Twilight Sparkle paced nervously in the Grand Hall of the Crystal Palace. The morning sunlight shimmered gracefully off of the beautifully ornate crystalline features in the same way as it always did in the Crystal Empire, but instead of calming her down as it usually did, it only made the new princess more nervous. She brought the letter out of her saddle bag and read over it yet another time. The words were all but permanently etched into her mind now, but still she felt better reading it just one more time.
My Dearest student, the letter began. There is matter that you and I must see to in the Crystal Empire. It is a grave issue of the utmost urgency and I apologise, but I must ask you to come alone. I understand how important your friends are to you, but you truly are the only one who can be of any assistance.
Eagerly awaiting your arrival, Princess Celestia.
Twilight had been very concerned from the moment she had received the letter. The princess had never asked her to come anywhere without the help of her friends before. Twilight Sparkle had briefly entertained the notion that perhaps it was a trap, that something had happened to Princess Celestia, but she had dismissed the notion swiftly. Only Celestia knew how to send her messages via the larynx of a baby dragon. Begrudgingly, Twilight had waved her friends goodbye at the train station and now here she was, absolutely terrified.
Without any level of warning whatsoever, the other three Princesses of Equestria entered the Grand Hall via a side door. Twilight’s wings extended instinctively as she started. Catching her breath again, the purple alicorn trotted gingerly over to Celestia, Luna and Cadence. Twilight bowed respectfully and the princesses of the sun and moon responded in kind. Cadence however, had a different kind of greeting in mind.
“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake,” the two mares chanted in unison. “Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”
The two princesses wriggled their rear ends in the air for a few seconds, and Twilight allowed herself to smile a little. Perhaps there wasn’t really anything wrong and the princesses had just wanted to welcome Twilight to her new position and perhaps tell her which kingdom she would be granted dominion over. However, when Twilight turned and looked up at Celestia, the Sun Princess’ face was hard as ice, instantly restoring Twilight’s anxiety.
“Twilight Sparkle,” she said in her most authoritative tone, “As you are now a princess of the Equestria, certain royal duties are now yours to perform. There may be times when you are called on to act as an ambassador or a diplomat and to speak on behalf of our people. You may be forced to deal with foes and crises that your friends are simply incapable of coping with. And on a daily basis, you will be required to host a Royal Court to try and resolve the troubles, disagreements and quarrels brought before you.”
Twilight nodded slowly, drinking in everything that Celestia was saying, but not quite understanding where the Princess of the Sun was going with this.
“That is why I have summoned you here today, Twilight Sparkle. You are to host Cadence’s Royal Court in her stead, as a way of demonstrating to all the ponies of Equestria that you are as suited to this position as I know you to be.”
Every ounce of colour immediately vanished from Twilight’s face. Without any prior warning or time for preparation, she was now expected to hear the concerns and grievances of the Crystal Empire? More than that, whatever she decreed would be binding by law. She had to try and sort out for herself what the right course of action would be in every individual case, with no help from anyone?! Her lip began to tremble slightly and her eyes widened, permitting a single tear to glint in the sunlight.
Cadence immediately gave in to her instincts and held Twilight tightly. The smell of her sister in law and the warmth of her embrace seemed to break the worst of her anxiety attack and calmed her back down to the point of rational thought.
“Don’t worry about it Twilight,” the pink alicorn whispered affectionately. “I’m sure you’ll do a great job. Just remember all of those lessons in friendship and conflict resolution that you’ve learned and you shouldn’t have any trouble.”
Twilight nodded reluctantly as Cadence relinquished her grip. She looked up into the smiling faces of the three other princesses of Equestria and swallowed hard. She understood what she had to do, but she also finally understood that Princess Celestia had been intentionally grooming her for this from the very beginning. All of her friendship letters, reports of helping other ponies to resolve issues, making friends, all of it was part of her training for attending to her royal duties as a Princess of Equestria. With a burning determination to succeed, to impress her mentor, Twilight took her place on the Crystal Throne and readied herself to administer justice to the masses. With a nod and a smile, the three other Princesses left the hall, confident in Twilight’s abilities.
The first two hours seemed to absolutely breeze by. Ponies came to her with minor concerns and she had managed to patch up the problems swiftly and easily, sending both parties away satisfied every time. Her comprehensive knowledge of the power and structure of friendship helped her in her decision making process, but oftentimes the answer seemed so obvious to her that she questioned why such a triviality warranted time in the Royal Court of the Crystal Empire.
