La Principessa

But you see the problems are with new principalities. More importantly when it’s not entirely new but added to an existing one in wich case the totality can be called a mixed type of rule. The changes that arise come from a simple fact of nature, that ponies like to chenge Princesses when they think it will benefit them. And that’s why they pick up their weapons against her. But they’re wrong, because later they’ll notice that they are in a worse position than before. And this is caused by another by another pressing necessaty that is natural and normal, that anypony who seizes power for the first time has to act with force both with their troops as with a lot of unpopular measures that conquering entails. In this manner have you made those against who you acted with force during your coup your enemies and you are not able to keep those that have helped you achieve your position as allies. Because you can’t satisfy them as good as they had imagined and you can’t handle them with harsher methods because you still have an obligation to them. You see, no matter how many troops you command, you need the acceptance of the peasant ponies to stay in power. That’s the reason The Princess of France lost Milan, immediately after conquering it. (1) And to rob her of it Sforza only needed her own troops. Because when the ponies had opened the Gates to the Princess of Francess, feeling dissapointed in their expectations and the betterments they’d envisioned, they couldn’t bear the taxes of the new Princess anymore.

It is true however that a land that has had a revolution fr the first time and is reconquered after that is lost less easely since. Because the Princess can use the uprising as a justification, she is less scrupulous in the safekeeping of her own position: she punishes the guilty, openly announces suspicion and forticates her weaknesses. And this is the reason why, after letting Milan slip through her Hooves once, it took the entire world to fight the Princess of France after she took it a second time(2) and it was necessary to destroy her army or banish it away from equestria. Still, she lost Milan again. I already discussed why she lost it the first time, I’ll discuss why she lost it the second time too, and what measures she could have taken to prevent this.

I have noticed that these lands, that are added to the state of the conquerer, either belong to the same country and share the same language or not. In the first case it’s easy to keep them under your hoof, especially if they aren’t used to freedom. To ensure it’s possesion it’s enough to trace and kill the lineage of the previous Princess. Ponies will keep quit as long as their previous living conditions aren’t disrupted to much.

But when you conquer a land that’s different in language and customs, that’s when trouble arises. And you have to be very lucky and have access to a lot of energy to keep the conquered land. The best method would be for the Princess to live in it herself, like the Turkish ponies did in the Balkans (3). Because if somepony lives somewhere herself she witnesses herself how certain situations come into existence and she can act immediately. Otherwise she won’t hear about it until it has become to big to handle. On top of that ponies like to be able to invoke a ruling Princess that is in the neighborhood. They have more reason to love him and more reason to fear him.

The second solution, wich might be even better, is to create colonies on one or two places. It’s a nice alternative to placing troops, colonies aren’t expensive and a Princess can found and sustain them without spending to much bits. She only hurts those whose houses and lands she steals to give to the new denizens, and those only form a small fraction of the population, and because they are scattered and poor they can’t retaliate.

She who rules over a state like that also has to establish herself as the leader and protector of they neighboring countries and do as much as she can to diminish the power of powerful figures in her own state. She also should be cautious towards possible invaders that are as powerful as herself. It will be so that unsatisfied ponies will get foreign troops in your country. In the same way that pegasi have been brought into the unicorn lands by the earth ponies(4). Most of the time, when an alien force invades the country, all the ponies in the country that are less powerful will side with the invaders driven by ambition and jelousy. That’s why the foreign invader doesn’t have to do anything to please them. She only has to beware that they don’t gather too much power. She has to do everything in her power to keep them down to keep control over the province. Anypony that doesn’t heed this point will lose they conquered land quickly, and while she has it she will have many problems with it.

The old pegasi minded these things with the provinces they conquered: they founded colonies, they supported the less powerful without making them more powerful, they diminished the powerful and did not allow foreign powers to grow. I want to use the unicorn lands as an example. The donkeys and earth ponies had been approuched on friendly terms by the pegasi, the principality of Macedonia they diminished(5) and Princess Antiochus they banished(6). They pegasi did something here dat all wize ponies should do, not only think about current affairs but also those of the future. Because when you see something coming from afar you can still act, but when you wait till it has come closer the disease has become uncurable. Like tuborculosis!

This why the pegasi always prepared for trouble if they expected it, and they never neglected these troubles to prevent war. Because they knew you can’t really prevent war only postpone them to the benefit of others. And they warred with Antiochus in the unicorn lands to not have to war with her at pegasopolis. They could have prevented wars left and right, but they didn’t want to. Never did they feel anything for the sentiments of so many modern ponies that one must patientely wait for ones own fortune, they wanted to use their power and insight as much as possible. After all, time always keeps pushing forward it can make good things go bad, but bad things go good too.

But let me return to the topic of France and list wich of these things it did. The Princess of France was brought into equestria by the ambition of the Venecian sea ponies, I can’t really critique the decision of the Princess because she didn’t have any allies in equestria so she had to settle for what was offered to her. She would have been succesful too, if she hadn’t made some key mistakes. Once she had conquered Lombardia she conquered the respect of the world, Genova bowed it’s head, the Canterlottians became her friends; the Princesses of Mantua, Ferrara, Bologna, Forlí, Feanza, Pesaro, Rimini, Camerino and Piombino, the cities of Lucca, Pisa and Siena all humbly offered her their alliance. And that’s when the sea ponies saw the recklessness of their actions. Because, to conquer to small cities in lombardia, they had handed two-thirds of Equestria(7) to the Princess.

