Power of a bad idea

In a Cloudsdale library, a teal pegasus was walking around the tables when she saw a pony reading a history book. She approached him and said, "Hey, what are you reading?"

"History of Cloudsdale."

"Why?"

"I'm a history professor. I know all this, but it never hurts to revise. I can show you where I got this if you want."

"History... you know, unicorns were historically pretty bad ponies?"

"Huh, are you talking about the sun ransom?"

"Yeah, can you believe that? They lowered the sun and told the pegasi that unless they bring less rain, they'll make it too hot to fly ever again. Like they know proper weather control more than us. And now they pretend it never happened."

"That was hundreds of years ago, it doesn't matter anymore."

Snowstorm nudged him and said, "You're a history teacher. Do you even hear yourself? The past has an effect on the present: all the buildings in the present were built in the past, all the trees in the present were planted in the past and most importantly, all the unicorns in the present were raised by the unicorns of the past."

The pony replied, "I didn't think about it that way... you're right, we need to do something about them."

He stretched out his hoof, "My name is Wind Time. Yours?"

She shook his hoof and replied, "Snowstorm Justice. And I'm going to live up to that name. Get a classroom ready, I'll meet you at your school this afternoon."

She walked away, but he stopped her, "Wait, I didn't tell you what school I teach in."

"Oh, sorry..."

Down in Ponyville, another pegasus was looking up, ready for a short trip to the cloudy city. A unicorn was digging through his saddlebag, "Okay, you have your bits, your water, your identification..."

"Caution! I'm just going for a short trip to Cloudsdale, it doesn't matter much if I forgot something."

"Sorry... why are you going again?"

"Air Travel complained that I could've bought a souvenir for her the last time I was up there, but I didn't. I would tell her to get it herself, but she can't walk on clouds."

"I see. Well, have fun and don't forget what we told you about Snowstorm."

"I won't, see ya!", Cyniquote said as he flew away.

Snowstorm walked down the ice-looking street. Everything was made from either clouds or white stone. Every pony around her was a pegasus, but she wasn't satisfied. She saw a police pony flying and patrolling. She flew to her and say, "Excuse me, officer, I'd like to report a crime."

She got out her notes and said, "Oh, sure, who do you want to report?"

"Unicorns."

"Which unicorns?"

"All of them. They're all criminals."

"Lady, you do know slander is a crime, right?"

"It's only slander if I'm lying. You know, I spent my childhood in Canterlot and I once got a hold of some crime statistics."

"Umm... what did they say?"

"Statistically speaking, unicorns commit more break-ins and pickpocket more than any other kind of pony. And that's even adjusting for population. You're free to check them if you want."

"C'mon, no pony kind is better or worse than others."

Snowstorm tapped her shoulder in comfort, "I'd like to believe that too, but numbers don't lie. If we were all equally good, wouldn't the numbers reflect that?"

"I can't argue with that..."

"Meet me at High Stratus High School when your shift ends. You want to fight crime, I'm your mare."

Meanwhile, Cyniquote was searching though the city, thinking, "C'mon, where's a souvenir shop? I know this isn't the most popular tourist attraction, but there's gotta be one around here... oh, there it is!"

He approached the building, but it was overcrowded and filled with ponies arguing. He was about to step in, but though, "No, I gotta keep my anger in check and this isn't urgent."

He sat on a bench opposite the store and waited for the crowd to disperse. Snowstorm sat beside him and "Hey..."

"Stop. I gotta concentrate on that store. There will be a perfect opportunity to come in, but I have to be ready", said Cyniquote, his eyes not moving away from the store.

"Okay, you don't have to look at me. You're Cyniquote, right? The movie critic who almost beat Rainbow Dash in a race?"

"I'd rather be famous without being compared to others, but thank you."

Snowstorm scratched her chin and decided on her words, "You're a movie critic. You've probably noticed some issues with representation in movies, right?"

Still staring at the store, Cyniquote replied, "Well, I've noticed that a lot of villains are unicorns. That kind of sends a wrong message to ponies. Or maybe I'm just looking too deeply into it."

"Wait, that's not where this was supposed to go! There's too many unicorn heroes!"

"Snowstorm?", Cyniquote asked as he turned and looked at the mare.

"How do you know my name?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you harassed my sister and brother-in-law!"

"Tease Talk did say she had a brother... small world."

"I'm a critic, I know stories need a few coincidences to work. But I'm going off topic. Caution and Tease Talk warned me about you."

Snowstorm didn't let her guard down, "What did they say?"

"They told me that if I met you here, I should leave you alone because you're relatively harmless. But if you prove me wrong, I'll break my promise."

Cyniquote angrily walked away.

Snowstorm thought, "Shame... he would be an excellent hero if he wasn't so misguided. And now I sound like the unicorns..."

