he didn't need to do it, that he should have flown and enjoyed being the pegasus he was, but when confronted, all he could do was gratefully smile for the sacrifice. He didn't want to make it in vein, and when you're six years old, it's kinda hard to figure out what was best for your elder.

Their father didn't agree though and had given up on Sin. He offered the pony a job in his corporation, of course, but he never pressured him again. Malich, on the other hand, was the new chosen son, the new protege who would succeed him. After Sin left, the ashen colt was subjected to studying economics and psychological theory as to determine how best to handle the growing customer base.

One would have thought his fierce intelligence and hunger for knowledge would make him an ideal for school, the perfect straight A student, however nothing could have been farther from the truth. Malich despised his schooling, he found it to be a waste of time even before his brother dropped out. Gemini was an intelligent stallion, and from what he'd heard of his mother before her passing, she was equally so. Of course, his father would never settle for anything less.

The school work they gave him was maddening when he was in middle school, getting him to pay attention was neigh impossible. But during secondary it was how easy the work was that made him not want to do it. Well, either the ease or the pointlessness of it all. He had no interest in mathamatics aside from economics. English and History were child's play and science, while the outcomes were fascinating, was boring. Though, he'd managed to graduate with honors at the top of his class when he finally buckled down for the second half of his last year. A+ Student, placard and picture on the wall, all of that rubbish he couldn't care less about.

Though through all the discipline and all of the mindnumbing blandness of his teenage years; he'd always make time for his personal studies, mainly in the book his brother left him and inherent immorality of government.

---

Malich could remember it so clearly, the emotions of unbridled curiosity and anger. Government existed out of fear of the masses. He'd seen the government's inefficiencies and failures. How much of a failing system it offered to those it governed. Buying votes by selling the citizens money back to them in the form of welfare and incentive's reliance on the system rather than allowing the idiots of society to fall to their own laziness and stupidity.

That's where it really all stemmed from, the lazy and the ignorant. Those whom went hungry due to their own incompetence, or those who were so paranoid they were willing to follow someone who claimed they could protect them at the cost of their will and conformity. It was these individuals that created the necessity of government, those so wrapped up in fear and the unknown that they would kill and conquer the innocent and peaceful in the name of preemptive protection rather than stop and think about their actions and how they were being used.

And worse, the two combined in a synergy that played on the compassion and care of their fellows. Pulling at the emotional strings of the decent pony and calling for aid to feed the lazy and make the ignorant feel safe in their idiocy. He believed the term was called "political correctness."

This is where he and his brother disagreed. Malich believed compassion of the masses of intelligent ponies was a virtue, one that was simply abused and needed education in order to correct and differentiate the "wasteful" compassion on those who'd be a drain and "rightious" compassion for those who were simply down on their luck. His brother, on the other hand, believed that compassion was only for the individual to judge for themselves. That such an emotion would only give raise to the drains and leaches of society if it was encouraged.

The ashen pony smiled, the two always fought about that before Sin stopped talking to him. His nostalgic smile faded as a cold grip clenched his heart. The day their father decided to kill Sin's best friend Zell, he remembered how angry his the oaken stallion was and how he'd failed in his promise to keep the pony safe for him.

He hated it, he hated having his only friend in the world hate him. It's not like he didn't try, he sent agents to find Zell and move him to another location. Reports said that the earth pony was located and that his agents tried to reason with him, but to no avail, but Malich feared something like that might happen so he's instructed his agents to act as body guards, but his father must have known. Conno, back when he was new, showed no shame in telling him that he'd ordered his men to stand down at his father's behest and allowed the execution.

After that, he didn't see Sin again until he'd come to Equestria and still wanted to cry to this day over the loathing he'd seen in the pony's icy blue eyes when he looked at him. A pony was killed, his brother hated him, he'd lost the only pony he ever had to talk to, and for what? So Sin would adhear to the beck and call of his father? So he'd jump like a good dog when Gemini demanded him to? Using the power of the Senate for his own personal gain?

