Harry Potter and the Prancing of Ponies

by The Guy Who Writes

Rehabilitation 13.5: When Your House Eats a Dark Lord...

"Good," said Celestia. Her horn glowed, and a piece of blank parchment was drawn from her regalia. "Because I am going to ask you to sign to it. Along with a few other conditions."

Riddle's eyebrows rose.

"And then I'm going to ask Twilight to redesign these things once and for all, to paralyze dynamically instead of for fixed times, for as long as breach is intended or imminent, and then I'm going to outlaw the old design."

Riddle chuckled and said, "How dictatorial of you. That same impulse caused you to outlaw ritual magic, I hope you realize." Then, before Celestia could respond, "I'm actually surprised overly punishing contracts haven't come up more often."

"Oh, they did. Long ago. It's just that Twilight is the first pony to come around since Starswirl who's on the level required to actually change contract magic to the obvious dream design you mentioned earlier. Thankfully, in this day and age no ponies are draconian enough to cause hour-long paralysis under the current design, even if that is the maximum current length allowed by law."

"You could have checked the length yourself, before signing. Or asked."

"I should have, yes. But it is not a convenient process to magically discern a contract's punishment duration, and while I've not quite lost the habit of being on the lookout for overlong punishments prior to signing a contract, I trusted Luna when she suggested I sign yours, so when this is all over I am going to ask Luna why she didn't warn me that the contract she recommended I sign would inflict hour-long paralysis… though now that I say it out loud I realize that contracts themselves are new to her and she might not have even realized the problem with over-long punishments, as I didn't until the first time a malicious pony designed one that lasted for a day. And my am I allowing this issue to get to me as a proxy for my annoyance at you. As a sign of good faith, please stop talking about anything, especially contracts, until I am done composing this one. We can negotiate the terms when I've finished the first draft."

Riddle shrugged and fell silent. He hadn't actually intended to continue a conversation about contracts; that topic could have revealed his own general ignorance surrounding their history. All he knew prior to composing his own – other than the magical process enabling him to make it – was that the maximum current legal length of punishment was an hour of paralysis, which he only knew about because of a warning placed in the margin of the textbook. He probably wouldn't have gone for the full hour if he'd known there was a strong social stigma against it; at the time he didn't want to stand out too much, and thirty minutes would have served almost as well as an hour. (It did not occur to him, in this moment, that thirty minutes might also be viewed as draconian.)

If he had continued the conversation about contracts with Celestia at all, he would have asked what constraints she currently intends to include in this one (to pre-empt stupid terms and future frustration). If he had been allowed to continue general conversation, he would have pointed out that he actually prefers her true displays of annoyance to her false displays of politeness.

But he held his peace, as he'd been requested to do.

Unfortunately, Celestia then went on to silence the rest of their conversation from Dumbledore, though first she explained to the headmaster that she was doing it, in part, for the sake of his future afterlife lessons. Many lessons are less effective when the student is given all the answers before he is given the tools to find them on his own.

Albus had shrugged, and said he would not interfere in her choices, even as he added just a bit more weight to 'conspiracy' in his mind.

And so the silencing barrier went up once again. And then she got to work on the contract again.

"I will point out," said Celestia, causing Riddle's eyes to go from parchment to pupils, "The only reason I have not already left, the only reason I have hesitated in that desire to give up on all of this- well, the only two reasons are my consideration for my sister and my consideration for the man in the Mirror. Not. You. My tolerance has limits, and you came close to them long ago, and have continued to prod at them since."

Riddle allowed a proud smile to twitch the corners of his lips upward. Boundaries exist to be broken, he thought, but did not say, for he had been asked not to speak, though he would speak if this became a moralizing lecture.

"There is something to be said about pushing boundaries for the sake of progress," Celestia said, as if she'd read his mind. "But there is also something to be warned about pushing boundaries supposedly for the sake of progress. Right now, you have quite literally forced my tolerance, and that is going to blow up in your face somehow. That is not a threat, just a prediction."

He raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"There was an extremely insidious religious movement in Equestria," Celestia said, assuming to understand his unspoken question and trying to answer it. "Disguised as a political movement, disguised as a moral one. It was extinguished centuries ago and somewhat deliberately buried in history, though history majors still learn about it, and it used exactly that tactic of pushing boundaries. Going as close to the limit as possible, then backing off when they got too much public pushback, but the new limit is now a bit further than before; rinse and repeat until you destabilize society and gain control of it. Force and cajole as many ponies as you can into tolerating your own bad behavior... I now suspect you read about it in the castle's private library, and I am going to require that you stop using that tactic."

Riddle looked at her silently. He did not speak.

"Well?" she asked.

"Your suspicions are wrong," he said with her leave. "My delve into the library was purely in search of the Mirror, and I didn't bother to absorb much information that didn't have to do with magic. The little I found on Equestrian political warfare paled in comparison to…" Mao's little red book and Hitler's 'struggle' "…what exists on Earth. Both in scope of accomplishment and sophistication of methodology. So if I am using a tactic like you described, and I don't claim that I am, then it came from well beyond the planet Equus."

"Dare I ask when in the human world it came from? Or where?"

"All across the globe. It manifested most strongly in-" Russia and China "-feudal societies and their revolutionary leaders, for the most part. There were a few exceptions-" Hitler and Mussolini "-who proved it could happen in the first world as well. In general, it came from the many revolutions which echoed various flavors of 'for the greater good'. The useful fools, the political ground troops who paved the way for the rise of fascistic and communistic regimes-" he was actually mildly curious how the hidden language spell was translating those terms "-are the ones you are describing, I think. The 'boundary pushers', as you called them. They might not have been consciously aware of what they were doing, nor of their ultimate fate. Destabilizing elements aren't necessary or wanted after the new national order is in place, after all." This is something Mao's red guard discovered when they were lined up against a wall and executed, or forced into labor camps for being 'too left' and 'too extreme' after Mao had re-taken power. And it's something the Parkinsons and Montagues and Boles would have discovered, had Voldemort ever succeeded. "So the foot soldiers, the outer-party activists, the indoctrinated initiates were largely ignorant and unwise, as they were meant to be. But the inner-party members and theorists were quite eloquent about their methods, once I understood that's what I was actually reading. Those manifestos were far superior to anything in this castle's private library."

"What was the death toll of those movements?" asked Celestia, frowning heavily.

"It depends on how you measure it, and if you include the deaths after the movements had run their courses and served the purposes they were truly meant to serve, the deaths under the regimes that took control. Hard numbers were not gathered, there are only estimates…" like my own number of Horcruxes, he thought, making the connection in that moment. "But now you know the source of Mr. Silver's awareness of the realities of political warfare, back on Bring Your Colt to Work Day."