Later on, she was in a middle of talking to clerk at a candy store. The clerk said, "Don't you think it's unfair to judge all unicorns based on a few bad ones?"

"Maybe, but think about this."

Snowstorm grabbed a bowl of sample candy and said, "Say that ten percent of candy in this bowl was poisoned, and they look exactly the same as the safe ones. Would you still take one, or would you get as far away from the bowl as possible?"

The clerk sighed and said, "I would get rid of the bowl..."

Good, now if you want to pull that off, go to High Stratus High School when your shift ends.

Cyniquote walked the street, thinking, "I waited so long for the store to empty up, but I couldn't find anything that looked good. Maybe there's another store somewhere."

As he walked, he overheard Snowstorm talking to an electrician taking care of a streetlamp. He was in the middle of explaining, "The pegasi complained that the light was too bright, so we have to weaken it. I guess the works in Canterlot underestimated the eyes of pegasi, heh."

"Yet another clue they don't care about us..."

"C'mon, I was just kidding."

"But I wasn't. You know, I grew up in Canterlot. A classmate once turned my legs into rubber and... stop laughing!"

"Sorry."

Snowstorm got to her point, "If a filly unicorn has that much power, imagine what an adult can do. And they do nothing to restrain that power. Clearly they want to be the superior ponies."

"I never though about it that way..."

"Come with me, there's a lot you don't think right about."

Snowstorm dragged him away as Cyniquote watched. He decided to follow them from a safe distance. The two ponies entered a high school. Cyniquote wondered, "Isn't it Saturday?"

He entered and heard Snowstorm's voice from a distance. He walked the hallways of the school. It had blue walls, many lockers and items on high shelves. He complained, "Woe to anypony who comes here with a broken wing."

He put his ear on one of the doors and heard Snowstorm start her lecture, "Good afternoon, everyone. I see most of you brought your friends here. Dinner's on me after we're done here. Consider it a thank you."

Cyniquote, still eavesdropping, thought, "I wanna see where this is going."

Snowstorm said, "I had the worst experience finding a job in Cloudsdale. Every time some unicorn was "more qualified than me" when it came to weather control. Don't those unicorn know pegasi are the best at that?"

Cyniquote slammed the door open and saw a classroom with eleven ponies, "What are you doing!?"

One of the pegasi said, "Hey, you're that guy who almost beat Rainbow Dash."

"First of all, I have a name. Second of all, what are you trying to do, Snowstorm?"

Snowstorm replied, "I'm going to teach these ponies about the world and how to change it."

Cyniquote bluntly said, "Yeah, you're dangerous. I'm sure the principal will love to hear that you're using their school for a pegasus supremacist meeting."

Snowstorm pointed at him and turned to her students, "After him!"

Ponies started to approach him, but Cyniquote shoved them off. Two pegasi grabbed each front hoof, but Cyniquote started flying and shaking, making them let go. Snowstorm threatened him, "Keep fighting, even you can't beat ten ponies at once."

Cyniquote flew away, but ponies chased him. He pushed the lockers on a pony and threw clocks and potted plants from the shelves on another. He threw a pegasus into his coworker and knocked them both down. None of those things were enough to knock the ponies out, though. They kept chasing him through the halls and Cyniquote started to slow down, "Ugh... this would be easier if I didn't spent the day walking and flying around the town."

Snowstorm's students ganged up on him. Cyniquote punched, kicked and resisted for a few minutes, but the ponies each grabbed a leg and finally subdued him. Snowstorm approached him. Cyniquote looked away and said, "Well, I still took a while to get captured..."

"Yes, you did. You're strong, but you can't fight an idea by tattling and throwing things. Ideas are invincible."

"You stole that from a movie!"

"Shut up!"

Snowstorm's group tied up Cyniquote's mouth and body with two gym ropes and locked him in their classroom's broom closet.

"And that distraction is taken care of."

One of the pegasi raised her hoof, "I don't know, isn't this bit extreme?"

"If we didn't do that, he would've told our plans to ponies who aren't ready yet. He fought for Ponyville plenty of times, I wish he could fight for his like that."

All Cyniquote could do is rest, restore his strength and listed to Snowstorm's rants, "Canterlot has too many unicorns, but we can go to Ponyville today and show them our way. I can't believe they think pegasi and unicorns can live in peace."

Back in Ponyville, Cyniquote's friend was sitting on a bench in a park, thinking, "Huh, he should've come back by now. What if something happened to him?"

Scenarios rolled through his head, but Caution stopped them, "No, that's just paranoia speaking! He probably didn't bring enough bits... And that's why I'm gonna go to Cloudsdale! To get him more bits, of course."

Caution formed a barrier around him, raised it and started floating to Cloudsdale."