But then HE walked in.
Twilight could feel it as she looked at him; there was something strange about the stallion striding towards her throne. His coat was a gentle shade of green, and his carefully combed mane had shades of thick mango yellow hidden in the bronze sheen. His cutie mark took the form of a thought bubble, and his icy blue eyes seemed to pierce the air like daggers. He unsettled Twilight to no end, but she held her composure and bid him approach her.
“Your Highness,” the unicorn said with a graceful, if somewhat over the top bow. “How kind of you to permit me into your court today.”
There was nothing especially vindictive in his tone, but there was undoubtedly something negative hiding in his pleasant words and his smooth Canterlot accent. Twilight hadn’t anticipated such feeling directed at her so early on, and as a result her anxiety began to climb higher and higher, but she managed to keep herself under control. With a cough, to clear her throat, Twilight cordially welcomed the stallion and bid him to state his business.
“Thank you, Princess,” he began, a hint of venom still lingering on his tongue as he spoke. “My name is Clear Thought and I have come here from the University of Canterlot, Philosophy department.”
Twilight nodded with a smile, herself having been a part of the School of Magic in the very establishment.
“I have come here today to ask for your assistance in altering something that poses a huge threat to Equestrian freedom and will enslave and trap every single pony in existence.”
Twilight’s mouth dropped open in shock. Such a monumental threat should have been brought to the attention of Celestia directly so that it may be dealt with swiftly. How had something this cataclysmic gone undetected? And, perhaps more importantly, how did this philosopher know about this before anyone else? So many questions buzzed incessantly through Twilight’s head: Was it the Changelings again? Had Sombra returned to exact his revenge? Had Discord reverted back to his old ways? Perhaps there was some new foe that Twilight didn’t even know about yet. For a few seconds, Twilight seized up, but she quickly relaxed herself ad asked the young stallion to explain fully the extent of the threat in as much detail he could.
“Well your Highness,” he said with a smirk. “That is remarkably simple. The threat to Equestria is, in a nutshell, you.”
Twilight’s mouth dropped open completely unbidden once again. The accusation levelled against her weighed heavy on her shoulders and she couldn’t quite believe that Clear Thought had been quite so blunt about it. Such a charge wanted more than just a simple statement of fact to validate it. Twilight’s look of shock dissolved and transformed into a hybrid of pain and irritation.
“And what exactly do you mean that the trouble is me?” Twilight asked in a tone that she hoped was at least a little bit authoritative. “I have been a princess for less than a month now. I have never once made a decision that has impacted on Equestria in any way whatsoever. I have made no radical changes to the way that Equestria functions, I have not established a single law or decree of any sort, or even sat on a Royal Court until today! So tell me, how can I be so much of a threat to Equestria when I have not had the time to become so!?”
Clear Thought stared at the Princess for a moment before heaving an arrogant sigh, the kind that is made just to make other people feel like they have said or done something exceptionally stupid. The stallion shook his head slightly before responding.
“I assure you, your Majesty, that I meant no offence. By ‘you’, I was in fact referring to the entire matriarchal establishment of Equestrian Princesses governing the whole of Equestria. While I cannot deny that you in particular are an element in the threat, you is the collective existence of the four Princesses that most concerns me. Furthermore, you and the other Princesses are as much in danger as the rest of us are. It just so happens that you, Twilight Sparkle, are uniquely situated to free Equestria and break the curse that looms over us forever.”
Twilight wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that, which was probably exactly what Clear Thought had intended. The threats and insults followed immediately by compliments and pleas for help made her unsure of whether Clear Thought was in favour of her or not. The Philosopher seemed to pick up on this and took the advantage of her silence to elaborate his point further.
“The current way of living we have in Equestria, the way things have run for thousands of years, it doesn’t work and it isn’t fair. Everypony is trapped in their own little bracket of society with little to no chance of breaking out. We have been tricked into believing that we have the freedom to do whatever we want, when in fact we are ushered neatly into little niches in society from which we are never permitted to leave. We have been forced into our positions in life, even the Royals, by the misguided belief that everyone is happiest in the position where it is believed they will best serve the realm.”
