/pone/ - My Little Pony★

On her way to the very first Party meeting, Veronika was struck by a most horrible sight. It was an old stallion, homeless, one eye socket sewn shut, and coughing up blood onto the dirt-coated concrete. As a lump of sadness grew in Veronika’s throat, she dug through her saddlebags to see if she had any spare bits. But unfortunately, she had spent her entire paycheck for the week paying for rent and groceries, none of which she carried with her.

“I am sorry I have nothing to give you, comrade,” said Veronika in her gentle voice, “get better soon, okay?”

“Celestia bless you, young filly,” said the stallion with a smile.

Veronika sighed and continued trotting to the place of the meeting. She was almost there. ‘If only he knew,’ she thought to herself.

As Veronika neared the abandoned hotel, she noted the pattern of the cobwebs on the windows, and the most thick and spider-infested cobweb on the lower corner on the side of the porch. This cobweb, and the spiders on it, was all false. Their purpose was to hide the six keys to the building, one for each Party member. Veronika dug into the web and pulled out the last remaining key. The brass key was intentionally painted grey to blend in with the concrete. With her teeth, she clenched onto the key’s base, trotting up the stairs and unlocking the door. As she opened the door, she was greeted by her fellow Party members: three earth ponies, one unicorn, and one Pegasus.

“Comrade Veronika!” said a male Earth pony, “you’re just in time! Midnight is almost here. Much later and we’d have had to kick you out!”

Veronika chuckled. “It is good that I was swift then, comrade Cast Iron.”

“Comrades,” shouted Cast, “Veronika is here!”

“Veronika?” asked the Pegasus, “what’s wrong? You look… bleak.”

“Oh. Comrade Cotton Quilt. Well, it’s that… I passed by this one poor stallion. He was so poor he didn’t even have an eyepatch for his missing eye, and I don’t think he could eat well with those rotten teeth of his. I wanted to give him some money, bu-“

A deep, booming voice ruptured the room. “Veronika!” All the ponies looked to the one irate-looking unicorn in the back. “How many times do I have to tell you? The Party is not to be a charity case. Our duty is revolution, not to give alms to hopeless saps.”

The Pegasus spoke. “Comrade Steel, what do you have against comrade Veronika’s generosity?”

“All of you,” said Steel Hammer, “Remember our mission. As Equestria’s revolutionary vanguard party, we are to guide the proletariat in liberating themselves from the tyrants who rule us, and we must do this by force. The proletariat will only use force when the conditions have become revolutionary, and for that, they must be the direst. Even the smallest act of charity does service to capitalism and prolongs its existence in history.” He glares at Veronika. “And those who serve capitalism have no place in the Party. Do you understand?”

“But Steel,” shouted Veronika, “these ponies need our help! You’re forgetting why we are doing this in the first place!”

Steel spat on the floor, then glared back at Veronika. “Our revolution is neither utopian nor idealistic. You forget one thing: political power grows from the end of a sword. In order for the masses to liberate themselves, they must first be driven into the dirt. Capitalism does this well enough for us, and all we must do is let the wall rot so that one swift buck will send it tumbling to the ground. Once we are in power, we will have all we need to improve the lives of the masses.”

Veronika looked down and sighed. “But our duty is to improve the lives of the masses wherever we can, correct? As revolutionaries, we-“

“Our duty is to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat and lay the groundwork for communism. We have no obligation to be some bleeding heart charity case. That sort of thinking leads to reformism. Do not be infantile. The tree of liberty demands the blood of the tyrant.”

“He’s right,” said a female earth pony, Fiery Forge, “We have to let capitalism ruin lives so we can ruin capitalism. We can’t go around giving money to poor folk, Veronika.”

“I’ll go either way with the whole charity thing,” said the second male earth pony, Assembly, “but we gotta listen to comrade Steel Hammer. He sounds like he’s got his eye on the prize. I say we put it to a vote. Whoever wants the Party to give charity, say ‘aye’.”

Veronika and Cotton Quilt say “aye”.

“Those who oppose, say ‘nay’.”

Steel Hammer, Fiery Forge, and Assembly say “nay”.

“Comrade Cast,” said Veronika, “you didn’t cast your vote.”

Cast Iron stammers, torn by the decision. After several moments of silence, Steel Hammer’s light-grey horn glows with a dark purple. Cast collapses as he screams in agony and holds his hooves to his head.

“Aaah! Nay! Nay! Oh, for the love of Celestia, nay!”

Steel’s horn stops glowing before Cast stops screaming, instead breathing heavily, and then letting out a long sigh of relief.

“You heard him, Veronika,” says Steel smugly, “It’s four against two. From this day forward, no charity will be given to the poor from any Party members.”

For the rest of the meeting, the Party discussed more important matters. The matters of recruitment, funds, and stealth were discussed. Veronika felt stifled by the hard-headedness of Steel Hammer, who seemed to get the last word on everything despite the democratic ideal of the Party.

It was decided that the first thing the Party needed was connections. Veronika volunteered to go to Ponyville, where she heard there was a sympathetic family of peasants who had connections to royalty. Seeing the clear opportunity from this to accrue funds from the royal coffers, everypony else agreed. Steel Hammer especially enjoyed the irony in this. After this decision was made, the meeting concluded with the singing of the Internationale.