Equestrian Paradox: "Worlds at war"

by An Sturmmann

Chapter 20: The after-effect

Princess Celestia was an old mare, she knew it better than anyone else, a proud and noble equine wich fought for Equestria even way before it existed as one single unified country. She knew how hard it was for people to endure the strife of conflict, and yet she couldn't help but feel horrible once the first letters began to reach her.

She was currently sitting in her room, with a dejected and tired look, for the first time in quite a while her own room was... just a tiny bit messy, with papers and letters all over the desk, and even over the majestic and oversized bed, with some notes glued to the wall, forming some sort of scheme, with each note having both, information and the name of something, ordered in a way that resembled just the tiniest of bits the outline of the Equestrian borders, both, inner and external.

New Horseleans was an "apparently" unimportant town, just a mere village were some ships traded goods, some hunters caught Cragadiles and other creatures to make boots, some others took care of the land and grew crops, others grew cotton, it was just an apparently innocent town with nothing remarkable...

Until you looked at it from an political view, or a economical view wich focused on the network of microstructures or at a macroeconomic view... then it became a single vital point more akin to a heart than a mere everyday town.

New Horseleans was placed in the eastern coast, at the deep south, just in the perfect place to be a nexus bewteen the industrial powerhouse of Fillydelphia wich was only second to Manehattan, in fact Fillydelphia processed quite a lot of the materials wich Manehattan needed to keep Equestria's industry afloat, for example, if Manehattan needs to make a thousand breads, they need flour, eggs, milk, and a lot other ingredients... If Trottinham produced milk and Baltimare produced Wheat, it was Fillydelphia wich bottled the Milk and made flour out of the wheat, the end result is that Fillydelphia is almost as important as Manehattan is for the economy.

New Horseleans is the perfect nexus bewteen Fillydelphia at the north and the many more traditional industries at the south, for instance Ponyville flourishing hoofmade goods, withouth New Horseleans, Ponyville would be starved of materials and ingredients for several goods, wich made this situation quite the headache.

She could swear the nobles and merchants would just barge into her personal chamber any second, the sudden drop in the value in several goods and stocks was evidence that something horrible had happened to the perfect balance in the Equestrian economy, wich in turn led to another problem...

She knew that this would soon be turned into a political weapon... not against her, but rather against the current political party wich is representing her in several towns and regions, the reactionaries... they value hoofmade goods over machines, and value the perfect economical balance, wherein both the liberals and conservatives searched for several changes, having their differences but having to join together to stand an actual chance against the huge reactionary party...

"Princess Celestia" The voice of a mare could be heard as Celestia looked up from her desk towards her door, watching as a white coated mare with glasses entered the room, one of the few ponies in all of Equestria that could do that withouth even knocking. "Raven Inkwell, did you brought the report I asked for?"

"Yes milady, I have quite worrying news, albeit I do have some nice ones too, wich one should we discuss first?" Asked the mare and Celestia turned to the side watching her own mane in silence, focusing on the flow for a few seconds. "Wichever one you consider the most important right now."

Celestia answered and the white mare seemed to ponder for a while before drawing near and using her magic to levitate a paper towards the desk of the princess, the instant the Princess saw it her eyes opened up so much they could as well be described as two big plates with a single dot...

"For the first time in hundreds of years my princess, the conservative party has called for a bigger military budget... the conservatives are arguing that the crown must divert material and financial effort to the military, while the liberals argue that the crown must begin an army modernization project, calling for a treaty of free weaponry trade with The Queendom of Aris, at the same time the reactionaries are trying to calm down everypony and call for the elements of harmony to be used against any threat that Equestria may face"

Inkwell spoke with a clear worried tone, as she took another sheet of paper and offered it to Celestia who took it with her magic and gasped out loud.

"Justice for New Horseleans!"

Was some sort of motto in a drawing, a poster of sorts...

A propaganda poster

The drawing was one of a griffon taking away a crying colt, while his mother was being held by two other griffons and the father was chained down and carried by two other griffons, the words were wrote in red and in an style wich seemed agressive, or violent.

