Dirty Birds

by TheFlyingHippogriff

Grit, Sweat, and Love (The Brothers Bright)

A month passed since the project began, and we have had a few breakdowns along the way. It was nothing we could not fix with tools, and a little elbow grease. It did not sit well with some ponies. The old stallions that worked on the canal before us have said we are inferior to every species in Equestria. Those old ponies call us 'Valley Vultures'.

The name comes from the fact we picked up the scraps they left behind. We did not let the name calling bother us. We just kept working. When the wire on a cable shovel snaps, we replace it with a new wire. When a track bearing is worn or a bearing is loose on a swing drive, we replace them and get them back to work. We will never give up.

We sweat and bleed, and we all work from dawn until dusk. Gabby injured her talon when a rock fell on it. She looked at me and smiled, "Just bandage it up, and I'll be fine," she said to the doctor, and winked to me with a smile as the doctor in the worker village did his work. Even with bandaged up talon, she kept working at the front shovel.

"Are you sure?" I asked out of concern for my best friend, she nodded with a smile and went to work. With her kind heart came great discipline.

Day in and day out, we work. We get two meals a day, and treat our machines as we treat ourselves. We got a new hire to come help with the work, it was a young griffon with pigtails, oval wire-frame glasses, and a shade of sky blue to go with her yellow beak. She is also as big as Gabby, "I heard you needed help on the canal, I'm Gretchen,"

"Good to have you onboard," I said shaking her talon, and looking over her resume, "I think Foxy will be a good fit for you, I need you to be here on time next time around,"

Gretchen got to work with the crawler excavator. Gilda and Greta were using Jaws and Gunther to clear the rubble with the cable shovels from yesterdays blasting. Each day on my end, I would talk with Garrett to get to know him. Thanks to the changes brought by Gabby to Griffonstone, he has his talent as a singer and musician outside the site.

Music helps the shift go by, and make more enjoyable for workers, "Not every pony in Equestria likes us, that's okay," said Garrett, "we do what we gotta do, and some say we griffons don't do anything, well that's simply not true, so I'm gonna help this shift go by a little faster today," he began to play his guitar, "get those talons a stamping"

Like David fought
against the giant philistine
And I will rise
With the power the good Lord gives to me
And I will smite
The ones who fight
To keep me and mine
from going home
From going home
I'm going home
Go, get out my way
You can't stop this train
I'm running on grit, sweat, and love
I broke my chains
You can't stop this train
I'm running on grit, sweat, and love
Grit, sweat, and love
My hands Are calloused
from the fires of suffering
And I lift them high
With the faith of a mustard seed I cry
Cause the good Lord said
Tell the mountain to move
And the mountain will move
So my good Lord said
My good Lord said
He said it all
Go, get out my way
You can't stop this train
I'm running on grit, sweat, and love
I broke my chains
You can't stop this train
I'm running on grit, sweat, and love
Grit, sweat, and love
It'll all be over soon
Don't you worry 'bout a thing
It'll all be over soon
Just sing, just sing
One more swing
Go, get out my way
You can't stop this train
I'm running on grit, sweat, and love
I broke my chains
You can't stop this train
I'm running on grit, sweat, and love
Get out my way
You can't stop this train
I'm running on
I'm running on
I'm running on
I'm running on grit, sweat, and love

The music got every griffon working and moving to the beat. It was magical. You think these big machines can't dance? Ma Deuce and Kaiser moved their sticks, booms, and buckets to the groove after every bucket full into the dump trucks. Blossom and Belladonna had a blast too. There is nothing like good working music to help through the day.

"Wahoo!" Gabby cheered amid all the fun of the music, dance and work were all coming together as one. We worked harder and faster as the music lit a fire in us. The music made us work harder and faster. When it was all over, the dust had settled, and we saw the results of our labor. This was the furthest we had ever been along in our work.

"What a day," sighed Gretchen sitting on Cleo's tracks, Cleo gave her cheek a friendly little nudge,

Thanks to Garrett's song that got us moving and grooving, we managed to be ahead of schedule for the first time since this all began. We did the equivalent of two months of digging in one shift. I was amazed at the progress we made. It would now gave us time to settle down in the newly built worker village which was given the name Kingstown.

We danced and worked into the night when the shift ended at the sound of the whistle. I hugged Ma Deuce's bucket for a job that was more than well done. The excavator smiled back, and nudged me in my dapple grey rear. She picked me up in her bucket, and placed me on the trail to the new village. Tomorrow is always another day of work.