Let's Play Victoria 2 With An Iron Hoof![CANCELLED]

[Psyentific]

Spoiler for Music:

V I C T O R I A   2
An Alternate History Simulator, 1836-1936




Q: What?
I've recently found myself with lots of time on my hands, and little to do in that time. Couple that with a love of this game, and I've got myself a good Let's Play formula. If you're skeptical an alternate history simulator can actually be interesting, I urge you to check out Hohenzollern Rising, which sets the gold standard on narrative LPs.

Q:No, I mean what is Victoria 2?
Oh. Well let me copy-paste my Steam Review of this game, as it does a good job of explaining what it is and I'm lazy.

This falls in line with Crusader Kings 2 (Forthcoming)/Europa Universalis 3/This/Hearts of Iron 3. It's Paradoxes grand strategy line, and a damn fine one. If all the RTSes on the market have you as a general, this has you as El Presidente/The Kaiser/The Czar/Her Majesty The Queen/French Leader/Italian Leader. Or as the Emperor of China, or the Head of State of Tibet or Bhutan or some other pissant neo-barb country. In victorian times.

Key game features include taking your country of choice through the Springtime of Nations, (Think Arab Spring, but with European Monarchs, lots more bloodshed, and no success whatsoever), the industrial revolution, World War 1 (Over the top men!), and the inter-war period, using Science, Industry, Diplomacy, and your (varying degrees of) Glorious Military.

In short, this is Victorian World Alternate History Simulator - The Game.

Q: Will you finish this?
Magic 8-ball says: Maybe. Make no mistake, 100 years is a long time. I'll probably start out doing updates for every 5 in-game years, but when things start getting really going (Manifest Destiny) I'm going to have a lot of content and screenshots to post. I doubt that I'll get all the way through this (The Paradox Curse exists for a reason after all), but I'll damn well try to make this good.

No. I did not finish this. Due to prior playthroughs, I burned out on Vicky 2 shortly after starting.

Q: Mods and Gimmicks?


I'm going to be playing as the nation of Equestria, from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I'm also running my own custom mod that incorporates elements of PDM 4.25, as the vanilla game is kinda light on events and decisions and I want to keep this interesting. No I'm not. I'm bad at mod-merging.

Q: Goddamn ponies shitting up the internet I hate them ragerageragerage

Pony image macros aside, I don't really care if you hate ponies. I'll still love and tolerate you. But if you go shitting up my thread with ponyhate, or any other kind of hate, I will love and tolerate the shit out of you. Then I'll spam your PMs with this:
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░░░░░░░░░░(GET OUT)░░
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Besides. The back button is right up there, and nopony's forcing you to read this thread. Just, y'know...give it a chance. To everyone reading this, this is not the My Little Pony you know.

E: Since this will never be finished (Save is forever lost), the direction I was planning to go with this was:

Spoiler for ???:

Pre-Human contact, Princess Celestia was the very definition of a Benevolent Dictator. She wielded near absolute power over her country, yet did not abuse it in the slightest. Rumors of the Moon-Cannon were greatly exaggerated.

That all changed when ponies made contact with Humans. Princess Celestia became Empress Celestia, and the previous "Open Palm" style of leadership gave way to an iron fist (Or hoof as the case may be). Eventually, her subjects had enough of her bloody rule, of ponies disappearing in the night, of brutal beatings from the ever-present military.

In a bloody revolt spearheaded by her more liberal sister, Empress Celestia was deposed, and the Lunar Republic was formed.


On the international scale, Equestria would rise as a world power, and, through a combination of subterfuge and military action, become the dominant power in the new world. The USA would possibly be annexed due to a little thing called Manefest Destiny, and Mexico and/or Canada would soon follow. I had plans for a nation spanning the entirety of North America.

