Building Walls, Burning Bridges

by MonolithiuM

Chapter 6- Reality Check

You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude towards what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you. ~Brian Tracy

"So how exactly does this work?"

I rolled my eyes and jabbed a finger into Shining's chest plate to punctuate each word. "They. Pick. Who. Leads. Them!" I turned back to the podium, messing with a few wires and boxes. Where did I learn to wire? I have no idea, but I was doing it now like I was simply scratching an itch.

Tapping the shoddy jury-rigged microphone, I shrugged my shoulders at the duct-tape encased thing and hopped off my stool. "There's your podium, and I hope you both have speeches ready. Shining begins at…" I checked my ipod for the time.

"…four fifty. Blueblood, you're on directly after him."

"I am after him? This is an outrage! How can I be placed after this lowly foot soldier? I deserve the first speech, not that it matters anyway, as they will assuredly vote for me." Blueblood's voice became quite… squawky when he got heated about something.

"You just dug yourself a grave, Prince Pout," I chuckled amusedly. "Murphy's Law will bite him in the ass eventually." Strolling away, I took a look at the ipod in my hand and smiled happily.

Selecting a song from my library, I continued to a room that had been set aside for me thanks to the guards once again. Inside were Fleur and Fancy. They saw me and smiled, setting their tea cups down gently.

"Ah, hello Mono. Shall we continue our previous conversation?"

I hopped onto the bed, while they sat on a posh couch opposite me. "That's the plan, Fancy. Now, let's talk tech."

Fleur cocked her head. "Tech?" I grinned, slipping my laptop out of my bag. I swiftly jammed my password in like a caffeine-infused blue hedgehog, and tapped enter. When the screen lit up fully, the two upper crust ponies leaned in closer to look.

I quickly opened my images folder, sorting through the good memories and fun excursions of summer camp and the family cookout. Watching their baffled expressions, I opened Photobooth.

They stared at themselves in the screen, and I chattered, "Smile!"

I took the photo and showed them the finished product: two flabbergasted ponies who were spitting-images of themselves. A photo, of course.

"Did you just…"

I grinned. "Take a photo? Yes I did. I can also play games, write documents, draw, and message others from across the world."

Now they were very interested.

\\\\||||////

We all sat in the rather large auditorium, my piece of crap podium onstage. The red curtains sidled on both sides of the stage while both candidates got ready behind each of them. I sat down in the back of the entire procession on a stool. The princesses decided on front row seats, much to the chagrin of the now-rebellious guards.

"Get out of the way! You're too damn tall! Why the front seat? WHY?"

Quick Script sat just beside me, while Fleur and Fancy were off to do some mathematics and some currency magic back at my room. I checked the time: four fifty nine.

"This better be snappy," I grumbled to Script. I still wanted to stroll around and make rude observations of ponies in the streets. Not only that, but I wanted to somehow find Flim and Flam to help jumpstart everything. I tapped the stool lightly, and Shining Armor walked onto the stage from my left.

He trotted to the podium and cleared his throat a few times, gazing out at all of the guards as well as the princesses.

"Ahem~ I am Prince Captain Shining Armor. I have a dream. A dream where stallions can rule with the Princesses. I dream that one day mares can see us stallions for what we are: hard-working and deeply passionate about our lines of work. I have a dream in which our horizons may be expanded, expanded to the point where we hold the same offices and positions as mares themselves."

Shining cleared his throat once again, taking a steady breath afterwards.

"Fifty score and some odd years ago, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had a cataclysmic battle over jealousy. I hold no such feelings of jealousy, and to be honest, I just want stallions to be held in the same light as mares. Whether I become a ruler or not does not impede the fact that things must change. Life must change."

He stood on his hind legs, gripping the sides of the podium fiercely.

"Because I know things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. Our borders are pushed on all sides by opposing forces and every day another soldier comes back wounded. Our tents are unfit for service and our weapons have seen their use. I'm not going to tell you stallions to pray to Faust or beg the Princesses for help. I'm not going to ask you to requisition supplies because they know damn well what we need."

He slammed his hoof onto the podium, making it shake. I winced when I thought of the wiring, but oh well.

