//------------------------------//
// The farm finishes? 
// Story: The Weary Traveler 
// by The Psychopath 
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Twilight was working nonstop for two days straight, refusing to sleep at night. She was given very little time to work out how to construct such a massive project outside the reach of anything anyone had ever done in the past or now. She was supposed to solve the conundrum. Her room in Canterlot castle was covered with rolled up balls of paper, folders holding untold amounts of notes and projects performed in the past, boards where pencils and measuring tools rested. The room smelled rancid from Twilight's overworking, and she hadn't eaten at all. What was once a clean, white cover thick with cotton and silk, was now a disheveled mess of wrinkles and uneaten food frozen over its surface. The lavender alicorn was more preoccupied with scribbling on her desk than taking care of herself. She broke another quill in her frustration and angrily threw the pieces across the room, filling the pile of assorted quill shards and empty ink jars next to her bed and blocking the bathroom door partially.

When she reached for another quill with her magic, she found that their tiny, black glass hold was completely empty. She exploded in rage. "FINE! I'LL USE ONE OF MY OWN!" The mare ripped several feathers out of her right wing with her teeth, placed them haphazardly on the desk, then continued to write and toss balls.

"Twilight?" Spike called out after opening the door to her room. "You okay?"

"NOI'MNOTOKAY!" the mare blurted out explosively. 

Spike had to cling to the ground with his claws to not get blown away by all the hot air. "T-Twilight, you look terrible! Have you slept or eaten at all?!" 

Twilight turned away and went back to her scribbling. "No. I have to save my brother, Cadance, and everypony there, otherwise he'll...He'll..." 

Twilight's scribbling gradually slowed until she stopped completely and tears started welling up in her eyes. She turned to Spike and sniffled. "I don't want to lose Shining..." she mewled. 

The little dragon walked towards her and gave her a hug, letting the distraught princess cry as much as she could. "You'll find a solution, Twilight. You always do," Spike comforted her. "You managed to fix the whole Winter Warp-Up when there were only a few days left."

"That's not the same thing!"

"Sure it is!" Spike let go and sat on the floor. "Think about it: You had an entire season to clean up, and no pony could manage it, but then you got them all to work together and organized it all. You had a small village that time." He smiled and raised a brow, looking upwards to his friend. "This time, you not only have the princesses to help, but you have an entire city at your disposal and several races from other countries. The farm shouldn't be that much more difficult to build with all of this, should it?" Spike asked.

Twilight sniffled and started to ponder the idea. "You...might be right, but this is more difficult than just removing snow and ice," she noted. "I can't just have them use shovels and walk forward."

"If I may be so bold as to intervene?" a voice proposed. Chinch'k crawled in from one of the large open windows to the left of the room and climbed along the ceiling. He twisted his head first to look at the two fully, then twisted his whole body, disturbing the two severely. "I see that he thought it interesting to torture more ponies again." The metal pony sighed and shook his head in disappointment. 

"What do you want?" Spike asked aggressively. 

"Just a moment of your time. Please," he pleaded. 

Spike wanted to say something, but Twilight stopped him. "Go ahead," she told him.

The insectoid creature nodded and scratched his 'beak' with four mandibles. "What you're doing is thinking of only the regular folk that need to work. You took magic into account, but only for lifting and holding."

"I took other things into account as well," Twilight explained in an annoyed tone.

Chinch'k rubbed his lower 'beak' composed of his resting mandibles. "I see. Apologies. I base solely on what I see, but you could ask for animals and insects to help, too," he said. 

"What?" Twilight pulled her back and widened her eyes. She frowned. "What are you talking about? That's absurd!"

"Perhaps, but you know of somepony that can talk with them, don't you? Why, even insects could help out."

"Why don't YOU help out, then?" Spike pointed a finger accusingly to the metal pony. 

The metal pony snickered. "Can't. R..." He caught himself. "The traveler won't let me," he corrected. "I'd love to, but we can't." He leaned closer to the two and whispered. "He never said anything about us helping you out, though." He poked Spike several times then walked towards the room exit. "I want to walk around a bit. If you need me I'll be somewhere in this castle, alright?" The two didn't answer. "Alright. See you later."

"That was weird," Spike said.

"Maybe, but he had an idea, and I can work on that," Twilight said. "I need to find Fluttershy."

Twilight flew out of the window, leaving Spike alone in her room, forced to either stay there or go into the hallway and cross the metal pony. He slammed his head against the full mattress of Twilight's dirty bed instead. 

"I'd sleep here if it wasn't so messy," he lamented.

Several hours later, Twilight and Fluttershy landed at the construction site in front of Applejack and the giant, philosophical minotaur.

"We're here!" Twilight shouted.

Applejack pulled some paper from under her hat and unfolded it whilst walking towards her friends. "Ah got yer letter, Twi, but ah don't understand what you meant by it." She looked up. "Animals helping us? What?" 

The minotaur leaned forward. "Perhaps it's a figure of speech meant to embroil our spirits?" he pondered.

Fluttershy and Twilight stared at him, slackjawed.

"Ignore him," Applejack said.

Twilight regained her bearings before talking again. "Fluttershy agreed to help me with building the farm. Gather everypony and I'll tell them what we're going to do."

"If ya say so," Applejack answered halfheartedly. 

The farm pony gathered as many ponies as she could and brought them all in front of Twilight and Fluttershy, although her trust in Twilight's idea was lacking.

"Everypony, hear me out," Twilight shouted. "I have an idea that will accelerate the construction of the farms." She turned to Fluttershy and stepped back, letting the nervous mare forward.