Q: Why Victoria 2?
That's going to require a bit of a long answer. ((Time to put my Sperglord Hat on)) You might not realize it, but the Victorian age is a very significant historical period. On the socioeconomic side of things you have the Industrial Revolution, in which almost every civilization in the world (Eventually) transformed from an agrarian society of farmers and aristocrats (Where land=wealth), to an Industrial society of workers and capitalists (Where factories=wealth). This was driven by the agricultural revolution, which put a lot of farmers out of a job with new farming machines, providing the workforce for the industrial revolution. In addition, it saw the rise of a large middle class, which makes up most of everyday North American society.

Pic: Hussey's Reaping Machine, one of the first pieces of farm equipment

On the political side of things, you had the rise of liberalism, and the common man getting involved in politics, which led to the Springtime of Nations. Eventually, the modern political systems of Europe formed. Later on, you had the rise of Socialism, Communism, and Fascism. Of particular note is the unification of the Germanic states by Otto Von Bismarck into the German Empire.

On an international scale, this was a period of imperialism, particularly so by the British. It saw the American Civil War, the formation of the United States as we know it, and the rise of Communism and Socialism, as well as the unification of Italy, the fall of Spain and the Ottoman Empire, and perhaps most significantly, World War I. Rest assured folks, this is a busy 100 years.

Okay. Sperglord hat off. That all said, It's really because I love this game, and the time period is very interesting.

Q: Why Equestria?

Well, I'm a fan of ahistorical-ness, and I'm also a Brony. When I found out that there was a mod that put in Equestria, I had to get it. It's not exactly the most extensive and all-encompassing mod (Troops still show as humans, and there's not as many events and decisions as I'd like), but the mod is fully functional.
 
Equestria is situated on the American West Coast, and is in a prime position to provide a rival for the United States as the primary power in North America. Also, if I'm notterrible at Vanilla Vicky 2 (I've played mods so far), we're going to be getting two-way Manifest Destiny going on, as well as competition for the Alaska Purchase. And in case you don't know what I mean by Two-Way Manifest Destiny, it means that I'll have claims on all the USA's states, and the USA will have claims on all of my provinces. Basically, it's a giant North American Thunderdome. Two nations enter, one nation leaves.



Well I think that about covers all the points for my OP, so uh...yeah. In the first post I'll be explaining game mechanics and the general interface, and the second post is the Prologue.

[Psyentific]

GAME MECHANICS AND THE INTERFACE

Spoiler for Giant Post:

First off, and most importantly, is the Budget window. You can't really do shit if you're bankrupt.

In the top-left pane is taxes, which is the mane (Yeah, get used to horse puns. I'll try and keep them not-terribad) method of income. The poor, surprisingly enough, give you a LOT of income. Probably because there are so many of them. I'll cover the social strata in the population section, but basically your everyday citizen is a poor pony.

In the top-right pane is expenses. That's the national stockpile (Paying for stuff that the government, military, and govt. owned things need), Education (Paying the Clergymen (Fancyspeak for teachers) and keeping people ponies literate), Administration (This pays for the police (Secret and regular), and keeps your nation running well), Social Spending (This is exactly what you think it is), and Military Spending (Also exactly what you think it is).

In the bottom-left we have loans and stuff. There's not really any difference between here and real life. Nations loan each other money, and get a "Repay Debts" Cassus Belli (More on Cassus Bellis in the Diplomancy - War section) if the loanee goes bankrupt.

Finally, in the bottom-right we have Tariffs. That's basically charging taxes on imported goods. If you have 100% tariffs, you damn well better be 120% self-sufficient, otherwise you're going to fucking collapse as you run out of goods.





This is production. It's tied with Technology for the second most important panel. Previously on History, Land and Population was Power. Now, power is shifting to Industry and Technology. 1000 Redcoats with guns will beat 3000 Angry Zulu Tribesmen with spears. I was actually able to get pretty much everything in the image, so there we go for Production.





This is the research screen. Along the very top is the different areas of research (Army, Navy, Commerce, Culture, Industry). Each one has 5 (linear) tech trees, which represent different technologies and ideas that can be discovered. That's not the real power though. You can research Medicine (Selected), but that doesn't actually mean you have medicine. That means you've discovered the basic theory. The Inventions (Along the bottom) are practical applications of the technology, or manifestations of it. An example would be the Medicine technology unlocking the "Prophylaxis for Malaria" invention. Inventions are actually chance based. There's a x% chance per month that something will be invented, so just because you have Medicine, doesn't mean you now have a Prophylaxis for Malaria, or know what Germs are. Basically, inventions are Paradoxes way of not having hundreds of technologies.





