Chapter 18: Independence
A large crowd gathered outside of the Canterlot City Hall as Prince Blueblood stood in front of a podium.
“Today, I give my first speech to you not as a campaigner, but as a mayor of the city of Canterlot, and soon, the leader of Canterlot as its own independent nation: the Second Kingdom of Unicornia. It is named thus because it is a second kingdom apart from Equestria, and the second kingdom to bear the name Unicornia.”
The crowd cheered.
“The first step in accomplishing this is to sign a declaration of independence for Canterlot. This will change our city to a nation, our city guard into a military, and me into a king.”
“King Blueblood! King Blueblood!” the crowd chanted.
Prince Blueblood said, “On this podium in front of me is the Unicorn Separation Declaration, signed by a majority of the city council members, which establishes the new Second Kingdom of Unicornia, which is to have the same borders of Canterlot. Here is the official text, which I will read to you before I sign it:
“Over the course of the two millennia since the three ancient tribes of pony races joined to form the nation of Equestria, friendship and equality between the races have been trumpeted as virtues to be applauded and upheld. For years, we as a race believed the lie and attempted to uphold the terms of this union. We held it as sacred and inviolate, as we have always valued peace.
“Some individuals from the nation of Equestria may wonder why we are dissolving the long-standing union between the three races, and the union between Canterlot and Equestria. We do it because the usurpers known as the Princesses have violated the terms of the sacred agreement between unicorns and the other races, the agreement which is supposed to hold us all as equal.
“The Princesses have sought to restrain the natural magical abilities of our race through the use of magic restrictions, while allowing the other races total freedom over the use of their bodies and natural powers.
“They have denied unicorns our own, exclusive cities while allowing exclusive cities for the other two races.
“They have denied the use of public funds for magical education of the general population of unicorns, while allowing public funds to be used for flight schools and farming schools for pegasi and earth ponies, respectively.
“They have, in the last year, taxed our people and the unicorn majority city of Canterlot at a crippling rate, while not applying similar taxes to other cities.
“They have shown personal disrespect and loathing for the unicorns, as proven on an audio recording of Princess Celestia, who has plotted to minimize the number of unicorns by committing genocide against our race.
“For these reasons, we as a race hereby declare our independence under the principles of peaceful self-governance, and establish the new nation of the Second Kingdom of Unicornia for ourselves and our descendants.”
With that, Blueblood took a quill in his magic and signed the declaration, to the rabid applause of the audience members.
*****
Inside the war room of the Canterlot barracks, Princess Luna and Twilight stood, listening to a military briefing.
“So, the raid on Unistorm concluded yesterday after we had determined that no more members were hiding in the compound. Some of them may have teleported away, but judging from the number of bodies we found compared to the suspected size of Unistorm, I estimate that at least 90% of their members perished is the battle with the guard or the subsequent conflagration. As for our own casualties, we lost six ponies, and another twenty were injured, five severely.”
Princess Luna was not looking at the white-coated pegasus general while he was speaking. Instead, she looked out from one of the windows. Twilight Sparkle was also present, intently listening to the general.
Princess Luna spoke, “Was there anything that could have been done to prevent such violence?”
The general responded, “I do not believe so. Unistorm was a violent group. They had been accused of election fraud and violence. We needed to arrest them, and once we received a credible piece of intelligence from the mayor as to their whereabouts all in one place, it was necessary to act. We offered them all a chance to surrender, but they insisted upon firing volleys of spells and bullets at us. Then, there was the fire, which was of unknown origin. What we do know is that it started inside the compound, but we don’t know if it was deliberately set or just an accident. We called firefighters in, but by the time they contained the blaze and it was safe for them to enter and look for survivors, they found none.”
Twilight Sparkle scratched her chin with her hoof, puzzled. She said, “I just don’t understand why none of them teleported out before they were burnt to death. Or, why none of them surrendered rather than face death by fire.”
“We have several theories on that. One is that it would not have been possible to teleport out, given that the compound was entirely enclosed. Another is that, after they found themselves outgunned, they purposefully set the fire and all committed deliberate suicide so that none of them would be taken alive. A third theory is that the fire spread so quickly that it caught them by surprise before they could escape.”
“Eh, guess that has to be true,” said Twilight.
