The Sun Never Sets

by Mr Fislewait

Industry and Generosity (Part One)

"That's the last of them," Spike said as he placed the final box into the room. His work complete he slumped backwards against the bed and wiped his arm across his forehead. It had been a bit of work but all of Sunset's belongings were finally moved into her new room. Originally she had been given the largest of the guest rooms but after her accident earlier in the week it had been decided that the safest option was for her to live on the ground floor so that she no longer had to deal with any more stairs. As he looked over his handiwork with pride Spike heard the telltale squeaking of wheels approaching the room. "Hey, Sunset! I've just finished moving the last box," the dragon called out into the hall.

"Thanks, Spike, I really appreciate it." Sunset rounded the corner and entered the room, surveying it with a look of satisfaction from the comfort of her wheelchair, a thick cast covering her bad leg. The accident hadn't really been anypony's fault, while walking down the stairs of the castle Sunset had seemed to have lost her concentration and tripped down the last three steps. Twilight had quickly rushed her to the hospital and thankfully the fall hadn't been bad enough to affect the foal. It had however broken Sunset's leg and with her so far into the pregnancy it was deemed to be impossible for her to safely use a crutch. She was going to be wheelchair bound until she had given birth and probably for some time after that as well.

Sunset had seemed to be taking it surprisingly well until she realized that between the cast and the wheelchair her dresses had become incredibly impractical. She had attempted to stick with the dress for about half a day before she had to give up, the cloth having gotten caught in the spokes of the wheels every ten minutes or so. If she had been considered a recluse before Spike could only imagine what ponies would consider her now. When Spike had been keeping her company on the way back from the hospital he had noticed a lot of the ponies on the streets giving Sunset strange looks, a fact that Sunset seemed quite aware of. Most of the town had only ever seen her wearing the dress so it was unsurprising that they would be curious, but the looks Sunset got were clearly making her uncomfortable. Her body was pockmarked with bald spots where her skin had somehow been burned and on her right flank her cutie mark was defaced by a long series of numbers that had been burned into her flesh. Spike knew that a lot of the onlookers probably felt sorry for her but he really wished they would stop staring.

"Do you think you could go fetch Twilight for me, Spike?" Sunset asked as she wheeled her way about her new room. "I kind of owe her an explanation for this," Sunset sighed as she pointed at the numbers on her cutie mark.

"Sure thing, Sunset, are you going to be okay down here on your own?" Twilight had rather unsubtly hinted to her friends that she didn't think Sunset should be left on her own anymore, she was worried that Sunset might have another accident and considering that the first one had happened in her own home had been blaming herself pretty badly.

"I'll be fine, Spike. Just tell Twilight I'll be waiting for her in my room if she wants to hear the next part of my story," as Spike left to fetch Twilight he considered how Sunset's recovery had been going since she first arrived. There had been some ups and downs but at least nowadays she was smiling.

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Sunset was a bad mare. She was a thief, a liar and a murderer. She was a very bad pony. But everypony deserved a second chance and she had finally been given hers. She hurt most of the time nowadays, her leg was killing her and it had barely even been able to support the weight of her body before her fall down the stairs. That was okay though, she deserved to have a bad leg, she deserved to be feeling this pain, she was a bad mare after all and this was her comeuppance.

Sunset wasn't a good mare but she could be, she could try to be. She was going to have a little filly and when she did everything would be alright in the world. She would give her little girl everything she had lacked in her own life, she would give the filly everything her heart desired. The two of them would be inseparable and life would be like one long holiday. Only the best for her little girl. She wouldn't need to go to school, Sunset could home school her. Sunset was going to be the best mother in Equestria, she wouldn't make the same mistakes Celestia had with her, if she promised her little girl something then she would make sure to deliver on that promise. Her little filly would be loved and she would be safe, woe betide anypony that dared to harm Sunset's child. She would make the world safe for her little girl to live in no matter what the cost.

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Well someone looks happy! Spike told me you wanted to continue with the story, it sure has been awhile huh?

It hasn't been that long, Twilight. Anyway, picking up where I left off, after the portal took me away from Discord's world of chaos-

Discord? Don't you mean Tirek?

What? No the last part I told you about was Discord, Twilight.

