Locked in a Cell, Waging War from a Prison
We both looked up and across as the figure marched into view before us. It was Colonel Opwinden. Had he thrown his lot in with Gulfstream and his goons?
He looked to the soldiers. "You are relieved of duty," he said. "Proceed to the barracks and await further orders."
"Yes sir!" the guards said, saluting as they did so. They marched down the corridor, cheerfully whistling as they did so.
We both looked to the Colonel, who glanced down the corridor again to check nopony was there. "Good, they're gone. We have the place to ourselves."
Mom looked shocked. "How could you?" she asked.
The Colonel, to our surprise, then bowed. "Your Majesty, and Your Royal Highness," he said.
We were both a bit confused. "What's going on?" I asked.
Opwinden looked to me and smiled. "What is right and just. That fool has no idea what's coming."
Mom blinked. "Look, just cut the crap and tell us what's going on."
The Colonel nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty. I come here with important news. The struggle is not over, and the war is not lost."
"Sure doesn't look that way," I said, indicating to my chains. "I guess these guards really do enjoy their power."
"Sorry about that," Opwinden said. "I've arranged to have them reassigned to an ordnance depot on the outer fringes of our territory. But our situation, although it might look dire, is better than it might seem."
"Our situation?" Mom asked. "Whose side are you on?"
"The side of justice and democracy," Opwinden explained. "I'm a double agent."
"That's a relief," I said, groaning. The metal was really beginning to chafe on my skin despite the fur protecting it.
"The revolution is not a revolution at all," the Colonel continued. "It is a coup, nothing more and nothing less, an illegal power grab by a General who fancies himself King. Well, not to me. I swore an oath of loyalty to the Pegasus Empire and to the Royal Family when I signed up, and I will not be betraying that oath."
"But you're pretending to serve them," I asked. "How does that square with any of this at all?"
"It means I can pass insider information to the rest of the world, and expose what he's really doing," Opwinden said, focusing still on us, and periodically checking the corridors for any unwanted intruders coming towards our current position. "Make no mistake; Gulfstream is insane, and has been for a while. He's been building his army and his power base and waiting for a moment to strike. The incident at the Party at the Palace was just a convenient excuse to launch his coup and take over the government. Not only is he insane, he is racist to the point of paranoia, convinced that unicorns and earth ponies have been poisining our water supply to make stallions less fertile."
"Sounds pretty crazy to me," I said.
"I won't stand for this," Mom said. "He'll destroy us all if he isn't stopped."
"Luckily, most of the population agrees with you," Opwinden said.
"They do?" I asked, amazed at this news. In the film the citizenry had turned on their leadership pretty fast.
"Indeed," Opwinden smiled. "Of course, they aren't hugely happy about the whole 'unable to fly' thing. But the truth is that they don't trust the General's regime. They see him as a madman and a threat to their security. Already ponies are protesting the conscription he's introduced, and the populace is deeply worried about being sent to war to fight against the other races- public opinion of unicorns and earth ponies is pretty low, but the prospect of war is more unpopular, given we are all nuclear equipped."
He paused. "Low level resistance is in place, aiming to restore you to your rightful places, but low level resistance is not enough. This is where we come in." He showed us something on his FlyPad (these are popular devices for doing work and analysing documents on). "Already resistance movements have formed across the country, and we have been secretly arming them to fight back against our oppressors. We have allies everywhere, and eyes and ears reporting on Gulfstream's troops. We just need a bit more time to prepare for the counter revolution."
"Time is something we may not have," I said. "Given revolutions have a bad habit of killing monarchs and nobility."
"Zephyrina!" Mom snapped. She looked to Opwinden. "How much time are we talking, Colonel?"
"Twenty four hours at the most," Opwinden replied. "Gulfstream has already executed those he suspects of being opposed to his revolution, and he's also filled the jails and prisons with Royalist supporters. We plan to break them out as well, and this is what we need the time for. Breaking into large numbers of jails at once needs a lot of equipment. I can already confirm Thunder and Zoom are on our side as well."
"That's a relief," I said.
"Know you have my full support, even though I can't do very much at the moment," Mom said. "The best of luck."
"Colonel, I have a message from the General!" a voice called down the corridor. "He wants to speak to you immediately."
The Colonel nodded. "I'll be along shortly." He glanced to us. "Apologies in advance," he whispered, before switching to a louder voice. "STAY IN LINE MAGGOTS! This'll teach you to stand against us!"
