Author's note: I know that this story might seem a bit political at this point, but that is not the most important aspect of the story! The political theme will just create more tension in the story and explore the characters to a higher extent, and I mentioned earlier that I perceive the MLP universe as being set cronologically somewhere in the late Victorian era, when many new progressive ideas tried to change the face of the world, especially in Absolute Monarchies like czarist Russia or imperial Germany, which resemble Goldengem's Equestria.
Although it was a sunny morning, Ponyville was covered by a thick layer of grey clouds, stretching from the top of the furnaces at the ammunition and jewelry processing plants over the whole town, including some of the Sweet Apple Acres orchards.
The factories were towering over Ponyville as monuments of modernity, but they were painting the happy town’s sky in a desolated grey of monotony, lifelessness, and, more than everything, they were casting the shadow of darkness over the coloured little town and dreadfully suppressing its spirit. Ponyville was succumbed to industrialization and crowned by its eternal pillow of grey clouds. As these clouds were actually smoke from burning and melting operations, no pegasus could clean the sky, and the melancholic image of a poor desolated community replaced the burgeoning little town which shined at the edges of the Everfree forest in the days of old. The distant hauling of the freighter trains pumping Equestria’s booming economy could be heard quite often now, and their steampower did not hesitate to do its part in blackening the heavens. A new world unfolded before the eyes of ponykind, and its grey steam resembled the dreadfulness of the corrupted society in which it was born.
The drum-like sound of apple bucking perforated the silence of an oppressed world, livening up the atmosphere at the outskirts of Ponyville, where two earth ponies quickened the pace of the nature’s song in a spectacular duet of hind legs kicks and happy work.
At first, Redstar couldn’t keep up with Applejack, but he tried his best not to fall behind as he got the hang of the job. The two were bucking neighboring rows of apple trees so that they could talk at the same time, and were enjoying their time together despite the fact that they were working so fast most ponies would’ve got tired only by watching them. Redstar was a relatively big stallion, being very close to the size of Shining Armor, and in spite of his strength which could rival Applejack’s, he was rather slow compared to the orange mare. She stopped occasionally to wait for him, but they were still working very fast for the alien, untrained-non-apple-family-member-belonging eye.
“YEE-HAW! That’s some good apple buckin’ we’re doin’ out here, partner! So, what’s your story? Ah haven’t seen your face’n town b’fore, so I s’ppose your new in ponyville!”
While panting heavily close behind, the crimson pony took some time to catch his breath and collect his thoughts, and then shouted from behind.
“Well, it’s not too much really! <panting> Wait up a little bit! <panting> I was born in a poor family from Livelpoor. My parents couldn’t afford sending me to college, so I became a worker at a furniture factory. I spent a lot of the few money I earned on books as I wanted to know more about the world than what I learned in elementary school and wanted to help solve its problems, and that’s how I found the writings of Charles Darwing and Kolt Marx. Their works, but especially the latter’s, changed my vision about the world and inspired me to become a trade-union representative and start fighting for the rights of the workers in all Equestria. That was prior to Celestia’s death. After Goldengem took over, the demand for furniture wasn’t as big as earlier as the wages went down, and the owner decided to close the establishment and invest in something else. That happened last month, and that’s when I left the big city and came in Ponyville!”
“What were those books ‘bout? Ah saw ya aren’t really Goldengem’s best friend, and Ah’m guessin’ ya weren’t as peaceful as a haystack under Celestia’s rule either, so Ah’m a little bit curious ‘bout your ideas! What rights were’ya fightin’for?” said the orange mare between the loud noises of hit wood and falling apples.
“ The principle isn’t hard to understand. As a farmer, you probably know that labour is the most important factor for creating wealth.”
“Hmm… Well, Ah guess so. Apple pies are more ‘xspensive than’em apples, planks than wood, an’every costly product must be built from cheaper raw materials, so ya first need labour b’fore ya can sell anything, and more labour adds more value to goods… Where ya’ goin’ with this?”
