TWILIGHT BEGAN TO regret not brining any form of coat or scarf as she followed the silent parade. The wind had picked up heavily once the group reached the outskirts of Ponyville, and the purple pony clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering. She was not alone in her suffering, the ponies around her succumbing to bursts of shivers or shaking jaws. All except the guards showed signs of distaste for the cold; the silent beings moved quietly and swiftly in their black plates, with so little observable responses to the low temperature, Twilight began to wonder if the mute warriors actually liked this new environment.
Eventually, the stray, lonely buildings that leeched onto their path where replaced by dense forestry. The trees had grown dull and grey instead of bright and brown, where once lush branches full of leaves bright with fading autumn rested, now rested sharp, cruel claws reaching skywards. The dirt was black and lifeless; an epidemic of dead bushes and limp flowerbeds infected the once vibrant environment.
There was no wildlife; there were no chirping birds, no bounding bunnies, and no flying insects. The black trees where no longer home to life, merely husks serving no purpose than future firewood. Had one not seen the forest in its former glory, they would have thought the place had always existed in such a sad manner, never home to life or color.
Whenever the whipping wind tore into the forest, across a particularly barren and concentrated area of branches, a cold screech sounded across the land. It was as if one could actually hear the forest dying, its last gasps escaping for all to hear.
Twilight had known this forest. She had mental stores full of memories from this area; memories of color and noise, and of happiness and love. She could not believe that such a wonderful place could be torn down to such a state. The forest she had come to love was now an alien monstrosity, a crude insult to its own rich history. Eventually, she could feel tears begin to well behind her vision and shifted her vision to the snow covered ground, away from the ruined forest.
As they moved through the dead collection of wooden pillars, Twilight could hear, during short lapses in the wind, the sound of industry. Roaring voices, groaning wood, splitting planks, crashing hammers, it was a rarely heard collection of sounds to the purple unicorn, and it frightened her to be near such things this deep into the forest. As they drew nearer to the noises, a faint glow could be seen above the barren branches, a sickly orange glow that touched the clouds and glinted off the armor of the Pegasus guards who lead them nearer to this estranged location.
They party passed through a thin barrier of dense brush, which Twilight noticed could not have occurred naturally. It was when they picked their way through, over, and under in some occasions the collection of dead branches, that Twilight noticed the stumps. Hundreds of them, covering every space, like a silent army of flat topped, wooden warriors, standing at a solemn attention. Like their journey through the dead forest only moments ago, the purple pony was sickened by this image.
A sharp command from a guard marching past her brought Twilight's attention from the stumps, to their now clearly present destination. Past the snow and the stumps, the Apple family ranch stood alone on a low hill. It was bizarre to see the structure without its usual compliment of surrounding apple trees, and even more bizarre to see the numerous ponies rushing around about its premise.
Near the great barn, the skeletons of two similarly sized constructs where being built be its side; a compliment of guards and regular citizens working on the project. Snaking a path away from the farm and towards Ponyville, a large caravan, much larger than Twilights, could be seen, aside from individual ponies, Twilight could make out large wagons, hauled by both guards and citizens. Twilight noted that, unlike the town, every square inch of building space was not covered in banners; instead, the apple top wind vain that usually topped the barn was replaced with the barley visible flag of the invaders.
Noticing that her group was moving, Twilight extended a hoof to begin following, however, a split second thought of doubt stayed her movement.
She could flee. Twilight was right next to the forest, they were moving away, counting on the bizarre weather, a storm could come in and mask her movements even more than the ever present darkness. They wouldn't be able to catch her, she knew the forest, despite its present state, she would surely be able to avoid these autonomous machines. Unlike the others, she would even have a destination, Zecora's hut, in the Everfree forest, it was perfect. Swallowing hard, Twilight took a shaking step backwards, yet once again, her mind was filled with a new thought.
She would be fleeing, leaving her friends and everypony behind. Once they realized she was gone, she would never be able to return, she would be of no use to Celestia or Ponyville. Twilights mind was filled by a mental war, flee or stay. Abandon your friends or save yourself. Escape or join the machine.
Her decision was abruptly made. Not by her, but by the emotionless glare of a motionless construct. The guard glared at her from his position behind the, now slowly moving away group. Although she was quite far from the stallion, and the slowly quickening wind was pushing her towards the forest, she felt as if her hooves where bound by iron. Twilight hung her head in silent defeat and began to advance back into formation with the group.
The guard waited for her, he waited until she had passed well in front of him before picking up a pace of his own. Twilight could not hear any form of hoofsteps, yet she knew he was only just behind her the entire trip back into cohesion with the group. She thought of it as degrading, being coerced into a pack like an animal.
APPLEJACK COULD FIND no other being to compare Iris to than herself. Although the red pegasus snatched, scanned, and discarded papers faster than Applejack could even read what they where titled, she was far from a secluded bookworm. When they came upon the farm, after leaving the meeting separately, they decided together that it would be best to enter the zone as a pair. As they walked among the little ponies, rushing about on their own tasks, Iris would stop constantly, moving to question each worker, asking if they knew what they were doing, dispensing her own orders if they couldn't reply. She examined the numerous supply carrying carts, checking not only their contents, but also the carts themselves, axles, wheels, and carriage. She even questioned ever stray guard that crossed their path, sometimes on the status of the construction project, sometimes about their armor, if it was in any way hindered by the frost or some other factor.