Twilight Sparkle listened intently to Clear Thought’s speech, taking in every point he raised. The stallion was clearly very well educated, as was befitting a student of Canterlot University, but more than that, he understood exactly what he was talking about. It was obvious that a great deal of thought and research had gone into forming his view of the world. Unfortunately, he seemed to never have fully outgrown his rebellious stage and was trying to find fault in a system that had been effective for more than a thousand years. Twilight wondered how best to make him see the error of his ways, to help him see that if it wasn’t broken, there was no need to fix it?
“I understand your problems, Clear Thought, and I sympathise” the Princess declared. “But you seem to have forgotten probably the first thing you learned in elementary school. These ‘niches’ and ‘limitations’ you say we are forced into are in no way forced at all. Everypony receives their cutie mark as a physical representation of what they are most skilled at, what their special talent is. Ponies do that which they are good at. That way, everypony is happy and Equestria is able to run smoothly.”
Clear Thought had obviously already given Twilight’s argument some thought and has prepared his counter argument. Twilight should have realised that a philosophy student would have been more than ready for this very situation, and she cursed herself for stumbling so neatly into his trap.
“Just because one is good at something doesn’t necessarily mean that they particularly enjoy it. Nor does it mean that they want to devote the rest of their lives to it as a career. By using your line of reasoning, you have established a naturalistic fallacy: essentially you have claimed that because someone is good at something, that necessitates they should be happy doing it. But as we both learned at school, the cutie mark is just a visible sign of our innate talents. This means that we have no freedom to decide what it is we want to do for the rest of our lives. I can no longer be taken seriously as a baker, or a beautician, or a librarian. I can’t join the military, and I certainly can’t become one of the ruling class of Equestria, purely because my cutie mark says that I was born to be a philosopher. Through the current method of government, I have been locked in place, destined to do only one thing for the rest of my life, regardless of whether or not I like to. How can you possibly suggest that this is in any way fair?”
As he was speaking, Twilight understood his argument in greater depth. Everything that Clear Thought was saying certainly did make sense, that was undeniable, and Twilight had to admit that she was starting to agree with him slightly. She herself had done her best to become a master of magic because that was what she had been told she was good at. She had never really given any thought to whether she actively wanted to do that or not. Perhaps Clear Thought had the right of it after all.
That was when an idea struck her. Clear Thought had left a gaping hole in his philosophy that Twilight could use to tear his whole theory apart. So far, Clear Thought had been complaining about how society impacted negatively on the individual, but not on how legislation has an effect on society as a whole.
“There appears to me, Clear Thought, a fatal flaw in your position. You seem very ardent that society is cruel to individuals by supposedly denying them freedom, but have you considered what could happen if ponies started taking up positions to which they were not suited? Let’s say that a spa pony took a job as a surgeon. Imagine the devastation that could result from that. I assume you are aware of the debacle that ensued in Ponyville shortly before my ascension to the Royal Family? How the cutie marks of my friends were switched and the duties that they attempted to perform were not suited to their specific talents and as such the town was almost destroyed? Perhaps for society to flourish as a whole, a cap needs to be placed on the freedom of ponies, to a degree at least. We can’t simply allow everypony to do what they want all the time, that would be utter chaos! As a Princess of Equestria, I have a duty to safeguard the rights and welfare of everypony in the realm.”
Clear Thought mulled that over amid the chattering of approval and speculation from the spectators in the court. For a few moments, it looked like the philosopher had been beaten, but true to form he had a rebuttal ready in little more than a second.
“I understand your point, Princess, but you seem to be unwilling to accept the fact that social mobility is of utmost importance in true freedom. I’m not talking about social mobility within predestined social castes, I’m talking about mobility between them. As it stands, the only degree of authority it is possible for me to attain is small local office. I can’t join the army and there is no way for me to join or even replace one of the Princesses. The rulers rule, the soldiers guard and the artisans work. This is extremely dangerous as a system! If something were to happen that caused any one of the groups to be incapable to perform their duties, the result would be apocalyptic. All we have to do is look at the fiascos with Nightmare Moon or Chrysalis ad we can see how the office of Princess is easily manipulated and how the loss of a strong leadership body can be the end of Equestria. We need a more free way of selecting a government, so that if something does go wrong, power is not so concentrated in one area that it becomes dangerous. For this reason, I suggest that we establish a democratically elected political body, made up of members from all species of pony and from all walks of life. A larger delegation of Earth Ponies, Pegasi and Unicorns from each of the provinces and kingdoms in Equestria, along with representatives from the dragons, griffons and minotaurs to help govern Equestria in a way that is beneficial for all.”
