The Earth-Pony Revolution (An Equestrian History Story)

by Quartez

Onward to Shining Future

Chapter Six: "Onward to Shining Future"

Apple Scruff was sick.

He woke up at five PM to find that every inch of his body ached, he was alternately horribly cold and then far too hot, he felt nauseous, tired, but unable to sleep, the wound on his flank was more sore then ever.

It was agony to lie down and the wound wept terribly at the smallest amount of pressure, he forced himself to get out of bed long enough to drag his former "army helmet" to the side of his bed so that he had something to vomit into, and made use of it as soon as he was back in bed.

He wondered if somepony would come looking for him, but they didn't.

It wasn't until nine PM when somepony knocked on his door and (with effort that made him feel light-headed) he shouted for them to enter.

It was Electron Shell: "I didn't see you at the construction site" she explained "I was worried."

After he described his symptoms she looked at his war-wound and concluded that it was 'infected' Apple Scruff didn't understand, but she explained that this meant it wasn't going to heal very fast and he was going to be sick until it did, it also meant he couldn't work on the Weather Factory.

Apple Scruff was quite worried and even more-so when she explained that the Weather Factory needed help more then ever, it had fallen to bits and sunk into the ground.

Apple Scruff was so troubled by this that he vomited again, and once more when she explained why: Golden Eyes had given a speech explaining that the Weather Factory had been attacked by King Sombra.

"How?" groaned Apple Scruff as his vomiting subsided.

"I don't know and I don't know if that's true, anyway"

"What do you mean?"

"I saw the plans" she explained "I worked on it myself, but I don't think they know anything about technology or even construction, Golden Eyes never built anything in his life, he always got others to help even if it was something as simple as a barn."

Apple Scruff felt worse then ever, his worst fears were coming true, Golden Eyes really had no idea what he was doing.

Before he could ask more questions, Electron Shell spared him the effort by answering:

"Iron Fist doesn't know either, he keeps calling himself Co-director and saying that gives him the right to tell me what to do, but he doesn't know anything about science or magic, this Weather Factory might take forever to build and it probably won't work, not for long anyway, it might blow up and kill us all."

Apple Scruff vomited again.

"I need to go" she said before he could vomit again, "I'm going with Golden Eyes, Moody Blue, Iron Fist and Paint Palette on a trip, I've been told not to tell you what we're doing, but I'll be back soon."

They said their goodbyes and she left.

Apple Scruff's various friends visited him day-by-day; Silver Tongue showed up the day after Electron Shell and gave him some apples and carrots as well as a book called: "The Little Fillies and Foals Folio of Fun!" Which he explained was a book which taught how to read and write.

He brought lots of other books about reading and writing as well, he had owned them since he was a colt and since he could read himself, he didn't need them anymore.

As Apple Scruff felt better and better he eventually took the bandages off and found the wound was gone, but his back leg was stiff and it caused him trouble when walking, he was also very hungry, bad that wasn't uncommon, he had heard that the rain storm had ruined the farms.

The only food they had was that which had been stored and they were scared of eating it too fast, so everypony was vowing to eat only three times a day at most and even then, they made sure to eat a lot less then normal.

Apple Scruff had lost quite a bit of weight and so had the others, without Golden Eyes, Paint Palette, Moody Blue or Iron Fist to tell them what to do nopony knew how to rebuild the weather factory, so they did nothing with it.

The rain made it impossible to do most normal work, so ponies kept themselves busy either building a schoolhouse or by learning to read and write.

Apple Scruff had learned more then half the letters of the alphabet and could draw most of them, he tried writing his name one day and it came out as: "Addle cff" he had left blank the letters he couldn't draw and (if possible) substituted them with letters he could draw.

Ponies who could read and write were in high demand, they met in the partially constructed schoolhouse and taught the others.

Apple Scruff brought his books to these meetings so other ponies could look at them and he had decided that once he could read and write properly he would pass them on to somepony else, so that eventually everypony in the UBBR would be able to read.

One day, the rain stopped.

Nopony knew how or why but the rain clouds were gone.

It was too late for the farms which were now ruined.

It would take years for the soil to return to a condition where they could grow food again and everypony was more worried then ever, but they were sure that soon things would be fixed once Golden Eyes and Iron Fist came back from wherever they had gone.

They kept their mind off their worries by banding together to finish the schoolhouse, with the rain gone work went fast and it was finished in a day, after this they went on to start constructing a library, for all the books they would eventually own and write.

The fateful day finally arrived four days after the rain had stopped.

Golden Eyes demanded everypony come to the school-house and he stood at the front of the hall, where the literate ponies usually stood, when they were teaching.

Everypony looked very thin, except for those who had been on the trip, Electron Shell was nowhere to be seen; but this was important, so Apple Scruff didn't want to interrupt by asking where she'd gone.

Golden Eyes now had a nice, red cloak with a white fur-trim; Iron Fist had a new hat, it looked a lot different then his old helmet, it was made of fabric rather then metal, it was dark green, circular, with a metal symbol on the front and had a black visor on it.

Golden Eyes spoke briefly: "There are two announcements I must make, as the first is a matter for the military, I must direct it to my head of the armed forces, Iron Fist."

Apple Scruff couldn't help but wonder what was going on, hadn't Golden Eyes claimed that there would be no jobs?

That all labour would be divided equally?

He listened carefully as Iron Fist spoke:

"A grave threat is bearing down upon us, Princess Celestia and Luna have decided to go declare an unjust war upon the Crystal Empire."

There was silence in the room as Golden Eyes took the microphone again:

"It is my pleasure to announce that soon we shall devote our energies to the production of greater and greater weapons, our food crisis is solved! Soon we shall have houses and goods aplenty! I have, in the course of my trip, secured an alliance with the benevolent King Sombra."