Post by wanderingmagus on May 22, 2015 15:15:21 GMT
Sign-up: innofwanderers.freeforums.net/thread/260/equality-sign
OOC: innofwanderers.freeforums.net/thread/261/equality-ooc
Skype OOC: please add wanderingmagus and I'll add you to the Skype chat.
Our City, Our Land:
You can't have a Nightmare
If you never dream.
Now let's be clear about one thing. We're all equal here in Our Land, but we're not brainwashed, whatever that means, or misguided like we were before Glimmer showed us the light. All ponies are Equal. We know that up does not equal down, right does not equal left, and a carrot is not the same as an orange. Very young foals might think that, but, need we say it, all foals are of course the same.
It might not really make sense to you unless you've seen the light, but trust us, it all does make sense if you believe. Let's describe a bit of Our City for a moment.
Life is a smile in Our City, our cutie marks, of course, the same, because we do not separate ourselves by more than name. And color, but that doesn't rhyme quite as well. And gender too. The important thing is, we're all equal here. No one is superior, and no one shakes in fear. There's nothing to fear, since we're all equal. But getting back to the topic.
Our City is, well, like the rest of Our Land. The buildings are the same as any other city, with the apartments, the factories, the warehouses, distribution centers, schools, the university, the barracks, the rallying field, the Equalization Center, the news tower, and of course all the other needed buildings that a city should have. Our mornings usually start with singing (or just mumbling) the Equal Song to ourselves when we wake up, to remind ourselves of the importance of Equality. Then, after folding our beds and washing up at the communal showers, we go to the distribution center to celebrate our Equality and have breakfast, usually oats and water with vitamins and some sugar added, along with special ingredients that help calm us down if we're feeling a bit jittery or, Glimmer forbid, unequal. During breakfast we can usually watch clips of Glimmer reminding us of the importance of Equality, or listen to the Equal Song and the Ten Commandments. Oh, you know them all, probably:
In sameness, there is peace.
Exceptionalism is a lie.
Free yourself from your cutie mark.
Choose equality as your special talent.
Be your best by never being your best.
Difference is frustration.
To excel is to fail.
Accept your limitations, and happiness will follow.
You're no better than your friends.
And, of course,
Conformity will set you free.
They're all the same, really, and some of them have old words like "special talent" or difference-as-applied-to-ponies, which we don't really use these days, except to refer to old times, back when Nightmare Moon and Nightmare Star ruled unequally over ancient Equestria, and everypony had different talents. You know the saying, Ddifferent talents lead to different opinions, which lead to bitterness and misery. It really was a terrible and unhappy time. But then, of course, Glimmer showed us all the light of Equality, and the rest is history.
Anyways, after breakfast we usually go to the rallying field if we have time for the morning Equality Rally, with singing, marching, and all sorts of fun. Then we go to work, or school. No, we don't talk about Equality all day! We do learn things. Like we said, we're not brainwashed or misguided. We're enlightened. Everypony learns how to read using Glimmer's Equality Book, and when we write we make extra sure that all our letters look exactly the same as everypony else's. Difference is frustration, after all. We also learn math, and science, and all the other things that you would normally learn in school, like the History of Equality, and Glimmer's Struggle.
Lunch and supper are basically the same as breakfast, with everypony going to the distribution center. Once a week on Sundays, we go to our Indoctrination Counselor at the Equalization Center for our Unequal Thoughts Confession, where we confess all our bad and unequal thoughts that we collected throughout the week. Nopony's perfect, after all. Everypony has their times of weakness and doubt.
When the day's over, we go home to our families to discuss what lessons we learned in Equality during the day, and how to get better at being Equal; Equality's our special talent after all! Then we wash up at the communal showers and go to bed at the apartments. A normal day like any other, really.