“You’ll know immediately, but, first,” the crimson earth pony stopped and kept panting for a few seconds, before he gathered the energy to pronounce the rest of the sentence coherently.
“could we rest a little bit under the shade of this tree when we talk? Running and talking at the same time is tiresome, and we won’t have enough energy for the rest of the orchards if we do it!”
“Sure thing, partner! Ya might be right ‘bout that, but we sure as hay won’t finish it lickety split if we stop. It may even take till sundown!” The orange mare took her hat off and started eating an apple to relax and chill up a little bit, while a light morning breeze from Everfree fluttered her golden mane in the air and caressed her long tail. Some spring flowers were carried by the wind around her in a sublime picturesque manner which could only bewitch any stallion, and make him see the pristine beauty of a mare whose warm heart usually clouded her looks in the eyes of other ponies. Redstar couldn’t find his words at the pulchritudinous sight of the orange mare lying in the wet grass between beams of sunlight and blossoming flowers. An endless ocean of green surrounded her from all sides, flowing peacefully like the song of the turtle doves which echoed through the branches of the tree behind her. He was not only rendered speechless for a few seconds, but he was afraid his affectionate gaze might be wrongly interpreted. This mare seemed to be a really good person and a very pleasant company, and Redstar thought that having her friendship and maybe, someday, something more, would be an honour for any stallion. Many thoughts flew across his mind, but he was soon interrupted by a voice.
“Sooo… Ya’ were sayin’?”
“Right… hehe. Sorry for that!” He readjusted his voice, and went on with the explanation. “So, wealth is created by labour, and under both the Celestian and post-Celestian system, the ponies which produced wealth by both direct ways of physical work or indirect ways of planning and organizing, are not the ones acquiring most of the wealth they produce – the company shareholders are. For example, in a factory where 500 ponies work in shifts and 20 ponies organize the process, the surplus value the ponies add to the raw materials the owner buys goes in small part to invariable costs such as electricity and machinery consumption, in another small part to wages, and, more than half of that value becomes the profit of the owner. The proprietor is entitled to the wealth produced by all the employees without having to do anything, and what is the rightful wealth of the employees is shamelessly spent by him or her, and the situation is the same on the agricultural properties of the landlords, where the peasants are exploited by the aristocrats!”
“Ah agree wit’ya here, but the owners’ave to get back their bits too! A factory’s not easy to buy.”
“Nopony says they shouldn’t do that, but they take much more! Look at the shareholders at Flim & Flam Cyder Corporation to see the clearest example of this situation. They were only two travelling merchants before they invested their bits in the huge Appleloosa terrains they own now, and nowadays, they’ve got their own skyscraper headquarters in Manehattan and their own vacation villa in the Hollywing hills of Los Pegasus, while the workers they brought in Appleloosa barely afford to pay rent! And all rich businessponies did, after all, win much more bits than they paid.”
This particular example brought some unpleasant memories back into Applejack’s head, but she had other more important problems now than thinking about how she and her family could have lost Sweet Apple Acres.
“Ah s’ppose that has to be right, but what do ya propose we do? Ah was as well a little bit disappointed by the inequal’ty in Equestria even b’fore Goldengem took over, but Ah knew princess Celestia and she did a lotta good too! There were some problems sure, but hey, nothin’s perfect, and she didn’t deserve bein’ overthrown! That mare had a good heart.”
“I only said that her rule had its bad aspects as well, not that she needed to be overthrown. She was a much better leader than Goldengem, but she still had absolute power and allowed for ponies to exploit each other. She had the final say in the government, and wealth wasn’t fairly distributed back then either. In big cities like Canterlot or Livelpoor, many ponies like my family had to live in bad conditions even back then. She praised the ideals of love, harmony and friendship, but what harmony is there in a class divided society? Kolt Marx argued that the only way to build the celestial utopia of love, harmony and friendship is to destroy the tyrannical monarchic system and bring social justice. He proposed that the big agrarian properties and urban companies should by nationalized by the state, so that the profits would be invested in social services, growth of production and higher wages rather than luxury goods, and that the state should be ruled by trade union representatives elected by the workers and the peasants themselves along with their families and replaced once a few years so that none gets thirsty for power. He argued that there should be only self-employed ponies, like the free farmers, the bakers or the artisans and state-employed ponies, and besides this, that everypony should elect the government ruling the state. Just imagine, apart from the social justice this alternative would bring, how many advancements could a so-powerful state make! The economy could develop at the pace it does now, and the distribution of wealth would be even better than the celestial one, and this is why I support this idea!”
