Seeds of Doubt

“All ponies are equal!”
The chant stopped Twilight in her tracks as her ears stood up, listening closer. The voice was very familiar- Applejack! As fast as her legs could take her, she galloped to Sweet Apple Acres.

On a podium, rising above a sea of unicorns and earth ponies, stood Applejack. She was fiery with rage and protest at the sudden turn of events and roared into a megaphone. “Did Celestia give y’all any evidence?”
“No!” the crowd below her roared, stamping their hooves in support; shaking apples from nearby trees.
“Did she give unicorns the same rights as us earth ponies?”
“No!”
“Are ya’ll gonna stand there and do nothin’?”
“No!”
“You wanna know why The Princess sent the pegasi to Cloudsdale?”
A silence from the crowd.
“She’s scared of unicorns and pegasi bandin’ together in protest! She thinks us earth ponies should stick here because we’re inferior, and can’t help unicorn folks. That’s racism!”
Mutters of discontent in the crowd opened up into bursts of protest again.

“What in tarnation was she thinkin’? Tomorrow we march for justice. Tomorrow we’re gonna storm Canterlot Castle! Pack ya saddlebags ‘cause it’ll be a long hike!” Applejack stepped down from the podium to allow others of the Apple family to speak. More calls of disapproval for Celestia rose and fell as Granny Smith spoke. “No evidence, no donations” was chanted by a group of unicorns in the center of the crowd.

Twilight had seen enough. Her worst fears had been confirmed. Rarity wasn’t seeing reason, Applejack was leading a moratorium, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were in Cloudsdale and no doubt Pinkie Pie was having an emotional breakdown, turning into ‘Pinkamena’ as Dash had once described. The details had been confirmed- This truly was happening. With a defeated sign, Twilight walked home. There was no point in panicking now, as the only way to end this unrest was through evidence. If that’s what everypony wanted, then that’s what she’d have to get them- Evidence that Celestia was being unreasonable and evidence that even though The Princess is a high authority, sometimes an authority needs questioning.