The Earth-Pony Revolution (An Equestrian History Story)

by Quartez

Labour is Magic

Chapter Five: "Labour Is Magic"

Apple Scruff didn't know when he was supposed to get ready.

Just to be sure; he woke up at one in the morning and then ran over the Hayseed Swamps to the construction site, but nopony was there.

Then he went to Golden Eyes' house and knocked on the door, but nopony answered.

Then he went to Iron Fist's house and knocked on the door but nobody answered, so he went back to the construction site.

Around half past three, he met Silver Tongue on his way, when they got there Sticky Wicket, Ebony Eyes and three others were there, and the seven decided to hide under an rock outcrop to get out of the rain.

The three new ponies introduced themselves, the first was a huge Clydesdale with a green coat and yellow hair, he was called "Big Bad John" which was an unusual name.

Then there was an old mule, he was called "Old Leviticus".

And the other was a blue mare with a red mane, she was called "Rose Garden", nopony seemed to know when they were supposed to start or where the others were.

More and more ponies began to appear, they were all very interested when they found out that Apple Scruff and Silver Tongue had met Iron Fist and Golden Eyes in person and immediately began asking about them.

Apple Scruff was very honest and told them all he knew: he wasn't sure how the Weather Factory was supposed to work and he didn't know if Golden Eyes knew either.

He admitted that Golden Eyes once claimed he had an idea for a machine that could make cider much faster then a pony could, but he never told anypony much about it and forgot about it soon after, so Golden Eyes wasn't exactly very organised.

Old Leviticus didn't seem surprised to hear it but Big Bad John said nothing much, except the occasional "Yes" or "No".

Misery was creeping through the crowd, they were cold and wet and their hooves were dirty from going through the Hayseed Swamps, but they stayed.

At half past six Iron Fist and Paint Palette came with Moody Blue and Golden Eyes, and they started telling the ponies what to do, Silver Tongue and Apple Scruff were told to break up rocks.

So they stood on a cliff and Big Bad John and other big ponies would drag the rocks over to them from the quarry and they'd smash it them into little pieces, it took so long to move the rocks that there were long stretches where they had nothing to do, so they took it upon themselves to help the others, digging a hole or putting the smashed up rocks into buckets.

Occasionally Paint Palette would come to help, but Iron Fist (who was sheltered in a cave with Golden Eyes and Moody Blue) would call her back, insisting they needed her help.

"There must be something very important in that cave", thought Apple Scruff, probably, they were working on the blueprints.

It was miserable work, the rain lashed down on them, tickling their faces, pressing their manes down and soaking their bandages, all this walking had made Apple Scruff's war-wound worse and now the bandages were stained through with blood.

Each pony had be told that they could leave when they wanted to eat or use the bathroom, but in practice, this simply meant eating grass as getting somewhere where they could eat real food would mean leaving for a long time and nobody wanted to leave their friends to do all the work.

As Golden Eyes' had explained at the meeting, the former Ukrein was now called "Ponyang city" it, along with everything south of it (the Hayseed Swamps and this area where they were building the weather factory) was now part of the UBBR, the pegasi must have been aware of this as they had covered the entire area in rain clouds.

But Big Bad John didn't complain, he went right on doing the work of six ponies, dragging the rocks, soaked with rain, his mane pressed to his face, covered in mud, his hooves slipping on the wet ground, grunting: "If Golden Eyes says it, it must be right" or "I must work harder".

They worked though the day and into the early hours of the morning, and then at one AM they were allowed to go home, they trekked through the Hayseed swamps in groups and back to Ponyang city only to wake up after a few hours to begin again.

Apple Scruff overslept and woke up at nine AM, he ran to the construction site, slipping and sliding on the wet ground and the wound on his flank now particularly sore, only to find half the ponies weren't there; amongst them Moody Blue, Iron Fist and Golden Eyes.

Paint Palette simply told them to keep busy and admitted that she didn't exactly know what they were supposed to do, so very little actually got done.

Golden Eyes and Iron Fist showed up with Moody Blue after half past eleven looking quite worn-out and retreated to the cave as soon as Iron Fist asked the others to mix the ground up rocks with water and pour them into the hole, this was apparently called the "foundation of the Weather Factory".

It was hard knowing how much water to add, the rain caused the buckets to fill up with water before they'd even put any rocks in, eventually they settled on tipping out a random amount of water and then adding some powdered rocks, which formed a thin paste.

At one point Iron Fist called Apple Scruff away, to speak briefly:

"we hear you've been telling others that the Weather Factory is a bad idea."

"Well, I sort-of told them not to get their hopes up-"

"Well don't" Golden Eyes said curtly, "We've got enough problems."

"Is it Discord?" asked Apple Scruff

"No, there's some new threat in the Crystal Empire called 'King Sombra' and we need to present a united front to stop him, he'll probably join with Celestia and Luna and try to smash us to pieces, and you don't want that do you?"

"No!" exclaimed Apple Scruff alarmed by this news.

"Fine, dismissed" said Golden Eyes, walking away,

"what does that mean?" asked Apple Scruff

"it means 'back to work'."

Apple Scruff worked harder then ever, the threat of King Sombra pushed him forward, he worked all day, if there was nothing for him to do, then he'd help others, he tried to emulate Big Bad John and his work ethic, constantly saying to himself: "If Golden Eyes says it, it must be right" and "I must work harder."

He didn't stop to eat, he felt light-headed and nauseous, but he pushed these feelings deep inside himself and re-doubled his efforts.

He thought to himself that he should learn to read and write so that he could help with planning and made a mental note to do just that as soon as he went home, even if he had to stay up all night.

Then after he had been told to go home, he staggered across the Hayseed Swamp with Silver Tongue, who was terrified, he was sure Apple Scruff was going to drop dead, but he didn't.

He made it all the way back to Ponyang city, said "good night" to Silver Tongue and entered his house, he stumbled inside, thinking about starting to learn read and write but these thoughts were driven from his mind as he vomited and then; collapsed upon his bed into unconsciousness.