It hurt being called that, but we both knew he was only doing it to deceive our enemies and buy us some more time. As we waited, he turned and walked away. "A special signal will let you know when we are ready."
As he vanished down the corridor, I considered my options. It seemed as though we could escape- though how they were planning on cutting through our chains I didn't know- and it may be best to stay put for now and wait.
Just then, our attention was drawn to a troop buildup at the other end.
"MAKE WAY FOR HIS EXCELLENCY, GENERAL GULFSTREAM, SAVIOUR OF PEGASUS KIND AND THE HAMMER OF THE FALSE QUEEN!" bellowed a voice.
A line of soldiers in heavy armour and gas masks marched into position, flanking the General, a king in all but name. His uniform, green in colour, was absolutely covered in medals, many of which was brightly coloured and shone. I recognised quite a few of them- I'd worn them during the dinner about a week ago. How quickly things change.
He adjusted his hat, flanked by his soldiers who were pointing bayonets at us. "Greetings, Prisoners 03272023 and 05082023. I have to say, those jumpsuits suit you far better than the metal and fabric you plundered from the populace."
"Look who's talking," I replied, pointing at him. "Those are my medals."
Gulfstream looked over. "Single shock, 90 volts."
A single electrical blast shot through me, and I collapsed on the ground writing in agony.
"That'll teach you to speak when you aren't spoken to," Gulfstream smiled.
I got back up. "Oh, really? If you're so tough, why are you surrounded by soldiers? We're chained down. We aren't a threat."
"You mean the Stormtroopers?" Gulfstream replied. "Brilliant, aren't they. Powerful, loyal, and brave. Selectric from the purest of pegasus genetic stock to enforce the superiority of our species. Not like some of the half breeds you find out there. We'll soon weed them out."
"What you are doing is monstrous," mom said. "History will judge you for this."
"Says the monarch who lied about being able to fly," Gulfstream snorted. "All I did was overthrow an unjust government. The populace won't stand for ponies like you, and with the ranks of our armies swelling we shall soon be able to finish the work that King Thundercloud started all those centuries ago."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"This state of cold war has made us complacent," Gulfstream said, a maniacal grin on his face. "What is the point of all this military equipment if you have no war to fight? Solders should be used for fighting, even if it means having to pull a few strings."
I didn't like what he was implying. I looked at mom, who had a look of intense worry on her face. It seemed she shared my opinion on this as well.
She spoke next. "You're insane. You'll condemn us all to death! They may be our enemies, but a world war helps nopony!"
The General laughs. "You foalish fool. War helps plenty of ponies. It weeds out the weak from the strong, the wheat from the chaff, the undesirable from the very best. Race war will allow us to exterminate the earth ponies and unicorns and establish a perfect pegasus utopia, the way it has always been! Faust is on our side, and will ensure our victory in this crusade!"
He looked closer, the mad glint in his eyes clear. "Never you two fear. I have a plan. The final solution to the unicorn and earth pony problem."
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Good news! New chapter.
Whoa. REALLY good job on the dialogue, characterizations and future chapter set-up in all the right places. Definitely appreciated the dialogue with the Colonel, who is trying to help from within and at least seems to acknowledge that, aside from the "lying about the flying" part, the royals actually treated the populace pretty well for the most part (definitely WAY better than the General and his goons) and the significant difference between a revolution and a coup. Of course, the General just did a classic bit of "Bond Villain Stupidity" in basically revealing his plans to "Zipp" and "Haven" before trying to have them disposed of. And, yeah, looks like the General is taking "Sprout's" spot in the film (though possibly more competent) - as if we didn't already have enough villains with just Opaline and "the Striped One". But, yes, the part about the extremists coming from all stripes is a VERY good point. Well, after all the heroes in this eventually get together (both literally and in terms of getting their figurative acts together), the restoration of magic will look even more well-earned.
At any rate, really looking forward to more of this.
great chapter mate keep it up not all Germans were evil some realised who was the real evil and changed history the french resistance and the battle of bir hakeim helped redeem their French fighting spirit and not cowards history was not kind to the Poles after but their sacrifices were not in vein cant wait for the next chapter
poisoning*
https://m.Wait, what!?
Well, at least not all is lost.
But what he's doing could eventually spell disaster!!
Exactly.
He's insane.
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Something Jimmy and myself were interested in exploring was how often extremists can only come to power if they have significant powerful backing. In Sprout's case, he was essentially propped up by a big business, whereas in Gulfstream's case he's a military insider who was able to hide his true colours until the prime moment.
