• Published 17th Jul 2021
  • 924 Views, 495 Comments

Gusty the Great book 1- The beginning - Dianabel



You might know Gusty the Great due to the fairytale, but there´s so much more to her than the book tells you. This is the origin story of the insecure mare that ended up freeing all ponies from Equestria´s greatest villain.

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Chapter 1: An unlucky day

The rays of sun entering through the spaces of the straw ceiling awakened Celestia. She chuckled when she saw her mother and sister asleep. Normally, despite being a young filly, she was the first one to wake up. This happened so often that Celestia was able to read the hours depending on how intense the sun was shining. And this time it was shining very bright.

She gasped horrified at the realization.

“I overslept!”

Immediately, she started shaking both Gusty and Luna.

“Mother, Lulu…”

Gusty started groaning and turned her back against Celestia. Lulu didn´t even bat an eye.

“MAMA!”

“Gah!” Gusty quickly incorporated.

Luna yawned as she rubbed her eyes.

“What? What is it?” she asked somewhat upset.

“It´s way past sunrise!”

“WHAT?” Gusty asked shocked.

She jumped out of bed and got dressed immediately. Luna, however, fell asleep again, so Celestia grabbed a bucket of water and threw it on her.

“Hey!”

“Tia!” Gusty called her name.

“Sorry but it´s the only way to get her up and to fasten things up.” Celestia shrugged. She turned to Luna. “Maybe if you didn´t stay awake looking at the moon and the stars at night like you always do...”

“Well excuse me, but it´s because at night I can get some peace from being with you!”

“Yeah? Well, I have to deal with you the whole day and you don´t see me having trouble getting up, do you?”

As they were arguing, Gusty dressed them up and took them to the kitchen on her back.

“I´m late I´m late!” she muttered as she ran. She stopped at a door. She laid her ear on it. She sighed in relief when she heard snores. “At least she´s still asleep… Still I´m late!” she got nervous again after a brief moment of relief

“Of course she´s asleep mama!” Celestia said cheerfully. “While she´s grumpy and bossy, she´s still and old unicorn. And if there´s something that elders love is sleeping.”

Luna raised her eyebrow.

“What?” to which Celestia asked.

“You do realize this is Ms Prickly Crops, do you?”

Celestia blinked.

“Touché. But you haven´t seen the huge naps she takes at noon. Besides, just like you” Celestia put her hoof on Luna´s nose. “she has a deep sleep and isn´t easily awakened.”

As Celestia was speaking, Luna noticed a breeze. After she took a glance of Gusty, her ears dropped in worry.

“But she might if her house falls down…”

Celestia turned around and saw her mother hyperventilating as she muttered things to herself, while breezes were appearing around her.

“They´re going to whip me, they´re going to whip me…” she kept repeating between breaths.

The fillies clenched their teeth nervously as they noticed that the breezes were becoming winds. Luna walked backwards while she looked at Ms Prickly Crops´ room.

“Come on mama… Calm down…” she told herself.

“Mother! It´s getting windy!” Celestia warned her.

Gusty opened her eyes and gasped when she realized what she was doing.

“Stop, stop!” she told herself.

However, it didn´t help, in fact it made it worse.

“No mom! You know that´s not how it works.” Luna exclaimed nervous as she shook her head.

“You have to breathe. Remember how father did it?”

Gusty nodded. Slowly she inhaled and exhaled. As she did, the winds calmed down.

“That´s it, you´re doing great.” Celestia encouraged her.

Gusty continued until she made sure there was no more wind.

“Did it stop?” she asked Celestia and Luna.

Celestia nodded energetically.

“Now you can do your daily tasks with no problem.”

Gusty sighed in relief.

“Thank you, I don´t know what I would do without you.” she said as she hugged Celestia.

Luna looked down a bit sad. These moments happened often and every time, instead of being calm like Celestia, she got scared too. Not of her mother but what could happen if her magic got out of hoof one day. And she knew neither the guards nor the unicorns would be merciful with her. So instead of helping her mother, she´d go into a corner to think about all the bad things that could happen. Sometimes she wished Gusty would tell her that after she calmed her down.

“I´ll see you this evening!” Gusty said as she rushed out the door.

“But what about breakfast? Aren´t you hungry mama?”

Gusty widened her eyes and bit her lip as she stopped running.

