Greetings again, friends, and I hope you are all having a wonderful day. I am returning to you with another question for potential inspiration for my fic. This is the same fic regarding King Grover as I describe in this thread here

I have been working on the bat ponies, and I want them to be a plot point that occurs several times throughout the story. The fundamental conflict is what to do with them. Should they be integrated into Equestrian society, be part of Equestria but left out of certain rights and privileges that the other three Tibes have, or be left out completely and treated as a dangerous and disruptive group that needs to be crushed?

The issue boils down to their nature. I have the bat ponies written as a group of ponies that came into being due to necessity during the events before the Hearts Warming story. A great winter choked the life out of the land and made it impossible to grow food. The bat ponies were once regular ponies but decided to use magic to fuse their essence with vampire bats, similar to how Fluttershy turned into Flutterbat due to Twilight's magic. The logic was that they could use blood as an alternative sustenance to survive in a cold world where food is scarce. As a result, the bat ponies developed a unique and distinct culture, separate from the rest of the pony kind. A culture that is feared, hated, and poorly understood by the ponies. And not for unjustifiable reasons either, as there were bat ponies that drank the blood of other ponies.

Side note: The bat ponies can't be transformed back into regular ponies because too much time has passed since they first became bat ponies. That event occurred 400 years ago before my fic takes place.

Now, when the fic takes place, the bat ponies are at a crossroads, and there are factions within the bat pony society regarding integration into Equestrian society. The first faction is a reformist faction that wants to give up the practice of drinking blood altogether and seeks integration and greater representation within Equestrian society. The traditionalist faction wants to keep the practice of blood drinking but keeps it to only the blood of animals. They want to be a part of Equestria but with significant autonomy to protect their norms and customs. The final faction is a radical fundamentalist group of bat ponies who want to pray upon other ponies and various races and want total separation from Equestria. They are a violent and murderous group of bat ponies who cause a lot of problems, often instigating rebellions and causing sprees of murder among their own kind and other races.

In my story, there will be three major bat pony uprisings. Each time this occurs, Celestia and Luna will try different things to resolve the issue, but both fail. By the time the bat ponies rebel for a third time, Grover is sick of the constant unrest and decides the only solution is to put the bat ponies to the sword.

Now, here's the question I want to ask you guys: Based on this, what sort of policy should the two sisters pursue before I have Grover say screw it, we did it your way, now we are doing it my way. What should I have them try before, and why do their plans fail to achieve meaningful results? I want Luna to be sympathetic to the bat ponies, while Celestia is very cautious and a bit suspicious but doesn't want the situation to result in more violence.

Thank you for your time, and also, thank you to those who take the time to reply. I appreciate it greatly; it helps me organize my thinking and craft the narrative I want to tell. Enjoy your day!

7968124
I can't help but think of Princess Celestia being exceptionally conciliatory to the bat ponies, possibly even turning a blind eye to their worst acts.

7968146
Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Why do you think Celestia would take that approach? Actually, as I am writing this, I can see a potential rationale behind a conciliatory stance initially coming from Luna telling Celestia that is what they should do. The idea is to turn a blind eye to the worst aspects of bat pony society, hoping to curb it over time. I could easily have Grover, who sees that policy as hopelessly naive. But my question is, would Celestia or Luna, for that matter, really overlook some of the worst aspects?

7968159
Maybe 'wiling to turn a blind eye' isn't exactly correct for what I mean. I think that the princesses being pacifist and naive would work well. Constantly trying for a diplomatic solution with unreasonable individuals, refusing to return violence for violence, appealing to their shared equinity. That kind of thing.

7968173
You bring up an excellent point.

Constantly trying for a diplomatic solution with unreasonable individuals, refusing to return violence for violence, appealing to their shared equinity.

I think that would be a point that should be brought up by both Celestia and Luna. Having ponies commit violence to ponies is not in the spirit of what Equestria is trying to accomplish. I could see how Grover could then say Um, actually, not punishing this behavior is effectively the princesses endorsing further unrest and the potential murder of their own subjects. I like this a lot.