//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: Hooves at work 
// Story: Gusty the Great book 1- The beginning 
// by Dianabel 
//------------------------------//

“So… What will my first job be?” Gusty asked Bray curiously.

Bray smirked.

“Why do you think I brought you here?” he walked to a bucket and picked it with his mouth. “I want you to water every thorn.” he said while putting it in front of Gusty.

“And then what?”

“I´ll tell you once is finished. I´ll wait you on the garden gates. Go there once you´re finished. The guards will assist you.” 

“Yes sir.”

Bray walked away from Gusty. Once he was away enough from her, he chuckled maliciously.

“Good luck.” he whispered.

Meanwhile Gusty stared at how Bray left.

“I don´t know why, but I feel very uneasy about this.” She bit her lip. “I hope they don´t suspect anything.”

She looked at the two lines of huge black thorns with blue spikes she was supposed to water. She sighed heavily.

“Here goes nothing.”

She grabbed the bucket with her magic. She struggled to lift it, as it was full of water to the top. In doing so, she spilt half of the water. Gusty´s eyes widened. She blinked and then covered her mouth with her hoof. Feeling that her breath was fastening, she talked to herself in order to calm down.

“Ok. It´s not that bad. Maybe there´s a fountain around!” she laughed nervously.

She bit her hoof as she searched for a fountain around her. For her misfortune, she saw no fountain.

“I might not see one here, but there must be a fountain or a well.” she stayed silent. “I hope.” She sighed. “I´m so not going to survive this.”  she thought as she prepared to lift the bucket. “At least I can lift it this time.”

And so, Gusty watered them with really tiny water jets. Her intuition was right, as she managed to water almost half of the thorns. Naturally, the water ran out in no time. But luckily, Gusty saw a well.

“Aha!”

Excited, she ran to the well. She tied the rope around the bucket and slowly, immersed it into the well.

As she was busy refilling the bucket, she didn´t realize what happened around her surroundings. The thorns she had watered started moving and twirled around anything near them. One of them moved in direction to Gusty.

“There we go.” she said once the bucket was in the top of the well.

Suddenly, Gusty noticed something stingy in her rear leg.

“Ouch! What the?”

When she turned around, she saw what had happened to the thorns, which made her gasp surprised and horrified at the same time. What´s worse, one of them had already twirled around her leg.

“Lase. Of course this had a trick.” she said unamused.

Then, the thorn raised her from the ground, which made her yelp. However, she wasn´t hanging or far from the ground as she had been able to hold on to one of the well´s pillars. In doing so, she let go of the rope.

“Hoshi, hoshi, no, no no!” she said as she watched helplessly how the rope and the bucket fell into the water.

She noticed that the thorn was pulling her, which scratched her leg.

“OUCH!”

Furious, she kicked the thorn. Surprisingly, it let her leg go but it almost made her fall into the well, something she avoided by holding on to pillar like she did before. She breathed heavily.

“Ok, don´t worry. You still have a way out.” she looked down, finding the bucket and the rope. “All you need to do is to find the rope and the bucket and go up.”

She looked down, desperately searching for the two objects. In doing so, she noticed the state of her rear leg, which made it hurt even more. She moaned in pain. 

“Where is it? Where is it?”  she asked anxiously.

Right after she asked the question, she found both objects. She sighed in relief and ignited her horn to get them. But just when things seemed to be about to get better, the same thorn from before approached Gusty one more time and its spikes reached her foreleg. 

“Ouch! Not again!”

Without thinking it, she turned her hoof aside, causing her to fall into the well. After she managed to get her head out of the water, she tried to swim to the bucket, but unfortunately, the thorn interposed between the two.

“Oh come on!” she exclaimed angrily.

But she quickly realized that something that could seem like an obstacle, was her only way out. So, using her magic, she picked the rope and the bucket, held the thorn, and slowly she climbed it, trying to avoid the spikes if possible. With patience and resistance, she got to the surface and jumped to the ground, running from the spikes. She breathed fast and heavily. Though she had a small moment of glory, she still needed to finish her task. And the bucket was still empty, plus the well was blocked by the thorn.