...So you really want to hear about the Equalization Center? The Equality Police? Well... we don't really talk about the Equality Police, or the Hooves of Equality, as we sometimes call them. The news says that they're nice and friendly. We don't really meet a lot of them on a regular basis, other than our Indoctrination Counselor, but ponies say that they're really just anypony and everypony. Your parents, your children, your neighbors and friends, teachers and coworkers. I mean, it's only right for a pony to want Equality for their neighbor and friends and relatives, right? If they're feeling unequal, or if they've somehow become blinded by the false promise of unequal cutie marks, it's only right that we get them help to see the error of their ways, right? A pony with a different cutie mark in our midst would destroy our entire philosophy. We're all Equal here...
But on to happier subjects! If you've got some spare time from the factory work, we do invite you to join us in the Equality Rally! It's such a joy to march and sing in tune with thousands of other ponies, all smiling and happy under the banner of Equality.
Forward Base, Talentist-held territory, Outlands:
The Weather Talents and Nature Talents do their best to make the place as comfortable as possible, and all right, I'll admit, the Building Talents are obviously best at what they do, but even after all these years, it's just not the same as home. Not that "home" is likely there anymore. Those brainwashed Equalist drones probably tore it down and replaced it with one of their drab cottages or apartments by now. I don't blame them for being brainwashed; most of them couldn't help it. Some of them were formerly one of ours. Good folk.
The Magic Talents keep the shield up, and fortunately, the Equalists aren't exactly militaristic - yet. Publically, at least, they stand by their claims of wanting only "peace and equal friendship", but I'm guessing their patience is getting thin. So we distract them with our antics, while we sneak sleeper agents and operatives in via the old Diamond Dog tunnels, planting seeds of curiosity and doubt wherever we can. It doesn't always work, of course; most of the time those darn Equality Police show up, and we have to evacuate our operatives ASAP, preferably with a Magic Talent specializing in long-distance teleportation with an anti-tracing spell, or dig and collapse a tunnel. But for every cell they find, the Insurgency will make ten more, you can be sure of that.
Day-to-day life is always different, always with something new to do. Whether it's training, attending a party for morale, reading up on current events, or scouting for extra resources, everypony contributes in their own unique way, with their special talents helping everypony else.
Our problems mainly lie in the night raids by the Equalist Police. They don't mess around, those ponies. Sure, they might not be powerful individually, but when they swarm you, Celestia help you if you don't have a Fighting talent. Their Staffs of Sameness are particularly dangerous; one hit from those, and you're down. Not dead, of course. Not even injured, for the most part, but like as not you won't be getting your talent back without a fight, and the Cutie Mark Vault is one of the most heavily guarded places in the world right now. We could try assulting it with an entire reigment of Thievery Talents and still not be able to break in without thousands of Equlists descending on us like a swarm of bees. We could try multiple times, in theory, but you have to remember, our numbers aren't exactly that large to begin with, in comparison to the Equalists. Sure, we have help from the Griffons and the Donkeys and the Diamond Dogs and all those other folk, but they're far away, and they don't want to lose any of their citizens either.
Celestia and Luna? I know that Cadence is still running the Crystal Empire, with a giant shield up. Breaks Her heart, feeling the dull emptyness of all those brainwashed Equalist foals. Twilight's Equalized, first to go, from our reports. Celestia and Luna are in a secret location, being protected by our best Talents, not that They need the strength or power. Their issue isn't with that kind of stuff, it's with the whole idea of not hurting ponies. They're living protectors of ponykind, living representations of Old Equestria. They can't afford to taint public opinion of Them, or to verify the horrid propaganda the Equalist news statsion spew about Them. And neither can any of us.
We're fighting not against the ponies, but against an ideology, against an idea. They say you can't kill an idea, but we don't have to. We just have to make sure that it's not forced on anypony, ever. And much as I hate to say it, the Equalists aren't totally wrong. Equestria wasn't totally right either. We had too many snobby, stuck-up ponies for our own good, especially in the cities. But this time, Celestia willing, we'll learn from our mistakes, and maybe, just maybe, bring back the good of Equestria without any of the bad. And kick Equalism into the dustbin of history, where it belongs.