Celestia's eyes widened, then she closed them and took deep breaths. "Your best guess at an estimate of the death toll of citizens, not soldiers, and not as a result of foreign forces invading a country?" she asked after a time.

"Adding all the countries together, at least a hundred million."

Celestia made a sound that wasn't unlike a child's whimper.

"Though you'll find plenty of scholars – both inside and outside those nations – who won't admit to bad politics or bad policy as the reason, even if you twist their arms, because their politics align with the politics of the regime, and they will find any excuse at all to avoid taking responsibility. 'The Three Years of Natural Disasters'-" this he spoke in the original Mandarin, with particular sarcastic emphasis on the word 'Natural', knowing the translation spell would do the work for him "-is a rather convenient way to describe a famine that spanned the entirety of one of the world's largest countries. A famine which occurred immediately after the new regime overhauled the agricultural sector and implemented a nationwide policy of eliminating 'non-native' birds, resulting in the unforeseen consequence of bugs flourishing and locusts swarming the next year-"

"Stop," said Celestia. "Stop." Her eyes were still closed. "That is the current state of Earth? Those movements and deaths happened recently?"

"Over the past sixty years or so."

Again that whimper.

"If I may ask," he said into the lull, "could you repeat the words 'fascism' and 'socialism' back to me? Perhaps offer any synonyms that come to mind?"

"Right authoritarianism, left authoritarianism," she said, the fringes of her mane beginning to flare. "And while they might not be synonyms exactly, the terms 'reactionary' and 'traditionalism' come to mind for the first, and 'provocationary' and 'progressivism' come to mind for the second."

"Oh? Define that last one."

Her mane continued getting worse. "Progressivism, as pony scholars have come to understand it, is when Equinoids- and humans, I am now certain- try to force societal change by seizing political power. Supposedly for the sake of the littlest among us, the beaten and downtrodden, the minorities, the poor, the working class, the underprivileged, the… well, I could list out all the various terms I've seen over the centuries, but we'd be here all day." Her tone was not approving.

Interesting. "I thought you'd be in favor of that." Based on how it's used – or rather, who it's used by – in the English language. Celestia reminded him of exactly those idiots.

"I only approve when it is done with a complete lack of motivation to seize political authority- to seize power over others. And I only continue to approve when the utmost care is taken so that it does not devolve into political power-seeking."

In that moment, Riddle saw a rare opportunity to get an interesting response to a question that Voldemort had a practical solution to, unlike any 'good' person he'd ever spoken with. "Back home, those who use the term 'progressivism' might ask, in the face of literally any criticism at all, how you could possibly be against progress. I find them annoying, for all the obvious reasons, and I had my own ways of dealing with them-" Avada Kedavra "-but how would you respond to the question 'are you against progress?'?"

"I would say that, in many ways, ponies are naturally compassionate. Good society will address problems faced by the disadvantaged when it's not untenable and unreasonable to do so. Like the free love movement – that is, the movement to end all arranged marriages – and the various efforts to make society more accessible to the disabled. Before the various magical aides were invented to cure most mundane disabilities, anyway. So I am not against progress in the slightest, I am truly quite fond of it." The tinges of her mane grew redder. "But I am not at all fond of regress, and speeding 'progress' along before the ponies in society are temperamentally or economically or intellectually or culturally or geographically or physically ready for it-" she took a breath "-risks regress." And her mane grew redder still. "And the standard strategy of 'progressives', which is to divide and rile ponies up by greatening the guilt felt by those who are comparatively better off and exploiting the envy felt by those who are comparatively worse off, that political tactic all but guarantees regress in the long run."

"I imagine you've dealt with that a few times. How many times have things gone horribly wrong in that way, out of curiosity?"

She took a few deep breaths. "More times than I can count. And they have gone excellently right a number of times that is easy to count."

"Because that number is zero," Riddle guessed.

"That number is three. It's possible, just immensely improbable, especially when the population lacks education in all the ways such movements can go wrong. Like by dividing ponies and pitting them against each other. In young societies without much experience in preventing mental health issues, most of the agitators and rilers in such movements aren't really in it for the cause, deep down. They believe they are, they say they are, but they're really in it for power, or for various personal and emotional reasons that are being exploited by those who are in it for the power. Every activist should be firmly aware that they are working towards their own obsolescence in hopefully the near future, and they should be highly wary that the will to power is a Lethifold unleashed, a pit without a bottom." Her confident words contained the frustration and experience of eons. "In fair competition the will to power is fine and good, but in politics it's deadly and destructive. And even in those rare instances when an activist truly does support a just cause, and their own motivations are not tainted by any self-serving will to power over their fellow ponies, even then their solutions don't work – if they even have any solutions in the first place other than 'put me in charge' – and their self-righteous actions aren't. Helping. Because they haven't done anything other than activism and they don't know how anything in the real world actually works."

Riddle gave a mirthless, cynical smile. I wonder how long it took her to see that much, given her initial dispositions. Multiple standard lifetimes, probably. Those movements are particularly good at manipulating people who like to fancy themselves as good and kind-hearted members of society. People like Celestia.

"And your opinions on fascism?" he asked, just to cover his bases, though he suspected he knew her answer.

"I have no higher opinion authoritarianism when it comes from traditionalists instead of progressives, but at least they are usually far more obvious and straightforward to deal with. Less like an insidious parasite draining your body of resources and inflicting subtle diseases, with the parasite constantly redirecting your attention elsewhere whenever you get close to identifying it as the problem, and much more like Sombra demanding you hand your country over to him. So!" said Celestia, her eyes full of fire, this time not directed at Riddle, even though she was looking at him. "That is the norm where you come from? Authoritarianism is commonplace in the largest countries of Silver's home planet?"

"The largest muggle countries." This did not have the effect of calming her down in the slightest. Perhaps because muggle warfare doesn't have a 'nonlethal' setting. "And many of the magical ones as well. Though not all of them. Well, not yet, not comprehensively."

And on the off chance the Berlin Wall really did fall, it's possible muggle history is starting to trend away from command governments. (He didn't go himself and confirm that unbelievable claim personally, given his busy schedule during his plot to steal the Stone, though in retrospect he really should have made the time, he should have braved a few more muggle newspapers after the one about the American president being a retired movie actor to see if they made the claim as well. He should have at least asked Mr. Potter. But at this point it's far too late.)

