Equestria
Ponyville
Market Square
6:32 AM
Big Mac looked over the small group of pegasi, the day before just over 600 had come hoping to occupy their hometown. Almost 300 had died in the opening moment of the battle, shred to ribbons by shrapnel in the sky; others fled back to Cloudsdale. Leaving only the fool hearty to attempt to take the town with their meager forces. Less than 20 remained in town, all with varying looks to fear, shock, and silent anger as they were surrounded by guns. Looking over Big Mac watched Filthy Rich step forward clearing his throat before speaking.
“Who leads you?” He spoke with even neutrality, gazing over the quivering stallions before Crafty made his way forward.
“I do...” He said sounding more tired then he had intended, the stress having burnt him out.
“You realize we can’t just let you go, you invaded with intent to enslave not just us, but our foals.” He stared with a deathly seriousness into his tired eyes. “A message must be sent back to Cloudsdale.”
“Surely what has already happened would be enough!” Crafty said looking nervous, he promised these young ponies that he could get them home. “There’s less than 20 of us left, let the ponies of Cloudsdale talk about how Ponyville took on the pegasi and won.”
“Then it’s a matter of time before some other pegasi get the idea to try again. The cost must be made too high for it to be done again...” He looked over the other stallions.
“You can’t mean you're going to kill us... after we surrendered peacefully.” Crafty swallowed.
“Oh no no, that would make your martyrs, I have something more... traditional in mind.” He stamped his hoof three times as a few masked members of the Ponyville Militia brought forth burlap and buckets of hot tar.
Crafty stared, his wings clutching against his sides. “What’s all that for?...” He swallowed.
“You know in the past, Earth Ponys would use tar to pluck Pegisi warriors wings?” Filthy hummed gently. “It was quite painful... it actually left them outcasts among their own. The feathers never grew back quite the same... so everyone knew what had happened to them. Do tell me... how much are these stallions worth to you?”
Crafty was flabbergasted with what he was asking. “T-they mean a lot to me, it... was my fault these colts ended up in this mess...” He sighed.
“So you would say you shoulder the blame?” Filthy asked.
“Yes...” His throat dries as he started to realize what they were getting at.
“Here’s the deal Crafty, you submit to a plucking in front of your colts... or we shoot and ship all your plucked corpses back to Cloudsdale,” Mac spoke up as he motioned for a masked ponies to make their way forward with the tar and burlap.
“Y-you can’t do this!” Crafty slowly took a step back, only to hear several rifles cock around them. The eyes of his colts glancing around worriedly desperately looking for an escape, but with so many guns pinned on them, it was hopeless.
“I guess those stallions aren’t worth much to you Crafty.” Filthy raised an eyebrow. “There are only two ways this ends, either one pony gets plucked, or you all get shot and plucked.”
Crafty went silent considering his options, then looking back at the stallions behind them. The heavy bags under their eyes showed their fatigue, they would barely be able to fly, let alone dodge bullets. Looking back at the brown earth pony, swallowing from the dryness in his throat. “If it means they’ll live... I’ll take the Plucking...” He stepped forward, while the earth pony seemed surprised.
Filthy said nothing and motioned for the masked pony to get to work. The other remaining members of the Pegasopolis militia watched in horror as he was forced to the ground by the masked stallions with a loud grunt. Many averted their eyes with what happened next, two of the ponies started to roughly pull his wings open. Until they sounded like they were about to pop out of their sockets. Then came the hot bubbling tar, the moment it touched his wings the smell of burning feathers hit them all. The screams soon followed while they could only watch helplessly.
———————————————————-
Princess Celestia sat in her flying carriage as they started to approach Ponyville, from the distance she could see small wisps of smoke rising from the town. Once the ordinate wheels landed on the grass she quickly disembarked with her royal guard flanking her. Quickly trotting into the town she saw ponies working chain gangs to put out fires. Many to busy to notice the Royal who had come to offer her aid. Eventually, however, she was noticed, but not in a way she was familiar with, make looked indifferent to her, others glared, but the shared theme was a lack of reverence she was used too. Looking around she spotted a group of ponies that seemed to be moving a wagon filled wounded pegasi. Rushing over she was quickly rebuffed by a group of armed ponies.