“Oh! You´re absolutely right.”

Although her words seemed to indicate that she was so stressed that she forgot to have her breakfast, the truth is that Gusty already knew there was no breakfast for her, as usual. Nonetheless, she checked the food containers to pretend. She sighed sadly when she watched how few the wheat grains were. They were enough for only three ponies, and once again, she wasn´t going to be one of those ponies. She turned to her daughters.

“You know what? I´m not so hungry anyway. You may take my ration if you want.”

Luna and Celestia looked at each other.

“Are you sure mama?” Luna asked as she raised her eyebrow.

Gusty gave her a reassuring smile.

“Of course.”

Luna wasn´t still convinced by the answer but she thought she might upset her mother if she kept on asking. So, she smiled back.

Gusty was dazed looking at her daughters, but she shook her head when she remembered she had to go to work.

“I have to leave, take good care of Ms Prickly!” she said to her daughters as she closed the door.

The fillies shared glances.

“You don´t think she´s awake, do you?” Celestia asked Luna.

But before Luna could answer, Ms Prickly herself answered for them.

“CELESTIA! LUNA! WHERE IS MY BREAKFAST?!”

Celestia clenched her teeth whereas Luna sighed.

“I think there´s our answer.” Luna said as she rolled her eyes.


After a time running, Gusty finally got to the workshop she worked in. She gulped before approaching the door, knowing that she was going to be in deep trouble. Slowly, she opened the door, nervously looking from side to side. There he was, the workshop´s foretroggle pacing around the room to check if everypony was doing their job correctly. His eyes widened and frowned when he noticed Gusty on the door. With a nervous smile, she waved her hoof as she blushed.

“YOU!” he said before walking to her and pulling her ear.

“Ouch, that hurts…” she muttered softly.

“WHY ON EARTH ARE YOU LATE?!”

“Let´s just say I didn´t sleep well…” she replied while laughing nervously.

“Who cares if you slept badly?! That doesn´t excuse you from being late!” he said as he shook Gusty.

“I know and I´m sorry. But I´ll make amends for it. I´ll do extra clothes and I´ll work over night if necessary.”

The troggle raised his eyebrow.

“You mean the entire night?”

Gusty nodded.

“Very well. But it better not happen again, otherwise you´ll be lashed or fired. You hear me?!”

“Yes sir.”

“Then get to work!” he exclaimed as he threw her to the floor.

Gusty moaned as she hit the floor. When she got up, she went to the table took a needle and the cloth and began to sew. Despite not being very good at it, sewing was something that Gusty enjoyed. It was a relaxing activity that made her forget about the real world but also thinking about good things for a while. For example, the dresses she would do for Celestia and Luna if she had good materials. Colourful with lots of embroideries, that´s how she pictured them in her mind. Not only dresses, though, she could also do dolls, blankets… There could be thousands of possibilities she didn´t know!

Granted, she would have to improve her stitches… and her attention skills too. Sometimes, she would so immerse on her ideas that she actually forgot to pay attention to what she was doing at times. Right now, she realized she accidentally broke the cloth. Luckily, she had her tricks to hide her mistakes she came up with instead for asking more cloth.

Hours passed and breaktime finally came. For Gusty, it was usually her breakfast, as they served a small bowl of soup. Unfortunately, when her turn came, the foretroggle working ponies didn´t serve her food.

“Came late, no soup.”

Gusty´s ears dropped.

“But I haven´t eaten…”

“Should have thought about it before getting late. Now that I think about it, there shouldn´t be a breaktime for you…”

Gusty frowned.

“That´s not what we agreed on.”

The foretroggle took out his lash.

“Get back to work.”

Gusty took some steps back. Suddenly, a troggle opened the workshop´s door. He called the foretroggles´ attention.

“Hey! We need your help!”

“What? Can´t you see I´m busy feeding the vermin?” The foretroggle asked upset while pointing at the soup.

Ponies frowned at him for calling them vermin.

“It´s about her.”

The foretroggle widened his eyes.

“Oh! Yeah sure. Just wait a second.”

He grabbed Gusty´s foreleg and put her in front of the soup casserole.

“This will be what you´ll be doing during your breaktime.” he cleaned his hand on his shirt. “Ugh, now my hands will smell of pony all day.” he thought aloud as he left the workshop.

