The Anti-Bullying Law- Part 1
To say that today was a normal day in Equestria would be a flat out lie. There were no impending disasters, no malevolent ancient beings returning after a thousand years to try and wreak havoc upon the world, or any random issues that would test ponies friendships and the like happening at all. In fact, things seemed exceedingly peaceful for once, though that isn’t why it wasn’t a normal day.
Today was the day Princess Twilight Sparkle would be passing her first law.
Most ponies would likely dread a new law being passed as they could possibly break it without realizing it until it was too late; such as one time several hundred years ago when Celestia passed a law stating that for every cake a bakery sells they must send her one as well. It was quickly revoked when only a handful of bakeries remained open within Equestria after nearly all the others broke that particular law several times over.
Thankfully, the new law being passed wouldn’t have that problem as it was being given a trial run in Ponyville before it would be applied the rest of Equestria.
Today was the day The Anti-Bullying Law was being passed.
The citizens of Ponyville were gathered outside the Town Hall, waiting for their resident Princess, Twilight Sparkle, to give her speech and announce her very first law. Most assumed it would be something education related considering how she normally was. Others figured it would be friendship related, considering her recently acquired title of Princess of Friendship. However, none of them would have guessed the true nature of the law she was passing, save for her friends and various colts and fillies in attendance.
Twilight, along with Spike who had a small stack of scrolls, appeared at the podium set up for her in front of the Town Hall in a flash of magic, wearing her crown as she did when normally performing any of her duties as a Princess. “Citizens of Ponyville, I thank all of you for being here today. I am sure many of you are nervous, considering it isn’t often new laws are passed within Equestria, much less being given a trial run in a single town”, she looked around the gathered ponies, noticing some nodding while other seemed to try and hide said nervousness. “However I can assure you that the law will not affect most of you, so you have no need to worry about it.”
This got most of the of those gathered murmuring amongst themselves, wondering just what kind of law this could be if it would not be affecting them, though most of the assembled colts and fillies smiled, knowing what it was.
“Before I continue onto what the law is, I will first go into what the punishment for breaking it will be. Spike, the first scroll if you would”, Twilight said to her young, dragon assistant who dutifully unrolled and held out the first scroll which she took within her magic. She then proceeded to use her most authoritive tone of “Anypony caught breaking this new law shall get a choice between either paying a fine based on the percentage of the income they, or their family, make or doing community service based upon the severity of what they do. The punishment for repeat offenses are currently undecided, but should be known upon the law being applied to all of Equestria after the trial run of it here.”
As Twilight was about to continue on, her attention was caught by a cough from Spike. “Twilight, while I am sure you wanna go through all of these scrolls and the speech you made for this, everypony has places to be and others that have jobs to do. There will be plenty of chances with other laws should this one work out, so maybe you should just wrap this up a bit sooner so everyone can get on with their day”, he suggested, knowing that she could be at this all day if not convinced otherwise.
After letting out a noise that sounded a bit like a ‘squee’, Twilight cleared her throat looked back on the assembled crowd. “Recently it has been brought to my attention that not just here in Ponyville, but in other towns and cities in Equestria, there been a problem that has not had anything truly being done about it. A problem that mostly affects colts and fillies”, the princess stated matter of factly while looking out at the crowd noticing most of the foals smiling at her, knowing what was coming. “That problem being bullying. Which is why I am passing Equestria’s new Anti-Bullying Law.”
In the crowd colts and fillies alike started cheering, save for two, a pair of pink and gray fillies. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, the resident town bullies were looking like they had just been told, with numerous amounts of evidence to prove it, that the world does not revolve around them.
“Silver Spoon, did you hear what that purple loser playing at being a Princess just said”, Diamond Tiara asked in a half-whisper half-screech.
“Maybe we should lay off on messing with the blank flanks and those other losers until this passes”, Silver Spoon whispered back in suggestion, only to receive an incredulous look from her friend.
“Why the hay should we do that? It’s our right to put them in their place”, Tiara said, quickly becoming angry at the suggestion.
“If there is no reason for that new law of hers to be used here at all, it will likely be considered a failure or not needed, meaning it won’t stick around, which means we can go back to reminding everypony why we are so much better than them”, Silver suggested, earning a thoughtful look from her friend.
After thinking for a few moments Diamond Tiara let out a sigh. “Alright. Though I am sure daddy could do something about this, it’s probably easier your way, even if it will take longer before we can get things back to normal.”
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were so caught up in their conversation they didn’t notice three certain fillies, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, coming up behind them. “Ah wouldn’t bet on that if Ah were you”, came the voice of Apple Bloom, causing the two of them nearly jump out of their skin.
“DON’T DO THAT BLAN- err, Apple Bloom, and what the heck do you mean by that”, Diamond Tiara asked, barely catching herself from insulting the red maned farm filly for scaring her like that.
“Oh nothing much”, Sweetie Belle answered for Apple Bloom with an overly sweet smile that hid what she knew was coming.
“Though you two may want to listen to the rest of what this law is gonna entail. It’s so awesome and you don’t wanna miss anymore than you have”, Scootaloo said with a smirk on her face.
“What are you talking abou-” Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara both began to say before they heard Twilight going into the last details of the new law.
“-And finally, to keep bullies from just completely dropping what they are doing to try and get around this new law, it shall come with a retroactive clause, effectively making any bullying within the last several years subject to punishment through the guidelines outlined within the law”, Twilight concluded with the abridged version of her speech on the new law.
Adults and foals alike started clapping in applause for the new law, save for two who only had looks upon their faces stuck somewhere between fear, anger, and confusion, before screaming out, in unison, “WHAT!?!?!”