This is the trade screen. I mostly leave it all on automatic, so you'll probably never see it in this LP.





This is the Population screen. There's a lot of detailed information here, but basically it divides up the population based on Culture doing Job in Location making Thing (if applicable). Each pop has its own set of ideologies and issues for politics, and it's own life, everyday, and luxury needs that it consumes economically.

Now, I said up there that I'd cover social strata and jobs, so here we go. The important (poor) pops are Soldiers (Average Troops), Craftsmen (Factory Workers), Farmers (Workers in Agriculture related Resource Gathering Operations, or RGOs) and Laborers (workers in non-agriculture related RGOs, like miners and such).

The important (middle-class) pops are Clerks (Mid-level factory workers such as managers), Bureaucrats (They make govt. "more" efficient, and help with administration. They're also important for making colonies into states), and Officers (They influence how fast you gain leadership. For 20 Leadership you can create a military leader (Admiral or General)).

The upper-class pops are Aristocrats (They own land), and Capitalists (They own Factories). The important thing here is that if you tax the rich too much, the Capitalists won't have enough money to make new factories, which means your economy will stagnate.




Here we can see the political screen. On the left panel we have our general government type at the top (Absolute Monarchy), the current ruling part (The Celestial Faction), the ruling parties policies, the Upper House's ideologies (The large pie chart) (More on ideologies at the end of this section), and at the bottom left is the Important Issues. People vote based on issues, not ideologies, so you can get something like a Liberal voting for the Reactionary party.

On the right panel there are Political and Social reforms. As you can see, right now Equestria is a fairly typical European-Style Absolute Monarchy. Only the Upper Class has any power, and even then they're appointed rather than elected. Below the Political reforms are the Decisions, which are events that are activated rather than triggered. Rename Equestria is able to be enacted, which turns the core Equestrian provinces from their Human names to their Pony names. San Francisco (The capital city) becomes Canterlot, Salt Lake City becomes Salt Lick City, et cetera. Below the Social reforms is the Rebel Scum bit, which tells you what rebels are in your nation, how many of them there are, how organized they are, and how likely they are to become REBEL SCUM THAT MUST BE SHOT.

Now, a word on political ideologies. At game start, there are 3 ideologies. Reactionaries (Dark Blue), who always want to roll back reforms, Conservatives(Blue), who prefer the status quo, but will pass reforms under contidions of high militancy, and Liberals(Yellow), who always want to pass reforms. Later on, there's Communists and Socialists and Fascists (Dark red, Red, and Black) entering the mix, and you can get something like 10 political parties.


Holy fuck this is a giant post.



DIPLOMANCY!

Welp, this is the Diplomacy screen. Up on top is the Great Powers, who are the 8 most powerful, industrialized, and prestigious nations in the world. Our first goal will be to get on that list, likely by knocking off the declining Spain. Below the Great Powers is a fairly standard listing of all the countries in the world. The two important categories there are "Prio", which is how fast you gain Influence in that country. Influence is mostly spent in the Sphere of Influence system, which is basically a representation of one great power exerting social, economic, and political pressure on another non-great power to bend to it's wishes. An example is how Canada is in the USA's Sphere of Influence. Practical benefits for sphere-ing someone includes markets for your goods, and first dibs on their goods, as well as military alliances and close relations. Prussia and Austria are frequently found in a war fought entirely through the Sphere system, as both need to use the sphere system on the same nations to form Germany.




This is the War panel of Diplomacy, and it allows you to see how wars are going, who's at war with who, and declare war on other nations. Of particular note is the flag icon. That's Infamy. Basically, it's your reputation as a Warmonger. If it gets too high then all the great powers will declare war on you and you're pretty much fucked.