She started feeling cold and sneezed, so she put her forelegs around her body. In doing so, she looked at how both her clothes and her body were completely soaked. Then, she looked at the thorns. 

“He didn´t say how much water I had to use…”

She gulped, frowned in determination and prepared her body to run.

“On the count to three. Chik. Nyi. SUM!”





Several hours passed. The guard assigned to assist Gusty at the garden´s gates fell asleep. Bray, who was back from his duties, opened the door. He widened his eyes when he saw the guard not doing his job. Grogar was right, there was no way that they would achieve their goals relying on them. If they wanted to do things right, the two of them had to do the job, even though Grogar didn´t Bray to be as involved as him.

Angry, he clapped his hooves while looking away in disdain.

“DROG!” he yelled. “Hey!” he hit his head, awakening the troggle.

“Wha- What?” the troggle asked while rubbing his eyes.

“Don´t you know you´re sleeping in the middle of work you idiot?!”

“Sorry, sir but when did you assign me the task?”

“This morning.”

“Look at the sky sir.”

Bray widened his eyes.

“It´s sunset. Ha! That means she´s dead.” he said as he turned around to leave.

“Did you send that mare to the garden to kill her on purpose?”

Bray moved his head from side to side.

“We´re just giving her a warning not to mess with the emperor. We know what to do if she dies or survives.”

“Why?”

“Protocol.”

“I´ve been years working here, and I don´t remember sending anypony to-” Drog said confused.

“I´m just following Grogar´s orders!”

“Ok. But I find it weird that he´s starting to do that.”

“You find weird that a pony enslaver is trying to maintain his power by scaring ponies?” Bray raised his eyebrow sarcastically.

“No, but did he decide not to accept ponies in the castle all of the sudden?”

“He has a reason to. He suspects Majesty is sending ponies, why do you think we´re asking to double the guards, huh?”

“But we haven´t found anything weird.”

“Because you´re useless! You slept in the middle of work!”

“I was doing my job, but a lot of time passed, nothing seemed to be happening, and the castle gave me such a nice shade…”

Bray rolled his eyes.

“I spent years surrounded by these temptations and I´m still focused. That´s no excuse!”

“You´re right. I´m sorry sir.” Drog joined his hands. “I´m sorry. It won´t happen again.”

“It had better not.”

There was a brief silence between the two. As Bray was still angry, Drog decided to give him a topic of conversation to make him forget what just happened.

“So… How are you so sure that she´s dead?”

“Don´t you know whenever they feel something the thorn start moving?”

“I do, but maybe she´s just taking her time.”

“This much time? I don´t think so.” Bray shook his head confidently. “In fact, I think I´m going to send you to another place so you do something more active and not sleep at work.”

But just when they were about to leave, a voice spoke from the distance.

“Done!”

The troggle and donkey turned around and stared at Gusty surprised. There she was, breathing heavily, soaked, with scratches on her face, and her dress completely torn. 

“I´ve finished the job sir.”

“Where did you get yourself into to get so wet?” Bray asked Gusty.

“I fell into a well, sir.”

The donkey held his laughter.

“How did you fall into a well?” the troggle asked genuinely concerned.

However, Gusty thought he was just mocking her, like the rest of the troggles always did to ponies.

“I don´t know you tell me.” she replied angry at the troggle. Apparently, somepony forgot to mention me those plants could move!” she glared at Bray.

“Ok first of all, I´m a donkey so don´t call me `somepony´. Secondly, is that a way to speak to your superior?”

“No, I´m just pointing out your mistake. Sometimes, even superiors must listen to their subordinates.”

“Yeah? Well, in case you haven´t realized, things don´t work like that around here.  So if you don´t want to suffer the consequences,” Bray made Drog to point his spear at her. “you´d better stop doing that missy.” he threatened her.

Gusty walked backwards. In spite not being the emperor and a donkey, Gusty realized Bray had the potential to harm her, just by talking to the emperor. She looked down and defeated.

“Yes, sir. I´m sorry. It won´t happen again.”

“Oh, I´m not saying it for me. Although you might not believe me, ponies also face up to me. But when it comes to the emperor… they shake in fear, so they´re no threat. I think you´re one of those ponies. But just in case, I warn you. Now come along, I´m giving you the next task.”