Yes, Applejack thought, in an industrial sense, Iris wasn't that different from herself, an industrious farmer so to speak. Applejack smirked at that last thought. It was odd to mentally compare herself to the communist but Applejack found it helped lessened her anger towards the Pegasus. Celestia knows she would need some method of stemming her anger if both of them where to survive the few weeks.
When they came upon her home and the numerous ponies rushing in and out of it, Applejack gritted her teeth, but reminded herself that it was all necessary for now. The guards rushing in and out parted as the pair entered with no bows or nodding, they simply allowed them to pass. Applejack found this odd, subordinates showing no sign of respect to their officials didn't really coincide with her mental image of a dictatorship.
The two passed through the front entrance, and made their way to the dining room, as they moved through the house, they passed numerous stacks of paper, and a wide assortment of mechanical constructs, if one had no prior knowledge, they would have thought the Apple family farm to be the headquarters of the territory instead of the pavilion.
Upon entering the dining room, Applejack noted the two guards standing silently near the doorway. Returning her gaze to the room, she was unsurprised to see the room had changed little from the last time she viewed it. Papers everywhere, maps, schematics, books, all cast on the long table like leaves on the ground during autumn. Two candles placed at opposite ends of the table served as the rooms only source of light, and aside from the guards and the two commissars, only one other pony acted as the room’s occupant.
It was not a guard, instead of an armored shell, it adorned a simple cloak. Its coat was grey, and its tail and hair where a bright green, a pair of orange goggles concealed its eyes.. The pony was at the farthest edge of the table, holding a small piece of parchment dangerously close to one of the table’s candles. Applejack could not guess the pony’s’ gender and, upon noticing the orange ponies curiosity, Iris spoke.
"My assistant, comrade Applejack, meet Horus." The comment provoked no other sound from the room, only a freezing silence occupied the space. Suddenly, as if just realizing its name had been mentioned, Horus spoke quickly. Its voice was panicky and low, he was a stallion.
"Comrade Iris, if everything goes as planned, we will not have enough materials left to make the windmills, we will not be able to generate power, and we wo-" Iris snatched the scroll from his hooves and began looking over it. Horus looked shocked to have his paper taken so abruptly from him and began pacing the room oddly. As he walked, he removed his goggles, exposing two green eyes, two lifeless, mechanical eyes. Applejack realized that he was not different from Magnus, a brainwashed guard with a little bit more liberty.
Upon noticing Applejack, Horus froze, looking her up and down and then back to Iris, his gaze kept snapping from the orange pony to the red Pegasus. Annoyed at the stallions action, Applejack moved closer to the table and began looking thought papers, she barley understood what half of them meant but it was better than standing around doing nothing.
After giving up on deciphering some schematics, Applejack noticed that Horus was still staring at her.
"Uh, can ah help you with somethin’ partner?" Her tone was commanding and annoying. Horus yelped slightly at the comment and took several steps backwards. Lifting her head from the parchment, Iris spoke calmly to Horus."Comrade, we will be requiring Applejacks assistance for the next few days, now please, bring me the master plans for the windmills." Horus nodded quickly and began rummaging through the scrolls on the table, mumbling as he did so. Once he withdrew himself from the table, a large scroll clasped in his hooves, he rushed over to Iris, who had tossed her own scroll back onto the table.
Taking the scroll, Iris splayed it across the table before a candle, Applejack noted that the light source was nearing its end, only several inches of the stick still stood, a white mass of wax forming at its base. "What are we going to do about the mater-" Iris silenced his comment with a raised hoof and looked to Applejack, unlike past glares, her new gaze held no malice, only camaraderie. "Comrade, I'm not fully aware of our resources, and I would appreciate your input." Applejack found the comment oddly worded, yet advanced beside the Pegasus and gazed at the scroll.
At first glance, Applejack was overwhelmed. She could make out the basic structure, a simple windmill, tripod setup, yet instead of a milling station or a water pump at its base, there was an odd looking machine. the numerous arrows, numbers, and notes written upon the paper made it difficult for Applejack to understand what exactly she was supposed to help with.
As if reading her mind, Iris clarified. "This is an electricity generating windmill, we will need many of these to help power the artificial farm however, we will be using many resources to build the farm itself and I'm afraid we won't have the materials needed to build this version of the windmill, we will need to alter the construction somehow, but woodworks are not my specialty, any thoughts". Applejack thought for a moment. Her mind slowly worked around the concept and she quickly began creating and dismissing ideas. They couldn't make the blades smaller, because that would generate less power. They didn't have access to metals as far as Applejack knew, they surrounding wood was all dead and therefore couldn't really be used.
Applejack blinked suddenly as a metaphorical light bulb popped over her head. "Do we have rope?" She asked quickly. Iris gave her a look of curiosity at first, but nodded. "Then couldn't we just make one leg and support it with cables?" Iris's grin appeared in the darkness. "Excellent, Horus, draw up some plans for me following that design." The silent stallion nodded crookedly and rushed over to a table against the wall full of blank papers and several ink wells. Stepping away from the table and towards the room's exit and motioning for Applejack to follow, Iris spoke in a friendly tone. "It's time we got to our other posts; I think you should help with the main barns construction." Applejack spared another glance at the windmill schematic before nodding and moving to follow the commissar out the door. The sound of a quill scratching against parchment could be heard as the pair left the room.