So, how does one declare war without gaining Infamy? Using Cassus Bellis. If you have a Cassus Belli on a nation, and you declare war using that Cassus Belli, you won't take any penalties for declaring war, as the war is justified. So, I could randomly decide "I think I'll annex Colorado", but I'd take penalties for declaring war. However, if an event comes up that gives me the "Acquire State" Cassus Belli, I can declare war on the USA and say "I want Colorado." and nobody will care.



So what else does that leave? Right! Only two more things, and they're small.



Penultimately, is the information panel. This is what tells me about what I have selected. Here I have the city of Ponyville in the province of Canterlot. As you can see from the mouseover, almost all of Ponyville is farmers, and for some reason the modder made Ponyville farm fish rather than Fruit. Anyway, you can see the type of terrain below where it says Ponyville, as well as the life rating (How habitable is this place), what good is produced by RGOs in this province (Fish), How much is the RGO worth (52.519 Currency Units because I refuse to use Pounds), how many ponies are employed by the RGO (379K), the total population of the province (459K) (Holy fuck that's a lot of ponies), the distribution of the workforce (99% Farmers), the ideology of the populations here (Mostly conservatives), and the culture of the populations (Mostly Earth Pony, some Pegasus and some Unicorn.). There's also options to build a fort, a naval base/shipyard, and a Railroad, as well as options to build an army and build ships

And finally, there's the Army info panel.



From top to bottom, we have Army name (Royal Guard), the current general/admiral (None), it's location (Canterlot), force composition (3 Infantry, 0 Cavalry, 0 Artillery/Other), and the individual units making up this army. Of particular note is the combat mechanics in Paradox games. If you know them, they're the usual. If not, then there's three statistics for each army. There's Numbers, Morale (The green bar), and organization (The brownish bar). Armies fight until they either run out of Morale (In which case they retreat) or they're all dead (They're dead). Furthermore, you actually have to occupy territory, which means moving troops over it and keeping them there while they siege the fort/capture the city/loot the place/whatever.

Holy fuck. END GIANT POST.

E:Yeah. Definitely spoilering this, for the sake of the thread.

[Psyentific]

Prologue
What happened to our innocence? Did it go out of style?

          Since the beginning of history, Ponykind has lived peacefully along the coast of what would later be called California. Such things as murder, theft and war were unheard of, and the land was ruled benevolently by the beloved monarch, Princess Celestia. The princess had been in power for longer than recorded history, and the only pony who questioned her rule was her sister, Princess Luna. Legends say that Princess Luna, who ruled over the night, grew jealous of Celestia’s day, and plotted to overthrow her rule and bring about eternal night. Her plot was foiled by Celestia, and Luna, having transformed into the wicked Nightmare Moon, was banished to the moon for a thousand years. The most disruptive event in recent pony history (Prior to human contact of course) was the return of Nightmare Moon, and her defeat by the Elements of Harmony. The Elements of Harmony were physical manifestations of Ponykinds highest virtues; Generosity, Honesty, Loyalty, Kindness, Laughter, and Magic, and were activated by the power of friendship.

Then Humans were discovered.

          Word of strange hairless (Hairless!) bipedal apes (Apes! By Celestia!) first reached Ponykind through the Buffalo, who reported entire herds being massacred, their bodies found rotting in the sun with bits of meat cut off by a blade. Ponies were horrified, and Princess Celestia dispatched the Royal Guards best (and above all most stealthy) scouts to learn all they could of these creatures. The scouts first made contact with Native Americans, who warned the ponies of the White Man, and his treachery, dishonor, and cruelty. Celestia, given this knowledge, issued a royal decree saying that all ponies were to avoid human contact at all costs. Meanwhile, Celestia periodically sent Pegasus to watch the White Man, and saw that he was indeed treacherous and cruel.

But Equestria could not stay hidden forever.

          As time went on, Human explorers and colonists came to Equestria, and contact was made shortly after the fall of Napoleon, in 1816. The discovery of sentient, talking, non-human life shocked the world at large, and a huge wave of scientists, explorers, missionaries, colonists, and deviants came to Equestria.