Celestia's gaze was razor-sharp. "And the magical countries-? No, never mind, I can already guess." She took a deep breath, her mane of fire still burning brightly. "Well. I whole-heartedly agree that you are in a far better position to have lived and breathed the truly worst kinds of warfare growing up, perhaps worse than I could ever nightmare of, given the recent state of your world. Now excuse me while I add that to this contract as well."

With a swift flourish of the quill, she wrote one last sentence, then turned the contract to face Riddle.

---

Activation Condition

This contract is only binding until I can cast the Patronus Charm at will, under any circumstance. If I can cast the Patronus at will, I am no longer bound. If I am actively casting a Patronus by my own unaltered free will, even if I have not yet mastered it, I am not bound by this contract for the duration that I maintain it. This clause supersedes all others.

As long as I cannot cast the Patronus at will, this contract is only binding as long as Princess Celestia of Equestria continues to offer her best reasonable efforts to aid my interests regarding the human in the Mirror, Albus Dumbledore.

Terms

I shall not speak within hearing range of or eavesdrop upon Celestia when she is in front of the Mirror, unless she gives permission for me to do so. That permission, no matter how it's phrased, does not last more than one continuous day.

I shall not harm Luna in any way.

I shall not engage in warfare, conventional or otherwise, against any country, entity, group, or individual on Equus, unless I receive explicit, informed, uncompelled, unambiguous permission from at least two separate alicorn casters of the True Patronus Charm.

---

After reading it, he rolled his eyes. "All of this is merely in exchange for your help with Dumbledore's afterlife delusion?" He pushed the parchment away from himself with his fingertips. "Pass."

"Not just with his belief in the afterlife," said Celestia, pushing the paper back in Riddle's direction. "Your interests also involve convincing him you're not lying to him. I will do anything in my power to convince him of the true fact that Equestria is real and we are not an illusion, so long as it does not violate anypony's rights. Put bluntly, I shall allow this Mirror to be removed from this room, even this very day if that's what it takes. And I have little doubt it will take that."

Unfortunately, the same thought had occurred to Riddle. An illusion is far easier to maintain if you never change the setting. If, however, Riddle traveled through Equestria with the Mirror trailing behind him – if that worked, and if Dumbledore's image remained reflected, capable of seeing the sights – that would be far more difficult to fake. The spontaneity of the real world will always be necessary as a bare minimum to satisfy any truly competent skeptic.

"I will also point out that there is no time pressure," Celestia added. "This is an open offer. We start the moment you sign this contract, and you may sign it a year from now if you wish."

He didn't even bother with the obvious objection that there's pressure to sign immediately anyway, in front of Dumbledore, all in this single session. He did bother to point out a different obvious objection. "You expect me to take you at your word that you'll keep your end of the bargain?"

"No. I expect you to take this contract's word that I'll keep my word. As the opening clause explicitly implies, if I break my word, you are allowed to break yours."

"Would you object to an Unbreakable Vow that you will follow through?"

"Only if you object to an Unbreakable Vow of your own."

Riddle frowned, considering that line of action.

"I am trying," said Celestia, "to refrain from introducing any magics more severe than have already been used, in this conflict between us. After everything that happened today, I think I do not want there to be any more permanent sacrificing of trust in Equestria than there absolutely has to be. And I am also trying to resolve this conflict in such a way that the resolution does not favor only or mostly my own interests. If you have objections to any of the contract's language, speak them."

That, he could do. "The second clause."

"What about it?"

"Need I say more?"

"Yes," said Celestia. "State your objection explicitly, if you would. Because based only on what you said, it is almost as if you want me to conclude that you seek to harm my sister."

Riddle rolled his eyes. "The word 'harm' is far too vague."

"That is the point," said Celestia. "You will not do what you personally believe constitutes harm to my sister, according to your own standards of the word 'harm'. I don't want you to follow any hard rules other than that."

"Mm," said Riddle noncommittally. "The word 'warfare' is also incredibly vague in the third clause. I'm not quite sure what you mean by it."

"Again, that is the point. If you were to ask the question 'What does 'warfare' mean?' to an average Equestrian, they would likely give answers along the lines of soldiers, spears, and spellfire."

Riddle snorted. That's not much different from Magical Britain. Or most magical countries in general. Or most muggle lands. Especially Texas, if you replace spears and spellfire with guns and tanks. "What they think hardly matters to this contract. What do you think when you say warfare?"

"Truthfully, even my mind will go to spells and soldiers first, though it can easily go to things like propaganda and manipulative mind games when necessary. However, it is now obvious to me that you likely know warfare better than anypony else on Equus, myself included. You are not naïve about it because you grew up surrounded by it. Where warfare is concerned, your mind does not go to one place, or two, or three, it goes to all the places. So when you consider this contract's terms, you are to use your own definitions, anything and everything that comes to mind when you say the word 'war'. And then you will not do any of that to Equus or anyone on it."

"So the more methods of war that I know, the more constrained I will be," Riddle observed.

"That's the idea," Celestia smiled.

That is a rather dauntingly massive constraint.

…Though not much more daunting than the reward he once intended to offer Mr. Potter in exchange for magical secrets, if his original plan for the last day of Hogwarts had gone without a hitch. Mr. Potter's reward would have basically been that Voldemort would commit to a future of not harming or warring against certain, specified people. So it's well within his abilities to do it. He just needs a good reason. He needs an incentive that serves his deep interests. Which he is, in fact, being offered at the moment.

On someone else's terms. Someone else whose mind, values, and ambitions he doesn't overly respect.

"I would prefer you specify into this contract that I am allowed to engage in warfare if it is for the express purpose of teaching."

"No," said Celestia, now expressionless. "I cannot trust you won't find a way to abuse that somehow- I cannot trust that you aren't currently abusing that with your oversight of the reserves. You will ask permission for every case – not every instance of warfare, not every battle. But every war you intend to fight, and every war you intend to prepare extensively for, you will ask for permission about it first, and you will not engage in actions of war unless that permission is granted according to the terms of this contract."

"The vague terms that rely on my own subjective understanding of war."

"I was referring to these terms." With her own magic, she highlighted unless I receive explicit, informed, uncompelled, unambiguous permission from at least two separate alicorn casters of the True Patronus Charm. "As for the term 'warfare' itself, I highly doubt you view your own understanding as subjective, and I highly doubt you are mistaken about all the various ways war can be done. I'm honestly curious about what all you'll end up needing to ask permission about."

"I'd be sure to ask permission from Luna and Twilight instead of you if I sign this."