Given that the royals were unharmed in the film, this lends credence to the idea that the Royal Family were good leaders-an impression furthered by Zoom defending the (ex) Queen after Alphabittle insults her despite the fact she's supposed to be arresting her.
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One of the most famous troups was Rosa Branca (I think I spelled that right). German resistance movements were critical to sabotaging the V2 rocket program, and of course every occupied nations had resistance movements who continued the fight even after their countries had surrendered.
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1. Corrected. That last bit is an allusion to the film Dr. Strangelove; the plot is kicked off by the actions of an insane general who is convinced he is impotent and that the USSR 'poisoned' the water supply with flouride. Not only is he insane, he is an idiot who doesn't understand basic human biology.
2. Revolutions and coups rarely command much popular support. The first elections after the French Revolution returned a pro-Monarchist government. The Revolutionaries responsed by declaring mass electoral fraud and threw the elected figures out (sound familiar?).
3. Indeed.
4. Gulfstream is effectively pulling a 'tu quoque' here. This is a type of logical fallacy that attempts to invalidate an opposing argument by accusing the other party of the same behaviour. The fact that Queen Haven lied to her subjects for years does not invalidate her criticisms of Gulfstream.
5. Yup.
6. Yes he is. Some ponies are just very good at hiding it.
He is so dedicated that he remembered both of their numbers, gotta give him that.
Or what it some kind of fetish?
If you want something truly horrifying, why not based it on japanese imperial army?
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1. Having an encyclopedic knowledge of prisoner numbers is a standard dehumanisation tactic. Stripping somebody of their name effectively renders them nonexistant.
2. My knowledge of Japanese military culture in the interwar era is limited, whereas most readers will recognise things relating to the Nazis (hence why the movie invoked Triumph of the Will during Sprout's musical number).
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1. Wouldn't it be more effective and easier to hotplated serial number onto prisoner's skin directly? He didn't need to remember the number too.
2. The fact that both korean(even the south) and china hold so much grudges against Japan is not concidence. Here are material for you to read. May be you can used it in your story?
https://mccallisaiah.medium.com/why-japan-was-more-evil-than-nazi-germany-in-wwii-65f903ffd77f
https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/the-nanking-massacre-80-000-gang-rapes-and-millions-were-killed-84e1e46400d7
https://kajomag.com/how-the-japanese-kempeitai-tortured-and-interrogated-during-wwii/
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1. The numbers are attached to the uniforms via stitching/hot ironing. When the uniforms are switched out the tags are removed.
2. Thanks for these. I'm not sure how well I can incorporate these incidents into a T rated story, though.
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And we have returned oncde more.
Wow. Quite crazy. Kind of insane even. I assume he tries to prove this with fake studies or something.
They are? Even the unicorns living in the woods as beatnics? Did intelligence gather that? Is that true? ...probably not?
What country? You've said this twice. Zephyr Heights isn't a country, it's a city? A nation-state at best. Do you mean the Pegasi have a part of Equestria they've claimed for themselves as a country? Are there other cities then? Towns at least? This wasn't established.
Why did you even hvave medals, Zipp? You were a princess in peace time.
>Stormtroopers
Okay a little on the nose but maybe a good pun because pegasi used to contro the weather.
>Pegsaus genetic stock
Or maybe not
Okay, admitedly the races were extremely racist, I could see it implied there's a cold war but the differences here from what we see in the movie I feel should've been established better. That would've been very interesting to establish. Instead this feels wildly out of the blue. G5 Cold War Equestria would be really fun. I guess that's where we are now though!
The tension is uneven here. We were told not to worry and how this is doomed to fail but then introduced to the bad guy and his plan. I'm not sure how I would've done it though. Maybe establish that this rhetoric is being spoken about in previous chapters, establish this general better but beyond that I'm not sure. We saw hints of this kid of thing I suppose? Talks of war but I don't feel like it was enough, maybe because Zipp barely gave it any mind.
That said, water under the bridge now. This has been brought forward now and now the story can go from here with these things now present! Curious to see where this will go.
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1. That's a reference to Dr. Strangelove. The main antagonist of this story is modelled on General Ripper from the same film.
2. Bridlewood is just one of many unicorn settlements. How would Izzy be able to see movies otherwise, given that Bridlewood doesn't seem to have a cinema? Or how would unicorns make films, for that matter, given they clearly have a film industry?
3 and 4. I am fully aware the references are a bit on the nose.
5. I'll probably go back and rewrite the chapters to establish this.