“I understand that those are not the most satisfying explanations, but they are the clearest ones given the evidence,” the general said.
“So you said that Blueblood gave you information on them?” Luna asked.
“Correct. He gave a tip to one of our sergeants after he said that he had been invited to one of their meetings.”
“Hmm. I suppose that would rule out that he was involved somehow,” said Luna, “Though him reporting a pro-unicorn group is a bit suspicious considering that he is pro-unicorn himself.”
“Unless they had simply outlived their usefulness to him,” said Twilight, “I mean, how convenient is it to Blueblood that right after widespread allegations of voter fraud in favor of the Unicorn Freedom Movement, the only ponies who could be identified and charged for it were all shot or burnt alive along with their compound, thus eliminating any suspects or incriminating documents that could prove it?”
“Very convenient indeed,” said the general, “But reporting terrorists is not a crime. He did exactly what he should have, given what he knew: to tell us.”
“True,” Twilight conceded. Luna nodded in agreement.
Suddenly, the door to the room burst open. The three ponies looked over at the door as the grey-coated unicorn Sergeant entered, along with the new king, Blueblood himself.
Blueblood said, “Princesses Luna and Twilight. I am here to carry out the declaration recently passed by the city council. This barracks must be evicted immediately, and the Equestrian occupation of Unicornian territory must end.”
Princess Luna replied, “I do not recognize this order, Prince Blueblood. Canterlot has been and always will be part of Equestria.”
“It’s KING Blueblood now,” Blueblood spoke, “And who are you to deny the will of the ponies? You are to respect the wishes of their duly-elected leaders and evict your forces from this barracks. I will not ask again.”
“This IS Equestria, and we shall not abandon it!” Luna declared, stomping her hoof on the ground.
“Do you realize that this is treason, Sergeant? You could be court-martialed and hung for your lack of loyalty,” said the white pegasus general, glaring at the grey unicorn Sergeant.
“I am being loyal, but to the new Second Kingdom as a unicorn. You non-unicorns are once again demonstrating you don't respect the will of our race,” said the Sergeant, “We hope we don't have to use force to remove you, but if we do, I have plenty of unicorns in my platoon who'll carry out the orders of King Blueblood. And there are other sergeants who agree as well. We could muster a force of thousands.”
“General,” said Luna, “Escort these two traitors out, please.”
The pegasus approached Pricce Blueblood and the Sergeant, but the Sergeant held his hoof out.
“We can find our own way out, thanks,” the Sergeant said. He and Blueblood turned to leave and walk out the door.
“Prince Blueblood!”
He turned around to see Twilight Sparkle running after him.
“What is it, Miss Sparkle?”
“You need to stop. Why are you doing this?” she pleaded.
He responded, “You know very well. Princess Celestia told you that she preferred a kingdom without unicorns, and that her job would be a lot easier if the unicorns were gone from Equestria. I am simply granting her wish,” he said, turning around and heading for the door again.
“But that’s not what she meant! This isn’t what she would have wanted; she would have wanted peace and unity!” Twilight yelled out. But Blueblood simply slammed the door to the room shut behind him.
“General,” said Luna to the pegasus general, who stood at attention, “Rally whatever forces are still loyal to you. Prepare a defense plan. We are not leaving this barracks. I don’t care what the city council says... Canterlot is still Equestria, and still our capital.”
“Yes, Princess.”
*****
JANUARY 2015
Over the three months since November when Blueblood won and assumed office, Canterlot had begun taking steps to truly establish itself as the Second Kingdom of Unicornia. The Equestrian flag had been lowered from all of the city’s flagpoles and replaced with the new flag of Unicornia. Giant flag burning parties had been held in the street where the flames of bonfires were fed by thousands of flags.
Unicorn ambassadors had set out on ships and dirigibles to the far-flung corners of the earth to establish relations with other nations. The zebra and griffon empires had recognized Unicornia as a nation, with the Crystal Empire delaying recognition until “the day stability is fully restored.”
Outside the Canterlot Mint, long lines of ponies had snaked around the block every day for months. They carried giant burlap sacks of bits with them. As they entered the mint one by one, they placed their sacks on a scale to have them weighed. After weighing, the bags were taken away to be melted back down into molten metal, where each pony’s old Equestrian bits with Celestia’s face on them were melted down, re-stamped, and replaced with an equal weight and number of Unicornian bits with Blueblood’s face on them.