OOC: innofwanderers.freeforums.net/thread/261/equality-ooc
Skype OOC: please add wanderingmagus and I'll add you to the Skype chat.
Our City, Our Land:
You can't have a Nightmare
If you never dream.
Now let's be clear about one thing. We're all equal here in Our Land, but we're not brainwashed, whatever that means, or misguided like we were before Glimmer showed us the light. All ponies are Equal. We know that up does not equal down, right does not equal left, and a carrot is not the same as an orange. Very young foals might think that, but, need we say it, all foals are of course the same.
It might not really make sense to you unless you've seen the light, but trust us, it all does make sense if you believe. Let's describe a bit of Our City for a moment.
Life is a smile in Our City, our cutie marks, of course, the same, because we do not separate ourselves by more than name. And color, but that doesn't rhyme quite as well. And gender too. The important thing is, we're all equal here. No one is superior, and no one shakes in fear. There's nothing to fear, since we're all equal. But getting back to the topic.
Our City is, well, like the rest of Our Land. The buildings are the same as any other city, with the apartments, the factories, the warehouses, distribution centers, schools, the university, the barracks, the rallying field, the Equalization Center, the news tower, and of course all the other needed buildings that a city should have. Our mornings usually start with singing (or just mumbling) the Equal Song to ourselves when we wake up, to remind ourselves of the importance of Equality. Then, after folding our beds and washing up at the communal showers, we go to the distribution center to celebrate our Equality and have breakfast, usually oats and water with vitamins and some sugar added, along with special ingredients that help calm us down if we're feeling a bit jittery or, Glimmer forbid, unequal. During breakfast we can usually watch clips of Glimmer reminding us of the importance of Equality, or listen to the Equal Song and the Ten Commandments. Oh, you know them all, probably:
In sameness, there is peace.
Exceptionalism is a lie.
Free yourself from your cutie mark.
Choose equality as your special talent.
Be your best by never being your best.
Difference is frustration.
To excel is to fail.
Accept your limitations, and happiness will follow.
You're no better than your friends.
And, of course,
Conformity will set you free.
They're all the same, really, and some of them have old words like "special talent" or difference-as-applied-to-ponies, which we don't really use these days, except to refer to old times, back when Nightmare Moon and Nightmare Star ruled unequally over ancient Equestria, and everypony had different talents. You know the saying, Ddifferent talents lead to different opinions, which lead to bitterness and misery. It really was a terrible and unhappy time. But then, of course, Glimmer showed us all the light of Equality, and the rest is history.
Anyways, after breakfast we usually go to the rallying field if we have time for the morning Equality Rally, with singing, marching, and all sorts of fun. Then we go to work, or school. No, we don't talk about Equality all day! We do learn things. Like we said, we're not brainwashed or misguided. We're enlightened. Everypony learns how to read using Glimmer's Equality Book, and when we write we make extra sure that all our letters look exactly the same as everypony else's. Difference is frustration, after all. We also learn math, and science, and all the other things that you would normally learn in school, like the History of Equality, and Glimmer's Struggle.
Lunch and supper are basically the same as breakfast, with everypony going to the distribution center. Once a week on Sundays, we go to our Indoctrination Counselor at the Equalization Center for our Unequal Thoughts Confession, where we confess all our bad and unequal thoughts that we collected throughout the week. Nopony's perfect, after all. Everypony has their times of weakness and doubt.
When the day's over, we go home to our families to discuss what lessons we learned in Equality during the day, and how to get better at being Equal; Equality's our special talent after all! Then we wash up at the communal showers and go to bed at the apartments. A normal day like any other, really.