"We need respect!" All I ever see are mares getting promotions and high-paying jobs! In order to be wealthy it's as if you are required to be a noble or be descended from one with preposterous amounts of wealth! While stallions take care of the young and pull the plows, the mares are running for mayor or building aqueducts in Roam! While we risk our lives on the front lines, mares stay behind us and go about their merry lives! We're downplayed when we are physically tougher and stronger than most mares! We've undergone military training, and we've seen things most ponies haven't!"

He now started to shake one hoof in the air.

"I faced down a creature of darkness, fear, and hate! What backup did I get? My sister and her friends! Where were the Princesses?! If they've beaten him once before, why not do it again? And what were they doing while Cady, a ragtag bunch of teens, and myself faced off against this beast? THEY DID NOTHING!"

He now got off the podium and paced around, his voice loud enough to be heard without the mic.

"THEY SAT HERE IN THEIR POSH THRONES AND SIPPED TEA! WHEN NIGHTMARE MOON RETURNED CELESTIA NEGLECTED TO ACT, INSTEAD GAMBLING WITH TIME! WHAT IF TWILIGHT HADN'T FOUND HER FRIENDS? WE'D ALL BE DEAD! OR WORSE! DURING DISCORD'S ROMP, SHE DID NOTHING, ONCE AGAIN FALLING BACK ON THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY LIKE A SOFT PILLOW! AND WHEN SHE DID DECIDE TO BATTLE, SHE WAS DEFEATED! WHILE I WAS A PRISONER IN MY OWN MIND, CELESTIA COULDN'T EVEN NOTICE THAT CADY WAS ACTUALLY CHRYSALIS!"

He pointed an angry hoof right at the princesses.

"YOU'RE LAUGHABLE AT BEST! USEFUL AS A PILE OF ROCKS AT WORST! YOU DO NOTHING FOR US, AND ALL YOU'RE GOOD FOR IS RAISING THE SUN!"

He looked out to the stallions.

"AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT I FOUND OUT FROM TWILIGHT'S FANCY BOOKS?"

They all shook their armored heads. Celestia and Luna went rigid. Shining Armor bellowed right in their faces his miraculous find.

"THE SUN AND MOON MOVE ALL BY THEMSELVES!" He bellowed 'themselves' for a pretty long time, and soon afterwards all went silent. All eyes were now on Celestia and Luna, who grinned nervously, tapping their hooves together awkwardly.

"N- now now…"

"THEY HAVE BEEN DISRUPTING THE NATURAL CYCLE OF THE SUN AND MOON FOR EONS! WE SHOULD BE TWENTY TWO YEARS AHEAD BY NOW! BUT NO, SOMEPONY DOESN'T WANT TO BE UP SO EARLY, DOES SHE?"

I leaned over to the gawking mare beside me.

"Nevermind, this is pretty good."

Trotting back to the podium, Shining swept some mane back and huffed. "Prince Shining Armor, for the good of all Equestria."

He stepped off to the side to uproarious applause, while the princesses shrunk in their seats in embarrassment. However much they minimized their posture, however, they couldn't stop themselves from sticking out like the Amish at a nuclear power plant.

Stepping on stage next was Blueballs, of which I had run out of creative names for at the moment. He had no papers nor anything to drink, and he trotted to the podium indignantly.

I heard the worst feedback my ears have ever been forced to endure, the mic letting out an unpleasant squealing noise that not a single other pony seemed to notice.

Somebody also didn't notice that they dropped some change, as the telltale clinking was pretty clear. It vanished soon after in a ghostly echo, and I turned my attention back to the podium.

Blueblood leveled his eyes at the princesses, and then stared into the crowd with a gaze as stern as Shining Armor's.

"Gentlecolts, I am the clear choice for your vote," he began. The mic let out another squeal, and what came next nearly made the entire palace crumble.

BWWWWOOOOOOOMMMMM

Amidst the bass-filled reverberation were faint calls for assistance. I pulled myself up from the floor, the stool had clattered off somewhere when Script fell into me. The bass had been so powerful that it had literally sent every pony in the first three rows sprawling backwards, princesses included.

Blueblood laid collapsed on the stage, and Shining Armor was already by his side, checking for injuries. Even from here I could tell there was blood dripping from the snooty prince's ears.

I was hit in the shoulder by something, and I realized it was Fancy Pants. His mouth moved, but no words reached my ears. I tapped the sides of my head and shook it to and fro, and he nodded. He moved to help other ponies, namely the princesses.

Quick Script was doing much the same as well, and Fleur had gone off somewhere, most likely fetching medical crew.