On the grounds of the burnt old royal palace, carpenters and stonemasons were busy erecting a new royal palace for Blueblood. A steel skeleton was quickly taking shape on the old foundation. When it was completed, the new palace would rise twenty stories into the air and would be the tallest building in Canterlot.
The unicorn members of the Royal Guard who decided to pledge allegiance to Blueblood received new ranks, uniforms, and insignias. Since the Canterlot barracks was still under control of Equestria, the new Unicornian Guardsponies slept in local hotels which Blueblood had decreed be opened to them for that purpose. They numbered about 8,000, compared to the 50,000 Equestrian loyalists still stationed in the barracks.
In the public schools of the city, teachers began phasing out the old “Equestrian History” textbooks as new Unicornian history textbooks were printed. In the new semester starting in January 2015, magic courses would be added to the curriculum for the first time ever in Canterlot public schools.
The ivory tower tax had been repealed, much to the joy of Canterlot residents. The economy slowly began to pick back up as businesses re-opened. Though the city council, now known as the national parliament, had yet to pass any laws forcing the pegasi and earth ponies to leave Canterlot, a few shops and homes of non-unicorns had moving vans outside of them already.
Even minor things such as postage stamps, radio licensing, and units of weights and measures were changed over to Unicornian standards. Stamps were printed with Blueblood’s face on them. The call signs of radio stations changed. The old Equestrian measurement units of hooves, pounds, and gallons which had been decreed by Celestia thousands of years ago were gradually being replaced with meters, kilograms, and liters, based off of constants in nature.
With all of these changes going on, King Blueblood was quite pleased as he stood inside a dirigible floating over the city, gazing down at his burgeoning nation below.
“Well, I must hand it to you, King. You have done a remarkable job of rallying the people around the creation of a new nation,” said Fancy Pants, who stood at the wheel of his airship, piloting it.
“Well, I couldn’t have done it without you, Minister,” said Blueblood, “All those public awareness campaigns about the money, flags, military, and measurement really have helped us along. Thank you.”
Blueblood had appointed Fancy Pants as the Minister of the Department of Information, a new department of government. He had been helping to smooth the transition from Equestria to the Second Kingdom of Unicornia through posters, newspaper ads, and radio ads.
“Not a problem. And I am glad that the situation with Unistorm sorted itself out. If not, our separation from Equestria might not have been as peaceful as it has been.”
“Yes…” said Blueblood, his heart sinking at the mention of Sunset Shimmer’s former terrorist group.
“However,” he added, looking down at the large, grey, concrete building which was the city’s barracks, “I don’t think the separation is fully complete yet.”
“What do you mean, the Equestrians still stationed in the barracks?”
“The occupying forces, yes,” Blueblood corrected, “They have to leave soon, either peacefully or by force. We have given them three months to comply; that’s more than enough time. If they will not leave, we will evict them.”
“Is that really necessary? They have yet to interfere with any of our new laws,” Fancy Pants asked.
“Well, that is because we have yet to implement the most controversial of our new laws: kicking out the non-unicorns. Once we try and do that, I have a feeling that Luna and Twilight would step in and try and prevent this.”
“I see,” said Fancy Pants, “Well, do what you must. I would obviously advocate a peaceful, non-interference approach. But you are king, not I. Of course, I shall advocate for you in the court of public opinion, regardless.”
“Thank you, Minister.”
*****
In the south part of Canterlot stood the Hoofmoor, a five star hotel and one of the hotels where Blueblood had decreed that the military would stay until the barracks was retaken. Before, the Hoofmoor had been for the highest and most esteemed guests in Canterlot, whether they be CEOs, executive businessponies, jet setters, or visiting dignitaries. Now, four fifths of its two-thousand rooms were occupied by the military, all of them either high ranking officers or E-6 and higher enlisted ponies.
As King Blueblood walked, he admired the flowers and hedges that were trimmed to perfection. The driveway was spotless, not an oil stain or chewing gum spot to be seen. The bellhop bowed as Blueblood walked into the grand lobby. Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and ponies sat in fine leather furniture as they waited. The marble floor was so smooth that he could see his reflection in it.
