>>148585Sea Breeze listens to Dark Star as he speaks, nods, and leans forward
"Dark Star... You must understand..." He breaths out in something like a sigh, and looks back up to him.
"Our base of support, a majority of our supporters, really, all come from one Equestrian colony. And of that group, half of the male population between 15 and 65 is carrying arms. Half the population, who are not in the factories making goods to buy, or in the fields growing food. Not paying taxes. It must be this way, because with the crisis with Wingbardy, we are scarcely defending ourselves from powerful kingdoms who wish to see us crushed under our heels. We must wage war to the death with foreign powers, while garrisoning an empire that thankfully gives us raw materials, but costs precious money and ponypower.
Dark Star, when we came into Baltimare, we attempted to implement the Blackhooves political program. Trade only within the Customs Union, Nationalization of Unions, giving the State ownership of a portion of all large industries, a thorough purge of corruption and organized, bringing education under proper State oversight, the elimination of non-pony immigration... An uprising resulted. Garrisons were attacked and overrun, armories looted... we had to bring the city under siege, and shell it for days. We cannot afford that now. If Equestria is to become like its children across the sea, it must come after the most radical opposition is crushed, and when its ponies are ready and willing to accept the change.
Are you concerned about being the Evil one? Dark Star, you must know that history advances in a dialectic. History contains within it many contradictions, and at every era questions must be asked that force these contradictions to the fore, and force a conflict between thesis and antithesis. In our era, this question is between those who see Ponies finding their happiness and purpose by their relationships with others - with family, tradition, culture, and the State - and with those who see Ponies as finding their ends severed from ties of family, tradition, culture, and the State. Should ponies see the Princesses and elements as rolemodels separate from themselves, leaving them free as individuals to pursue their own course? Or is society dutybound to the individual, and the individual duty bound to society, to make every pony an element bearer? These are the questions of our time, and I know very well where I stand. You should not feel concerned in the least to be "evil" to your antithesis, for that is their role in history, just as they recognize yours. Be certain that you triumph and they lose, and do not care if they are not, to the stallion, convinced of the rightness of your cause. Let them be swept aside. It matters not what they think sitting in a dank prison, lying dying in the street, hanging from a noose, or pouting silently at the parade procession sideline."