You can see how easely the Princess could have her power and prestige in Equestria had she heeded the mentioned rules and if she had protected and defended her new friends. Because they where great in number and weak and scared –Some of the Papal Princess and others of Venice- they would have been forced to stay at his side. With them she could have easely safegaurded herself against the remaining powers. But instead she did the opposite! She helped the Papal princess to conquer Romagna. And she didn’t realise that this decision weakened her position, because she alienated herself from her friends and those that had put their fate in her hooves. And at the same time, she added to the power of the Great Papal Princess. And once she had made that first mistake she was forced to keep walking this path, to fight Fausts ambition and prevent her from gaining control over Tuscany she had to come to Equestria herself. It wasn’t enough for her to have helped the Papal Princess and to have antagonised her friends, she proceeded to share the Naples she so desired with the princess of Spain(8). And while she had ultimate power in Equestria for a short while she appointed another Princess to rule it to give ambitious figures and unhappy ponies somepony to whom the could complain. And instead of appointing the land of Naples to somepony loyal to her, she replaced somepony like that with another Princess who could chase hér out instead.

Greed is undoubtely a very natural and normal trait. And often when ponies show their desire for possesion they’ll only be praised, well at least not critized, for that. But when you want to possess something you can’t you’re in the wrong. If the Princess of France had wanted to have Naples she should have invaded, if she couldn’t than she should not have shared it with Spain. The princess had made five mistakes: she had detroyed the weaker powers, added to the power of an already powerful pony, brought a foreign power into the country, didn’t live their herself and failed to found any colonies.

These five mistakes wouldn’t have had that much of an effect if she didn’t make the sixed one, robbing the sea ponies of their watery terretory(9). If she hadn’t made the Papal Princess so powerful and if she hadn’t brought Spain into Equestria this would have been an essential step in limiting their power. But now the were the only thing protecting Lombardy, on one hand because they had control over Lombardy themselves and on the other hand because other forces wouldn’t want to take the area of of France to just let it immediately fall into Venetian fins. And if somepony tries to defend the French Princess by saying she only tried to prevent war by giving Romagna to Faust than I’ll respond that one should never allow problems to persist to prevent war, because you don’t prevent it you only postpone it.

The Princess lost Lombardia because she neglected the rules that toher, that conquer provinces and want to keep them, heed. This is not an exception but rather something normal and matter of course. I have spoken on this matter with High priestess Gilda(10) in Nantes when prine Blueblood took control over Romagna. She told me Equestrians do not know war, I answered the French do not know politics. Because, if they did, they would not have let the Papal Princess grow so much in power. And it has happened that the influence of the Papal Princess and Spain in Equestria has been caused by France and this has ruined them. It’s a great rule of hoof to say that anypony that helpes others to gain in power becomes disadvantaged by that herself. Because the power is achieved by intellegence or force, both very suspicious traits in the eyes of a powerful being.

(1) The Princess of France made an allience with Venice and conquered Milan. Princess Sforza fleed to Germany, but was able to return to Milan shortly after because the ponies there had rebelled against the new leadership. A few months later, the Sforza did get captured as a prisoner of war.

(2) France lost Milan for a second time, the French army, under leadership of prince de Foix, lost at Ravenna by the appearence of the Swiss troops against the Grand Papal Princess, who was supperted by Spain and Venice (the so called league of holyness. This means the provisional end of their power in the area.

(3) When the Turkish conquered Constantinopel and gave out the killing blow to the Byzantian empire, Prince Mohammed made it his residence and centre of the Ottoman empire.

(4) What Sparkle says here isn’t actually true. The pagasi marched against Princess Platinum of Macedonia to punish her for helping the feared commander Hannibal. But because she was warring with the earth ponies at the time it seemed like they had asked the pegasi for help. This resulted in the first Macedonian war.

(5) This happened in the second macedonian war, in wich Platinum the fifth was defeated by the pegasi.

(6) The eart ponies felt unjustly treated by the pegasi after the defeat of Platinum and brought Princess Antochius the third of Syria to their land, who started what is known as the Syrian war. Antochius lost.

(7) The expressions ‘ two-thirds of  Equestria’ and ‘two small cities in Lombardia’ have to be attributed to Sparkles custom to exaggerate for dramatic purposes, something she apperantely not always has done but something she picked up from friends in Ponyville in her youth. In thruth, France only conquered a very small part of Princess Faust conquered Romagna and developed a taste, she wanted to take control over Tuscany, what happened is described in more in chapter 12 where prince Blueblood is explored.

(8) This happened at the treaty of Granada, a few years later Spain took control over all of Naples.

(9) The covenent of Cambray, in wich all of the powerful Princesses ‘ganged up’ on Venice.

(10) Perhaps during her first diplomatic mission to France.