Then Raven offered another sheet, this one also had a drawing however this one was far more optimistic.

"Save Equestria! Vote for the Coalition! Do not side with the cowards, side with the Princesses!"

This one was a drawing of no one other than Twilight Sparkle, standing on top of a defeated griffon while a set of five royal guards were charging against the line of griffons in front of them, those griffons were fleeing away while Stallions, colts and fillies cheered in happines at their Princess and guards saving them.

"H...how..." Celestia questioned looking at the drawings at the propaganda and quickly glancing at Inkwell, before glancing again at the posters, as if hoping they would simply dissapear "I... I..."

"That's what is worrying me Princess, while most of the conservative and liberal party members just want to increase the military budget... some minorities amongst them are arguing for a more... 'agressive' stance, wanting not only the budget to increase, but for Equestria to start to build up an actual army, but that isn't the worst." Raven said as she took one last sheet of paper and floated it to Celestia who gasped.

"Bring forth the Cannons once again! Fight for Celestia, Make Luna proud, be as courageous as Cadenza and Stand with Sparkle!"

This motto was written under a drawing of the royal guard, however this time the guards were using cannons against a Griffon ship, carrying the flag of Equestria with them, while a battleline confronted the fleeing Griffons, some pegasi in the background chaining and dragging some captured pirates, while three shapes wich resembled Luna, Candance and... well, she herself... stood behind the royal guard, and another one wich seemed to resemble Twilight, Flew at the front leading the assault against a group of flying griffons.

"This 'Coalition for the Good of Equestria', or "CGE" for short, is inciting the population to invest into a project. The first ever industrial factory of cannons, and have made a former petition to the crown to bestow upon the them the right to build this kind of weaponry. Arguing that the prohibition of magical cannons should be lifted since this attack has proved that the royal guard is woefully underprepared to deal with this kind of problems..." Inkwell spoke before letting out a sigh and sitting down in front of Celestia, letting the rest of the papers to fall on the desk, just in the only free space there was. "My Princess, most ponies are afraid after the speech, some fear that the Sun and Moon acting on their own is a sign of calamity. Our herd mentality is making quite hard to stay united when some are afraid and others desperate, it becomes hard to act as community when you can feel the constant fear and despair of your friends and family."

Inkwell spoke before letting herself rest her head over some papers.

"The CGE is taking full advantage of that, ponies consider you a figure of safety, under your rule we lived hundreds of years with no conflict or strife. The CGE mixes the worst of liberals, conservatives and Reactionaries while at the same time knowing exactly what to say to get the support of the common pony, several of their suggestions are in fact, good. Calling for the build up of an actual railway bewteen New Horseleans and Fillydelphia, while also calling for the build up of cloud roads to transport goods using the skies. Some even suggest to invest in boats made of metal and to make the industrialization laws just the tiniest of bits less strict allowing the south to catch up with the north in that field..."

Inkwell words sank deep in Celestia's heart, making her choke on her own spit, not out of shock, but rather a mix of surprise and sadness.

"T...they... suggest good things... but at the same time suggest bad things... right?" She asked and Inkwell nodded. "They call to be careful around all griffons, not outright discrimination or fear, but to be wary, this is a dangerous move considering that most ponies will act like the herd they are in, and towns are giant herds."

"With a single pony who starts to be 'wary' another one will follow suit... and the town will split or join them at worst... at best the two will calm down eventually and be as friendly as the rest of the town" Celestia spoke before looking up to the ceiling "I have been working so hard to make sure my ponies don't commit the same mistake our foremothers did..."

"And i'm sure most ponies will follow the ideals of friendship and harmony my princess, that is in fact one of the good news I have" Raven spoke with an smile. "Most ponies have dennounced the CGE for using the image of Princess Sparkle as some sort of warrior leader, most of their propaganda depicts a heavily modified version of her stand against the Pirates, so far the CGE propaganda is quite lackluster, quite badly done in comparison to most political parties, they seem to depend more on speeches and actions rather than posters, and as such they focus on emotions rather than logic."