“What’s the meaning of this?!” One of the Royal Guards shouted as they started to lower their spears threateningly.
“Please don’t interfere.” A young female Earth Pony said gently.
“Those pegasi are badly injured, I’ve come to help render aid.” Celestia looked uneasy from the numerous rifles trained on her and the guards.
“You're wasting your time, they're already dead.” A tired and lanky looking stallion responded as he rested his shotgun against his shoulder.
“W-what?” Celestia was shocked at how casually Carrot Cake brushed off the deaths of his fellow ponies. “H-how can you be sure?” It seemed so unlike the confectioner she had known.
“I shot most of them myself, they wanted to seize the gristmill we purchased a few moons ago.” He shrugged sadly, but no more then a farmer feeling sad they killed a few pests. The Royal Guards started to move forward to apprehend the admitted murderer, only for the locals to train their guns on them. “The Chancellors will likely want to talk with you in person.”
Celestia looked around worriedly, realizing during their little talk they had been quietly surrounded by armed locals. “I suppose they have some things they want to discuss with me.” She swallowed, her face turning more stern, this was more serious than she thought.
“I’m sure they will, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask for the spears,” Carrot said while motioning with his hoof.
“Excuse me?” She blinked and stared at the stallion evenly, the Royal Guards taking formation around the princess.
“It’s for your own safety, we don’t want your guards getting any ideas princess, especially being so outgunned.” He said with a faint smirk. “Those toothpicks won’t do you any good here.”
Gauging the crowd Celestia spoke. “And if they don’t?”
“Well it wouldn’t be neighborly and we’d just have to send you on your way.” The Guards bristled at that while Celestia raised her hoof.
“Guards, your spears.” She sighed, going back home wasn’t an option.
“Princess...” The captain looked at her like she was crazy.
“These are our ponies, a little trust won’t hurt us.” She gave him a stern look, he just mumbled under his breath as he motioned for the guards to lay down their spears. Many seemed to want to protest but were unwilling to disobey her.
“Excellent!” Carrot Cake smiled widely. “Please follow me, the Chancellors have been expecting you.” He said while the surrounding ponies gathered the spears. “Don’t worry they will be waiting for you once this is all finished. Now if you would follow me.”
The group nervously followed the light amber stallion through the parting crowd. The once vibrant town seemed so eerie now, almost like being in a foreign land, yet they were only a half days flight from Canterlot! As they made their way through town she could see the locals cleaning up what could only be described as a war zone. Though certainly not any sort of war she was familiar with, many homes and businesses were blanketed in small holes. Many business owners were humming softly as they sweep up the shattered glass from their broken windows. Still, some didn’t seem to be as lucky, picking through the burnt rubble of what was once their livelihood.
They slowly made through way to the town center, where it seemed a large table had been set up. Sitting on the opposite side facing her little menagerie was Big Mac, Filthy Rich, Roseluck, Lily, Daisy, and Carrot Top. All seeming dressed their Sunday best with rather neatly pressed suits with unamused expressions.
“Oh, Celestia please help yourself to a seat.” Carrot Top motioned to the rather plain wooden chair to the opposite of her.
Seeing no other choice she made her way forward and sat down. “I came as soon as I heard, can you please tell me what happened?” She asked worriedly.
“Nothing but a border dispute with Cloudsdale, I doubt they will be a problem again.” Big Mac said tiredly with a neutral smile on his face.
“Border disputes between townships tend to involve taxes or road construction.” The princess looked unamused. “Not borderline war!”
“As we said, we had a border dispute and it was solved.” Filthy shrugged his shoulders. “We expect the town to recover in less than two weeks.”
“I’m... glad your optimistic but having such a conflict in Equestria, nevermind so close to Canterlot is concerning. I will naturally have to launch an investigation to se-“ Before Celestia could finish Carrot Top spoke up.
“No, I’m afraid theirs not going to be an investigation by the Canterlot Authority.” She smiled tilting her head so her white wide-brim hat just covered her left eye.
