The Equestrian Crisis

The Equestrian Crisis + Equestria, once known as the land of many races, the cradle of friendship and harmony, has entered its dark age.

Since Prince Rutherford stepped down from his position as the ruler of Yakyakistan, a new leader arose - a respected village elder from northern Yakyakistan, King Donnell.

Since his coronation, King Donnell has shown efforts to strive away further from Equestria and make Yakyakistan a more self-sufficient country while staying as remote and rural as before. He made efforts to develop the country as well as open up relations with all of the surrounding lands, hoping to replace the Equestrian trade with theirs. King Donnell cooperated a lot less with Princess Celestia than his predecessor but stayed polite, stating that "he'd prefer to do things his own way rather than follow Canterlot". Tensions started to rise when Yakyakistan started investing more in the Crystal Empire and establishing relations with the Changeling Lands, gaining more and more presence in the region as opposed to Equestria's dominanance in the area.

Princess Celestia endured a loss of reputation after letting Yakyakistan compete with Equestria's influence in the region, making ponies realize that their country might not be as important or valuable as it always was. Princess Celestia tried to stay polite and friendly, stating publicly that she is okay if Yakyakistan wants more independence or influence, but privately she was deeply concerned about the future of Equestria and the consequences of this competition for influence. While King Donnell showed himself off as a strong leader and a national hero who brought glory and opened up Yakyakistan for the world, Princess Celestia seemed compliant, dismissive and rather weak in comparison, which the ponies started to notice. News reporters started printing more issues of their newspapers as the demand grew and increasing their political columns as the ponies of Equestria became more immersed into politics than ever before, curious about what's going on with their country as well as its image on the world stage and eager to get updated on the newest developments of the situation.

In attempt to improve her image, Princess Celestia requested a meeting between her, King Donnell and the ruler of the Crystal Empire, Princess Cadance to "discuss the future of the region". King Donnell publicly ignored the invitation and didn't show up without giving a reason. Later when the journalist asked the King to explain himself, he stated that he "isn't obliged to notify Princess Celestia about anything, nor is he obliged to accept her invitations". The event brought an even larger reputation loss to Princess Celestia, deepening her concerns regarding her neighbor. Starting to get weary of the humiliation and annoyed with the King's behavior, Princess Celestia decided to act bold and toughen up, trying to at least come off as a stern and strong ruler amidst the humiliation. She publicly called the King out for disrespecting the values of friendship, kindness and harmony by sabotaging cooperation between their countries. The King rebutted by stating that the Princess is bitter about losing reputation and influence over her neighbors. The ponies started to ask questions and get worried about the situation escalating, some taking Princess Celestia's side and some accusing her of going against her own values of harmony and cooperation by publicly badmouthing her neighbor. As the escalation went on, the ponies' interest for politics sparked up rapidly and largely, actively reading the news and discussing it with their friends and family. Previously obscure, unnecessary and complicated ideas like "Communism" or "Democracy" started to become increasingly easier to understand and practice, allowing many ponies to choose the ideology of their liking and rally for it rather than just praise their Princess. Many ponies started drifting away from supporting the monarchy as Princess Celestia's ratings fell, many attempts of fixing the situation ending up futile. Civil organisations and even political parties of all kinds of ideologies started popping up, previously completely unheard of in the Equestrian monarchic society. They merged and disbanded, formed alliances and rivalries among each other, new ones popping up and dying almost each week. The situation in Equestria became largely unstable as the Royal Guard drifted further from Princess Celestia, reluctantly complying with her orders and being on the brink of becoming autonomous anytime soon. With various political forces competing amongst each other to bring change to Equestria's system, some of them started gathering large protests and events in major towns, rallying for their views and promoting slogans of all kinds, ranging from peaceful all the way to militarist. Later on, miscellaneous organisations started popping up, such as gatherings of the zebra diaspora rallying for their rights and separatist organizations led by buffalos and dragons on their indigenous lands.