The troggle closed the door in a blow.

“Says the one whose breath smells great…” she said aloud, upset by his commentaries.

She turned around and noticed all eyes set on her.

“What are you waiting for? We´re hungry!” a mare yelled from the queue.

The other mares joined in the protest.

“Alright, alright, here you go.” Gusty said somewhat upset. “Geeze..” she muttered under her breath.

As she served the soup, Gusty smelt it and looked at it. It looked so warm, so nutritious and delicious. She noticed how saliva was forming in her mouth, and without noticing it, she took a sip. However, she stopped when she noticed a mare frowning at her. She served the soup and smiled nervously.

“Here´s your soup. Enjoy.” she said fastly.

“Yeah, I´m sure your saliva will add taste to the soup.” she said upset.

Gusty looked from side to side.

“Wow, I didn´t think about it… I´m sorry.”

The mares looked at each other upset. However, Gusty knew that the problem could be solved.

“We can always wash it, you know?”

“With which water? The nearest well is minutes away from here! And we don´t have much breaktime left!” the mare second in line pointed out.

Gusty looked from side to side.

“Well, another option is not using spoon.” she took the bowl and submerged it on the soup. “See?”

The mare took it with her own hooves, but she let go, as it was burning.

“Just make sure to use your magic instead of your hooves…”

“We can´t unless it´s for work purposes.”

Gusty looked at the door.

“Well, the foretroggle isn´t here now…”

“Yeah, let´s just use our magic just to have him open that door, see us and punish us, is that what you´re saying?”

“No, of course not!”

As the mare and Gusty continued arguing, the mare last in the line got more and more impatient.

“Why don´t you ask for another spoon?” she said as if the solution was obvious.

Gusty´s ears dropped. She knew perfectly what was going to happen if she told the foretroggle. Her breath fastened and slowly, fear took over her mind.

“What? No!” she exclaimed scared.

“Fine, then I´ll do it myself!”

Gusty ran to the mare and laid on the floor and put her hooves on the mare´s front hooves.

“Please, don´t do that!”

“What are you doing?!” the mare asked upset.

“He´s going to lash me! Please! Don´t!”

“Well, you should have thought about it before taking a sip…”

Gusty bit her lip.

“But hey, a lash for a sip is too harsh! So, I´ll just say that it was already dirty and that´s it. Stop getting scared and get out of the way, I´m hungry!”

Gusty was so scared that she didn´t hear that last part. She was focused on the fact that she was going to get lashed. She breathed fast and was in the brink of crying. Suddenly, small breezes started to appear.

“Uh… Is it windy here or is it me?” a mare in the workshop said.

Gusty gasped when she heard that.

“Calm down, calm down, calm down!” she muttered to herself.

“Where is it coming from? The windows are closed, aren´t they?” another mare checked the windows.

The mare who was going for a spoon, noticed that the source of the wind was Gusty.

“Hey, are you ok?”

The breezes turned into wind. It started to move the furniture. The mares started to yelp and shove the objects.

“Tell her to stop!” the mares begged the mare near Gusty.

“Hey! Stop it, you´re moving everything. Calm down, will you?” she told Gusty put a hoof on her shoulder.

“NO!” she yelled.

Without thinking it and as a reflexed, she transformed the wind into a ray of magic. Fortunately, every mare in the room avoided it.

“You´re sure they´re working for her?” Roundy asked his workmate.

“Definitely. Cloaked, talking to homeless or the poorest ponies… You know those are the ones she usually orders to reclute.”

“Well, in that case, I´ll keep an eye if I see one of them a-”

Just before he could finish his sentence, there appeared a flash in the window that left a whole on the window once it disappeared. The two troggles blinked surprised.

“Did you just see what I saw?”

“Yup.”

They frowned and ran towards the door.

The noise from the blow made Gusty realize what she just had done. She had turned the whole room upside down. Her eyes widened when she saw the whole on the window. But what broke her heart were how the mares were staring at her. They were around their workmate, checking if she was ok and helping her get up. The look they were giving her was one of fear and anger. Gusty´s ears dropped in remorse.

“Oh no! I am so sorry, are you-” she apologized to the mare as she offered

“Get away from me!” the mare shoved Gusty´s hoof off.