“I understand Ponyville has a low opinion of Cloudsdale, but an investigation is necessary to-“ She watched as the orange mare slid a rather originate paper forward. Her eyes glanced down, her eyes quickly darting over the paper. “Notice of Secession?... you can't be serious.” She had an incredulous look.
“From here to Dodge City and the San Palomino Desert, we have signatures from every township between,” Mac said with his trademark detached drawl.
"...Impressive..." Celestia mumbled under her breath reading over the document, seeing the countless signatures adorning it. But curiously it was lacking any names of mayors she appointed. "I don't recognize these names.."
"You mean your appointed mayors that lord over the townships? Oh theres been recent change in governance. Amazing what a mob outside your door will do to get you outa town." Big Mac rolled his eyes and sighed. "I'm sure they'll find their way to you eventually."
"They don't have many other places to go after all. No like they have good job prospects after selling out their own kind." Daisy shook her head.
“Tell us, princess, are you aware of what all those towns have in common?” Lily said in an off-key singsong voice.
Celestia was still attempting to recover from the shock as she stared at the document. Almost expecting somepony to reveal it all to be some sort of prank, but no pony was laughing. Thinking about those settlements she responded. “There Earth Pony majority settlements, ”
“True, but more importantly they produce over 68 percent of Equestria’s food.” Filthy's eyes narrowed. “Yet despite this important public good, they are disproportionately taxed by Canterlot to cover their local deficits, with your appointed mayors nodding their heads like a singalong.”
Celestia mentality cursed. “I understand the taxes are unpopular, but surely petitioning your appointed mayors or the House of Lords would be more beneficial than outright secession.” She shifted a bit to the side, while the group looked at her amusedly.
“Because the nobility and aristocracy care what some dirty mud ponies have to say.” Mac chuckled. “Princess we’ve tried, but those are the same ponies who have strangled us with predatory loans and overpriced goods. If they cared they would have answered our petitions, but it seems they don’t value a full stomach as much as a full vault. As for thee mayors? Same tune different lyrics, why cared more about carrying favor with the royal houses then helping us.”
“What your doing could cause a famine in Equestria! We’re stronger together then we are apart, can’t you see that?” Celestia felt her chest tightening.
“We are stronger together.” She smiled as Carrot Top spoke, hope coming back. “United, we Earth Ponies have eliminated a corrupt mayor, fought off an attempted pegasi invasion, and revitalized our communities... without you... no in-spite of you!” She leaned forward.
“You can’t think you’ll get away with this.” Celestia’s face grew increasingly serious. “The Royal Guard will be sent as soon as word spreads, I'm sympathetic to your situation and those mayors will be investigated. But you can't believe I'll just allow you to take more then half of Equestria without a fight!”
Daisy chuckled and gave the princess a toothy grin. “The same guards that Duke Shiny Halberd refused to modernize because he doesn’t like them using anything but his pointy sticks? He cares more about his bottom line then the safety of your Equestrian State Princess.”
“A spear is a relic of another time, nowadays it’s whoever has the most guns.” Roseluck motioned to the heavily armed locals.
“As crudely as they put it, you must realize trying to use the guard to force us back to the fold is a fool's errand.” Carrot Top shook her head and smiled. “How many guards are you willing to sacrifice just to hang onto a dream?”
“Equestria is not a dream! It’s a place where ponies can live in harmony with one another.” Celestia insisted. “I know things are troubling now, but they will get better, we've been through worse and have prevailed! I just need more time!”
“But how much time princess? A year? A decade? A century?” Big Mac asked with a more serious look. “You might be able to wait out the troubles with your longevity, but we don’t have that luxury. We need progress now, our foals need a future now! We are done waiting!”
“He’s right, you had centuries to do something, perhaps at one point things were improving for us in the past. But certainly, not in recent memory, the only thing I remember is your lack of action.” Carrot glared at the princess.
Princess Celestia looked over at the orange mare, something was familiar about her, but she couldn’t quite place what. “Lack of action? I’ve been working to break the nobility’s hold on our economy!”
“Foreign investment... not a bad strategy, but still too slow, by the time you have enough flack we’ll all be deep in debt, but not what I was talking about.” Carrot looked unamused. “You really don’t remember the trial? Where you let a killer off.”
