"Citizens of Canterlot! Protectors of the Revolution, of the Republic, I salute thee!"
The carriage stopped, and his head bounced off the baseboard. A crowd roared outside. It was the loudest he had heard a crowd in nineteen years. All well then that his ponies should take to the Plaza of the Sun in such numbers. A herd should always attend to their prince.
"Today marks the end of our four year struggle. A struggle that began with crying Canterlot on the eve of ruin, and the wolves at our very doors. The Blueblood Regime's generations of exploitation revealed themselves in one instant, and we would not be silenced."
The door scraped open, and he turned his head to a figure crowned in the dawning sun. He squinted.
"Blueblood. We're here. Get out."
Blueblood ran his hooves down the cotton shirt that had been his cloak of office for the last year. The wrinkles straightened for a moment but would not obey him. Good enough. He stepped outside.
"When we demanded that the Canter Herd be given a voice, the Regime broke on our united front. When they threatened us with arrest, we swore an oath never to submit until our sacred duty be accomplished. And when they tried to drive us out of the Assembly with musket and bayonet, we denied them!"
A marble pedestal rose before him. The revolutionary graffiti of 1839 and '40 had improved the stonework of 1763. Liberty and Equality claimed the statue of Blueblood Fourteen the Sun for musket balls in the autumn of '39. The pedestal propped up a crooked wooden platform, the best in Revolutionary architecture, now imposing on the Plaza of the Sun.
Somepony hissed an order. His ears cocked on recent instinct to the sound. He turned around as the carriage clattered away. Now he saw the line of Guardsponies, sabers in mouth, making a fence against the crowd. His ponies watched the idol on top of the pedestal in rapt attention. If any of his ragged subjects noticed their ruler standing at the base, they said nothing.
Revolutionary pennants hung from the pikes that beat the Royal Guard in 1837.
"Our work began without pause. All ponies of Canterlot received rights they had not enjoyed in years, rights stolen from them by Bluebloods centuries dead. Everywhere the injustices of the past were being overturned, and foreign tyrants trembled at our accomplishments. The crimes they committed in their invasion through the Tri Cities will never be forgiven."
Somepony clapped a hoof on his withers. He turned. It was his jailor. When he gave up his court attendants in 1840, his herd returned him this one to care for him.
"Up, citizen. It's time."
With that, a firm hoof pushed him toward the stairs at the base of the pedestal. Citizen Blueblood allowed himself to be guided along.
"And while his herd suffered under barbarian bayonets, Blueblood threw parties in Canterlot. Never before have a herd been so betrayed since Celestia Diabolicus struck down Saint Luna a thousand years ago. But the ponies of Canterlot could not be deceived. When the daemon Prince tried to escape to his collaborators through Poitevin, we exposed him!"
He spent the duration of 1840 working his evaporating diplomatic corps to the bone. Brav Löwe and the King of Dressia would not listen to reason. His ponies were being a little unmanageable, but they would be brought into-
His hoof kicked into the first stair. He had lost himself. He looked up. The stairs extended into the sun. The hoof on his back pushed harder, trying to get him to climb. He shook it off and looked at his jailor.
"I need no servant for this."
He left that ugly muzzle behind forever and began to climb.
"We thank Blueblood, then, for bringing the extent of the conspiracy against us all to light. A thousand plots of insidious foreign autocrats were discovered and destroyed. The pace of our liberation advanced beyond our wildest dreams. We cast down the aristocracy from their high mountains. The devils sent by the Harmonic See, having so long whispered words of complacence in our ears, were driven out. The agents of the grand conspiracy fled our cities in droves, back to their masters."
He put a hoof on the second stair, then pulled himself up to the third. They were steeper than they looked. Above, the sun climbed faster than he could.
"With their plan to murder us all in our beds foiled, the foreign Princes abandoned all pretense. They swelled the ranks of their armies marching on Reins to numbers never before seen in the history of Ponykind. The citizens of all the Canterlot Republic left their homes and marched tirelessly for our salvation. We met the Dressians at the gates of Reins, and through the heroism of a thousand martyrs, we destroyed them!"
He crested step seven, then nine, then six. He lost count. The sun was leaving his reach. He tried to move faster. Cheering rang in his ears. Why would they do that, he hadn't gotten to the top yet.
"Truly we are chosen of a sacred destiny if we have blocked these efforts at every turn. No herd but us could accomplish the breaking of chains a thousand years in the making. We realize this destiny with every day we draw breath. Never have so many accepted the rule of liberty, equality, and equinity. Our social contract is written in the blood of our sacrifice for the benefit of all, and we bow to no Prince but ourselves. To any king of Tartarus who thinks otherwise - come to our door and face our might!"
He topped step five. It leveled out. The sun was right there. He could step right into it-
His horn cracked against the railing. He fell on his haunches, covering his head with his hooves. His tail beat back and forth against the boards. He whimpered. The sun faded and rose above his reach.
To the right, more stairs. He was on a landing. He rose. Keep going, Citizen. Step one. Step eight.
"Today we strike back against our oppressors! Today the Spirit of 1837 looks upon us and rejoices! Today we show all the world in arms that the Canterlot Republic cannot be denied! From here into eternity, equality is our doctrine, virtue our watchword, and terror our diplomacy!"
He gasped for breath. Step twenty.
"But we must not end today. It would be in vain to declare the Revolution satisfied, when outside our walls voices cry out for liberation. To our wayward brothers in the south, we will not let you fall. To our comrades in arms on the Reins front, you are not forgotten. To those amongst us who doubt in our common destiny, who crave the hoof of diabolic nobility upon their neck, we are coming for you."
Step thirty. Another landing. Step one. Step one.
"The axis of evil attacks on all sides. Resist! In all areas, resist! We cannot surrender to these murderers. Would you have the Dressians put our foals to the sword? Would you have the counter revolution undo our work? Holy destiny calls on us to unite all the ponies of the world under the banner of liberty. Together, we will undo the work of eighteen hundred years of Discord! Let there be no end to our struggle until our enemies are wiped from existence! To this end, no means is unnecessary! To this end, I dedicate my life!"
Step forty. Step forty one.
"Join me now, citizens of Canterlot, as we end one thousand years of illegitimate rule, and as we walk into the glorious future!"
Prince Blueblood Sixteen the Navigator, Ruler of the Principality of Canterlot, Facet of Harmony in Equestria, and the Last of His Name stepped up to the platform.
Representative Virtue of Poitevin and the Canterlot Republic finished his speech and stepped down from the railing. The representative's hooves made no sound on the boards.
The guillotine, Holy Idol of the Canterlot Revolution that Prince Blueblood helped to build, stood over them both.
"Citizen Blueblood," said Representative Virtue, "you are accused of crimes against the state of Canterlot. The Revolutionary Tribunal judges you guilty. The sentence is death."
"I am the state."
With that, Blueblood turned to the railing. He planted his forehooves on the barrier and rose up. His ponies looked up to him for the first time. He looked down on them for the last time.
His lips parted.