“Do you want me to bring her some linen so she can dry up?” Drog asked her.

“Not necessary.”

“I think that was too much sir.”

“I know.” Bray said with a smile.

Bray started walking but stopped when he didn´t hear hoofsteps behind him. He turned around and saw Gusty squeezing her mane, her tale and the skirt of her dress.

“I sprayed an entire line of thorns with this and still takes out water.” she thought aloud as she squeezed the apron of her dress.

“Ahem!” Bray called her.

“Coming sir!” 

She shook her body before entering the castle with Bray.

“I gotta go lie down. Now.” she whispered.

Drog stared at Gusty as she left.

“She watered the thorns with her clothes?” he thought aloud when they were enough far away not to hear him. Then, he chuckled. “That´s tremendous.”





“Ok, so your next job will be wiping the corridor.” Bray told Gusty as he guided her.

Though an activity involving  buckets and waters was the last thing she would want to do at that time, Gusty simply nodded her head.

“But first you´ll need to get a bucket and a cloth.”

“Where do I get that?”

“In the kitchen.”

Gusty widened her eyes.

“Does that mean I have to walk into a room full of ponies?”

“Well, d´uh!”

“Right now?”

“Right now.”

She clenched her teeth nervously, as she remembered her previous experiences with workmates.  They were barely friendly with her before, and it was likely that the same thing would happen to her again. 

“I think I prefer the garden.” she mumbled under her breath. “Could I least change my clothes before? I can´t present myself like this to other ponies.”

“You can do that in your free time or once you´re finished.”

“But I haven´t had a free time.”

“That´s not my problem.”

“But-”

Before Gusty could even protest, Bray had already opened the door. There were dozens of mares cleaning the same corridor. Due to her experiences, one Gusty´s biggest stress factors was having ponies around. Specially now since she was soaked and her dress was broken, which made her the perfect target for laughs.

Seeing that Gusty was slowly getting away, Bray grabbed her foreleg.

“What are you doing?” he asked upset.

“It will just take a few minutes, please I-”

“I already told you that you can change your clothes once you´re finished.”

“But sir…”

“Ladies!” Bray ignored her and called the mares´ attention instead by stamping his hoof against the floor.

The mares stopped their work to pay attention to Bray. Gusty put her foreleg in front of her face and avoided eye contact with them.

“I present to you, your new workmate. Dusty!”

“It´s Gusty.”

“Whatever.”

“She will be working with you in the kitchen by doing non culinary activities. Nor right now, but maybe later.”

“What happened to her?” a dark blue green unicorn mare asked concerned by her aspect.

“The so clumsy mare fell into a well.”

“Because of you!” Gusty finished his sentence mentally while she glared at him.

The unicorn gasped.

“Ay, pobrecita.” she muttered.

“Yes, very sad.” he said with false pity. “Anyway, give her a bucket and a cloth, she´ll be wiping a corridor. Although the cloth may not be necessary, since she can use her apron or the skirt of her dress.” he chuckled at his joke, which made Gusty glare even more while blushing in embarrassment. “Those are all the news I had to deliver. Now, get back to work!”

Immediately after, he freed Gusty and pushed her to the kitchen. She smiled nervously at the mares, but they didn´t really notice as they were busy working. The mare that asked about her before, brought her a bucket. 

“Thank you.” she said tired and sad.

“You´re welcome. Look inside.”

Gusty obeyed and saw a cloth inside.

“Ah.” she chuckled. “Thanks. Glad you didn´t take Bray´s words seriously.”

“No no. Well, I mean yes, but you can use it to dry yourself before you fill the bucket with water.”  The mare advised while putting her hooves on her cheeks.

“Oh. Yeah, sure.”

“You can fill it there.” the unicorn pointed at the tub.

“Um… Thanks. Now excuse me.” Gusty nodded her head.

The mare watched with sympathy as Gusty walked to the tub. Meanwhile, Bray was supervising the mares´ work, but especially Gusty, and paid attention to their interaction. He raised his eyebrow interested as he rubbed his chin.