"I'll hear about it eventually," said Celestia with a smile. "For this does not qualify as your secret, it qualifies as ours." Her smile vanished. "And remember that becoming capable of casting the True Patronus will free you from the contract. Until then, you can see how this particular clause will motivate me to keep my end of the bargain, I hope. I tried to imagine something that would motivate and incentivize the both of us to accomplish what we already wish to accomplish. Any further objections?"

"Yes. To start…"

With a will of magic, the words This contract is only binding as long as Celestia continues to offer her best reasonable efforts were highlighted in a bright black glow.

(Which is to say, pitch black haloed by white light, making it look like the black color itself is glowing. That particular illusion is not something that can be found in standard textbooks.)

He then narrowed the glow to just around the word 'reasonable'. He said nothing, but stared flatly at Celestia.

"I shall not forsake my other duties," Celestia said at once.

He shifted the glow to 'efforts', still saying nothing.

"I cannot guarantee results, only effort."

He shifted the glow to 'best'.

"I cannot guarantee to meet your standards."

He sighed. "You realize it sounds like you are making excuses in advance, yes?"

"That's because I am, in the face of your potentially unreasonable expectations."

"Expectations such as?"

"Doing everything your way, all the time, 24/7, and then you wonder in the end why it didn't work out," she answered. "You accuse me of being dictatorial, and those accusations may have grains of truth to them, but we both know you are projecting your own deepest desires and general worldview every time you do it."

He frowned. "I'm not satisfied with just that answer."

"Then to explain that disclaimer as carefully as I can," Celestia continued, "it is not an excuse for me to do nothing, but an excuse for me to be merely equine. If proving to Dumbledore we're not conspiring against him takes a year, and solving his afterlife belief takes ten – I'm being optimistic here – I don't want you to go back on this contract whenever I'm not actively working on the problem. You do not get to interpret that as me 'not giving it my all'. He'll have issues he must solve on his own, independent of anything I can do on my end, and that space of time still counts as me giving my best efforts to help you."

"In that case, let's talk practicalities. Resource commitment. What do your 'best efforts' entail?"

"Allowing and arranging for the Mirror to leave this room."

"That’s it?"

"No. That is an example the general level of material and legal affordance you can expect me to be giving to this project on a regular basis if you sign the contract. Which is to say well beyond the scope of any other project I've ever given affordance to, including even Twilight's Friendship and Magic Lessons. Though it's still my choice how I help, and even if you disagree with my methods or approach, that doesn't mean I am not giving it my best efforts, and it doesn't mean you get to renege. You may always make your case. I shall listen. But I do not have to do as you command. Does that fully clarify the meaning and intent of that part of the contract?"

Even though meaning and intent are not as absolutely important to the functioning of magical contracts compared to magical Vows, it is still important for meaning and intent to be clarified ahead of time, otherwise the contracted will be bound to what they believe is the meaning and intent behind the contractor's written words.

"It does," said Riddle. "If I were to sign, I suppose I'd be annoyed that I asked you to explain at all."

"Indeed," said Celestia, smiling again.

Riddle had the overwhelming sense he was walking into a bad deal. After half a second of consulting his emotions to understand why, he said, "And if I asked how long this would paralyze me, should I violate it?"

"An hour, of course."

That did it.

Riddle huffed and pushed the paper back in Celestia's direction, this time sticking it to the table with a will of wandless magic so that it would stay there.

"You initially suggested a manner of common courtesy between us, while you are down here, or at least a silencing barrier. I said I might agree to that. I did not say I might agree to this. Your motives are clearly to enforce some manner of symmetry upon our situations, with everything else as a rationalization, however clever they might be. This contract was composed with intentions that contained at least a tinge of sadism, a tinge of schadenfreude." After becoming hyper-aware of those emotions in himself, thanks to the Night Court Sessions, he has become significantly better at spotting them in others. "You desire to see your enemy in the same state as yourself, a state which he inflicted upon you. That is what this contract is truly for. And that is why I am not even slightly tempted to sign it."

Celestia shrugged. "It is an open offer. You may reconsider it whenever you come to the conclusion that the Mirror must leave this chamber."

"If I come to that conclusion, what's stopping me from removing it myself?"

She scowled. "Myself. My guard. The law. You would be stealing from Equestria, and that is something I would not abide."

He discarded the first response he was tempted to give to her, and went with the second. "I would be borrowing, not stealing. It's not like I can take the Mirror with me when I'm done with it. And for that matter, this artifact does not belong to you or the country Equestria. If anything, it belongs to all of Equus. I don't think you have any stronger claim of usership than I do, under Equestria's philosophical conception of property rights."

The tips of her mane flared. "It has been under my protection for centuries. Should anything go drastically wrong as a result of the Mirror, the blame would lie on me. It is my responsibility more than anypony else's."

"On that we are fully agreed." He smiled unkindly. "But I am not a pony, and you are no longer the only being on this planet with great claim to it. The man in the Mirror could speak almost the same words as you just did, and they would be true. He has exactly the same claim to it as you do. And I would argue that I have claim as well, though of a different sort of course."

"On what grounds could you possibly argue that?"

"The Mirror was created by those who created magic itself. Or at least the most advanced magical society that ever existed. And they created it on our side of the Mirror, which means they also created its manifestations in all of its created worlds. You merely stumbled upon the Equestrian version of it. Given your ethical presuppositions, you should be the one claiming that it belongs to all of Equus, and all of Earth. But ignoring that, I have a better understanding of the Mirror's history, and of how it ties into this world's history, than you do. That is part of my claim."

"I think you are far overestimating your own understanding. Anyone can declare they have knowledge. I would require hard proof."

"Which I can give, and will if I see reason, but truthfully you can ignore that part of my claim entirely. The rest of my claim involves the fact that I am only here because of this Mirror. My goals have been inexorably linked to this Mirror from the very moment I stepped foot on Equus, and not because I desire the Mirror itself or its power, but because the Mirror and its creators are directly responsible for my current state of affairs. Whatever you or I might think about the circumstance in retrospect, whether you or I think it's a good or bad thing that I ended up in this situation, that doesn't change the fact that I would not be here if the Mirror had not interfered with a will of its own. And so I consider it perfectly consistent under Equestria's conception of property rights that I be allowed to set my affairs with the Mirror in order, so long as I keep to myself as I do it."

"I do not consider it consistent with our values, nor our conception of property rights. You said you agree that the Mirror is my responsibility."