          Princess Celestia once again learned from the Native Tribes, except this time she learned not to repeat their mistakes. She realized that in order to survive, Equestria would have to modernize. Empress Celestia recruited the greatest scientific minds from all over Europe, to bring Equestria’s technology in line with European technology, and reformed her government in the French Absolutionist style. She re-organized her primitive economy, jump-started the sciences (Except for Astronomy. It’s better to have the masses believe that their sovereign Monarch raises the sun each day), and transformed Her Royal Guard into the Equestrian Military. Her Little Ponies became exposed to all sorts of new ideas, from the Scientific Method to Liberalism.


          The year is now 1836, and Equestria stands poised on the brink of greatness. Empress Celestia rules her Celestial Empire with an Iron Hoof, and what few ponies dare to question her rule are taken away in the dead of night, and seldom heard from again. Meanwhile, Princess Luna has become infatuated with the liberal ideals that have begun to spark again in Europe.


          

Spoiler for State of the World, and World Map:

In Europe, Prussia and Austria jockey to form a unified Germanic state, Spain continues its decline, and The United Kingdom sits atop a vast colonial empire. In Africa, France wages wars against various North African countries for territorial concessions, while Spain postures and threatens Morocco. Closer to home, the Texas War of Independance rages on, and the United States of Central America destabilizes. In the Far East, Qing Dynasty China continues to be a backwards nation, albeit a major power in the region simply because of it's vast hordes.

World Map, January 1, 1836

[Iron Wall]

If you can somehow change names I would like to be something.
Even if not, I will imagine myself as the Great Leader of the power directly opposing you.

[Psyentific]

Iron Wall would make a nice pony general name (Too bad the names are all randomized! Arrgh!), or I could put in Craig and Chapman into the American and Canadian first and last name array. I think I'll do both! I'm currently in the middle of the Game Mechanics post, so...

[Psyentific]

Technical difficulties folks. This homebrew mod I'm using isn't fully working. I've got two bugs to iron out, and I suspect they may be connected. I'll probably put the first update up by tomorrow evening.

E: Well, I dun fucked up somewhere with mod merging, so it doesn't look like I'm going to be using the jump-started economy and all around nice things put in by PDM 4.25. Looks like a re-install is in order. I guess I shoulda taken care of this /before/ I posted, huh? That said, I do have backups, so one 5-minute copy job later and we're golden. First update is on schedule for tomorrow, and note to self: Never edit code in notepad, you will fuck up.

[Psyentific]

The ideals of the French Revolution were believed to have met their final demise at the hands of the Ancien Regimes of Europe. The flames of revolution may have been put out for now, but the ideals of nationalism and liberalism can never truly die. In this new era of unprecedented technological and scientific progress, doubts will be cast upon certainties that have stood since time immemorial. The people will realize that they can have true power in the government, and each nation will cope with this in different ways. Meanwhile, far away across the briny foam, the riches of Asia and Africa beckon.

~~~~~~~~~~

1836-1840
The more innocent and pure something is, the more satisfying it is to corrupt it.

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there came an era when the ideals of friendship, love, and tolerance gave way to greed, selfishness, paranoia, suspicion, bigotry, hatred and a jealous reaping of dwindling space and natural resources. In short, the ideals of Ponydom gave way to the ideas of Humanity, and Equestria was forever changed.

~~~

For some reason, Equestrian maps use the human tongue for place names. Canterlot is San Francisco, Cloudsdale is San Diego, and so on.

This will not do.



Empress Celestia comissions Equestria's finest cartographers to map Equestria accurately, and to "Use our names this time or I'll send you all to the moon!"




Our Glorious Empress also orders Equestria's best and brightest to begin research into methods of curing and preventing illness and disease. The research looks promising, but nothing will come of it for a few years.




Equestria is also very very crowded. Our Glorious Empress institutes a program of rounding up ponies and banishing them to uncolonized lands outside of Equestria's borders, in hopes that they'll eventually get villages up so she can annex them.