“Monster! You could have killed us!” one the mare´s friends yelled at her.

Gusty´s heart sunk.

“I… I´m so sorry…” she took a big pause before continuing. “I… If there´s anything I can do, I´ll do it, gladly.”

“If you never returned here again, that would be of great help!” another mare yelled at her.

“You´ve done enough.” another mare agreed with her.

Gusty looked down.

“You know I can´t do that…”

Suddenly, the troggles opened the door on a blow.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!” the foretroggle yelled.

“WE KNOW ONE OF YOU VERMIN HAS USE MAGIC! WHO DID IT?”

Gusty shook her head to her workmates, begging them not to tell them. Unfortunately, the mares pointed and started accusing her.

“She was the one who caused all this mess!”

“She almost killed us!”

The troggles clenched their teeth and glared at Gusty. The foretroggle grabbed her foreleg.

“First you arrive late and then you use magic?! How dare you!”

“What have you got to say in your defense?

Gusty clenched her teeth due to how hard the troggle was grabbing her foreleg. She was feeling enough humiliated, so if that feeling was going to get worse, then it would be better to confront the situation with dignity.

“It was an accident. Please let me explain… Since I was a filly I had trouble to control my magic-”

“If that it´s true, why did you start using it?”

“That´s the thing! It starts by its own not by will.”

The troggles laughed at her. Now it was Gusty´s turn to frown.

“Do you believe her? She´s so naïve if she thinks we´ll fall for that.”

“Are you really that stupid?”

“I´m not. You are.”

The foretroggle slapped her face, making her fall to the ground. The two troggles cornered her as they took out their lashes.

“How many lashes do you think she deserves?”

“How about thirty?”

The troggles chuckled menacingly. Gusty closed her eyes and yelped.

“Wait!” a mare said.

Gusty opened her eyes. She looked at the mares, hoping they would help her. But what happened next broke her heart more than thirty lashes would.

“We have a better idea.” the mare said with a malicious grin.

“She is a widow with two daughters…” another mare added.

The troggles looked at each other. The emperor always said to punish ponies in a way in which the consequences were for the longest. Lashes would be painful, but they would eventually heal, but what the other mares were suggesting…. it was practically a death sentence. Still, they didn´t seem convinced. Nevertheless, the mares went on making excuses.

“At the end of the day she´ll bring nothing but trouble.”

“And it´s trouble for all and it´s trouble for one!”

“She´s insulted you two!”

“She´ll be nothing but trouble again and again!”

“You must sack her today!”

“Sack the mare today!”

Meanwhile Gusty looked around terrified and gulped while looking at the troggles.

“Right my lady… ON YOUR WAY!” the foretroggle yelled.

The two held Gusty. The mare started kicking and crying.

“No please! Help! Help! Please, I have two fillies!”

They opened the door and threw her out.

“Don´t ever come back here again vermin!” the foretroggle yelled at her.

The other troggle spat at her. Gusty sat down, tears forming in her eyes.

“No… Please.. no..” she cried softly. “What am I going to do now?”


“Come on pretty one, let me get your egg.” Celestia said as she sneaked her hoof underneath the hen.

“You sure it´s a good idea to tell the hen that you´re basically stealing their children?” Luna asked her as she held a bag full of fodder.

Celestia widened her eyes. Even if she hated to admit it, she couldn´t deny that Luna was right.

“Well… how else am I going to convince her?”

“You could say… Time to have lunch!” Luna suggested as she poured some fodder. The hens jumped and gathered around Luna, leaving their eggs unguarded. She cockily raised one eyebrow.

“Ok. But I´ll add `pretty ones´. After all, everypony likes to be called pretty.” Celestia said as she picked the eggs and laid them on the basket.

Luna giggled.

“Sure they do Tia. Sure they do.”

As she was waiting for Celestia, Luna noticed a familiar figure approaching in the distance. After narrowing her eyes, she gasped excitedly when she recognized the figure.

“Mama!”

And without any warning, she rushed out the corral.

“Alright Lulu, I´m done with this line, will you please pour some more food for the hens so I can keep taking their-”

Much for Celestia´s misfortune, Luna wasn´t there, meaning that she was alone with the chickens. What´s worse, they seemed to have noticed what she was doing, as she was holding one egg. Celestia hid the basket behind her and laughed nervously.