“Ah don’t know what to say… It sounds good’n’everything, but many of mah friends and a big part of Equestria would just want to get Celestia back by finding that time spell! Ah mean, a little dreamin’ doesn’t hurt anypony, but she was a decent leader n’we need an alicorn to rise the sun! If we were to rebel and take the power rather than try to get’er back, why would Luna still bring ‘bout day n’ninght?”
“She’ll probably prefer to do it for a government chosen by the whole of Equestria than for a cruel tyrant she hates.”
“Hmm… Probably true. Princess Luna’s a good mare too n’sees’er power to control day n’night like an obligation to ponykind.” Applejack stopped talking for a few seconds and scratched her chin thoughtfully, until she finally decided to proceed with a more saddened look in her deep and sincere green eyes.
“Ya know, most of mah family was impoverished by Goldengem’s reform, and Ah am skeptical whether we can find the time spell any longer or not…” 3 years and a half had passed since the Canterlot funeral, and the young mare had serious doubts Princess Celestia could be rescued any longer. This alien idea of the crimson stallion before her eyes also had its charm, a peculiar appeal of liberty and change. Applejack had thought about a more classless society occasionally, and the idea of a chosen government seemed to be a sweet fragrance carried by the winds of justice. Celestia was a good ruler and Luna might’ve been one too, but monarchies are hereditary, and giving them power might be just a way to delay the rise to power of tyrants like Goldengem or probably horrible rulers like Blueblood.
“Ah always wanted a more just society in Equestria too, and although mah friends strongly believe in Luna or Celestia, maybe we shoul’do somethin’ ourselves! Ah ain’t gonna sit here doing nothin’ while other Apples and the fair ponies of mah country are sufferin’, only hopin’ to get that time spell somehow! Ah like how you think, partner, but are there other ponies who wanna achieve your ideal?”
“There are many of us in the big cities, and some I convinced at the factory here in Ponyville! In fact, we have an underground organization which planned all the strikes in the last year, and our objective is to overthrow Goldengem and build a socialist regime of ponies everywhere, but we don’t have any way to get weapons and we would need more supporters for a revolution! I will be killed and maybe even tortured for information if a soldier ever hears this Applejack, but you are a good mare, and even if you don't join our struggle, I know that I can trust you!” Redstar looked deep in Applejack’s crystalline eyes, and although he knew this mare only for a few hours, he felt that he could see a true friend in her.
“Ah’ve got nothin’ to do with any soldiers besides mah brother, and nopony has to worry ‘bout’im. He only’nrolled to help us through this harsh times, n’he ain’t much of a talker either. Besides, Ah’d always keep a secret to protect a pony from this new “king” and his vengeance!”
“Thank you. Hey, whether you’d just like Celestia back or the more radical change I and the Workers Nationale’ fight for, we still have the common goal of helping ponies resist against this oppressor, and we might collaborate with each other sometime!”
“Ah’d love to! The only thing Ah don’t like ‘bout your idea’s the fact that a revolution’s violent and many ponies may be killed by the troops in one… Ah b’live that a violent movement can’t be the best way to help ponykind, and if mah friends figure out how could they get the time spell this time, Ah won’t hesitate to help’em. Ah’d like to live in the Equestria ya want to create, but Ah’d only help ya if bringing back Celestia is not an option. Ah want to do something for mah family, mah friends and mah fellow ponies now, b’fore the king ruins all of their lives any further and spills more innocent blood, and if Ah can’t do that peacefully, then Ah’d help ya’. Your goal is a noble one, and if it can be achieved, Ah’d be glad to be a part of the movement tryin’ to reach it.” Applejack finished her phrase in a much warmer and thoughtful voice than she used to address strangers.