No, his brother stood firm and allowed another to die to show he wouldn't be swayed by death or threats, and Malich admired that. That was how government were supposed to be run. If only they weren't run by such despicable and weak creatures.

Government was not the problem, it was merely a symptom of a much more profound disease. A disease that Malich was growing ever closer to eradicating once and for all. Sacrifices would need to be made, lives lost, citizens would go hungry and many would starve, be killed and die of exposure, but the ends justified the means. A few thousand had to suffer for the world they failed to stop so that millions would enjoy the world to come. He'd see the day, the day that marked a new era for all of pony kind. The day where the Gods would finally meet their end, where Fear was traded for Understanding, Apathy was cast aside for Courage and Hope, Dogma for Enlightenment of Facts and Compassion. Where Complacency was exposed for the disgusting and dangerous notion that it was.

He'd see that era, the era of successful Anarchy.

Author's Note:

Just something I've been thinking of for years.

Comments are always appreciated.

Comments

[RadicalDishonesty]

Malich believed compassion of the masses of intelligent ponies was a virtue, one that was simply abused and needed education in order to correct and differentiate the "wasteful" compassion on those who'd be a drain and "rightious" compassion for those who were simply down on their luck. His brother, on the other hand, believed that compassion was only for the individual to judge for themselves. That such an emotion would only give raise to the drains and leaches of society if it was encouraged.

Malich believes in compassion for large numbers of ponies, therefore he deems that he should sacrifice anyone he feels like in order to do whatever he wants, tormenting and spreading misery among the country.

Of course, his compassion seems to be directed towards only "the worthy." And in order to use his values of the worthy, he's going to control the entire country, to do so. He's not really advocating for anarchy at all. He's advocating for a misanthropic autocracy, with him at the head.

... While I'm not trying to suggest that you were inspired by it, Malich seems very similar to Senator Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising.

[Daxisle]

6381860 Sure seems that way, doesn't it? But there will be more to come in it's overall explanation.

And I have never played any of the Metal Gear games.

[RadicalDishonesty]

6381877
Looking back at it it's not a perfect match. The end goal is pretty different, even if the "I will smash the current system by abusing said system in order to make a world where the superior (For Malich, the intelligent, for Armstrong the "strong") will thrive" is the same.

Here's the big reveal on Armstrong's motivations. Unlike some MGS games it only takes 5 minutes to explain, rather than 30 minutes+:

Missing at the end is Armstrong's witty quip: "Well, I don't write my own speeches."

And the protagonist's rebuttal, which is basically the rest of the fight, since even the protagonist has a strong might-makes-right mentality in this one.

And... actually, with Malich, as much as I started out with a criticism, actually became a much more interesting character with this. And possibly one that, even though I desire the destruction of, I can respect perhaps.

[Daxisle]

6381932 I think I just fell in love.

But in all seriousness, yea now I feel like shit. I thought I was being original, and here comes a game that's been out forever that does the "villain" up better than my own.

This game looks interesting as hell, though. I always love when there's no "black vs white, good vs evil" crap, but grey vs grey, interests vs interests. It's much more realistic.

[RadicalDishonesty]

6381999
Hideo Kojima does a good job of three-dimensional villains who often have very good logical reasons to pursue their ideals, and challenge the player/protagonist with them, and, failing that, rather sympathetic reasons to do so.

The game is also a top-tier 3rd person action game, in the style of Devil May Cry (it is, in fact, a collaboration between Kojima and people who, if they didn't work on the original Devil May Cry, are contemporaries that worked with those people. Platinum Games is a japanese supergroup of developers). If that doesn't please you, you might be better off watching the cutscenes/playthrough on youtube.

I dunno what to tell you on originality other than... well you did come up with it on your own, it was just also came up with by someone else slightly earlier.

[Daxisle]

6382069 Written platform, and there'll be quite a bit more depth to it. So long as a new aspect is brought to an already existing concept, it can be okay.