Fluttershy cleared her throat and said something, but no one could hear. Twilight rolled her eyes and put an amplification spell on the pegasus' throat. "EXCUSE ME, EVERYPONY!" Everyone winced in pain at the booming volume of her voice. She chuckled in response and blushed. "S-sorry. I didn't mean to do that. What I meant to do is tell you that the animals are going to help us out, and they even got the bugs to help us, too!"

"THE BUGS?!" a few shouted. 

A huge black swarm came from the horizon, following birds to the construction site, leaving the workers to be horrified. Twilight quickly stepped in to relax the tension.

"It's alright, everypony. No need to worry. They won't buzz around us and bite. The birds are there to keep them in line. Everyone is going to help us build THAT!" She pointed towards the multilevel farm.

It took quite a while to even get adjusted to the animals, but hardly anyone became used to the bugs. It took quite some effort from Fluttershy to even make them listen to her as well. Twilight, however, used the additional workpower to have everyone build the open domes on the floor and have unicorns, pegasi, and the multitude of insects to lift them up to their 'arms' and connect them. The insects took care of the tiny work spaces that normally couldn't be reached, and the larger workers took care of plating and most cabling. Had Twilight not color coded everything, they likely wouldn't have known what to do. It was a project of large proportions and hard work, but Twilight was determined. That being said, something nagged at her.

"Fluttershy," she started. "How exactly DID you talk to the insects? I've never seen you do that before. I just threw a rock in the dark and hoped that it would hit something."

The pegasus tapped the tips of her wings together. "I don't know. I just...gave it a try after you left, and they listened." She scrunched up her lips. "A little."

"A little?"

"The birds needed to help me," Fluttershy said. "Not sure why."

Twilight placed a hoof to her chin. "I see." The mare hummed. "Did you see anything out of the ordinary around here? Something strange, maybe?"

Fluttershy shook her head in response. "No. Nothing. I just went to the animals first and then tried to do what you suggested to do, and they listened."

"Can't help us directly, huh?" Twilight thought. 

Her suspicious expression bothered her friend. "Are you okay, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked.

Twilight snapped out of her daze. "O-oh! Yes! Of course. Don't worry, Fluttershy. I was just thinking." She smiled and took a step forward towards the farm. "Let's get this thing built and see what he'll say about it!" Twilight spoke with pride.

Twilight and the construction team were a few hours early in finishing the farm, leaving everyone exhausted and on the floor. Even the insects were tired, but they had developed a nasty habit of lying down on the workers that hated or feared bugs. Unfortunately, since they were too tired to move, there were multiple colorful mounds dotted unequally around the landscape and creating muffled screams.

Twilight forced herself up from the soft grass dirt and tried to channel her magic through her horn. She clenched her teeth from the soreness she experienced.

"I'll tell him, and he'll free my brother. I'll how him that we're not toys!" Twilight strained to say aloud. She tried again and forced herself even further, eventually creating a bright spark from her horn making a disc of pinkish-colored magic in the air. "TRAVELER, WE FINISHED THE FARM! NOW LET THE CRYSTAL KINGDOM GO!" Her voice echoed throughout Canerlot and even further beyond, but there seemed to be no reaction from the traveler, aggravating the alicorn. "HEY!" Twilight shouted. "I'M CALLING YOU!"

"I KNOW! STOP YELLING!" the cephalopony answered angrily. 

Twilight jumped back but collapsed onto the floor from exhaustion. The traveler was busy cleaning out the holes in his head with his tentacles after nearly becoming deaf. 

"When did you get there?" Twilight asked.

"After your first yell. I was about to tap your shoulder, but you made another and nearly deafened me." He grumbled angrily. "I have devices to fix my auditory organs or replace them entirely, but Id rather not have to go through something like that." He walked past Twilight and looked up at the farm structure. "I'm impressed that you managed to make it work in so little time."

"Yeah? Well, you shouldn't underestimate us just because we aren't as 'advanced' or 'enlightened' as you," Twilight retorted aggressively.

The traveler looked at her from the corner of his eyes and snorted. "There is no underestimating. There is only pushing you past your limits so that you may survive and grow as fast as possible."

"S-so you WEREN'T going to destroy the Crystal Kingdom? That was all just a ploy?!"

"No. I was going to destroy it," he replied unabashedly. He took out a tablet from his tentacles and started tapping buttons on it and observing the responses it gave. "I can tell from my home's scans that the multilevel farm isn't properly functional." He tilted his head briefly and sighed. "Several cables are connected into the wrong sockets, there are struts digging into the arms, bolts not tightened fully, electrical systems missing entirely..."s

"But..." Twilight looked down and clenched her teeth angrily. So many things were wrong. She was going to be stuck with this in her memories forever.

"CALM down," the traveler told her. "A deal is a deal."

Twilight looked up at him on the verge of tear. "What? But you said we had to finish it in a week. It's not even functional..."

The cephalopony started talking whilst fumbling with his tentacles to store the tablet. "No. I said you had to complete it. I never said anything about it being functional." He stared at Twilight with his five eyes. "The farm is made of tech unknown to you. You even missed most of the electrical circuits!" he laughed. It was unbefitting of him and actually scared Twilight.

"But--"

"I removed the dome from the Crystal Kingdom. Everyone there can evacuate now, and you will also get that extra reward I mentioned." The traveler resumed his apathetic behavior. "I'll be taking care of fixing this farm, but I believe this gave you enough experience in how these kinds of buildings and machines are going to work in the future."

In proximity of the Crystal Kingdom, Celestia and Luna had brought in a massively long train that required the installation of three tracks next to each other during the trip to the tundra, allowing for the entire city to be evacuated easily, but the power required for the train was immense, so two carts filled with coal filled the space between the machine itself and the passenger cars. The second the shield went down, the whole Kingdom started to evacuate with the help of the princesses and the guards of both sides. They had been waiting in the freezing cold for days...