Nai hiruvalye Valimar, nai elye hiruva; namarie!
This story is a sequel to Who Guards the Guards?
Two sisters, debating what the coming storm will mean for society.
Two more sisters, debating what they can do in the face of it.
One man, reflecting on what he hopes the storm will bring about.
These are their stories.
Continuity: The Song of the Spheres
Branch: The Seekers of the Stars
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They are mightier than most, but they are still only human. Whatever may come, I hope it is kinder to them than I fear it will be.
10857536
Amen.
What did she just say?
What does that mean?
Just get pinkie pie to blow them up. Make her pretend like it’s a game.
Who is she talking about?
That’s what I’m talking about.
I honestly doubt that.
Why does she be looking for them?
What happened?
Where were her hands before?
What does she mean?
A literal key or a metaphorical key?
What the hell is she doing?
They use bits?
I still don’t know how that happened.
What does all that mean?
Why would she get nasty letters?
Don’t you have magic?
That’s what she’s worried about? Also, they know she has magic?
Useless? I’m sorry, how many times have they saved the world? I lost count after three.
Ok, now they’re threatening to take away your sister. Time to do some training.
What does that mean?
Peter out?
10861679
Yep. Wrote about it on a blog post here.
How what happened? Sunset's rise to power?
Starlight's proposed policies would hurt the middle class, the class Rarity and her coworkers aspire to be. Under her, they would be pushed back down the economic pyramid, with their various goals being torn away from them by Starlight's policies (for example, savings intended for a summer house being drained by new taxes).
She cultivates the image of the cultured, upper class woman. Combine that with her magic (which is known about only through rumor, at the moment) and she is basically the ideal target of the Unmarked, a militant movement with their fair share of supporters in the area.
Against the horde she fears Starlight's supporters to number, even her magic may not be enough.
Oh, no, she's terrified at the thought of being executed; she just knows that simply shaking in terror does no good, she needs to work to prevent what she fears from coming to pass. The detail about how magic-users were typically executed was just a bit of gallows humor on her part.
We know that they've saved the world multiple times, yes, but the other characters don't know all the details. (Sunset, Celestia, and Luna have been able to keep a fairly good lid on news of just what Canterlot High has gone through since the Fall Formal, allowing the outside world to remain ignorant of just how close it's come to destruction over the years.) Even if they did, it's unclear exactly how important Rarity was to those times they saved it; it's a team effort, making tracking each individual's contribution more difficult.
Indeed. Threaten Rarity and she'll try to resolve it peacefully; threaten Sweetie Belle and she'll tear you to shreds.
"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:13) The greatest kind of love is the love that drives one to sacrifice for the one they love, even to the point of death. This kind of love, the love that makes the life of the other worth more than one's own life, is undoubtedly the greatest of loves, surpassing even romantic or familial love. But the love that allows you to accept the other's will even when it hurts you, putting the good of the other ahead of the harm caused to the self, as shown in Sweetie Belle allowing Rarity to stay and possibly die, is little less great.
Fade away, basically.
10858616
Fateful words, my friend. Fateful, and sadly fitting.
10861516
A prayer before dinner.
So be it, basically the equivalent of "Amen."
She would be one girl against at least two hundred fired-up revolutionaries. Even more than odds, though, the greatest problem is one of doubt; it isn't known for certain that the Unmarked will prove violent, or that they'll do anything more than property damage even if they are. Until they actually act violently or directly and clearly incite violence, the law requires them to be treated as any other political group would be, and heavy force is not a proportionate response to a political demonstration. If Pinkie were to use her magic on them, she would effectively be opening fire on civilians, something neither the courts nor she herself would look kindly on. Even if things do turn violent, lethal force is only considered legally permissible in Homestria if deadly harm is reasonably expectable, so Pinkie would basically have to wait for the Unmarked to clearly show that they mean to do more than simply throw rocks or jump on cars before she could use lethal force, and the unstable nature of her powers means that what she thinks isn't lethal force could turn out to be. This forces her to restrain herself as much as possible, in order to avoid taking unnecessary lives (the very thing she is trying to prevent in the first place). Basically, Starlight's plans hinge on plausible deniability; so long as there is reasonable doubt with regards to whether or not the Unmarked actually mean to cause physical, deadly harm, the authority's response to her is going to be limited in order to avoid lawsuits regarding excessive use of force. Legally speaking, until they prove themselves criminals, Starlight and her Unmarked possess the same rights as other Homestrian citizens, namely the right to life and security, and excessive use of force against them would deprive them of that right. And that right is a universal human right, only waived when it infringes on another human's reasonable exercise of the same right, making the choice for Pinkie to pull the trigger even harder. These aren't faceless monsters they're fighting; they're people, fellow Homestrian citizens. They're people who could have been Pinkie's neighbors; would you be able to pull the trigger because you thought your neighbor might do something to hurt you, possibly seriously?
Yeah, she would probably move a bit slower than that.
You would earn her ire, though, and when she finally struck she would need to strike no more.
It's not necessarily that she's explicitly looking for them, it's that she'll find them opposing her when she arrives. She's coming to the capitol, and she'll find them there, whether or not she was looking for them in the first place.
That is a story for another day.
Nowhere specific.
About what?
Literal, though the nature of the dream-world makes it a bit of both.
Praying.
10861781
Jeez, is the law that difficult?
Really?
About everything.
10861770
So they don’t use regular money?
Yes.
Wow, that’s a lot. Does starlight know that?
What does starlight’s supporters have that can hurt her?
Ohh. I was really questioning her priorities for a few minutes. Also, you’re telling me she can get executed for having magic?
Apparently they didn’t do a good job.
