"We have no hope against the wall: it's too high, too dark, too cold."

Years of discontent boil over as Ponyville citizens stage an occupation of Market Square, demanding reforms that Canterlot will not consider. Caught in the middle, Princess Twilight is immediately thrown into the mess of histories, politics, and emotions that have led up to this unprecedented moment - and may also jeopardize her close relationship with Princess Celestia.

Can Twilight find a solution before her beloved hometown tears itself apart? Or will Ponyville's protestors learn what they have always known - that it is pointless to challenge the power of a god?

===

This story contains invented Ponyville slang and stretched interpretations of canon, so be warned.

Thanks to Politicalunrest2400 for a quick pre-read of the first two chapters.

Inspired by the Umbrella Revolution, the three-month long occupation of major roadways in Hong Kong from Sept-Dec 2014. (Declaration of interest: I was a participant in the Revolution.)

The opening sentence in the description is from Haruki Murakami's speech upon accepting the Jerusalem Prize in 2009. He was talking about Israel and Palestine then; the quote went viral in Hong Kong and was re-purposed for the purposes of the democratic movement there.

Artwork is obtained from MLP wiki images which are then processed through Paint.net. Obviously there are no images of ponies rioting in MLP, so don't look at the picture too closely.

It's been a couple of weeks and way more than a couple of games since Pinkie Pie introduced the Mane Six to the joys of playing the classic real-time strategy title, Age of Empires II. Unanswered questions surround this mysterious game: where did it come from? Who made it? Why is there so much killing?

Never mind all that - Twilight Sparkle and her friends have a game to play!

NOTE: Though I've tried to make the story more about the relationships between the four gamers (no Rarity or Fluttershy, sorry!) than about the game itself, some rudimentary knowledge about Age of Empires II is required if you want to understand what is going on. I wrote this as a short-ish story so I'm not really going to go into technical details much.

=====INFO AFTER BREAK=====
References consulted while writing story:
ZeroEmpires (Commentary on Competitive AoE II matches)
wikiHow (5 Ways to Make Your Economy Boom in Age of Empires II)
Wikipedia (for info on Byzantines, Moon & Vikings)
Luttwak, E. "The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire" (Harvard University Press, USA), 2009 (Byzantine military strategy)

Youtube links:
Prologue - PakAttack95 (Youtube Channel)
Main Menu and Victory Music - mikec1000 Civilization Themes

Cover Image:
Wikipedia
Age of Empires II
Cutie Mark Vectors by Hawk9mm (deviantART page)

Mayor Mare, newly-minted Mayor of Ponyville, has big dreams and big plans for her hometown. Now all she needs to do is to navigate the entrenched interests, bureaucratic resistance and political pitfalls that stand in her way. And to top things off, on her first day the Mayor finds out that Princess Celestia is sending her prize student over...

Overarching Themes:
Season 1: Land Reform
Season 2: Democracy
Season 3: Reconciliation

A series of stories, corresponding with every MLP episode (if all goes well), from the view of the bureaucrats at Town Hall. Will try and stay true to canon. (EDIT: With 2 semi-exceptions: 1) Cheerilee is Mayor Mare's daughter, and 2) Princess Celestia is much more uptight when negotiating with officials.)

Inspiration from daily life, the UK series 'Yes, Prime Minister', and to the 'Letters from a Disgruntled Friendship Student' fanfic series by milesprower06.

(Many thanks to Delta93 for proofreading!)

(Battle scenes at Chapter 16 and Chapter 17, that's where the 'Gore' tag comes in, just in case.)

In retaliation for the attack on Canterlot, Princess Celestia leads a crusade against the Changeling Horde. The Elements of Harmony fight bravely in the campaign, and are rewarded with landed titles in the newly-conquered Duchy of the Outer Lands.

Friendship is magic, but will it prevail against the cold, hard reasons of state?

Tagged as 'Alternate Universe' because of divergence following Season 2's ending. But if possible, I will try not to go too far off track. The story will probably have a more medieval atmosphere than canon.

Rated 'Teen' just in case.

While the story will contain all of the Main Six, interactions between Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Twilight will (if according to plan) drive most of the plot. Thus the tags.

Other characters from MLP:FiM might be mentioned in the story, and they will deviate (a lot) from 'acceptable' canon. List so far: Princess Celestia, Spike, Applebloom, Big Mac, Granny Smith, Angel, Twilight's parents, Cadence, Shining Armor, Rainbow Dash's parents, Discord, Luna, Lightning Dust, Pinkie Pie's parents, Octavia, Pinkie Pie's sister (Inky), Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo.

Inspiration from the strategy game "Crusader Kings II", the novel, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and a metric ton of Chinese historical dramas.