There are a few wars currently going on. Of note is the Texas War of Independance, fought by Texas and Mexico, with the USA standing poised to intervene on the side of Texas. France engages in some good ol' fashioned Imperialism, and the Ottomans are trying to annex Tripoli.



On July 28, 1836, Lady Rarity, a fashion designer-turned-aristocrat comes to court, and proposes the idea of a "Factory" to Empress Celestia. A "Factory" is a large building in which lower-class workers toil all day long, in terrible conditions, with no safety, to make goods cheaply and in massive quantities for sale for massive profit. In short, it's a place where the poor are exploited by the rich. Empress Celestia loves the idea, and mandates the construction of a Clothes factory, the proceeds of which will be split between Lady Rarity and The Crown. The Empress also mandates the construction of a few basic factories in the cities of Appleoosa and Stalliongrad.



To finance these factory, Empress Celestia implements her (highly unpopular) "Buck The Poor" tax. It can't tax everypony, but when a pony is taxed, the crown takes everything that pony owns.





Towards the end of 1836 the USA finally gets off it's flanks and intervenes in the Texas War of Independance. Unfortunately for Texas, all their armies are off in Maine or Montana doing buck all.



That wraps up 1836, so here's the current status of the Upper House, as published by the Royal Statistician Bell Curve

As you can see, Lady Rarity's Liberals are gaining members, mostly from Prince Blueblood's Reactionaries. The Conservatives lost a few members, but they still remain firmly in the majority. Of particular note is Princess Luna endorsing the Liberal party, stating that "[liberalism] is the way forward, the way to glory, and the way to greatness" and kicking off her push for "One Pony, One Vote". Empress Celestia distanced herself from her sister, politically and otherwise, stating that "Napoleonic France was liberal, and look where that got them. The entirety of Europe put aside their collective feuding to demolish Napoleon's empire. We will not repeat that mistake."

On the industrial side of things, construction of Equestria's factories is stalled due to an acute lack of machine parts. The Empress wishes it was within her power to order Equestria's artisans to make Machine Parts and wonders why it isn't (This is an Absolute Monarchy after all), but the Artisans likely realise that if they make machine parts then the machines will put them out of a job. The world demand for Machine parts is somewhere on the order of 175 tonnes, but the supply is only 2 tonnes.




1837



Here we can see that the First Royal Equestrian Army has been assembled in Stalliongrad, under General Apple Sparkle. The (former) Royal Artist has depicted our fine troops as Humans, under the command of a Human. He was summarily banished to the moon for stupidity and implying that humans are fit to serve in Equestria's Army in any role. At least he got the colours and flag right.

Spoiler for OOC Stuff:

Note that our army is composed of Irregulars. Irregulars are basically Pony With Gun Who Barely Knows Which Way To Point Gun. Most respectable nations normally field regulars, but due to Trollish Artisans refusing to make Small Arms and instead making Fertilizer (No joke!) we couldn't field Regulars. Regulars require Small Arms and Canned Food, but Irregulars only require Wool. The difference between Regulars and Irregulars is that Regulars actually have uniforms, are trained, and are almost always professional soldiers. Think British Redcoat as opposed to Colonial Militia. When you mobilize your nation, a percentage of your poor strata (Craftsmen, farmers, laborers etc.) are drafted into the military as Irregulars.

The Royal Advisors saw this one coming. The USA may have intervened in the Texan War, but they didn't actually Intervene. They just declared war and sat there like the filthy humans they are. The Head of the Military, one Iron Wall, told Her Gloriousness that this shows that the USA is, at best, an unreliable ally. Her Omnipotence agreed with this conclusion, but is of the opinion that neither the USA nor Mexico can be trusted as an ally.


A Map of North America, Post Texan War



A letter arrived for the Empress today from our ambassador to the United Stated. It detailed the current state of the USA, and how Slavery was such a dominant and divisive political issue that the President had to introduce a House Gag Rule, barring bills on the issue from being presented. Upon reading the letter, Empress Celestia noted that it was very hypocritical for a nation founded on the values of Liberty and Equality to have slavery.



