Ponyville Express, Friday, 45th of Spring, Year 1002 S.C. MLP FiM Season 2

"The Sweet Apple family has filed a grievance claim against a young colt for submitting a slanderous story to the Ponyville School's Student Press monthly newspaper. The colt in question, Clover Grass Blade, meant the story as a joke. He said the idea came up while joking around with his friends. They challenged him to submit the story to the Student Press' Story Pages, in which he did. The students running the Student Press compensated Clover with six chocolate chip oatmeal muffins for his contribution. Young Clover also admitted he got the idea from Ponyville's four 'Cutie Mark Crusaders,' all but one declined the allegations.

Regardless, Applejack filed a grief claim against the county school district, and demanded a written apology from Clover. Applejack also demanded $300 bits in compensation for the slander, the same amount as the fee required to file the grief claim. The claim was filed in the county court.

School teacher Cheerilee rushed to Clover's defense, and the school's accountants, also experts in legal lore, blasted Applejack at a parent teacher meeting last week, for making such an outrage over a story written by a young colt, merely as a joke, and no more than harmless mischief on paper. No more harm did Clover's story than Applejack's reaction, which may help explain why she was portrayed the way she was.

Clover wrote a long apology letter, which, to this writer, sounds forced, like something from a dictator. Long story short, Applejack dented her own family's reputation. Since modern Ponyville's antiquity, the Sweet Apple clan and their fellow family and friends have been nothing but support for Ponyville and the county. The Apples are known for their family ties, their culture, and above all, their apples, wherever you find an Apple pony family and their orchards and farms.

The Apples are rumored to be a closed-knit community, and don't welcome outsiders. That statement is false. Like all ponies with private homes, and private land, especially where they make their living, and live in privacy, the Apples welcome outsider ponies when they wish to. In fact, 10 or so plots on Sweet Apple Acres are used by other ponies for other crops, and raising sheep and cows. Trades ponies of all kinds have found work and home for short and long periods of time on Applejack's land, and in turn, have given their efforts and business to their family and Ponyville in exchange. So it's without a question the Apple family are good and generous ponies. Perhaps young Clover was mocking Applejack's behavior when she's at home, in private, and not in the public eye. As Applejack is honest, even she is as a pony as Clover, or you, or me. Perhaps Clover's imagination is put to better use in his school work.

This editorial criticizes Applejack for her volatile reaction to harmless colt behavior. It is humor, and a positive expression of energy. What Applejack did, was she taught young Clover that she dare not be mocked. Same told true in his story, in which a tyrant Applejack beats others for even questioning or defying her authority, or her word. Applejack took the bait, and made a mockery of herself, and played to Clover's hoof-pen. Perhaps his mischievous writing, meant for him and his friends, and now public, calls Applejack out, however naughty Clover's writings were. The whole story was meant to be a harmless joke, but the tragedy unfolds further:

News of the story has left Ponyville, and reached the larger cities in [North America], and parts of Europa. These include any town that is home to a former univerity or college, turned ideological cult center, which produces hundreds of thousands of young ponies who are completely delusional and stripped of their mental faculties, and abilities to listen, reason, and process and reject harmful information at their own will. They are devoted fanatics, baited into a cause the seeks to undermine the longstanding rule of Princess Celestia, and the very ways in how ponies live as friends, families, and even individuals, under Her Guidance.

And these fanatics have shed all moral standings, and chase power, by pursuing their new found "philosophical" dreams, at the grave, and destructive expense of other ponies, who never asked for any kind of fight, conflict, or even problems.

Ponies everywhere have challenges to face everyday, from the moment they wake up, until the moment they fall asleep. We live a way of life that is complicated, and the prescribed way, passed down to us by HH Princess Celestia, ever since the end of the Nightmare Wars, and the Summer Sun Celebration. Now Celestia never asked all of ponykind to worship her in fear or obey her, as young Clover portrayed the Princess to be. She doesn't command ponies to attend a church or temple every Sunday morning or evening.

Celestia's Book of Sun, or so-called 'Rulebook to Life,' is meant to be a set of guidelines, not strict rules commanding punishment, shame, guilt, dis-proportionate and forced apologies, or any condemnation for any pony who falls short. Communities of ponies who keep to the Princess' way of life for ponies, do tend to do quite well for themselves, and the entirety of the Apple family world wide, have always strived to live by the Princess' guidelines.

As the Princess has written over a thousand years ago, and I quote here: "Fear not judgement and punishment in life and in death, your faith and loyalty will keep you in life and in death. In your life time, you have but the rules of societies and others to live by, and you are called to account for your actions. Above all, for what you do, you must answer to yourself, as much as the Princess, to prevent unnecessary tension in the heart, mind, and soul.' These words are solid evidence that the Princess, in all her epic and fearful glory, does not condemn, nor destroy her faithful subjects and followers.

The exact opposite against the Princess and pony freedom, are those who claim to have gone to the big cities' once-prestigious schools. Tragically, only Canterlot's schools and training centers maintain the gold standard of school for ponies seeking knowledge and skills. And this story caused an overrated sensation in the large cities as word passed through newspapers, TV, and radio, and word of tongue. And the shame and negativity directed at a 10 year old elementary school colt from a small town. A little mischievous story. Like anypony has never gotten up to such behavior in their foalhood.

