>>2818 Glad you liked it. My mind is a bit cluttered from some work I did but I really want to try to explain the impetus of this fic.
>>2817 >You are warning about authoritarianism, warning about abuse of power, about faking opposition and faking movements that costs deaths in the middle of the road and how they are unwilling to leave whenever their own society don´t accept them. That tritarchy (what saved Candy was that she wasn´t involved) failed and kept pushing an agenda to do some social engineering for some reason... There was several ideas floating around here. Craziest thing is I was actually trying to think of the Princesses and what would be the weakest links and likely causes for a revolution against them. I thought with how wishy washy their power and how many threats Equestria faced where Equestria was walloped that'd be the most likely path to some discontent to be had. I didn't imagine the princesses being sinister at all, just caught off guard with the ruckus and perhaps somewhat disconnected to an extent. An attentional flaw is the secret knowledge that Celestia has kept on the numerous magical artifacts and threats. Perhaps for good reason, but it would be an avenue for attack if you reached a point with safety as a concern and a way I could image you putting somepony in a corner she wouldn't easly get out off.
>>2816 >First off, I will start with the biggest downside that turned me off and it was the world of mass media. The FiM setting that you would expect is by having an early 20th century or steampunk era, where no constant journalism like the 21st century does these days. That aspect confuses me because they would have had to develop more than the newspapers for those actions. Opps. I actually didn't have an idea much beyound newspapers, but it seems that Equestria is moving on a trend with a gossipy media and I was imagining it but more developed say after a few years to a couple of decades or longer after the show . So I just said mass media thinking the rumor mills now but more developed in their world with no thought of net or TV. It is the thing that turns the concern and uncertainty into rage with the juicy story (Cloven Cares) though not for all, but for some, with other intellectuals who hated her making their moves in the background.
>It seems that the protagonist in the end was one of the soldiers that fought for the revolution. Whenever you introduce the word "I", the author disappears form having a real world impact to one that impacts to the imaginary world. You introduce yourself as one pony that has lived those events closely hence he knows them so well despite having bias towards the peaceful ending. I thought of the pony as a mid level intellectual who was somewhat involved in the darker planing but also in coordinating the grunt work. Since he mentions stuff that should be secret to the average trooper or millita fighter yet he still fought in it. He believes in the cuase fully and is relatively honorable.
>But this fic is more like a warning about how leaders should take care about their corruption because in the end, if you cause trouble in secret, trouble will find you sooner or later. I did envision this initially as fully anti princess, just started out with an urge and turned into a thought experiment of what a revolution mounted with a bit of plausibility and with pre existing elements already present in the show be like (Celesta does keep secrets,Princesses are often ineffective, there is a foundation in show for the hostile press, etc). But that actually isn't a bad take away at all, if you referencing the Princess' secrets.
