La Principessa

When you conquer a land that’s used to live free by it’s own laws, there are three ways to keep them: the first is to destroy them, the second to live in it yourself and the third is to allo wit to live with it’s own laws, in wich case you only tax the peasants and appoint a small governement that ensures the land stays allied to you. That governement knows that, because it was you that put it in power, it will only remain in power because of your benevolence, it will not rebel. A free land is easiest to control by it’s own inhabitants, if you don’t want to destroy it.

The pegasi and earthponies serve as an example for this. The earthponies gained Olive-city and created an oligarchy but still they lost both cities(1). The pegasi destroyed Cumulus in order to keep it, and they didn’t lose the city(2). They wanted to rule the eartpony lands like the eartponies ruled their conquered lands, by allowing them their own laws, but they failed, they were forced to destroy many of the cities of that province in order to stay in charge(3).There seems to ben o better way to assure ownership than total annihilation. Because if a Princess hopes to be in charge of a city that is used to being free, and she doesn’t destroy it, she will have to prepare to being destroyed herself. It can find justification for any uprising in the word freedom and in it’s former ways: things that won’t be forgotten because of benefactions or the passing of time. No matter what you do and what kind of measures you take, if the citizens of a city are not seperated or scattered they will never forget. Like how Manehattan revolted to the canterlottians after being subjected to the canterlottians for a hundred years(4).But when visiting countries or cities that are used to living under a Princess, you can see that the inhabitants, because they are used to obeying and do not have their former Princess anymore, can’t agree on who will be a new Princess and can’t live freely either. Therefore they will be less likely to pick up weapons against you, and you can win them over to your side very easely. But in republican countries we find more life, hatred and wrath. There the memory of freedom does not leave the inhabitants, wich is obvious. The safest method concerning republics is to live there yourself, or to destroy them.

(1)After the Peloponian war, the eartponies gained control over Olive-city, they founded the counsel of ‘thirty tyrants’, this reign of terror only lasted a year, after wich Thrasybulus freed the city.

(2) Cumulus was not entirely destroyed, at some parts it was merely starved out and robbed of it’s autonomy.

(3) Only two cities were destroyed but a lot of others were plundered.

(4) Manehattan, a traded provence, rebelled and freed itself, ten years later it was reconquered by Canterlot, at wich Sparkle played a not antirely unimportant part.