Inkwell spoke before lifting a paper and offering it to Celestia, the paper in question had a title whose writing was identical to that of the Princess own.

"Thankfully the CGE relies on using the clausule of free image use, mostly relying on the use of the crown and royalty, using a legal vacuum since for now the law hasn't been updated. Only the use of your image requires a permission, and most political parties have such permission from the moment they become legally active. The CGE has been existing ever since the return of Princess Luna and as such they have permission to use your image. The use of the images of the other princessess is implied from the moment they get the right to use yours due to the way the law is worded." Inkwell explained while nodded "I am aware, I was the one who wrote the law, and when I talked about this with Luna and Cadence they didn't object. In fact Cadence adapted a similar law in the Crystal empire. However, I think that changing the law right now could be a good move, only thing is, what would the average voter think?"

"For now, most ponies are still with the Reactionary party, the good old fashioned Peace and Country party, some have joined the Movement for Equestria's Growth and some others to the House of traditions, the CGE on the other hand is still small, only having support from ponies from New Horseleans, a few businessponies from the north and some plantation owners of the south, around a hundred voters and only twenty members, so far, while changing the laws would be useful to deal with them, it would also brew problems with the other parties." Inkwell summarized while Celestia looked down to the papers, and sighed. "Thanks inkwell, while I already knew about this, I really needed your opinion"

"No problem my princess, I'm glad to be helpful" She spoke and with a bow she left the room. "Oh, almost forgot, my princess, Princess Cadence took the last cheesecake this morning, should I tell the chef to make more?"

"oh, no, no need, just tell the chef to make some coconut cake, and some chamomile tea please, i'm a bit thirsty" Celestia said with a big smile and Inkwell nodded "Understood princess, I'll tell them"

The second inkwell left the room and closed the door... Celestia keep her big smile for a few seconds before quickly frowning and holding her head with her hooves.

"A rebirth of a military party, a pirrate assault sponsored by an unkown nation, the sun refuses to obey and on top of that Cadence took my cake... why?... why is everything going... down?" Celestia groaned before looking back a the propaganda papers, before quickly leaving them under the mountain of white papers. "Uh?"

Celestia picked up a sheet of paper before letting out a sigh and shaking her head in dissapointment.

"Really? A petition to lower taxes and salaries?" Celestia said quite angry as she read the letter before rolling her eyes and taking a pen with some ink, quickly writing up over the paper. "Denied, taxes must be proportional and everypony must pay their share, lowering taxes and salaries for some will only create resentment and strife".

She said out loud as she wrote up in the sheet, quickly finish with her signature before levitating the paper, sealing it and putting it alongside the answered letters.

She felt a bit sickened, just a tiny bit upon reading that letter, the petition pretty much asked her, in quite the authoritarian language, almost as if ordering her, to allow for greater tax cuts for property and business owners while lowering the common pony minimum salary, it reminded her a bit of the last letter about this same exact petition, wich was made around fifty years ago, back when the machine industry was just starting... even now industry with machines is still quite small, however it is kind of scary to think. That some rich folks with weird machines can make as much money as several hardworking families together.

She tried to leave that for later, she needed to focus on solving the problem with New Horseleans, perhaps she could use some of the crown treasury to cover up the losses of the working families in the countryside, while also satisfying the small industry with the use of their materials?.

Nevertheless, she was a busy mare, while Luna had the fun job of leading the military, Cadence had the far more relaxed job to rule over the crystal empire whose population was barely smaller than the one Manehattan alone, and Twilight could go on adventures and just 'rule' over ponyville... she was alone dealing with politics and economy, something wich not a single one of her fellow princess liked or was ready to do... Twilight would follow logical patterns wich would please the industrialists... but would be a far too easy prey for the even smaller corrupt ones.

For now she needed to do something, and quite fast, perhaps she could give some funds to a few projects using this incident as a way to give the south a really well deserved aid, and some small increases in the guard budget could work, however no cannons as of now, those are symbols of war, and Equestria thankfully is at peace...