“I don’t...” Celestia shook her head was interrupted in the middle of her denial.
“Gilded Union...” Carrot uttered his name. “He killed my family and you let him off.”
Realization dawned on Celestia. “We didn’t have the evidence t-to convict him! All we had was-“
“A testimony from a scarred filly who just barely survived a fire. A fire you ruled a natural disaster, instead of what it was, cold-blooded murder of the Carrot family.” Her eyes hardened. “I saw him that night while sneaking out to the fields... he used lightning strikes to set the homestead ablaze.”
“We didn’t have any motive! We couldn’t incarcerate a pony on the word of a single scarred foal!” Celestia shook her head while her eyes widened.
“But you did have a motive, the Carrot family was experimenting with irrigation ditches.” She sniffed but repressed the emotion. “Even as a filly I understood that something as simple as that was a threat to Cloudsdale. I just want you to tell me if I could see it back then, why couldn’t you?”
Celestia glanced away avoiding eye contact. “With the lack of hard evidence and the Weather Corp Union protesting in Canterlot... it was a calculated sacrifice for peace...” Just saying that made her feel sick.
“You mean status quo... How many Earth Ponys have gone without justice for your peace? Do you even know? Or are we just expendable to you?” Filthy along with the other ponies glared at the princess. “I think we’re done here, gentle stallions please escort the princess and her entourage to the border.”
A group of burly stallions and a zebra surrounded the princess. While her guards were kept at bay in fear of their princess being injured. “Stand down! This is unlawful treatment of a Royal!” One of the guards protested moving forward only to have the butt of a shotgun knock him to the ground.
“Shut up flank-kisser!” Lucky grumbled glaring down at the stallion while the others were about to move to help their comrade only to here the cocking of several rifles around them.
Celestia gauged the situation and sighed, it was currently unattainable. Fighting now would only get her guards killed and at best her badly injured. “We’ll leave peacefully, just let us get back to the chariot.”
“I’m afraid it’s been impounded, we can't just have ponies invading our airspace willy nilly.” Daisy giggled. “Regardless of stature, I’m afraid your trotting home today. Unless you can cover the impounding fee, what was it... 1,500 bits?”
“Hmmm I don’t know, we’ll have to convene to decide on the price. But 1,500 bits sounds more than fair for a first-time offender, especially considering her personal wealth.” Big Mac nodded his head.
“You mean for us to walk back to Canterlot?” Celestia sighed, it left her and her guards dangerously exposed.
“Unless you have the bits on you to cover the impound fee, I’m afraid so.” Filthy shrugged his shoulders regaining his business-like professionalism.
“You can’t make an exception?” Celestia looked worried, that carriage was a gift from the late Gryphon emperor. She was more than a little attached to it compared to her other modes of transport.
“An exception today leads to an exception tomorrow.” Mac shook his head. “Besides, many of us have had to walk to Canterlot, I’m sure you’ll be fine. Maybe you can catch the railed wagons?”
“Oh dear, if I remember right the rails were damaged by the Cloudsdale militia.” Carrot Top shrugged. “Happy travels princess.”
Celestia sighed and nodded to her guards as they were lead out of the town. Many of her guards seemed ready to protest, but without their spears, they weren’t gusty enough to attempt anything. Resisting the urge to look back at the ponies who watched her leave, their distasteful stares felt so alien. This needed a gentle touch, but right now she had to worry about getting herself and the guards home.
———————————————————-
Mac watching them leave he started to deflate just a bit in his chair, feeling his heartbeat against his chest. God or not, that mare radiated power, standing up against that power was trying for them all. The Flower Trio looked more unhinged then ever almost as if they just got off a bad batch, while Filthy looked like he was recovering from a bender. Even Carrot Top looked like she aged several years just from the experience, yet she remained steadfast. She started to smirk and then even laugh as if she had just heard the most hilarious joke of her life. The group looked uneasy from the almost unhinged sounding laughter.
“Carrot?... are you alright?” Mac swallowed nervously, that laughter rubbing him all the wrong ways.