And that wraps up 1837. The upper house has largely stagnated, with Lady Rarity's Liberals gaining a handful of members. Empress Celestia made a speech to the Upper House, stating that "Humans cannot be trusted, no matter their nationality" among other things. A majority of the house applauded her, but Princess Luna and notable members of the Liberal Party remained silent. Meanwhile, progress on the factories continues to stall, again because of a lack of Machine Parts.




Earlier that day, word reached the Royal Cartographers that the Ottoman Empire had annexed Tripoli, in Africa, so the map was re-coloured to reflect this development.



In March 1938 word reached Her Eminence that the USA had passed the Kansas-Nebraska act, which lead to further rising tensions on the issue of slavery. The states created out of the Louisiana Colony decided to allow slavery, making the Southern United States pro-slavery and the Northern states Anti-Slavery.





The formerly ignorant masses have begun to take an interest in the politics of their parent nation all over the world. It started slow, with private meetings and small discussions, but by the beginning of 1840 The Age of Liberalism would be in full swing.

Spoiler for Game Mechanics:

There's two important stats for each population. There's Consciousness, which is basically a measure of how much ponies care about politics. How ignorant the masses are. Then, there's Militancy, which is how willing a population is to fight for it's beliefs and ideals. Moderate to High militancy leads to Conservatives wanting to pass reforms, and high militancy leads to REBEL SCUM.

Fluttershy - Yay 2

At the beginning of June, 1838, Ponies realized that Empress Celestia did indeed raise the sun every morning and lower it every Evening, and Princess Luna raised the moon every evening and lower it every morning. They also became much less tolerant of so-called "Heliocentrics", who insisted that the Earth spun around like a top, with the Moon revolving around the Earth and the Earth revolving around the sun. What a preposterous notion. Living on a giant top? I mean really.





The Age of Liberalism started small. A Secret Society here,




A book there,




Some posters on the wall there,




A sermon condemning liberal values by a Celestia-Endorsed preacher over there...



And before you know it, well, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.



On the international side of things, the USA made peace with Mexico, confirming that they don't actually give a buck who messes with Texas.





Again on the domestic side of things, Washington was colonized, with the colonial capital being Seaddle. Unfortunately for the former new Royal Cartographer, he refused to rename Seattle to Seaddle. He was also sent to the moon.

Fluttershy - yay

And at the end of the beginning of 1839, the research on Medicine was finally completed. Many many medical breakthroughs await!



After Medicine, Her Magnificence ordered research on culture and how to be cultured.



The Netherlands renounces their claims on Belgium, nobody cares.



On a somewhat more noteworthy thingy, this happened.





Ponies were in the streets of Ponyville, protesting against "The Tyrant". Empress Celestia ordered the Royal Guard dispatched to quell the mobs, which quickly dispersed at the threat of being shot. Anti-Celestia sentiment remains in the streets of Ponyville, and Celestia's prized student Twilight Sparkle (The organizer of the demonstration) refuses to speak to her and has been quoted as saying "The Celestia I knew and loved is dead"



The Freeponies have spread to Fillydelphia, and the First Equestrian Royal Army was dispatched to supress them. Ponies love to talk about politics when there is no threat of banishment, but when the Army shows up in town all talk ceases.






Along with the talkers comes a significantly more worrisome group. The Militants. The Rebels. Given time, they will inevitably rise up and attempt to overthrow the government and put a new one in place. These rebels are the second lowest of the Scum, and the only lower ones are Nationalists and Patriots.




The American Slavery issue continues onward, and the Americans continue to oppress the Native Humans. If they are willing to relocate an entire nation of native humans, what will come of a nation of native Ponies? Our Glorious God-Empress had this to say "We will not be moved! This is our land, and we will fight to defend it! Let the Yankee dogs try and take our land."




A student political society at the University of Canterlot held a rally on the 26th of June, 1839. Her Royalness ordered the Police to break up the rally, and many ponies now lie beaten, bleeding, dying or dead on the campus. Celestia has been quoted as saying "Those who question the natural order of things shall be given no mercy, as they are as good as traitors in the eyes of the nation".