He shrugged. "If your house came alive, ate me, and trapped me inside of it, I would agree to that being your responsibility as well. I would also be well within my rights to do what it takes to leave the house, with or without your permission, even if I must damage your house in the process. Equestrian ethics demand I do no more damage than reasonably necessary to leave, or to ensure my safety, but they do allow me to do that damage. That is the consequence of bearing responsibility for property that can act autonomously – for property that did act autonomously – against a dark lord who is willing to play by Equestrian principles, but not by the emotional whims of its oldest princess."

"You call yourself a dark lord unironically?"

He smiled. "In this context, consider a dark lord to be someone who does not rely on the authority figures in society to shape his morality for him, for many societies are far from perfect, and in fact are incredibly ugly deep down." A memory came to mind, and he chuckled. "If you want, I could call myself a light lord instead."

She frowned. "No."

A light shrug. "So be it. Suppose that I, as a dark lord, have decided that I am within my Equestrian rights to flaunt your insufficient claims of authority over property which interfered in my affairs. Suppose that I go on to interact with that property without your oversight or permission to set my affairs back in order, to the accidental, deliberate, or simply uncaring detriment of your country. In that case, you are correct that the blame would lie with you. When I said I agree it's your responsibility, I meant that, should harm befall your little ponies as a result of your failure to negotiate with the powerful dark lord who was eaten by your house, or more accurately the door to your house, the consequences of what follows would be your fault in failing to negotiate with him. He is trying to slim down to fit through the exit door that was capable of admitting him in, but not allowing him out, and he is making a genuine effort at doing so peacefully, without damage to your house or your residents or the door. But annoying him with petty sadistic revenge is a good way to have him decide he'd be better served by smashing the frame wide open so he can fit through at his current morbidly obese size. Which might then allow other big monsters in, of course."

The tips of her mane had been getting redder, as he spoke. "If that is how you feel, what is even the point of acknowledging my responsibility over the Mirror, if you are willing to utterly disregard it? Merely to say it will be my fault when you ruin everything?"

He grinned. "Not quite. The point of my acknowledging your responsibility is to convey the following true fact: I am willing to extend the courtesy of abiding by your personal oversight and suggestions of caution wherever the Mirror is concerned. So long as we are on Equus, anyway, and so long as your mandates do not make the fulfillment of my own interests impossible or unreasonably arduous. If I decide I must take Dumbledore – and therefore the Mirror – on a physical tour of Equestria, I am more than willing to accept surveillance, warnings, wise precautions, and advice from the crown. I am willing to extend that much courtesy to the one who bears responsibility over the Mirror. I am NOT willing to sign this contract-" he tapped the page twice "-as a precondition. It extends well beyond the realm of 'courtesy'. And if you insist on the contract anyway, now that I've explicitly spelled all of this out, to the point that I feel like I'm repeating myself, then it's entirely possible that one day I decide I don't care to extend any courtesy to you at all. That is where your blame would lie, if things go wrong. Especially if it's because you want revenge."

Tom lifted the contract from the table and held it so that the terms faced Celestia. He stared directly into her eyes.

"You are falling prey to the temptation of seeking the emotional satisfaction of inflicting upon your enemy the condition he has inflicted upon you." Then he leaned back in his chair, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Which, by the by, is likely another reason you no longer bear Kindness. I doubt Fluttershy would ever act on such an impulse, even to one such as me. At the very least, she would not take any pleasure in it, if she felt she had to do it. And if she did, she would no longer bear Kindness. Or so I assume."

Celestia, in response to all this, said nothing. Her face was, once again, expressionless. Her mane was not as fiery as it had been at the peak of her rage, or at the lesser peak of her reigned temper, but it was still tinged red and flaming at its tips.

"In summary," Riddle said into the brief silence that followed, putting the contract down again. "You have much legitimate claim to authority over the Mirror and what happens to it. I have been in the practice, over the past few years, of going out of my way to respect legitimate claims of that kind, if they are logically sound and consistent with Equestria's moral framework. What is not logical or legitimate, in this position and under my understanding of Equestrian ethics, is for you to claim absolute authority over the Mirror. If you had created it yourself, or bought it from the creator under an ordinary market transaction, or used market transactions to produce and manage the resources required to create it, I might yield to a claim of absolute authority. So long as that device doesn't adopt a will of its own and interfere with my affairs, of course. But you stumbled upon the Mirror… or perhaps it was passed down to you… but either way you did not make it, you do not know it inside and out like its creators did, and it did interfere with my affairs. I am aware you have the weight of time on your side. You have protected the Mirror for centuries. Even from my perspective, that fact adds true weight and credence to your claim of responsible stewardship. But I still do not think that gives you absolute authority over the Mirror. Not so long as Dumbledore is trapped within it, and I am the only one who can retrieve him, and he guards the door to my home. That gives weight to my claims, even if I've only been here a few years. From the very start of my existence on Equus, I have been seeking this Mirror for exactly this purpose. And you would too, if our positions were reversed. Nor would you yield to someone else's claim of absolute control, I think. Not if they required you to torture a foal to access the Mirror, or anything else that went strongly enough against your values. You, too, would flaunt them and simply do as you willed, if you had the power."

"And you have the power?" she asked neutrally.

"Are you willing to risk finding out?" he replied.

There was a pause.

"What values of yours are causing you to reject this contract? Other than the intentions you perceive that I have, I mean."

"My values of autonomy and free will, of not being forced to 'do the right thing', as you would put it. I greatly prefer being convinced by reason, evidence, facts, and logic. To put it more bluntly, I made the mistake of permanently subjecting my pony form to the phoenix's cry. Useful though it may be as a tool to question certain courses of action, it is still not me. And I am not in the habit of repeating my past mistakes after I acknowledge them as such. That is why I am not signing this contract. Because, as you put it quite eloquently when we were discussing politics, I do not want what you call 'progress' to be forced upon me, especially by an activist with ulterior motives that are blatantly obvious to me, but not the activist herself."

A light frown touched Celestia's otherwise expressionless face, and she fell silent once more.

"Do you need a moment to speak with your sister again?" Riddle asked when the silence stretched much longer than the last time.

Celestia took a deep breath. "No." With her magic, she gently grasped the contract, at which point Riddle unstuck it from the table with his own magic. Celestia tucked the paper away into her regalia. Once it was gone, her mane returned fully to rainbow. "I think I know what she would say. You have given me much to think about. I am going to sleep on it before making any major decisions."

"Regarding the contract?"

She shook her head. "I took it off the table, didn't I?"

He frowned-

"But I'll do you one better than wordplay." She took out the contract and tore it in two.

He rolled his eyes. "So what decision are you sleeping upon?"

