Braeburn had never felt as excited as he did now, looking at the plot of land that was to become the town of Appleloosa. Not since before the banishment of Princess Luna had a new town officially come into being. But with railroad tracks spreading westward and southward across Equestria, previously barren acres became ripe for construction. Appleloosa was going to be unique though in the fact that it would have its own apple orchard for sustainment.
Trees were being brought in for planting on the designated orchard grounds that once belonged to a tribe of nearby buffalo (which they seldom used). And much of the surrounding landscape was soon transformed into the rough frames of what would become buildings. Not just houses but also hotels, saloons, carriage sheds, even a hospital and a sheriff’s office. Heck, there was talk of setting up a small stadium to host rodeos, and making Appleloosa part of the Equestria Rodeo Circuit.
Braeburn had written to every branch of the Apple family that he knew how to reach or get in contact with. Once construction was finished, he wanted as many ponies as possible to travel out to the humble town and be amazed by what the earth ponies had managed to accomplish (there would be accommodations for pegasi and unicorns once they started showing up in large numbers. Appleloosa was going to be a mostly earth pony town). The stallion helped out with the construction, putting his natural earth pony strength to great use. There was plenty of food and drink to go around to help keep the workers nourished and refreshed even in the heat of Celestia’s sun, or the occasional rain storm that passed through.
Yet as construction got underway and the number of ponies working on drawing up plans, turning logs into lumber and erecting houses from said lumber increased, a noticeable problem started to develop. All that food and drink eventually had to come out. It soon became clear to everypony that simply having workers relieve themselves on the job was far from ideal, especially since they had no sanitation system and little soil to properly fertilize.
As a temporary stop-gap, a series of pits were dug in designated spots with old newspapers and discarded blueprints being used for cleaning. However, the pits quickly drew long lines and filled up quite fast. It was clear to all that Appleloosa would have to invest in at least some degree of plumbing if it didn’t want to chase off visitors with the smell it would surely become known for.
It wasn’t long before plumbers were being brought in to work on laying pipes for a proper sewer system, and drawing up plans for the necessary fixtures that would take the place of the pits and trenches that currently served as makeshift lavatories.
There was just one problem, there were no ponies in the immediate vicinity of Appleloosa that were at all skilled in the designing or the manufacturing of any plumbing device. This meant that the indoor plumbing fixtures would have to be brought in by train from other cities (like Canterlot and Manehattan), and had to be assembled and installed once they were brought to town. It was expensive, but Sheriff Silverstar summed it up at a town meeting better than anypony else. “This is necessary if our town is ever gonna be viable for tourism, or even just to ensure we stay. So it’s worth every bit we’ll have to spend up front to solve the problem.”
Work on many other buildings slowed to a crawl soon afterward, as the ponies of Appleloosa (Braeburn included) had to find ways to take care of their bathroom breaks without overtaxing the system of pits and trenches that were barely handling the needs of the town. This often took them further and further away from town, forcing them to depend on a lone stream for cleaning. And on the other side of the stream resided the campgrounds of the buffalo tribe.
Though initially welcoming of their new neighbors, the buffalo became hostile once they learned that their old stomping grounds had been claimed and turned into an orchard. Their acts of hostility soon took the form of attacking various supply trains on their way to Appleloosa. It wasn’t uncommon to find several trains arriving in town with entire loads missing, usually apple trees intended for planting, or for trains to be derailed or held up before they reached Appleloosa.
These frequent attacks ultimately made construction of the new indoor plumbing fixtures take even longer than expected. While the buffalo had little real use for the materials that went into building them (and had no real need for them), they would still end up stealing them or damaging them during their many raids on the supply trains. Some ponies began to wonder if Appleloosa would be able to survive, or if all the effort that had gone into building it turn out to be for naught.
Nopony knew for sure. All they could do was wait and make the most of what they had. While construction slowed considerably, there was a silver lining in that said construction had not outright ceased. So many held out hope. It was a common saying among the locals that “Once the plumbing fixtures are installed, everything will be just fine.”
One morning Braeburn rose from his sleep, making his way into the kitchen in his still incomplete house for a breakfast of biscuits, hay bacon and coffee. It wasn’t much but it was the best anypony in town could do since the first apple crop wouldn’t be ready for harvesting anytime soon. And fruit shipped from elsewhere unfortunately never stayed fresh until it reached Appleloosa. The area he had built that wasn’t finished was going to be a bathroom. In fact, he hadn’t even started on it since the pipes connecting to the town septic tank had only just arrived yesterday. And the fancy unicorn plumber who was supposed to help get them installed wasn’t to arrive until the end of the week.
Breakfast was finished fast, Braeburn soon trotting out to see where and how his help would be needed today.
To his surprise, Sheriff Silverstar was waiting for him with an unusual smile on his face. “Braeburn, you’re just in time!” He beamed! “It took a lot of time, sweat and effort, but some of our boys took another look at the blueprints for the first indoor plumbing fixtures and were able to complete it. Now all we need is somepony to test them to see if they work properly.”
“Uh, how exactly do you want me to do that?” Braeburn questioned as he was led to a small wooden shack that had a crescent moon carved on the door.
“I think we both know what the best way to test these new plumbing devices is,” Sheriff Silverstar said with a wink. “If it works, then we won’t need to wait for those fancy unicorns to get everythin’ hooked up for us. We can install them ourselves.”
Pulling the door open, Sheriff Silverstar led Braeburn inside. In front of them stood some kind of elevated trench surrounded by a white colored box. There was water inside it, a brightly colored tile and a strange nozzle shaped object.
“Now, here’s what we know about how it’s supposed to work,” He explained to Braeburn. “Just like with the old trenches, ya gotta place your rump over the openin’. If ya hear a splash that probably means ya did it right. The pedal triggers somethin’ called a flush, which is how this thing empties itself. And that nozzle is a sprayer, you’re supposed to use it instead of paper to clean up.”
“So ya want me to test out all those… things to make sure they work?” Braeburn asked.
Sheriff Silverstar nodded. “Exactly, Braeburn. And be honest. If the boys did somethin’ wrong I wanna know about it.” Then he trotted out of the shack and closed the door behind him before Braeburn could say anything in protest.
Reluctantly, Braeburn decided to embrace his role as a guinea pig for the flush lavatory. He didn’t really like the way it looked, but who was he to complain? It wasn’t like he or anypony else would be seeing much of it anyway. Using it took a while since without physical activity it took a long time for breakfast to digest.
But when the time came Braeburn had no trouble doing what was necessary. The sprayer was a little bit tricky to hold with hooves (the stallion was sure that it was probably meant more for unicorns who could hold it with magic), but he somehow managed to maintain a grip on it to clean himself up.
Then he stepped onto the pedal as he heard a noise he’d never heard before reached his ears. By chance, his eyes happened to look down at the lavatory trench in time to see the water suck everything in it down some kind of trap. Then it refilled, sparkling clear, as if nothing had ever happened.
Unfortunately though, the flush had caused a bit of water to splash up at Braeburn. He’d only just managed to lift his face to avoid a direct hit. “Well, that’s one thing that’ll need to be fixed.” He complained as he shook his wet mane all about. Still, it looked like this new flush lavatory did its intended job well enough.