“Ya... ya....” Carrot wiped a tear from her eye and flicked it away. “Just give me a moment to catch my breath.” She would continue to giggle for a few more moments.
“Mind telling us the joke Carrot?” Filthy asked raising an eyebrow, wondering what she could possibly find funny.
“We just stood up to god and told her to shove off...” She ran her hoof over her face. “And all she could do was look at us with disapproval...”
The flower trio seemed to slowly join in with their own giggles. Filthy slowly formed a grin but maintained his professional appearance. All while Mac just seemed to lean back into his chair and look around letting it soak in. This was only the beginning he knew that but they had just sent a strong message to Canterlot, it was the response they had to worry about now. “For now... she’ll come up with a response to this, but all we can do is rebuild...”
He slowly pushed himself away from the table cracking his neck. It was going to take at least a week to rebuild and repair the damaged buildings on Main Street. Nevermind the damage to the surrounding homesteads, victory, or no collateral damage was inevitable. The others nodded their heads knowing their assigned roles in the reconstruction, meanwhile, Mac looked in the distance. Cloudsdale had turned a dirty grey from the smoke of numerous buildings being set ablaze by desperate addicts. He swore he could still see a few fires even after hours, but he couldn’t be sure at this distance. It didn’t really matter, without the Weather Corp he doubted they would ever recover.
As he trotted down the road flanked by Ponyville Militia members he thought about what it could mean if it was traced back to them. Though it was doubtful, the second batch they promised the addicts would keep them from talking. It made him sick just thinking about it, but those pegasi were chosen simply because they were already at the end of their rope. Having sold all they had just for a moment of escape from their deteriorating situations. Stretching out what they had left with whatever they could powderize.
Approaching Sweet Apple Acres he could see Applejack directing their kin as they fixed the fire damage to the barn. If granny could see the damage to the roof alone she’d police have a stroke, thankfully she and their baby sister were safe visiting Apple Strudel for Ciderfest in Ananasrenette. Completely unaware of what had transpired while they were enjoying the month-long festival. Which suited him fine, he didn’t want them to see what they had to do, neither did Applejack.
Seeing her brother approach she ran over to him and wrapped her hooves around him tightly. “Is it over?...” She asked almost begging, her eyes were red and irritated from crying.
“... for now sis.... for now...” He knew it wasn’t what she wanted to hear but he didn’t want to lie to her.
“... Big Mac?...” She looked up at him.
“Yes?..” He swallowed, he knew that look.
“I killed Thunderlane...” She stared at him blankly, her eyes unfocused.
“He was with them?...” He asked but he knew the answer.
“...Mhm... cause of us....” She mumbles staring at the ground.
“Us? He joined slavers AJ!” Mac shook his head in disbelief.
“He was desperate! He lost his job and was about to lose his baby brother! We ignored his pleas for help and he-“ She shook her head.
“He made his choice sis, I’m sorry we didn’t help him, ah really am. But we had to worry about our kin first!” He shouted, but in his heart, a hole was forming.
“What about Rumble!?” Applejack pleaded. “I killed his brother, where does he go now?!”
“Ah... don’t know sis... maybe his cousins?...” Big Mac offered.
“They're living out of a storeroom... is that really all we can do?... w-we could... could...” Applejack was struggling to catch her breath.
“I’ll get him safe passage to his cousins, it ain’t safe here for him... once word spreads that his brother was part of the pegasi militia, they won’t care about his age.” Big Mac shook his head.
“B-but that’s not fair! He’s just a colt!” AJ looked horrified.
“AJ we can’t can’t adopt every orphan... especially not one who has family links to the Weather Corp Union...” He pushed away from his sister, guilt slowly making its way to his face.
AJ just shook her head but didn’t say anything, lowering her gaze. She knew he was right, but it didn’t make the taste any less bitter in her mouth. “Ah don’t like it, Mac...”
“I don’t either... but it’s all we can do...” He looked over the ponies as they worked to rebuild.
“Doesn’t mean it’s right...” AJ responded as she looked with her brother.
“No... no, it doesn’t...” He sighed. “All try and make sure they’re taken care of sis... Ah, promise..”