"The decision to help Dumbledore, and you by proxy. You are still asking for the expense of royal attention and resources – far more than your current allotment, which is itself far more than most ponies could ever dream of seeing. Even if the contract is off the table, you are asking for more than a favor, and I intend to ask for more than a favor in return. I suppose it is up to me to think of something you'll concede as equitable, with Luna to gauge your honesty when you make that evaluation."

"That is reasonable," said Tom. "If you can think of nothing yourself, I have plenty of suggestions. I'll hold off on speaking them just yet, lest I bias your creative process. But if you take too long, I might assume you are simply stalling, or refusing to think about a painful topic."

"Noted. Philomena!" A bird of fire appeared on her back. Celestia sighed deeply as the phoenix spread its wings, then gave one last glance to Tom. "I will get back to you."

"No later than…?" Tom asked, trailing off in a deliberately suggestive tone.

Celestia took a moment to think about it. "A week from now. Sooner, if I think of something."

Tom inclined his head. "I'll be waiting." And as Celestia began to walk away, he said, "How did you bypass the phoenix wards?"

Celestia sighed wearily. "I would not ordinarily say. But since I do not want you poking and prodding at them, those wards are my own creation. Phoenixes can still manifest in this room, should they come alone. And they can leave in the same manner. They simply cannot teleport anypony or anything with them. If you see a way to exploit that for evil's sake, I'd be legitimately surprised."

Tom tilted his head. "I know a spell that might work to control a phoenix," Tom said. The Confundus charm works on animals. And even some objects, like portraits.

"You know what, I take it back. I am not surprised at all. Another spell from the human world?"

"Yes, though it's a spell that likely would have been invented by unicorns had you not banned the field of mind magics outright. And I have not actually tested if it works on phoenixes, nor can I immediately see how a lone phoenix might do evil to or by this Mirror, or your protections of it. Phoenix magic is restorative and supportive, not damaging in itself."

Celestia shook her head. "The point is still taken."

"Not well enough, I think." He shifted to pony form, removed everything he was wearing including his false teeth, disappeared in a flash of phoenix fire – which worked – and then reappeared in the same flash. "It seems as though your wards consider me a phoenix," he said with in a self-satisfied tone. He shifted. "Though not me, of course," he said in his human form. Then, more soberly, "Consider that display to be a minor favor you owe me. I did not need to show you that."

Celestia stared at him for a long moment. Philomena rubbed the back of her neck with her beak. "I shall," she said. "Thank you. And it is well past my bedtime. Until later, Tom Riddle." She walked beyond the range of the Mirror, then beyond the range of the room, then, as the door shut behind her, beyond the range of sight and sound.

Tom turned to face Dumbledore, who had been allowed to witness everything. With his eyes, not his ears. Not that Dumbledore was using them. He was sitting in a conjured, cushioned chair, looking like the stereotype of a grandfather who had nodded off.

Tom tapped the invisible barrier between them with the back joint of his index finger. "Wake up, old man."

Albus was greatly tempted to smile without opening his eyes. But he suppressed the impulse. Instead, he simply opened his eyes and gave a genuine yawn. "Tell me, Tom. Are you aware of the Transylvanian Tongue Translator?"

"That does not sound familiar, no. Is it a spell of Tongues that exists on Earth?" If so, Dumbledore deserves credit for finding one where Riddle could not.

"Not quite."

It is a lip-reading spell. Albus had recently tested a few lip-reading spells, but all of them had failed due to the perfect magical barrier of the Mirror. All of them except the Transylvanian Tongue Translator, which apparently works on mundane visual cues alone, in harmonious tandem with the Tongues function of the Mirror.

Of course, there's always the possibility that Tom is lying, that he has heard of it, that he knew Albus could and would use it on this recent conversation that had been censored but not blurred… and being censored not blurred is actually a potential red flag for conspiracy world. Lip-reading spells are the primary reason why most privacy wards involve a visual obfuscation of some kind. Tom had cast his own suite of lip-reading spells, earlier, and appeared to concluded that the Mirror blocked them, and that it was safe enough to rely only on sound barriers. Even then Tom would not have left his conversation with Celestia un-blurred if not for his desire to appear as transparent as possible. All of that is reasonable, but the end result is that Albus overheard a conversation that is rather convincing on the 'Equestria is real' front.

As Alastor would say, that's exactly what Tom wants him to think.

"But nevermind that," said Albus. "Have you worked out an arrangement?"

"I'll let you know in a week. Was there anything you wanted in the meantime?"

Albus stroked his beard. "If it is not too much to ask, could you use that trick of Mirror duplication to transfer a spot of tea onto this side? Perhaps a bit of food as well?"

Tom grinned ever so slightly. "Finally willing to brave the risk of poison?"

"You and I both know I'd be braving the risk of purely mundane compliance drugs, if such a thing exists in the muggle world. And assuming they can bypass taste test charms, and the Mirror decides it's in accordance with my wishes that I be drugged, thus allowing the food to be reflected onto my side in the first place, so on and so forth."

Tom Riddle simply smiled. "Good food is perhaps the single greatest mundane compliance drug in existence. So you are, in any case, doomed."

Albus seriously wondered, not for the first time in his life, or the second, or the tenth, how long it's going to take this time for him to go truly, irredeemably, unretrievably mad. At a wild guess, a few days. A week at most.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Watching conversations between intelligent parties takes a lot to prevent collapse due to boredom through lack of information, but there was a sever lack, of lack of information in this interaction.

The demonstration of word by word, without going into far more possible detail definitely shows this.

At least Dumbledore hasnt got to the point where The Cupcake Isnt Reflected.

[The Guy Who Writes]

11733294
Meh. Going into even more detail than this is... I don't know. I think you're asking for Celestia and Riddle to speak in concrete examples instead of abstracts. Otherwise 'more detail' sounds to me like 'longer chapter', which I think would just make the problem even worse. And the problem in this particular interaction is that Celestia and Riddle come from two different worlds and histories, they don't have much overlapping specifics they can reference for each other, so they stick to generalities to try to get a reference frame of what the other has experienced.

[rendomstranger]

I'm disappointed that you're yet again pushing your own political opinions where they do not contribute meaningfully to the story. Especially as you're using definitions that you personally hold instead of the definitions used by the people who willingly carry the labels you're arguing against.

And just to head of the common counterargument that writers tend to have, putting your words in the mouth of your character does not make them any less your words.

The remainder of the chapter is interesting like usual but it really ruins my immersion when you use the story as a way to step onto your soapbox to preach your political beliefs. Leave those beliefs for in a blog post if you're so desperate to tell other people about them.

