The prompt: Sunshine, happiness, and rainbows.
No Celestia/Pinkie/Dash shipping here!
"So that's how it is, Clover. We're gonna have enough food for the winter, but only if we scrimp and save."
Clover the Clever's eyes darted left to right as she scanned through the numbers on the sheet. Smart Cookie would have dismissed any other pony as simply taking her word for it and making a pretense of looking it over. But she knew that this pony was bright enough that she was probably actually double checking all the math in her head. As the unicorn read through the production figures and estimates, Smart Cookie heard a fluttering of wings outside. She trotted lightly over to the door and opened it, smiling at the pegasus she saw. "Heya, Private. Come on in, we got the place to ourselves for this little meeting."
Private Pansy smiled at her, but then lowered her head slightly, as though she were afraid she might offend by what she was saying. "Um, actually it's 'Corporal' now. But just Pansy is fine."
Smart Cookie chuckled warmly and shut the door behind the mare. "'Cookie' then. How you doing, Pansy? Pegasopolis is looking bigger up there in the sky every day."
Both of them knew how their unicorn friend was when it came to work, so neither of them bothered her for the moment. Their conversation stayed almost forcedly light, drifting across Pansy's recent promotion to Cookie's new apple-farming coltfriend, and then back to the changes in Pegasopolis and round again to the new construction in Everfree. It wasn't until Clover clacked the sheets of paper against the desk to straighten them, that the two mares looked to their friend again.
Clover set the papers down again with a slight blush on her muzzle, and then sighed. "Hi, Corporal Pansy, and sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. I'm done cross-checking and running through your numbers, Smart Cookie. It almost doesn't make sense. We have more ponies, and more food than last year, but the work is going slower."
Smart Cookie nodded, the lighthearted tone from her conversation with Pansy gone in a flash. "Sure is. I've been trying to keep everpony working, but... well, let's see how I want to say it. I reckon what I'm thinking is that back home, before the windigoes I mean, we had to work. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't just laying around all day. But we had good roads, and we had well-kept fields, and everypony had a solid, stone home to live in. Out here everything's still rustic. We have to turn up stumps when we're plowing, and clear forest to plant anything new, and even Puddinghead's house has more drafts than an empty field. I know the pegasus ponies are going all over heck and high water trying to find clouds to use, and just about every unicorn I see is black-coated with mine dust."
Corporal Pansy nodded her agreement, but didn't speak.
Clover's horn glowed as she shuffled the papers around, and nodded after a moment. "I know it's difficult. But look, the work on construction, meaning all three tribes, is going very well. Only by working together will the work get done! The schedules I've developed, along with the hot-bunking and rationing, will have everything completely finished in five years. Though the slowdown isn't even just linear, and inside of a year or two... hm."
The unicorn's voice trailed off to an unstated end. Smart Cookie waited a moment, and then spoke for herself. "In a year or two, we're going to have more ponies than we can feed, and that's even assuming we last that long. Last year we didn't even manage half the harvest before rot started setting in. This year's looking worse, even though it's only the start of harvest season. I can't keep pushing everypony so hard. Russet comes home hardly able to stand most nights, and I just can't bring myself to push harder."
Corporal Pansy looked at each pony as they spoke, while her wings rustling in worry.
"What do you want then, Smart Cookie? We can't just stop working! The unicorns need the gems for the magic to raise the sun, and the pegasus ponies have to have clouds to make it rain. Not to mention the food, which is the most important part of all! We can't just let ponies slow down! I know they're tired, we're all tired... exhausted. But we have to work, or we'll all be even worse off next year."
"Don't act like I don't know it. Clover, we've got fillies and colts out working the fields, and they're hardly weaned. Don't look at me like that, I know unicorns ain't doing any better. I'm not saying it's about what kind of pony I am. I'm just saying we can't keep on working like this, unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony."
"I don't see what else--"
The sudden clang of a mailed hoof on the floor of the house stopped the argument cold. Corporal Pansy maintained her furrowed brow for all of two or three seconds before wilting again, but she still held her friends' attention when she spoke. "Listen to yourselves! Um... this isn't how friends should treat one another."
A few seconds of silence passed, followed by muttered apologies from all three ponies. After that, however, the silence just hung in the room, growing heavier by the second.
When Smart Cookie finally broke it, her voice made the other two mares jump, despite her quiet tone. "I was thinking... Heh, sorry, didn't mean to scare you. I was thinking, one thing I miss from back home is the Running of the Leaves."
Pansy tilted her head slightly. "The Running of the Leaves?"
Clover spoke as though reciting verbatim from a book. "The Running of the Leaves is an earth pony tradition, found in many of the tribes, of having long ground races in the late fall. Its primary purpose is to shake down the leaves from the trees and prepare for winter."
"It ain't just-" Smart Cookie stopped herself, and started again with a calmer tone. "It's not just about the trees. The Running of the Leaves was a day everypony took off from work, just to watch the runners, or laugh and gallop through the forest. Ponies worked hard going up to it, so they'd have time to take the day off, and after that they felt a whole heap better. Competition brought folks together, and a day where nopony was expected to work is better than a week of shirking duties."
"That um... that sounds like the military parades we had in our old cloud cities. Work would stop, and everypony would watch the military ponies as we walked through town. It um... well, it made everypony feel better, seeing how strong and numerous our soldiers were."
Clover nodded slowly, looking through her gathered notes as she did so. "What was the last holiday we had? Oh, Founder's Day, the anniversary of when we started Equestria. That was over six months ago. You know, you ponies might be on to something! Everypony likes a party, and feasting and celebration both draws a community together and provides time for recovery."
Pansy smiled again, re-folding her wings and looking much relieved at the more relaxed atmosphere. "So, you're suggesting a holiday?"
Clover set the papers down, and closed her eyes for a moment, before smiling as she opened them again. "Actually, I'm suggesting lots of holidays. If we have a harvest feast soon, marking the start of the harvest season, then all the earth ponies will be that much stronger for the next few weeks. Those are the most critical times for the harvest, right Cookie?"
Smart Cookie nodded, still looking just a bit skeptical.
Clover continued unabated. "Even if we eat a quarter of our stores, and I don't think it will actually be that much, we'll more than double the harvest over last year. Probably, anyway. At the end of autumn, we can do the Running, to prepare for the work of preserving all the rest of the food over winter. Founder's day is during the winter months, and then afterwords we can... hm. Maybe we can do something with the cleanup to make way for spring."
Smart Cookie smiled slightly, looking a bit more confident. "Singing a song makes lighter work. I'll talk to some folks, we can come up with something."
Pansy looked down at her hooves, clad in clinking mail. "Um, maybe the miltary could avoid full armor in peacetime. We could change the name of the Weather Legion to something more... friendly. The weather team? Or... patrol? We could also work on making the rain stay on the fields, while leaving the town streets full of sunshine."
Clover smiled at the pegasus, and nodded again. "I think we're on to something. I was looking at this all wrong, with duty schedules and staring at numbers. We started Equestria, the three of us, by being friends. We started it with singing, and laughing. If we focus on that, and hold on to a sense of happiness, community, and levity, then all the work will seem easier for it."
The three friends smiled, and clopped their hooves together in agreement. They would make Equestria a land of parties, happiness, sunshine, and friendship. Hopefully, they would also make it a land of plenty.