However, the Ponyville Express received another hot deep fried political cornball: a 75 paged document containing a long list of angry demands from ponies with no connection to Ponyville, that in the long run, require the residents of Ponyville completely convert to a new, senseless, and dangerous sets of ideals that promote division and hatred. Such demands included:

+The resignation of school teacher Cheerilee Blossom, and a letter of apology, and intent to "reform,"

+A full apology letter from Clover Grassblade (mind you, not just to Applejack, which he duly wrote and redeemed himself; but to perhaps millions of ponies, whom he's ever even heard of, who are suddenly so angry with him. This is madness.

+a written commitment by Clover, to commit to 'Urban Hoofism' {whatever the hell that means, even our resident royal understudy and librarian, Twilight Sparkle, might not even have an answer. Science and the study of our world around is has always been fascinating for dedicated minds such as hers.

So far, what we do know about "Urban Hoofism," is that it doesn't let ponies write as they do, say as they say, or act as they act. Our correspondents deep in hostile foreign territory. Those who promote it through demands bring with them anger, hate, disgust, shame, guilt, and the forcefully accepted "soft slow murder" of anypony who gets in their way or shows up on their radar. Like Clover did.

So now Ponyville is in the world spotlight. 4'500 ponies. 2 million 'educated,' urban hoofist ponies, skilled at future tech such as computers. Information spreads faster than fire in crowded cities where there is an electronic or magical computer device for each pony. How they do it? Story for another time. The point is, our little quiet town has been exposed to social pandemics sweeping North America's large cities, and Ponyville is about to receive a tidal wave of this mind terror.

Country and small town ponies live simpler and peaceful lives out here, free from the high pressure city bustle. But they are not immune to the thousands of lies, mind and heart tricks employed by urban hoofism. This alone has been the means for such whinnying cancer to spread rapidly in crowded cities. Naturally, Ponyville is isolated, and connected to the outside world via Equestria Rail.

So during the years since the beginning of urban hoofism, Ponyville has been relatively safe from such a threat. What kind of threat do you ask? Not the threats where hordes of armed ponies storm, loot, sack, and burn Ponyville to the ground, and take us all away, no. There is no blood spilled when these ponies far away go to war. Their weapons: Every peaceful means in the way ponies out here live. Almost every commandment and guideline written by Celestia has been twisted into something far different, and dangerously useful. There are the conspiracy theorist ponies, who keep a hyper vigilant eye out for Nightmare Moon, who have listed urban hoofism to be Nightmare Moon's covert weapon against Celestia. They fear urban hoofism is an act of revenge against Celestia and her subjects for Nightmare Moon's defeat 1001 years ago. They say the enemy's followers will work tirelessly through the generations, and when Nightmare Moon came back, they were ecstatic to hear she had been defeated again. but they fear she is waging a silent war from within the Castle itself.

So Applejack and Clover made mistakes and cracked open a Pandora's box that has put Ponyville at risk.

Ponyville in Danger
Why are we in danger?
No physical danger in a sense. In that regard, hooligan ponies who visit town are more of a worry than the urban hoofists.
but they have their tricks. So far, the Post Office has reported 14 pieces of angry mail, directed at the school, Cheerilee, and Clover's family. Even the three CMC's received hate mail at their homes over this incident. So far the Town Guard is investigating.

So how could this get worse?
First we have mail. Largest package was a stack of pamphlets and booklets about urban hoofism. These were hoofed over to the town guard for investigation. UH's are known to send far worse mail than they let on, and when it gets there, the recipient was sometimes lucky to land in a hospital, or a vet, or even be dead.

Repeated harassment through mail is a common flood tactic used by our distant foes. The post office is also taking measures into tis own hooves. In many regions, hoofism materials have been banned, and seized from travelers. But soon, they, themselves will come. There is no standard legal recourse to simply ban ponies from coming in, unless Mayor Mare signs an emergency travel ban. Such a ban could allow the town guard and Equestrial Rail staff to halt known hoofist ponies.

The Mayor has already had to take such a decision 8 years ago, early on in her career as mayor. In the mid winter of Year 998, Ponyville was to become a new home base for a cult named 'Knights of the Mare.' KoM was a terror group that wage a brutal war in the name of their queen, Nightmare Moon. And at the time, KoM was at war with the region's Apple pony clans, including the Sweet Apples, who were stubborn defenders of Celestia's ways. They were to occupy the same patch of land home to the carnivorous Apple Jaegars from Clover Grassblade's story.

No way in heck would Applejack or anypony around have permitted such a black-magic terrorist base to exist in Ponyville's back yard. The Town Council voted all in, and granted Mayor Mare rare executive authority for a five month period. For that time Mayor Mare had direct command over the town guard, and the Equestria Rail Guard troops posted at the station. Mayor Mare, at the advice of Ponyville's town guard chief, requested an emergency re-route order from the EQR, that stopped the train before it even entered Ponyville County...out of three hundred miles of Everfree Forest. The EQR contacted the Canterlot Royal Guard, and held all trains known to be carrying members of KoM. Ponyville was spared, and Mayor Mare indicated the day she relinquished her emergency powers after the incident, that she would again push for county-wide bans against ponies who threatened to undermine the social fabric of the county's communities.