Really? Because I don't remember hearing that part of the story.

Huh, guess I told that to somepony else, maybe one of the girls. Look, I'll catch you up on that part later on, right now I imagine you want to here how I got this brand.

I don't want to sound rude but that has been bugging me for some time.

Right. So as I was saying. The portal dropped me off where it had picked me up, in the middle of the streets of the Crystal Empire. This wasn't like Discord's Empire or even like Sombra's though. The streets were cold and littered with snow and they were also heavily populated. As I fell from the sky I got plenty of funny looks from the locals but to my surprise they pretty much ignored me, nopony asked me if I was alright or where I had come from, nopony even seemed to care that I was there.

In addition to the snow this Empire had a number of other obvious differences to the real one. Only a small number of the buildings appeared to made from Crystal, the remainder appearing to be made of brick and wood. The residents weren't crystal ponies, they were almost entirely earth ponies and pegasi, all dressed in heavy cloaks or overalls that almost completely covered their bodies. All of them appeared bitter and moody and moved about with slow methodical purpose. The city looked busy and well populated, packed to overflowing if the sheer number of ponies in the street was anything to go by, but they didn't seem happy. Up above me the sky was filled with great black clouds, not the kind made by weather ponies though, this was a thick black smog that seemed to be rolling up into the air from various buildings scattered about the snow capped city.

Choking a little on the stench of filth that seemed to be filling the streets I cast a small heating spell to keep the worst of the cold off of me. None of the locals looked like they were going to be willing to make small talk with me so I quickly decided that I would need to try a different approach to work out what was going on. It was at that point that I noticed a trio of foals sprinting through the streets towards one of the buildings, the doors were massive, like those of a warehouse, and heat seemed to be rolling out of it. Curious as to what was going on I followed the trio to the doors and watched them as they moved inside. The little trio were all earth pony fillies, each with a very short mane cut and no tail hair, each wearing a snug little set of overalls. One was grey with a white mane and seemed to constantly be bringing up the rear of the group, squinting at the others and occasionally bumping into them, the leader of the group was an orange filly with a purple mane and the third had a yellow coat with a red mane.

The room the trio had entered was mostly occupied by a very large machine with various earth ponies standing around waiting to operate it. Watching the room with a look of indifference was a single unicorn stallion with a black mane and purple coat. He appeared to be looking at a clock on one wall and the moment the hour struck he pulled a cord with his magic setting off a loud steam powered whistle. The instant the noise began the workers began operating the machinery, churning out great swathes of textiles as it worked. The whole operation was a big step up from the small time businesses ponies operate here but this seemed to come at the cost of safety, fast moving components of the machine were exposed and if a pony were to trip and fall they could likely have been killed or maimed by the machinery. Though I had been briefly distracted by the pony that seemed to be the foreman I quickly remembered about the fillies and turned to see where they were. To my horror all three appeared to be moving between the small crawling space underneath the machine, between whirring gears and crushing pistons with rags and brushes in their mouths and hooves. This wasn't some game played by irresponsible youths, they were actually cleaning the machine while it was being used.

I watched for about ten minutes until the machine came to a sudden shuddering halt. The workers began shouting among themselves and various levers were pulled to settle the machine down. In the commotion the little orange filly was given a spanner and she proceeded to crawl in between the gears that had only seconds ago been grinding against one another. After a few minutes I heard her call out to confirm that the problem had been fixed at which point the workers immediately began getting the machine working again. The filly leaped out of the gears only seconds before they began moving again.

I couldn't watch any longer. Striding across the room I made my way up to the unicorn and jammed a hoof in his face.

"Why in Equestria do you have little foals working here? Those kids should be at school!" he blinked at me in surprise then shrugged his shoulders.

"I take it, mam, that you are from one of the noble houses? I apologize if this comes as a surprise to you but this is how everypony conducts business. Besides, if it were not for such charitable individuals as myself the little ones would be starving in the streets. It's hardly as though they are being forced to work here, you shall find that they get paid quite favorably by their contracts. Now how about you trot along back home hmm?" The unicorn had a smug condescending look about him that made my blood boil, how could it be normal for little foals to be working in these conditions?