Meanwhile, Cyniquote was still in the broom closet, forced to listen to Snowstorm. He thought, "Ugh, if only I was as good at fighting as I am in arguing. Then again, maybe the latter will be enough. Maybe I can just expose her as part-unicorn. Then again, I should focus on the arguments, not the one who said them. Hmm..."

Snowstorm was about to finish her lecture, "What else did I leave out... oh, yeah. There's a pony down there who flies with mechanical wings."

The electrician said, "That sounds awesome."

"It's not awesome, it's mockery. Why doesn't he build mechanical feathers to clean up, or give himself cramps when he sleeps on the side? That unicorn thinks we're a toy or something."

Cyniquote was still listening and struggling, "He's an earth pony and he won't be attacked by you, I swear it..." He got himself out of the ropes and started to punch the wall, "I just gotta persist."

A pony in the back called Snowstorm, "Excuse me, I head punching noises from the closet. Should we check up on him?"

"Don't be ridiculous, a pony can't break a wall with just punching."

After a while, they heard the noises of the wall breaking. Snowstorm rushed to unlock the door, but when she entered, she saw that the broom closet was empty and that there was a big hole in the wall.

"I'm only gonna say this once... I should keep my mouth shut."

Cyniquote was flying as quickly as possible, shaking his front hooves, "Ow... glad I wasn't punching with my wings. Gotta get to Ponyville and gather my friends, maybe we canOOF!"

He slammed into Caution's floating barrier, "What are you doing here?"

"I thought you were... low on bits or something, so wanted to help you."

"Bits are my last concern now!"

Snowstorm and her pegasi flew over to them, "Get out of our way, we're needed in your town."

Caution commented, "But this is the sky, we're not a obstacle."

Cyniquote told Caution, "They stuffed me in a broom closet, trap them!"

Without question, Caution formed barriers around all the pegasi. They tried to push and hit, but they couldn't get out. One of the ponies yelled, "This is an abuse of power!"

Cyniquote said, "You guys chased me down and tied me up. Whatever you wanted to do in Ponyville, it wouldn't be good."

Snowstorm turned to Caution and gloated, "Go ahead and trap us. Shining Armor's barrier couldn't last forever, what chance does your unicorn friend have?"

Caution asked, "You still don't know my name?"

Cyniquote said, "We do have a chance because there's one strategy we haven't tried."

"And what's that?"

"We're gonna talk to you."

Cyniquote approached one of the ponies and pointed at him, "You, why do you hate unicorns?"

"They're too powerful. I mean, just look at what your friend did."

"My friend's been through a bunch of adventures. You use magic a lot, you get good at it, that's how it works. And what do you care if he's powerful or not? He didn't get that power by stealing it from anypony, he earned it."

"But he's dangerous."

"Just because he's strong, doesn't mean he's dangerous. Celestia's the most powerful pony in Equestria, how many times did she use her powers for evil?"

The pony frowned and said, "Never..."

Caution approached one and heard his excuse, "Unicorns oppressed ponies in the past."

"Yeah, that's a shame, but what do we in the present have to do with it?"

"You guys were raised by the unicorns of the past."

"That doesn't mean we're like them. Just ask my mom. I mean, are you exactly like your parents?"

Embarrassed, he replied, "They wanted me to teach ethics..."

Cyniquote was in the middle of another argument, "Not all unicorns are like that!"

"Well, you know the candy bowl analogy?"

"Yes, I do. And as we can see, I'm a pegasus too and I'm stopping you. Guess our bowl isn't that safe either."

She looked and Snowstorm and said, "No, it's not..."

Meanwhile, Snowstorm started to conjure up a storm cloud insider her barrier, hiding herself inside.

Caution explained things to a fourth pony, "I don't mean to offend you, but aren't pegasi responsible for the most hit-and-runs. And most assaults?"

"Hey, I'm a pony, not a statistic!"

The officer gave it a thought and said, "Wait, is that how you felt? I'm sorry..."

Caution and Cyniquote kept going and talked to everyone except Snowstorm. Caution felt safe enough to make the barriers disappear. Unfortunately, the cloud that Snowstorm had made spread out and blinded everyone. When they finally dispersed the giant cloud, she had already flown away.

Caution said, "Even when there was nothing but pegasi around her, she wasn't happy. Does it even make a difference if we put her in jail?"

Cyniquote complained, "She's probably a mile away now. I'm too tired to fight her anyway," and rested on top of Caution's barrier.

One of the pegasi said, "We're... sorry for all we put you through. I had no idea it was so easy to make somepony feel oppressed."

Cyniquote replied, "I did, from personal experience."

Another one added, "Can we do something to make it up to you?"

"Well, I still don't know what to take as a Cloudsdale souvenir."

Caution and the pegasi crowded the shop, yelling over one another about what's the perfect souvenir. Cyniquote could just stand outside and say, "Oh no. I've created what I hate so much..."