Meanwhile, Gusty put the bucket on the tub and started filling it with water. As she did, she noticed the mares´ stares, which made her feel uncomfortable. Some of them were even whispering things in their ears. The harsh words she was told on the day she was fired came to her mind.

“Get away from me!”

“Monster! You could have killed us!”

“If you never returned here again, that would be of great help!”

“She´ll be nothing but trouble again and again!”

“It´s incredible that you, a grown-up mare with two fillies to feed still can´t control her magic like a small foal!”

Although it was something inoffensive unlike the plants she had faced before, this made much more anxious. Her breath fastened and put her hoof. She noticed something moving her mane and it moved the other mares´ too, but they didn´t notice. She gasped horrified.

“Hoshi. Hoshi. No! Please stop!” she muttered.

The unicorn from before approached Gusty, but she didn´t notice her feelings.

“Hey, are you finished with that? I just need to wash a-”

“WHAT?!” Gusty snapped.

Every mare stared at her surprised, specially the one who had just been yelled at. Even Bray´s ears were backwards. Gusty covered her mouth.

“I…I… Sorry, I need to go. Thank you for the bucket and cloth.”

Quickly, Gusty caught the bucket and cloth quickly and rushed out the kitchen. She had never felt such a strong urge to cry, but she couldn´t until she was alone.

“Alright, I´m ready, can we go now?” she asked Bray hastily.

The donkey, who was still processing what had just happened, nodded.

“Um… Sure…”

As they were walking, Gusty spilt some tears silently.  Bray stared at her. After this little incident, he was more convinced that she had a secret. Otherwise, why was she so nervous?

“What are you hiding unicorn?” he thought while raising his eyebrow at her.





Though not so enthusiastic about it first, wiping the floor made Gusty feel better. It gave her something else to be focused on rather than her yelling at an innocent mare or Bray staring at her.

When Gusty wiped the last corner, she cleaned the sweat on her forehead.

“Done!”

“Good! Just at dinner time.”

Gusty bit her lip. Although she was somewhat hungry, she didn´t want to bump into the unicorns in the kitchen, specially the one she yelled at. Plus, she would rather go to bed.

“Oh! Um… Could I not go to dinner?”

Bray blinked shocked.

“I´ve been many years working for the emperor and this is the first time a pony has asked me that. Instead, they ask me if they can have dinner before their work turn is over.”

“I just feel too tired to eat.” 

“Well, do whatever you want, but we won´t save any food for you.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Guards!”

“Sir?” the troggles put their hands in front of their foreheads.

“Escort this maid to the workers´ chambers!”

“Yes sir.”

As Gusty and the guards left, Bray went to the emperor´s dining room.

“Oh boy, Grogar´s gonna be so pleased about this!” he said cheerfully.

He knocked at the door.

“Is that you Bray?” Grogar asked from the inside.

“Yup!”

“Then, come in.”

Bray opened and closed the door once he was inside. The ram joined his hooves together.

“So? How did our naïve friend´s first day go?” Grogar asked with cruel irony.

“Ho ho! Wonderfully. I don´t know how but she managed to do the task in the garden. That being said, that dummy fell down a well.” he laughed at the memory. “Oh, you should have seen her soaked, with dress broken, and full of scratches.”

“Indeed, that sounds amusing.” Grogar simply said with a smile. “But she survived the garden.” he said disappointed.

Like Grogar´s, Bray´s smile faded.

“Well… You counted on that…”

“I did. But if she survived that means that she´s a mare that fights tooth and hoof for survival. She´s challenging us, Bray. But I´m always up for a challenge. And she won´t win. Based on your observations, do you think she´s hiding something?”

“Definitely! You see, when we were looking for a bucket and a cloth to wipe a corridor´s floor, she was suspiciously anxious about something. I think she had a panic attack or something like that, I don´t know. She even yelled at one of her workmates.”

“That means she´s insecure.” he chuckled. “Good. Those are the easiest to trick and manipulate.”

“So, what duties do I give her tomorrow?”

“The ones that are part of the next step in the plan.”

Bray bit his lip.

“Right now? Don´t you think it´s a bit rushed?”

“You know that´s how we accorded the plan, Bray.”