A Pony Scientist whose name will doubtlessly go down in history has proposed a theory that states that tiny unseeable things in the air or water cause disease, and cleaning things before sticking them into ponies bodies can help prevent the spread of disease. Who would've thunk that sticking dirty things in your body is a bad thing? Also in the papers was the United Kingdom abolishing their Corn Tariffs.


The Ponyville Protests were foreshadowing of things to come. On Decemeber 24th, 1839, the ponies of Las Vegas organized a massive demonstration against The Tyrant. Empress Celestia responded in much the same way as the Ponyville Protest. She ordered the First Equestrian Royal Army to move in and supress the protesters "By Any Means Necessary".



It started out like they all do. The Army lined up on the streets, 3 rows deep, and the officers yelled at the protesters to go back to their homes. The protesters ignored them, and this continued for some time.

Then somepony threw a rock, and it all went to hell.

The rock in question hit Lieutenant Steelhooves in the side of the head, and somepony took that as his cue to open fire. That one gunshot echoed across the city streets, and everypony was silent. Then, a moment later, all the troops opened fire. Over two hundred ponies died in that first wave, and many more were trampled to death. The pegasus flying overhead opened fire on the fleeing protesters, and blood filled the streets. The First Royal Equestrian Army had drawn it's first blood against the ponies of Las Vegas, and the next day the headlines read:

738 DEAD IN THE STREETS OF LAS VEGAS
Royal Army 'Disperses' Peaceful Protest

This would come to be known as the Christmas Massacre, and it only served to fan the flames of rebellion.

Glory to Equestria.

[Iron Wall]

(( I'm going to shoot myself later for posting this in ponyspeak. ))

General Iron Wall pawed the ground with one iron-shod hoof. Looking about him in distaste at the slums of Las Vegas, he tried with little success to lift his head above the smog and filth of the poor districts. Realizing that this would not be possible, he snorted and turned to face Lieutenant Steelhooves, only recently recovered from the vicious rock-thrower. Steelhooves nodded respectfully to his commander, and spoke, still a little more slowly than normal.

"The rebels are very nearly subdued, sir. What would you have of us?"

Iron Wall snorted again, disdainfully, and narrowed his eyes. He stomped the ground hard with one hoof before deigning to reply.

"Keep going. Butcher as many as you can. Leave enough alive that work will not be too thoroughly disrupted, but everypony must know that rebellion WILL," and he struck the ground with each of these words, "NOT BE TOLERATED. All glory to Equestria and the Empress."

Lieutenant Steelhooves, seeming to sober up for a moment, stomped the ground in response. "All glory to Equestria and the Empress. Your will be done, sir." Then he turned to face his assembled lines of battleponies, and in a loud, thunderous voice, called out to them.

"PONIES! YOU HAVE YOUR ORDERS! ANY OF THE SCUM THAT OFFER RESISTANCE WILL FACE ONLY A  BULLET! NO SYMPATHY! GLORY TO EQUESTRIA AND THE EMPRESS!"

A roar filled the streets of the slums as each of the battleponies replied in kind, and then the officers took charge of their individual regiments and began marching them through the streets and alleys.

The General laughed, shaking his head. No mane flipped in the wind - that had been lost long ago, in such a way that it would never grow back. He continued to laugh as screams and orders to fire filled the air.

[Psyentific]

Sorry folks, but I don't think this is going to work. Vicky 2 just isn't holding my interest, and I don't think I have the amount of time required to sink into a Paradox LP. That said, that doesn't mean you can't read one. There's an ongoing Paradox LP over at Something Awful, by the same guy who did Hohellenzaren Rising.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3429306

Sorry.

[NauticalMongoose]

Sucks man

But we all got to see Chapman RP a pony and that was more than worth it

[Psyentific]

Sucks man

But we all got to see Chapman RP a pony and that was more than worth it

Agreed.

[Gaming]

Summer 2013:

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