The Earth-Pony Revolution (An Equestrian History Story)

by Quartez

The Everfree Crisis

Chapter Thirteen: "The Everfree Crisis"

Apple Scruff hadn't seen Silver Tongue in a while, nopony had.

They seemed to have decided not to discuss it.

But there were bigger developments occuring; the Griffon Kingdom had chosen to ally itself with the UBBR as had the Dragons, they had arranged a big meeting in Horsesaw and thus, the Horsesaw Pact was formed.

And that was when the next bit of trouble was beginning; the newspapers announced soon after that the Equestrians had been spying on the Brony Union, Apple Scruff had heard that they had been sending Pegasi (made invisible by magic) to fly over the Frozen North Wall and look around.

The Ponyburo and the leaders of the Griffon and Dragon kingdoms had to go to some mountain in Central Equestria to sort things out, there had been a little building hastily constructed there for the meeting called: "The Camp of Canterlot".

Apple Scruff found himself at a loose end again, whenever the Ponyburo left then nopony got any work orders; Apple Scruff didn't know if he ought to farm or guard the Ponyburo building or join some new construction army, so he just did his usual farm work and then wandered around.

He didn't get to close to the edge of Ponyang because there were scary ponies there who wore uniforms and demanded to see everypony's travelling orders before they'd let them leave the city, Apple Scruff had been given some papers, but they said he wasn't allowed to go anywhere.

There was another line for apples nearby, Apple Scruff never had to line up for apples, because (even though he felt guilty about it) he kept a few bags of apples and hid them whenever the Army ponies came around (which they did a every four months) demanding he hand over all his apples so they could be distributed evenly.

Apple Scruff didn't eat them all himself, or even most of them; he gave them away to ponies who needed them because they had no other food, many of them wanted to give him money, he only accepted if they had enough.

Money was very strange these days, they all got little coins called: "bridles" from the Ponyburo, but bridles weren't good for very much because whenever you went to the stalls to buy things you usually found that everything was sold out and the stalls were the only places that really used bridles, apparently bridles were useless in Equestria.

It didn't matter anyway because trading with Equestria was a crime.

Ponies who bought apples from Apple Scruff's secret store paid him in Equestrian bits.

The city guard usually asked for bits from random ponies; "they must be collecting them", thought Apple Scruff.

Or perhaps, he wondered if they were trying to keep Equestrian currency out of the UBBR, Equestrians were bad ponies, they might have put poison on it so that any Earth pony who picked it up would die.

Apple Scruff accepted bits anyway because there were other ponies who sold things and would only take bits, these ponies didn't own stalls, you had to go to their houses to buy anything off them.

Most of the things you got from them were things you weren't supposed to let anypony know that you owned. They sold clothes and jewellery which was bad because only rich, selfish ponies like Celestia or Luna wore things.

Apple Scruff had bought a scarf and hid it under his bed, he couldn't wear it outside, but he liked it anyway, it was had alternating patches of black and white on it, it looked quite like a chessboard.

He had also bought some books and some records, Apple Scruff would have spent some time with his friends; but most of them seemed to have gone away, the only pony he still spent time with was Rose Garden, so he decided to go to her house, which took a while because of the snow.

They decided to go to the theatre, all theatre shows began the same way these days; the UBBR's national anthem would play and everypony had to stand up and join in:

United forever in friendship and labour,

our mighty republics will ever endure!

The great Brony union will live through the ages,

the dream of the ponies, their thoughts are secure!

Long will our nation stand as proof,

of the ponies' mighty hoof!

Long live her ponies, united and free,

strong in our friendship, tried in fire!

Long may our crimson flag inspire!

Shining in glory for ponies to see,

the days, dark and stormy,

while Golden Eyes led us,

Our eyes saw the bright sun of freedom for all!

And Iron-Hoof, with faith in the ponies;

inspired us to build-up the land that we love!

The anthem went on for four minutes, the cold outside had aggrevated Apple Scruff's war-wound and he wanted to take a seat desperatley, but everypony else was standing, so he did likewise.

Long will our nation stand as proof,

of the ponies' mighty hoof!

Long live her ponies, united and free,

strong in our friendship, tried in fire!

Long may our crimson flag inspire!

Shining in glory for ponies to see!

The show started with a newsreel, it was a regular feature, called: "Today in Equestria", it showed what Equestria looked like: mass-food shortages, high crime rates, rioting in the streets.

It went on to show a band called The Hoof-Beats performing, though Apple Scruff would never admit it, he knew that the footage wasn't exactly accurate, they had been dubbed over with some kind of stock-music.

He knew this because he owned several of the Hoof-Beats albums and they never played a song that boring and repetitive.

The film paid special attention to the fillies in the audience, who screamed and cheered, the narrator explained that they had been driven mad by rock n' roll music and that's why you weren't allowed to hear rock n' roll in the UBBR.

The only real news about the Brony Union involved Pony Gagarin, he had died in a cart crash; Golden Eyes had said simply: "One isn't a true Earth pony, unless they enjoy a fast ride in a nice cart."

Luna pointed at the picture of the Everfree forest again, it had been taken from the air, and it showed an air base, right behind the Frozen North Wall, any pegasus posted at that base could attack the Castle of the Two Sisters in less then ten minutes.

Thus far Vlad and Iron Fist were denying everything, they denied that it was designed to attack the castle, that it was their airbase, that it was even an airbase at-all.

Iron Fist was being especially obstructive, he was refusing to answer questions promptly, after any question was asked, he would pause and wait for it to be translated into the language of the griffons, this was entirely unnecessary as Vlad spoke perfect Equestrian.

Luna had been getting worse, she looked murderous as she looked at Iron Fist and asked again:

"Is your country installing airbases in the Everfree Forest?"

there was a pause as the translator started whispering in Vlad's ear, Luna finally had enough:

"DON'T WAIT FOR THE TRANSLATION!" she roared, her eyes glowing; "ANSWER, 'YES'! OR 'NO'!"

Celestia was looking very tired, she tried to keep Luna away from official duties these days, ever since Pony Gagarin had crossed into the other universe, Luna had become a real nightmare.