“I know but… It just makes me feel scared.”

Grogar frowned.

“After all these years, you still think I´m not capable of doing things…”

“No, it´s not that!”

“Yes, it is!” Grogar replied. “Will you stop being scared of carrying on a plan? Only the weak do that! I thought you were part of the strong ones.”

Those words hurt Bray. His ears dropped.

“Sorry, my emperor.”

“Like I said before, the insecure are the easiest to harm. That´s why I tell you these things. To save you  pain and protect yourself. Don´t forget that Bray.”

“I won´t.”

Before Bray left, Grogar called him one more time.

“One more thing. Did you humiliate her as I ordered you?”

Bray nodded.

“Didn´t you remember I told you that she was soaked, her clothes were torn and had scratches everywhere?” he raised his eyebrow playfully.

Grogar chuckled.

“Good. Carry on like that. You may leave.”

Bray nodded and closed the door. His meetings with Grogar always left him with such mixed feelings.  He always congratulated his job but there were other times where he insulted him or underestimated him. He was never sure if he was ever truly satisfied with him, which made him feel somewhat sad. However, whenever he felt like this, he shook his head and carried on with his job.





Once she was in the chambers, Gusty threw herself on her bed while sighing heavily.

“That was definitely the worst first day of work in my whole life!” she thought aloud. She massaged her forehead. “I wish the ground would swallow me up!”

After she put her hooves under her pillow, she noticed something slipping and falling to the floor. She looked at the floor and saw her daughter´s handkerchiefs, which made her smile. She carefully picked them up and held them with her hooves. She moved to the end of the bed to get a better view of the outside to make sure nopony was around. Since she didn´t see any, she started mimicking her daughter´s voices.

“How was your first day in the job mama?” she mimicked Celestia´s voice while elevating the hoof on which her handkerchief.

“Well… Pretty bad.”

“Why mama?” she mimicked Luna´s voice, elevating now her handkerchief.

“Where to begin… Firstly, there is this mean donkey that works for the emperor named Bray, he gave me a tour, a bed and then my first task, which was watering thorns that move and made me fall into a well!”

“That sounds rough mama.” Celestia´s handkerchief said.

“I managed to do that, but it cost me my dignity, my leg and my mother´s dress.” Gusty mentioned the last object with sadness, unlike the others, with which she did upset. She took it from under her pillow. “It´s one of the things I have left of my family…. And home…” she said with melancholy.

“But you can fix it. I know you can!” Luna´s handkerchief tried to cheer her up. “You know how to sew.”

“Yeah, but it won´t be as beautiful as it was before if I sew the broken parts. I´m still learning, remember?” Gusty caressed Luna´s handkerchief as if it was Luna´s mane.

“Was that the only thing you did?” Celestia´s handkerchief asked.

“No, I also wiped the floor of one of the enormous corridors of the castle!”

“And how did that go?”

“Great! It helped me refresh my mind after something ugly happened.”

“The thorns thing?” Luna´s handkerchief asked.

“No… I yelled at a workmate.” she said with remorse.

The two handkerchiefs gasped at the same time.

“Did she yell at you?”

“No… I just got nervous due to the stares of the mares.”

“Were they looking with disdain?”

That left Gusty thinking. Unlike her previous job´s case, the mares didn´t look her with disdain. Without any emotion of hatred even! Just concern or surprise at her looks.

“Actually, they weren´t…. But even if they did, your workmate didn´t deserve that yell. She was kind to me, you know?” she sighed. “I hope she doesn´t resent me because of that for life.”

“I´m sure if you explained it to her, she would understand.” Celestia´s handkerchief reassured her.

“Let´s hope she does.”

“She will, trust me!” 

She smiled at Celestia´s handkerchief.

“Maybe things go better tomorrow.” Luna´s handkerchief said.

Gusty chuckled.

“Even if they didn´t, I would still go on. For you, I would do anything for you. It´s incredible that even by not being here present, you still motivate me to overcome challenges. Come what may, for you, I´ll stand on four legs.” she kissed the two handkerchiefs. “I love you so much.” 

She laid down and fell asleep while hugging the two handkerchiefs.