The Fall of a Nation

Turning on the radio after a day of hard work might have been a pleasure during better times. However, Lyra Heartstrings' mind was not ridden with positive thoughts when she finally managed to tune in her old piece of scrap.

[…now, after the week of mourning, the time has finally come! Today at dawn, all of the major factories and strategic points of Stalliongrad, Fillydelphia, Trottingham and several smaller cities were seized by the Red Guard. Yes, citizen, you heard me right! The noble scum has been cleansed from our largest industrial sites. Ponies across the country have risen to arms in order to protect themselves against oppression and hunger.

We all know how frightening it must have been to lose the assumedly immortal monarch who ruled our nation with love and understanding. However, my little ponies, you must understand that nothing is eternal. Not even alicorns. While this loss has been hard for all of us, with it comes the hope of a brighter tomorrow. We must not give in to the oppressors, who pretend to have the right to claim Celestia’s former throne. That throne, my little ponies, is no birthright. The Royal Council has no right to confiscate your food or weapons, no right to break protests and strikes with force, and no right to use the working class as a mere tool for their wealthy living. Neither does the Merchant Union, the loyal puppet of the Council, have any right to do the afromentioned. My little ponies, we must resist! When we work together for a better tomorrow, nothing can stop us! Together, we can thwart tyranny and oppression! Together, we can give ponies the right to rule over themselves! Together, we can smash crowns and scepters to pieces!

…

The speech was given this afternoon by Prime Minister Blazing Heart, the head of the legally elected Parliament, which is currently returning from the refugee they had taken in Gryphonia. Blazing Heart already arrived to Stalliongrad, where he plans to…]

Lyra cringed; she could listen to no more. The aquamarine mare knew it was all pure fantasy and propaganda. The Red Guard had attempted to take over the City Hall of Ponyville and Sweet Apple Acres in the course of the morning. Luckily, the White Guard had been faster - all the Reds of Ponyville were now detained, and it was only by good fortune that nopony had been killed.

While the mare was of course worried about the future of Ponyville and Equestria, she was much more concerned of her life-companion, Bon Bon, who was still in Fillydelphia taking care of her old and sickly mother. There was no way Lyra could contact her wife now, as all mail services in the East had been taken over by the Reds and were currently driven down. All she could do was hope for the situation to turn over happily, with Bon Bon returning next week and joining the White Guard with her.

But deep down she knew that life, particularly in a time like this, could never be that simple. As there was no way to contact her love, Lyra had decided to take on something she’d stopped years ago – it was time to write a diary again.

--

24. 1. 918

Dear diary,

I’m so afraid... The very town I live in is under danger, and a large chunk of Equestria is being overrun by mobs of bloodthirsty factory workers. And worst of all, my love is not here with me.

I can only hope that the workers will realize their mistake and that things would just return to the state they once were in... hope that the Six will rise and use the elements to stop this. Hope that Luna returns and takes over the throne.

Hope that the mare I love is safe.

****

Bon Bon was no stranger to hunger, but what she had seen in Fillydelphia had made her heart ache. She did support the policies of the Council…  At least that’s what she kept telling herself. Even though Bon was aware that the mail services were unavailable, she decided to write a letter to her wife. The Reds would propably get the mail running in short order anyway.

--

24. 1. 918

Dearest Lyra,

Things here are much worse than I expected. I know separating during a time like this was a risky gamble, but while hearing about the Red takeover might take your sleep away, I can assure my life’s not currently in danger.

And about my mother… Lyra, I was happy to find out that she’s still alive, although barely. As strange as it may sound, being ill has actually helped her quite a bit. Mother told me that the hospital has a steady supply of food, which is otherwise very scarce in this tormented city.

Truly, If I didn’t know better, I’d think the end of the world was near. Every time I cross the street to attend some business, I feel a stab in my heart; there’s a Ponyville’s worth of miserable, starving people begging for food on the streets. Just yesterday I saw at least a dozen dead or dying ponies lying in the middle of an alley right between the hospital and a residential flat. And what did ponies do to those corpses? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Though the uprising of the Reds has scared me a bit, they did have the decency to haul the dead out of the view and bury them. The local head of the Red Guard also promised to get food from somewhere, though that might be too big a promise; I know the situation is hard even there in Ponyville.

I hate myself for thinking like this – but I don’t believe the situation’s going to improve very much. As the famine of the winter before the last was caused by a war with a foreign aggressor,  I don’t really want to imagine how the food problem will turn out when there’s a full-fledged revolution going on. I hope a war can still be avoided, but it truly looks like ponies will take sides in a bloody fight against each other for the first time in a millennium.

But even in the middle of the worst crisis our nation has ever faced, I can take comfort in thinking about you. In the face of love, nothing else really matters that much – war, famine, a dead Princess – all just mere obstacles between us. Nothing true love can’t overcome.

Hoping to see you soon,

Your loving wife.