[harts fire]

wow just so much going on. i love it.

[Greenhorn]

Tom Riddle simply smiled. "Good food is perhaps the single greatest mundane compliance drug in existence. So you are, in any case, doomed."

Let him taste Apple Family's pie and he would suspect there is some kind of potion in it.

[VioRosery]

That's pretty disappointing how badly they understand socialism and progress. Rights and progress unfortunately have to be fought for.

[The Guy Who Writes]

11734653
Case in point, regarding my other comment. To respond to this one directly,

"I imagine you've dealt with that a few times. How many times have things gone horribly wrong in that way, out of curiosity?"

She took a few deep breaths. "More times than I can count. And they have gone excellently right a number of times that is easy to count."

"Because that number is zero," Riddle guessed.

"That number is three. It's possible, just immensely improbable, especially when the population lacks education in all the ways such movements can go wrong.

Does that sound like the position of someone who believes that rights never need to be fought for?

Rights don't necessarily need to be fought for in a physical sense, they CAN be argued for in a court of law, or in the court of public opinion, without mobs or riots. Celestia's point is that any 'fighting for rights' which DOES tend to result in mobs and/or riots is bad or at least counterproductive to the cause 99.9% of the time, if it's the people 'fighting for rights' who are doing the rioting. Look at MLK's Letter from Bermingham jail, and his "I Have A Dream" speech. There's a reason MLK resonated with the common American public and Malcom X mostly only resonated with activists.

Great Britain didn't need a civil war to end their involvement in the slave trade like America did, they actually listened to their humanitarian abolitionist writers and public speakers. First they outlawed trading of slaves in 1807 (i.e. far sooner than America did), then when they outlawed slave ownership in 1834 (also sooner than America did) the state compensated the British former-slave-owners in hard cash for the former-slaves that they had already paid hard cash to acquire in the first place.

To be as blunt as possible about my symbolism, Celestia is the pony who tries to prevent massive incoming political changes from killing innocents in the short run and destroying society in the long run, while Luna is the pony who pushes for those massive changes which are, in fact, good and necessary.

This is also why Celestia hates and is extremely skeptical of Riddle (who brings many massive changes that will be necessary for future society, but who is also incredibly self-serving, as most change-bringers are), while Luna is much more on-Riddle's-side, knowing what he can offer, and doing everything she can to make sure he does bring these necessary changes to Equestria.

[TheGreatFox]

11734965
So "the pen is mightier than the sword" basically? Makes sense, even if the point seems to be non-obvious in the chapter itself.

It's a good sentiment, and indeed, such peaceful reforms are far preferable. In Equestria, I expect it works without the issues commonly faced in our world. Issues such as those with economic interests in exploiting the status quo suppressing any attempt at reforms. Sometimes, it's things like rebranding slavery to prison labor (defined as legal slavery in the USA per the 13th amendment) and pretending everything is suddenly fine. Other times it's things like a country deciding they don't like their resources being exploited by foreign corporations with no benefit to themselves and electing a leader that attempts to change this, which quickly gets overthrown and replaced with a dictator. And yet other times, if a movement is entirely peaceful, well, the term "agent provocateur" exists for a reason. You brought up MLK who is a good example seeing as he was influential but got assassinated once he started rocking the boat too much.

Not that violent revolutions are likely to have the desired effect either. You are correct about the various issues that come with those.

Turns out, politics is complicated.

[The Guy Who Writes]

11735105
Thank you.

And yes, politics are complicated. Highly complicated. Extremely complicated. But not so complicated that I'm going to allow my readers to get away with motivated reasoning or willful ignorance or ulterior motives when it comes to the most basic and obvious things.

Politics are not so complicated that regimes which expressly called themselves socialist, which called themselves the representatives of the people, which were founded by leaders who were about as well-read on socialist theory as one could be (Lenin and Mao)- politics is not so complicated that these regemes were not, fundamentally, socialist. Or at the very least, a direct product of socialism. Which I think is the main point that most of the people who didn't like this chapter had a problem with. Their real problem isn't that it dipped into politics in the first place, that's just a convenient excuse they use to try to manipulate me into not critiquing their worldview anymore.

Our redwashed education has trained a lot of normies and midwits and even highwits in the West to view those regimes as not-real-socialism, to view ANY failed manifestation of socialism applied to politics as not-real-socialism. That trite cliche of "It wasn't real socialism bro" which you hear all the time from modern-day socialists is the result of previous socialist academic types huffing compium and trying to get as many people as possible to huff the copium too, because if they can cause a critical mass of people to NOT blame socialism when things like the gulags and the Great Leap Forward happen, that means they can keep calling themselves socialists unironically, without being morally impugned for their worldview. A worldview which - when attempted time after time after time again in the real world, outside the ivory towers of academia - resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of innocent citizens, and the terrible suffering of hundreds of millions more.

If anybody tried to argue that Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy "wasn't real fascism", you'd laugh them out of the room for their obviously motivated reasoning. I view the "that wasn't real socialism" argument in much the same light.

"like an insidious parasite draining your body of resources and inflicting subtle diseases, constantly redirecting your attention elsewhere whenever you get close to identifying it as the problem,"

There's a reason I had Celestia say this line.

"Though you'll find plenty of scholars – both inside and outside those nations – who won't admit to bad politics or bad policy as the reason, even if you twist their arms, because their politics align with the politics of the regime, and they will find any excuse at all to avoid taking responsibility."

And why I had Riddle say this one.

This, I think, is the fundamental reason why a certain chunk of readers didn't like this chapter. Not that I brought up politics at all, not that I criticized violent regimes, not that I criticized authoritarianism, not that I criticized mob rule, but that I had the gall and audacity to falsely (in their view) impugn socialism and common forms of socialist activism for having anything to do with authoritarianism or violence. I had the gall to have Celestia, simultaneously Equestria's most experienced and most morally good politician, believe that the political Left can, indeed, go HARD into authoritarianism, and it's just as ugly in its own uniquely disgusting way as when the Right goes hard into authoritarianism.

Kinda like how the real Tom Riddle is utterly evil in an interestingly different way from what he was pretending with Voldemort, actually. I feel like I'm Mad-Eye Moody going around trying to convince random 'intelligent' wizards who regularly read the Daily Prophet that "David Monroe was and is Voldemort too, you idiots! He's just the world's best manipulator so you don't see it." And the normies roll their eyes and go "You and your crazy paranoia again. Stop inserting your own worldview into this conversation. It's unpleasant to me. Now please get back to the interesting stuff like how the Dark Mark works."