"I'm not some noble, buddy. I'm a traveler and I only just got back to Equestria yesterday. So please tell me how it is now considered normal to be forcing foals to do that!" I shouted gesturing at the machine.

"Again, mam, they aren't being forced to do anything. They work and in exchange they get paid by their contracts, I'm sorry but I didn't actually catch your name, Miss..."

"Sunset Shimmer."

"Thrifty Mill," he offered me his hoof but I declined to shake it. He stared at me for a few moments as though weighing up some new idea and then opened his mouth again. "Each of those fillies has signed a contract with me to work for the next ten years, for which they will be handsomely reimbursed with bits and food. I'm afraid they are bound by law to fulfill this contract until either those ten years are up, they die, they are dismissed or somepony else pays off their contract."

"How much to pay off the rest of the contract?" I asked, turning back to look at the three fillies.

"Quite the amount I'm afraid, nine years worth of food and lodging pay held in trust per filly. More than I imagine you could produce at such short notice," he paused and seemed to consider the matter a little while longer. "Of course as a businesspony I would be open to working out some other arrangement if you are so adverse to them being here."

"What kind of arrangement," I hissed.

"Put simply, you open a contract of your own and have the bulk of the pay be put towards paying off their contracts. You would come to work for me while those three would be dismissed. They would still have their remaining nine years pay be held in trust and it would slowly be given to them over the next nine years to pay for food, board and other expenses." I snorted at the comment.

"So you want me working in the little crawl space barely big enough for a foal to walk through? Why make the offer? What do you have to gain by letting those three off and taking me on?"

"Honestly? Skilled unicorn labor is very rare to come by, especially unicorns willing to open a contract. Orphaned fillies on the other hand? They are easy enough to come by. A unicorn like yourself would likely make me more than ten times the bits those three make. If you sign up with me for the next three years then the fillies are free to go, I will sign off on their contracts and have no further hold over them and they will be paid a living wage for nine years. For those three years you will receive a living wage of your own with the remainder of the profit going to myself."

I mulled the idea over in my head. It would be a little dishonest on my part but if I were to sign up with him I'd likely only be fulfilling one week of his three year contract. I'd be cheating him but by the time he realized the fillies would be free from his grasp and paid up till they were all mares. Sadly the deal would likely wind up with three new fillies being forced to work in the factory but it still seemed worth it, if I could save even three of them then I'd be leaving this Equestria a better place.

"Fine, Mr Mill, I think you have a deal."

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I followed Mill to the back room of the factory where a pair of burly looking pegasi were playing cards. Mill sat me down and ran me through some paperwork, having me sign off on various things but not before I had a chance to read them. The contract was pretty much what Mill had said it would be with a few clauses indicating what would happen if I tried to run away. If a ran and was later caught then I would be placed into a position of indentured servitude till the damages for breaking my contract had been paid off. That was fine with me though, it wasn't as though Mill would ever find me after I made my escape. As I was signing the document I was pleasantly surprised to find that the hours were incredibly light, full pay for only two hours of work a day, spell casting at the palace to be performed first thing in the morning and at the end of the evening.

"And that is the last of them." Mill said with a satisfied smile as he had me sign off on the final document. With the last signature complete the three fillies were now free from their contracts. "Now if you would like to hold still we can fit you with your identification marker in case you attempt to run away."

"Identification marker?" As the question came out of my mouth I was tackled to the ground by the pair of pegasi. One jammed a horn inhibitor onto my head while the other fit a thick wooden block between my teeth.

"So you don't bite your tongue off," the one holding the block whispered sympathetically. I struggled a little in panic but without my magic I was powerless to throw the two of them off. As I struggled Mill moved out of my vision but I could still hear him moving around behind me. After a few moments I heard him walk up behind me and clear his throat.

"Now, this will sting for awhile but don't worry, it is very rare that anypony gets an infection from the process." By this point I had stopped struggling, it was a futile effort and had potential to injure my leg again. I felt the heat coming off of the iron before it even touched my skin. As an immense burning sensation spread through my flank I suddenly realized something about the world I had visited, with all of the clothes the workers had been wearing I hadn't seen a single one of their cutie marks.

Comments

[badninja]

Film and Flam are going to need to steer clear of Ponyville for the foreseeable future. I think Sunset will want some payback.