Twilight had to admit that Clear Thought did have a point. Perhaps having the Princesses govern Equestria alone was unfair. After all, Cadence had almost worn herself out completely during the showdown with Sombra and Celestia had been to immersed in the defence of Canterlot to offer much assistance. Maybe four rulers simply weren’t enough. On the other hoof, was the system that Clear Thought proposed that much of an improvement? After all, it did involve the division of power among everyone in Equestria, meaning that radical groups in any one area could gain political power and thereby have an impact on legislation. And if delegates were chosen from ALL of the species in Equestria, did that include the Changelings? And what about Discord, would he be given a say in matters of politics? Additionally, if this new government were to be established, one group could theoretically lock the whole thing down if they had enough significance. There were far too many problems in dividing power so radically, there had to remain some degree of a hierarchy in order for anything to get done.
“Surely, Clear Thought, you must understand how that cannot possibly work in reality. It would be far too easy to exploit such a system to reach your own goals, rather than to help other people. The Princesses are in power, that is true, but there is no gain in it for us. We govern because it is our duty, not because we are acting on behalf of our own self interests. There are no personal benefits to leadership, but that would change under your system. We Princesses have been separated from ambition by our position as rulers, and so we can put all of our efforts into making sure that we are doing everything we can for our citizens. But through your ideology, politics would become a means to achieve your own goals. Leadership would become a game of thrones, striving to achieve power and influence in order to further yourself, rather than to help others. Politicians would be more concerned about getting elected than doing what they needed to do in order to make life better for the people under their charge. Pretty soon, the whole system would dissolve into a battle for power, rather being a force for good. The potential outcomes of this scenario could be utterly disastrous! And what would happen if we allow the Changelings to be on this elected council? Couldn’t that result in the declaration of war against innocent people, like Saddle-Arabia, or the land of the GummiBears, or Cybertron? How can you not see that the current system is infinitely better?”
Clear Thought stood for a few seconds, taking in what the Princess had said. He shut his eyes for a moment and nodded slightly.
“Do you know, Princess, what the difference between Princess Celestia and Queen Chrysalis is?”
Twilight immediately responded with a haughty statement of how Celestia was a force for good, doing what was right for the ponies, whereas Chrysalis was an evil tyrant who sought to destroy Equestria and devour all of the love the ponies had for each other. She wanted the destruction that didn’t fit in with her ideals.
“You’re wrong Princess. The only difference between Chrysalis and Celestia is that Celestia hasn’t yet reached the point where she needs to invade other lands to see to the needs of her people. Chrysalis may have been evil, but at the heart of it all, her actions were based around a desire to do what was right for her Changelings. Isn’t that exactly what you said that Celestia does? What happens when there’s a famine one year? Or a flood wipes out the food supplies? Or a dragon goes on the rampage and demolishes the Crystal Empire? What happens when the era of surplus we live in comes to an end? Do you honestly believe that Celestia won’t respond in exactly the same way as Chrysalis did? That’s the issue with the benign dictatorship we currently live in. The Benign element will fade over time, and then we’ll just be left with a dictatorship. The time to act is now, Princess. Your decision today could pave the way for a new Equestria, safe from future terror. Do it, join with me, before it’s too late!”
Twilight was absolutely rigid with fury. How dare this impudent student try and equate Celestia to a monster like Chrysalis! She needed to sort this and she needed to do so swiftly. No matter what she said next, there would be more questions, more accusations and then she’d never be rid of Clear Thought. Twilight had to think for a moment, what would Celestia do in this situation? The proverbial light bulb went off in Twilight’s mind as she settled on the only sensible solution. She loomed over Clear Thought from her position on the throne and charged up her magic. It was a relatively basic teleportation spell, but it needed to cover a rather long distance. With a satisfying pop, her magic exploded around Clear Thought, sending him instantaneously to the moon, where he could ponder political philosophy to his heart’s content for the next millennium.
The end.
Author's Note
OK, so this was just a little bit of fun that happened in the middle of a particularly interesting Philosophy lecture (if any of you know who Dr. Jason Dockstader is, you understand what I'm talking about). So, I got to thinking about the similarities between Plato's Republic and Equestria.
Originally, this discussion played out in my head between Young Link and Scootaloo, but I altered it to fit a more realistic scenario. So, here's hoping you enjoy this little side piece as much as I did.