Wow. That’s a lot of different types of love.
Ohh. I have never heard that phrase before.
Ah, but that's the beauty of it. If you oppose her, then clearly you are part of the elite, whether you think of yourself as such or not. This counterprotest probably won't end well.
I am surprised that Rarity and Sweetie aren't living with their parents. There may be a story there.
I don't know what Rarity's talking about. That's actually a fantastic line.
I get the sense that every chapter of this one will end in tears. Though our last focus will be alone... Well, we'll see what happens. Brilliant work in ramping up the tension.
10861837
The bit is regular money for them, just like the euro is for citizens of the European Union and the yen is for the Japanese.
Maybe, maybe not; it's a bit unclear whether she's malicious or simply ignorant.
Hands, feet, knives, rocks, pieces of pipe, the usual arsenal of urban revolutionaries basically.
She's afraid she might if Starlight comes to power. Whether that's actually true or not is almost beside the point, the point is that it's a possibility at all.
Even the best net lets some fish through, sadly. They did well, but this seems to have been too big for them.
Yep.
Yeah, it seems to be a bit obscure.
Regarding Sunset's rise to power, it's a bit complicated, but the gist is that she worked her way into the Wondercolts' lives before manipulating them into behaving as she wished, namely breaking up friendships to preempt rebellions against her (and stop it from hurting whenever she saw someone laughing with their friends and she couldn't remember the last time she did). She did allow them to form groups, though, primarily for ease of administration (it's easier to give a command to the Eco-kids group as opposed to Fluttershy, Sandalwood, etc.) and providing her cover from Celestia or Luna investigating (she's not breaking up friendships, if she was why would she be helping keep the groups together?).
10862285
So starlight’s supporters are actually a threat?
I don’t think I get it.
At this point, do they even know what’s equal and unequal?
I’m sorry, what? Since when?
What is he talking about?
What?
What is starlight teaching them?
But, wouldn’t putting fate in starlight also count as inequality?
Unequal possessions like what?
Is he that much of a threat?
Who?
What does that mean?
If the rainbooms don’t put these unmarked followers in a bodybag, then this might happen to them.
10863269
Questions like these are the whole point of this interlude; equalism seems smart and complex on the surface, but beneath that it spirals into meaninglessness and contradiction. The only consistency in equalism is doing whatever
Big SisterStarlight says; anything else is simply justification for whatever whim she wants obeyed now.He's blindingly loyal, willing to do whatever Starlight asks him to regardless of morality or ethicality, and empowered so that he's able to do that. He is a very dangerous Man, almost as dangerous as his master.
We shall have to see.
Not if they stay loyal to equalism. Equalism that changes from one day to the next, the only consistency being the person deciding how it changes...
10863699
And they don’t realize that?
Wouldn’t that also get him blindly hurt or killed if he runs into someone that can handle themselves?
We will?
But they aren’t gonna stay loyal to the equalism because everything they’re saying is complete nonsense.
That last letter is fifty shades of fyayed up.
What the actual FUCK. This is a hundred times worse than the show version. This is beyond messed up on so many levels.
So either Orwell doesn’t exist in this world, or he never wrote 1984. Either works; it’s clear that the historical circumstances that led to the novel don’t hold here.
In any case, truly disturbing stuff in its utter, unflinching madness. And I do have to wonder just who the captive is, poor thing. This coming tide will not be satisfied with mere political demonstration. We’ll see just what comes of it all. Pinkie’s stigmata still lingers in my mind...
10863714
This is advanced equalism, upper-level thought that most Unmarked will never encounter. Most of them only know equalism as "everyone should be equal," which is just how Starlight planned it; have a popular message for the masses and a dense, confusing advanced level of thought in order to give the appearance of depth and complexity.
He can handle himself as well.
Yes, and soon.
10863738
It is, indeed. And it's on a collision course with the capitol.
...
Drums.
Drums in the deep.
10863756
Are they that stupid?
That may be true, but it depends on a lot of things.
How soon?
10863740
No Orwell expy, correct. And such a shame; like you said, it's not just that equalism is oppressive, it's that it's insane, riddled with doublethink and blind spots. She's managed to weaponize illogic, trapping her followers in a universe where the only law is her decrees. Ice is fire, hate is love, lies are truth, war is peace, wrong is right, and equalism is wonderful.
As for the poor captive, we shall have to see who they are, and just what manner of healing the Unmarked has inflicted on her.
Hopefully, Rarity and the others aren't caught in the coming tide; as you said, it's pretty clear they're not just interested in political demonstration. And Pinkie's stigmata (yay, someone got the reference!) indicates that whatever else they're interested in stands a good chance of going very, very badly for the Rainbooms.
10863774
Not stupid, simply ignorant. And the threat of Double Diamond cracking down on those who try to analyze equalism through too hierarchical a lens (and keep in mind, Starlight can easily declare whether something's too hierarchical or not) gives them an incentive to keep it that way (along with their bones' solidity).
As does his opponents' ability to defeat him. The point is, he may be blindingly loyal but that doesn't mean he's incompetent in how he fulfills that loyalty.
Hopefully next story, or the one after that.
10863785
And they never stood up against them?
What do you mean?
Oh ok.
10863801
The siren-song of "Everyone should be equal" held most of the Unmarked, and those few who stood up to Starlight were quickly crushed. By the time of the story, the majority of the Unmarked stood behind Starlight, either due to persuasion or fear.
Double Diamond might be loyal to Starlight past the point of stupidity, but he isn't stupid in his actions as Director of Security. He's a dangerous Man with some blind spots as opposed to an all-around fool.
10864189
Ok, I guess that makes sense.