...So you really want to hear about the Equalization Center? The Equality Police? Well... we don't really talk about the Equality Police, or the Hooves of Equality, as we sometimes call them. The news says that they're nice and friendly. We don't really meet a lot of them on a regular basis, other than our Indoctrination Counselor, but ponies say that they're really just anypony and everypony. Your parents, your children, your neighbors and friends, teachers and coworkers. I mean, it's only right for a pony to want Equality for their neighbor and friends and relatives, right? If they're feeling unequal, or if they've somehow become blinded by the false promise of unequal cutie marks, it's only right that we get them help to see the error of their ways, right? A pony with a different cutie mark in our midst would destroy our entire philosophy. We're all Equal here...
But on to happier subjects! If you've got some spare time from the factory work, we do invite you to join us in the Equality Rally! It's such a joy to march and sing in tune with thousands of other ponies, all smiling and happy under the banner of Equality.
Forward Base, Talentist-held territory, Outlands:
The Weather Talents and Nature Talents do their best to make the place as comfortable as possible, and all right, I'll admit, the Building Talents are obviously best at what they do, but even after all these years, it's just not the same as home. Not that "home" is likely there anymore. Those brainwashed Equalist drones probably tore it down and replaced it with one of their drab cottages or apartments by now. I don't blame them for being brainwashed; most of them couldn't help it. Some of them were formerly one of ours. Good folk.
The Magic Talents keep the shield up, and fortunately, the Equalists aren't exactly militaristic - yet. Publically, at least, they stand by their claims of wanting only "peace and equal friendship", but I'm guessing their patience is getting thin. So we distract them with our antics, while we sneak sleeper agents and operatives in via the old Diamond Dog tunnels, planting seeds of curiosity and doubt wherever we can. It doesn't always work, of course; most of the time those darn Equality Police show up, and we have to evacuate our operatives ASAP, preferably with a Magic Talent specializing in long-distance teleportation with an anti-tracing spell, or dig and collapse a tunnel. But for every cell they find, the Insurgency will make ten more, you can be sure of that.
Day-to-day life is always different, always with something new to do. Whether it's training, attending a party for morale, reading up on current events, or scouting for extra resources, everypony contributes in their own unique way, with their special talents helping everypony else.
Our problems mainly lie in the night raids by the Equalist Police. They don't mess around, those ponies. Sure, they might not be powerful individually, but when they swarm you, Celestia help you if you don't have a Fighting talent. Their Staffs of Sameness are particularly dangerous; one hit from those, and you're down. Not dead, of course. Not even injured, for the most part, but like as not you won't be getting your talent back without a fight, and the Cutie Mark Vault is one of the most heavily guarded places in the world right now. We could try assulting it with an entire reigment of Thievery Talents and still not be able to break in without thousands of Equlists descending on us like a swarm of bees. We could try multiple times, in theory, but you have to remember, our numbers aren't exactly that large to begin with, in comparison to the Equalists. Sure, we have help from the Griffons and the Donkeys and the Diamond Dogs and all those other folk, but they're far away, and they don't want to lose any of their citizens either.
Celestia and Luna? I know that Cadence is still running the Crystal Empire, with a giant shield up. Breaks Her heart, feeling the dull emptyness of all those brainwashed Equalist foals. Twilight's Equalized, first to go, from our reports. Celestia and Luna are in a secret location, being protected by our best Talents, not that They need the strength or power. Their issue isn't with that kind of stuff, it's with the whole idea of not hurting ponies. They're living protectors of ponykind, living representations of Old Equestria. They can't afford to taint public opinion of Them, or to verify the horrid propaganda the Equalist news statsion spew about Them. And neither can any of us.
We're fighting not against the ponies, but against an ideology, against an idea. They say you can't kill an idea, but we don't have to. We just have to make sure that it's not forced on anypony, ever. And much as I hate to say it, the Equalists aren't totally wrong. Equestria wasn't totally right either. We had too many snobby, stuck-up ponies for our own good, especially in the cities. But this time, Celestia willing, we'll learn from our mistakes, and maybe, just maybe, bring back the good of Equestria without any of the bad. And kick Equalism into the dustbin of history, where it belongs.