And our new 'friends' list of demands also includes the resignation of Mayor Mare and the present town council. Today, such demands are laughable here, however, where the urban hoofists' thrive, they have employed creative, and deliberate passive aggressive means to enforce their will.

And their most widely used weapon of all: racism. It has been their guilt card since their beginnings, and is the ultimate example of playing anger, sadness, shame, hatred among ponies to destroy long lasting friendships that had been a basis for how ponies live today. It is playing grudges, bringing up the past for no other than psychological damage, manipulation, deceit.

Now the dredded word itself. "Reissism."

Every species of animal is identified by its members by common visual looks: Skin, fur, ears, eyes and eye colors, and so on. Ponies are no different. The Equestus Fausticus is by design as an organism, split into three 'races' as we view other ponies today. Earth ponies. Unicorns. Pegasi. Each have their own unique features and abilities, and when all three work together, we have our modern way of life, the most advanced in hundreds of years.

Now, racism occurs because we all have our own prejudices towards others, based on experiences, and what others tell us. Unicorns think earth ponies are inferior, because they don't use magic. Pegasi see themselves as above both the unicorns and the earth ponies. They make that known in how they use the weather to mess with the earth ponies and unicorns on the ground.

The unicorns also go after the earth ponies because they can. Just like the Pegasi do to them. The earth ponies do have their ace card, and without them, there'd be very few unicorns and pegasi around today. They are very skilled and knowledgebale when it comes to the land itself. Geology, farming, soil work. Unicorns and pegasi have struggled to re-create the farming conditions needed to grow the best food. Despite their efforts, unicorns' magic irradiates the soil and destroys their crops, or live-stock.

Pegasi have yet to create floating platforms that could hold up to thousands of tons of soil; getting it off the ground was always a feat, but the Pegasi, thanks to earth pony friends, have developed hydroponic farming, never the less, tending the plants is difficult.
Most of the cloud cities float at an average altitude of 20'000 to 80'000 feet, where the air is too thin for life. The Pegasi have mastered the art of turning water into glass, but discovered any contact with soil destroyed their patented 'hydro-glass.' Instead they use this for air-tight cities and habitats. Hydroglass buildings house the plants, but thanks to solar radiation, and temperature extremes, most of their floating farms are less than 3000 feet above sea level, and earth ponies are still needed to 'read' the plants, and stop any disease that might destroy their crops.

And the Earth Ponies? They have retaliated time and time again by scorching their crops and salting the earth to disrupt, and destroy food supply lines. One such gruesome incident happened 400 years ago, on the island of Avalon. After decades of mistreatment and abuse by the local pegasi, the earth ponies torched every acre of good farmland on the island, in a cruel effort to starve out the pegasi living on the island. A war of annihilation and destruction ensued, and the pegasi unleashed hell from above, until their supplies ran dry. hundreds of thousands on both sides died as a result.

Long story short, all three races of ponykind have their gifts, their drawbacks, and weaknesses. And they have plenty of greviences from the past to back up their prejudice against one another. "Oh look, a mud pony, keep away, they are filthy." Or: "Keep away from them unicorns, them horners will deep fry your gizzards and giblets with their magic and bait you off to the pits of hell" And let's not forget: "The unicorns work for us, the mud ponies work for us. Unicorns have to be put down once in a while, but it doesn't take much to keep a mud pony in line, on the other wing, they are so fun to play around with! Long live the Pegasi master race!"

Racism. In it's benign form before urban hoofists, and all ponies serving evil use to set everything on fire in terms of how we speak and think to and of one another. And let's not forget simple prejudice: it's the measure every individual animal takes to check something out, and realize its not something the animal likes very much, or takes a notice of the difference for future reference.

Example: A cat is out in the sun with her kitten. Fox shows up. Cat grabs kitten and runs like hell. An urban hoofist would want to see the cat stop, and pretend to be friends with the fox while it kills and devours them both. Another urban hoofist would tell the fox to stop hunting killing, and eating, and live on a diet of plant material.... Foxes and cats are not designed to just stop and act like friends. Intelligent mammals, such as ponies, and the mythical cousin of the chimp, the 'human,' use prejudice in how we think, talk behave so on. We notice our differences in fur color and horns and wings, but usually for identification, not hostility. AND we prejudice based on how other ponies act around us.

Urban hoofists want ponies in their influence to stop acting the way we are meant to be, and divide and destroy each other further.

Young colt Clover Grassblade was accused of racism in the way he described Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Sweetie Belle, and Twilight Sparkle. So, it had to be explained by somepony outside the chaotic lands of urban hoofism, before they come in their hordes to shove their own definitions down ponies' throats. In good news, Mayor Mare has been meeting with contacts in the EQR and the Canterlot Royal Guard, regarding the matter.

In Year 997, urban hoofism was added to the list of banned cults, however, they adapted, and Ponyville is in their sights. Thank you Clover Grassblade.