I staggered towards the stage, feeling wetness behind the flaps of my hat, grimacing the entire time. I managed to clamber up onto the wooden mesa, hoisting myself up and over the massive lip.

As soon as I looked up, I was pulled into the air and held there. A tall, misty form seemed to glower in front of me, and then it spoke, albeit briefly.

I told you not to do that, Mono. You should listen more, it'll save you time and consciousness.

I blinked. "Consciousness?"

The mist dropped me, and I kept on falling down…

And down…

And down.

\\\\||||////

"-ono? Mono? MONO!"

A hoof clapped the back of my head, and I winced at the pain it caused me. I looked about me. I was still in the auditorium.

"Blueblood is about to make his speech, you drifted off after Shining Armor's." Quick Script shuffled in her seat to make herself more comfortable. My stare became distant.

"What did he say about the princesses?"

Fleur waved her hoof. "Not very much, truly. How they are magnificent rulers, but that now was the time for change. Also he explained that he could rule alongside them and really do some good for everypony."

Fancy Pants nodded. "Yes, that was the gist of his speech, though it was far more passionate, the way he spoke it."

I directed my attention to the smiling princesses and felt a chill go down my spine.

"Much more powerful forces at work here…" I sighed and straightened on my stool, watching Blueblood get onstage.

\\\\||||////

Mono's deadpan stare created a sort of slumping aura around him as his posse accompanied him down the hallway. "Well, that was…"

"Crap," finished Quick Script, her expression mirroring Mono's. Blueblood's presentation was exponentially awful. No one was expecting much, but that was just embarrassing.

"Claiming that one's, ahem, unmentionables are more bountiful than their counterpart's is just low-class. You would think that a noble such as himself would be more dignified than to say something like that." Fleur's face was equally flat.

"And the unicorn master race claim just killed any chance he had at even stepping close to the throne. I can't believe he compared the pegasi to seagulls…" Fancy Pants' completed the collection of deadpans, his monocle nearly flatted from the pressure his brow was exerting upon it.

Unwittingly, Mono had begun to assemble a team. A team that would hopefully advance the plot of this story FUCKING SOMETIME.

Author's Note:

OMNIPOTENT BEING. Who could this mysterious mystery mist be? It's pretty obvious if you look for context cues, but it'll still be a twist. Anywho, I apologize for the language at the end, but I'm realizing that this story isn't advancing fast enough.

Also, a lot of people seem to think he's Cartman. And that he sounds like Cartman. While this is amusing, there is no way I would allow Mono to live if he had that voice.

Still fun to imagine, though.

NEXT CHAPTER: "She is best pony. Best pony mine now."

Comments

[Weirdguy]

VOTE FOR SHINING FOR PRINCE
plus
i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp57/MUSLIM_DRENALIN/RIDWAN/revolution.gif

[RealityCheck]

so DO the sun and moon in Equestria move by themselves?

[MonolithiuM]

2526014 THAT'S FOR ME TO KNOW, AND YOU TO EVENTUALLY KNOW TOO. But nah, they're not. Mister Mysterious Mystery Mist created that version of the speech to trick Mono into becoming heavily interested, thus leaving his mental blocks open since he was interested. Once he was pulled in, MMMM attacked and threatened Mono.

So, hypothetically, Mono could halt the celestial bodies by casually leaning against one of the sisters.

[PaxMano33]

ah! i think i know who the man in the mist is! and why does mono keep hearing change drop?... and id like to know exactly what the princesses were thinking when they looked and smiled at mono. what hold could they have over him? for tht matter, what hold could the man in the mist have over him? hes resistant to magic, no? any spells woven against him would go kaput. and dont tell me that the man in the mist wove a spell on mono that protects him from all magic. thats just contradictory.
now about the story: you take your time with it. you will release your chapters when you are good and ready to, and not a second sooner. too many times on fimfiction have i seen stories ruined because their authors felt rushed. you be sure to exploit every potential twist and turn of the plot that can arise from any given situation or event in the story. remember i told you not to fuck up? well, your story has a lot of potential behind it. things here can get pretty huge, pretty epic, and pretty awesome, pretty fast. so DONT FUCK THIS UP!
ah, sorry. im beginning to get angry in the same way i got angry over Echo the Diamond Dog. you dont deserve the hit from my rage cannon.
yet.
just keep writing an awesome story, and forget our impatience.