[The Guy Who Writes]

11733638
Apologies to VioRosery, this comment reply was meant for Rendomstranger.
Here is a comment I wrote prior to publishing this chapter, saved on my hard drive, because I knew what the likely response would be.

"I admit, I was tempted to severely reduce the political overviews in this chapter, perhaps cut them entirely. But I decided to leave them in. After this, I don't think there are going to be any future chapters about abstract political concepts. This was partly to finalize and fully wrap up the Riddle vs. Silver debate about authoritarianism from way back before the escape from the Mirror, have Riddle take one big step away from dictatorship.

Although I will remark, I'm unsure if I can trust reviews critical of chapters that are themselves critical of various popular ideologies, because you never know if the reviewer is bothered by their ideology being criticized and they're coming up with some different excuse to complain about the chapter (when it's really the criticism of their worldview that bugged them in the first place, not the fact that the story dipped into politics in general), or if that motivation is completely 100% absent from their mind, they were completely and utterly unbothered emotionally, and they genuinely think abstract political talk in general harms the chapter.

Again, part of the point of leaving chapters like this in the story is to remind readers that there are practical applications to rationality as applied to politics. The best and most effective application is always to ask "How might my own worldview go horribly wrong when implemented on a mass-scale?" BEFORE asking "How will the worldviews of my political opponents go wrong if they win?" And for those readers who don't believe that they HAVE an ideology... in the words of Moody, that's exactly what they want you to think. Because that self-flattering belief blinds people to the ideology that they do, in fact, have."

End pre-planned comment, but I have a bit to add.

In short, you're sympathetic to socialism, or at the very least you don't see socialism as a dangerous ideology, a bad-evil-no-good-thing like fascism, which you DO view as a bad-evil-no-good-thing. That is my prediction about you. Is my prediction about you wrong?

If, from the start, I had only criticized Hitler and the Nazis and the Italian fascists like Yudkowsky mostly did in HPMoR, and not mentioned Stalin or Mao or the socialists, I suspect you wouldn't have even noticed, and your immersion wouldn't have been broken.

[Luminous Lead]

"Right authoritarianism, left authoritarianism"

I like that definition. It doesn't matter in whom the power is invested, both of these arrangements represent taking too much power away from the people.

[The Guy Who Writes]

11736721
Exactly. With right authoritarians acting like strict fathers who believe they know what's best for their family, even if that means harsh beatings and 'cutting off weak links', and left authoritarians acting like manipulative mothers who get the family to believe they're making their own decisions, get the family to believe THEY'RE in control, when really it's the mother's manipulations at play, and she ALSO thinks she knows what's best for everyone, even if that means preventing them from interacting with 'dangerous' things (i.e. things the mother just plain doesn't like, even if they're not dangerous at all, and in fact are necessary for healthy growth, like germs. Or opposing viewpoints.).

In short, Right authoritarianism is like casting a physical Crucio and/or Imperius until you get submission, Left authoritarianism is like casting a Crucio and/or Imperius on somebody's mind/emotions instead of their body, though of course there's plenty of overlap. And in both cases, they're unforgivable.

But it's often harder to spot the dynamic of manipulation. Right authoritarians champion fatherland / nation, claiming that everything they do, they do for their nation, and left authoritarians champion 'the people', claiming that everything they do, they do it by the people, of the people, for the people, but the end result tends to look eerily similar to anybody NOT captured by either ideology.

And those WITHIN the ideologies complain that I'm pushing a worldview by observing that dynamic, unaware that they've been captured, projecting their own problems onto me.

[keybounce]

First, I have no problem with the exposure to politics that we have seen. Frankly, there is no way around the three big topics -- politics, finance, and public goods -- no matter how you want to.

Frankly, everyone gets some "indoctrination" into a particular view towards each of those before age 6/7, and then takes that as "common sense" *because they have never taken the time to rethink what a child was taught*.

You have to question your core beliefs as an adult; question what your parents taught you without even realizing it; question whether your parents and early teachers were right; question *whether you and your beliefs are right*.

That step -- looking at yourself -- is hard. Most people refuse. And that is why we have so much "I know X to be true, don't you dare tell me otherwise" in our politics today.

Seeing it, being able to read it -- seeing two major characters having to face their own prior conceptions and question themselves -- is a *good thing!*.

Thank you.

[The Guy Who Writes]

11739729
Thank you for this.

When you only get complaints as a creator, it can be hard to stick to your initial intentions. Like how Darth Jar-Jar was probably George Lucas's original intention, but the worst and most intense fan backlash in serial-production history probably caused him to pivot from what could have been yet another reveal on the level of Darth Vader. Except that time it would've been Darth Plagueis's reveal.

As for the complaints themselves, I think I was finally getting the hang of cutting through the BS and cynically seeing the underlying truth and motivations behind why they were being written, why emotional language like "I'm disappointed" was being thrown around like popcorn, and vague criticisms that don't ACTUALLY say anything specific are the norm. Which makes the criticisms far easier to handle. Especially when you can predict them in advance depending on WHICH side of the political isle you criticize.

Or rather, intuiting that Yudkowsky experienced basically no backlash from... we'll call it the 'reddit crowd'. He got no backlash from them when he had the 'good' main character of HPMoR outright criticize fascists, Hitler, the Nazis, et cetera in HPMoR. The worst he did (from the socialist perspective) was have the villain claim to have studied Mao's Little Red Book to be a more effective dictator, and that line was a one-off and easily missed with a lot more important stuff going on in the loaded 108 chapter. Plus there's always the tried and true "Mao wasn't a real socialist bro" defense. And yet here I am, having a 'good' main character also explicitly criticizing the fascists, though this time not excluding Stalin, Mao, or the socialists from that explicit criticism, and all of the sudden people have a problem.

The underyling reality of the situation is actually really simple and obvious when you stop and think about it for a second. The critiquers hiding behind vague muddling critiques that don't say what they really think are far less effective when you can actually see and name the dynamic going on. It also helps when one critiquer drops the manipulation ball entirely and comes right out and says what the other muddlers are thinking, mentioning socialism explicitly and how 'the ponies just don't understand it', to the thumbs up of multiple people.

But still, thank you keybounce. This definitely helps, and you've described basically my exact intention.

[Poparakelis]

These long dialogues are hard to keep up with after a while so I can't keep reading chapter after chapter, still awesome though

[Black--Soul]

How they don't start bucking one another until their backhooves are sore is beyond me.
Damn... they really like to push one another boundaries at times