Blueblood had spared no expense for the military. Or, rather, he had decreed that the Hoofmoor spare no expense for them. He was killing two birds with one stone by both housing the military and securing their loyalty to him through the posh atmosphere. Celestia had never put them up in fancy hotels, after all.
“Your majesty? Is there anything I can do for you?” The owner of the hotel, a beige earth pony, said as he walked up to Blueblood.
“Yes, you can get me the Sergeant Major,” said Blueblood. The owner motioned for the bellcolt, who ascended the marble staircase towards the sergeant’s quarters.
“Are you guys going to be leaving soon? I only have 400 rooms left for paying customers, and my hotel is losing quite a bit of money by housing these military stallions for free.”
Blueblood glared at him.
“Which, of course, is something I am willing to do to support the troops,” the owner added, blushing.
“What does it matter to you? We are going to be kicking your kind out soon, anyway,” said Blueblood to the earth pony, “Consider this recompensation for the ivory tower tax.”
The Hoofmoor owner would have added that he had been a resident of Canterlot his whole life and that he, too, had to pay the geography-based ivory tower tax when it was in force, but didn’t figure that Blueblood would listen.
The grey unicorn Sergeant descended the stairs. Blueblood had promoted him from Staff Sergeant to Sergeant Major of the Department of Protection, the name for Unicornian army.
“So, you have your platoon battle ready, Sergeant Major?” Blueblood asked.
“That I do,” the Sergeant Major replied.
“Excellent. Last time, back in November when it was just you and me telling the princesses to leave the barracks, our words did not have much weight behind them. But hopefully now that you can demonstrate our superior armed forces, they will leave without us needing to fire a single spell.”
“Hopefully.”
“Now let’s retake that barracks, sergeant!”
“Yes, sir!” the Sergeant saluted and said, “I just hope my stallions haven’t been spoiled by this place. They may be a bit hesitant to give up their room service and continental breakfast to return to their barracks.
Blueblood chuckled as the two headed off to the other hotels to mobilize the troops.
*****
Blueblood and the Sergeant major walked down the street towards the Canterlot barracks. Behind them, a battalion of 1,000 unicorn soldiers marched with assault rifles on their backs. As they marched down the street, crowds of Canterlot civilians cheered them on.
Finally, they reached the Canterlot Barracks. Two earth pony guards stood firm in front of the gates, clutching their assault rifles in their hooves.
Prince Blueblood’s horn lit up as he used a voice amplification spell.
“Attention, trespassers! The time has come for you to evict Canterlot. You have five minutes to leave peacefully.”
Princesses Luna and Twilight, hearing the noise, ran over and looked out of the window to see the battalion.
“What are we going to do?” Twilight asked Luna.
Luna, instead, disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared outside the barracks, hovering in the air.
Using the royal Canterlot voice, Luna shouted, “WE DO NOT RECOGNIZE YOUR AUTHORITY. AS YOUR PRINCESS, WE ORDER YOU TO TURN BACK.”
She disappeared again and reappeared back inside the barracks, next to Twilight.
“See, Twilight? Sometimes, we must use persuasion to get our way.”
Meanwhile, outside, Prince Blueblood turned towards the Sergeant Major.
“Waiting on your orders, sir.”
Prince Blueblood turned back towards the barracks, then grinned.
“Prepare the artillery. Fire at will.”
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Uh oh.
The time for peace has ended. Now is the time for war!
-----------
It looks like civil war is on the horizon.
Somehow, I predict a scene based on the Shelling of Ft. Sumter. And the conflict will be based on the American Civil War.
3092091 You're partially right.
The scene will be based off of Fort Sumpter, but the war will be influenced by World War 2, with a few Civil War influences, though not an exact parallel. I'll include some elements of my own design as well. Can't be too predictable
This story has 666 views now.
Wait, so Blueblood is a king now? Does that mean he can't be voted out?
If this doesn't turn out to be a "One pony, one vote, one time" sort of thing I'd be surprised.
3094851 He can be voted out initially, but later takes more power for himself to where he can rig the elections. I should probably go back and clarify that.
Very good story! Nice and morally gray!
Though it does rely on selective stupidity on the part of the old royalty.
Otherwise a very good and thought provoking read.
3139542 Thanks, and thanks for the fave!