She wanted nopony to get hurt, but after all she’d seen in the last few years, she feared that many more will if Goldengem isn’t stopped soon, and she felt somehow that if only a short time of struggle and suffering was needed to save everypony, to give her family back their lands and release them from the burden of hard work without reward, to stop the decimating war in the dragonlands and the abuses forever and to build the better world she always dreamed about, it was a price worth paying. She tried to avoid that thought for now, as it wasn’t her decision in the end, but what this big crimson pony said certainly helped to grow the seed of hope in a better future into a strong idea in her head, and the orange mare was captivated by the possibility of being part of something bigger than her, than the elements of harmony or than anypony else – being part of the rewriting of history, and the dawn of a new, better era.
Redstar never dreamt of the wealth and vexation the rich ponies in Canterlot enjoyed, and didn’t join the socialist movement for having a better life himself. No, he liked to work in the chilly air outside like he was doing now and to read from time to time, but he always felt empathy for the ponies around him, and growing in the dirty cobbled streets of the Livelpoor port made him understand that the only way to help the ponies you care about was to stand up and fight.
He learned that lesson a long time ago, when he was a little filly like Applebloom, the girl he saw at the barn here at Sweet Apple Acres. The playground of the school he learned at was going to be demolished for the expansion of the shipyard’s warehouses, and no filly in his classroom had a say about it. That was the first time when he convinced ponies to unite and stand up for their rights, and the first time in Equestrian history when a group of fillies gathered in their playground in protest, raising banners and shouting slogans. The story made it to the Equestria Daily, and Celestia herself considered it so heart-warming that she told the warehouse owner to build someplace else, and that was the moment when he got his cutie mark of resistance of the down-trodden ponies of the world. The detention days he got afterwards at school and the corporal punishments ordered by his grumpy very conservative teacher taught him that it is hard to bring change peacefully. From that moment, he was guided in life by his passion for the ideal of change, and, after he red Marx and especially after Goldengem became king, for the revolutionary ideal.
Yet, now he had strong feelings for something else, or, better said, for somepony else. Her appealing warm voice and intentions of doing good, her deep green eyes shining in the sunrays coming through the branches above and her friendly nature and countryside accent had a certain charm attached to them, and gave the strong stallion a feeling he didn’t experience before.
They looked at each other for some time, and the lack of words seemed to say more than any words could. The silent symphony of the bending grass below their hooves, the lonely rustling of the wind and the song of the turtle doves simply pushed their gaze to one another, but he realized that not breaking the silence might be inappropriate.
“Well, I think we’ve still got a lot of apples to buck! Race you till the end of the row!” The stallion had regained his energy during this break, running much quicker than earlier and starting to hit trees with tremendous force.
“All right! Ah’ll see you there!” The orange mare sprinted through the soft grass, and the two worked tirelessly for the rest of the day. Applejack had promised to help her friend Fluttershy as well, so Redstar promised to finish the last sections by himself. Applejack invited him to a glass of cider and a nice piece of apple pie the next day, as she had to leave earlier, and, when the work was done, the big earth pony headed quietly to his apartment, doing his best not to wake up the ponies at the barn.
Just a short question: I mentioned "Charles Darwing" earlier, and I've got an idea about a fanfic which would depict a scientific analysis of Equestria in three parts: the evolution of earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi and alicorns; a Newtonian analysis of gravity and the way physics work in the Equestrian solar system and, last but not least, a logical explanation of unicorn and alicorn magic using some basic quantum physics (and maybe a few sci-fi references and Dr. Whooves). The whole thing would be a comedy, and I'm curious whether anybody would be interested to read something of the sort. Would you?