And she hoped it would stay...

Comments

[Lost_Data]

She knew that this would soon be turned into a political weapon... not against her, but rather against the current political party wich is representing her in several towns and regions, the reactionaries... they value hoofmade goods over machines, and value the perfect economical balance, wherein both the liberals and conservatives searched for several changes, having their differences but having to join together to stand an actual chance against the huge reactionary party...

What...

The reactionary party... and the conservative party... are separate? That doesn't make sense... unless there was either a liberal or (very very unlikely) socialist revolution, that succeeded. Was in power long enough for the conservative party to split into a conservative and radical conservative parties. Then through popular vote... the reactionary party, i.e. classical conservatism, divine right of king by god, but back in power. What!?

I'm an American so take my understanding of this with a grain of salt, but from what I understand, the 'Reactionary' party is like the 'Tory party' in England yes? So why not just call them Torys? Or just the Conservative party?

With the conservative party in the text either being the constitutionalists, parliamentarians, or the liberals. Because in this text from what I understand the conservatives would be classical liberals, assuming this time is like our world 200 years ago or so, classical liberalism would be just liberalism it would be the liberal party.

Then the liberal party would be something else, assuming that the conservative party becomes the liberal party. Maybe Republicans? This being a term meaning they want to remove the monarch and nobility altogether and establish a republic. Or like the labor party or something.

This is, of course, assuming that these parties aren't based on something like Victoria 2, in which my criticism is unfound and this comment is stupid. Please tell me if I'm stupid, it would be very much appreciated. Or if you want specifics on what these different Ideologies you could also ask me, I'd be glad to.

Edited: Spelling mistakes and redundant wording

[An Sturmmann]

11884806

To put things bluntly the only stupid here is me, because I completely forgot to write the reason why reactionaries and conservatives are different here.

Yes the system isn't exactly based on IRL systems, I wanted to make them a bit... Different since Equestria isnt the UK or America or France, but another whole country in another whole world.

The part I forgot to write up is that, Raven suggested Celestia to push for a bit more of industry, wich Celestia refused to do, warning her about the dangers of being too liberal or too conservative, then she likened the liberals to the former Kirin heavenly empire, seeking industry and Riches over wellbeing, that led to the kirins to attempt a colonial empire wich fell in less than two decades leaving them fragmented in several weak states due to the sudden changes, wich led to inner conflict and strife, on top of that they developed machinery that while effective damaged their magical receptors thus birthing the Niriks after a milennia of them being a myth.

While also likening the conservatives to the kingdom of griffonstone, wich fell due to their lack of economic power, having quite a lot of dependence from clawmade goods, wich meant that once the first industries were born they were left behind in the power scheme and got isolated after failing to compete and resorting to slavery again.

The reactionaries on the other hand follow a model similar of that of the Queendom of Aris wich forces industrialists to be way less agressive while also helping artisans, this needs to be heavily micromanaged due to the risk of either falling behind or losing any industry, needing to give help to both sides seeking a growth wich helps everyone equally, the rich get rich, the poor get less poor... Obviously this is extremely hard to pull off but Celestia hopes she can do It, thats why Manehattan Is so powerful but at the same Time small non-industrial towns keep their traditional hoofmade stuff while not losing life quality but in fact gaining It.

This Is just on the economic stuff, the true reason why they are different parties is on a more military + religion level, wich I decided to not outright explain but to give snippets just like with the industry except that my idiotic self completely forgot to add the snippets of this chapter.

Then again i'm not a politician, nor an economist, so I Will clearly have mistakes on this stuff, sincerely the closest i was to ruling a country was in Vic2 and I mostly focused on fighting off a great power neighbour everytime we got dragged to a war neither could win because of the tangle of alliances.

[An Sturmmann]

11885199

Btw sorry for bad grammar and the like, wrote this with a cellphone that hates me and keeps pulling stuff like erasing dots, commas or capitalizing stuff It shouldn't.