“Oops…”

Meanwhile, Gusty walked home with her head down, sighing sadly and overthinking about how she was going to tell the terrible news. Her ears perked up when she heard Luna´s voice.

“Mama!”

Gusty smiled sadly.

“Lulu…”

She returned the hug Luna gave her.

This was usually her favourite part of the day. After an exhausting time of work, seeing her daughter run to her with so much excitement and receiving her with a hug was an excellent reminder that all the efforts she made were worth it. Sadly, she wouldn´t be able to continue her efforts.

Luna´s voice made Gusty come back to reality.

“I´m so happy to see you mama! Although, it´s a bit sooner than usual.” she said excited and estranged at the same time. Luna gasped excitedly. “Did they give you vacation?”

Gusty bit her lip an looked away. Luna´s excitement faded away.

“Something bad happened, did it?”

Gusty nodded and sat down.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

Gusty shook her head. Luna´s ears dropped in disappointment.

“Oh ok…”

She was about to leave but Gusty held her hooves.

“Your presence, your hugs and the desire of helping me are appreciated, Lulu.” she told her before hugging her. “That´s enough for me.”

Luna felt a bit badly. She wished she could do more to do her mother happy, like helping her effectively when she was feeling anxious like Celestia did. But her mother´s reminders that she loved her nonetheless relieved her and made her happy. She returned the hug and smiled.

“Where is your sister, by the way?”

“HEEEEELP!” Celestia yelled.

Both Gusty and Luna widened their eyes. The poor filly was being chased by a group of hens that were pecking her. Gusty knew that they usually did everything together, so she frowned at Luna for leaving her sister alone. Luna started laughing nervously. Gusty massaged her temples.

“Like mother like daughter, I guess…” she muttered under her breath.

When Celestia got to both her mother and sister, she hid behind them, shaking in fear. Noticing how aggressive the chickens were, Luna also hid behind.

“I´m never going near another chicken again.” Celestia thought aloud.

“Don´t worry. Mama will handle this.” Gusty reassured them. “Alright, chickens, whatever my daughter did to you, it wasn´t her inten-”

At that instant, the chickens started pecking Gusty instead. She started complaining and shoved all the chickens she could.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!” an old cranky female voice exclaimed.

Everypony´s bodies tensed up. Whenever that voice was loud or angry, they knew they messed up greatly. Even the chickens were afraid!

With a few hoofsteps, an old unicorn mare approached both the chickens and the three ponies. It was Ms. Prickly Crops herself.

“What on earth are you doing here?!” she asked the chickens. “Get back to the corral!”

The chickens ran back to the corral. Once they were inside, Ms. Prickly focused on Celestia and Luna.

“Why were the chickens outside when it´s inside time?” she raised an eyebrow.

“They were inside. Until somepony left me alone with them and started pecking me!” Celestia said upset while looking at Luna.

“Don´t lay all the blame on me! It´s not my fault that you did a malpractice mistake.” Luna replied in her defense.

“You were the one who made a malpractice mistake genius!”

“You! Why did you leave your sister alone?” Ms. Prickly scolded Luna.

“Because I saw mother coming…” she shyly said while looking up at Gusty.

Gusty smiled nervously.

“Gusty! Shouldn´t you be working in the workshop?”

Gusty sat down and clapped her hooves together.

“About that… I…” she sighed. “I got fired.”

Celestia and Luna gasped whereas Ms Prickly just blinked shocked.

“You what?!” she asked upset. “But why?”

“Because my magic got out of control.”

The old mare paced around while kicking anything on her way.

“Unbelievable! Unbelievable! It´s incredible how you,” she pointed at Gusty. “a grown-up mare with two fillies to feed still can´t control her magic like a small foal! Take it together, for goodness´ sake!”

If there was something that Gusty hated, that was ponies telling her to take it together and stop summoning winds as if that was so easy. It never helped at all. In fact, it only made things worse. She frowned.

“Fine. Then why don´t you do all the chores by yourself instead of asking my daughters to do it, huh?”

Ms Prickly scoffed.

“Are you joking? My bones are old! I barely have any strength left to do them!”

“Exactly. Then don´t ask me to control my magic for once because it´s not something easy for me.”

“It´s not the same! Yours it´s fixable, mine isn´t!”

“Well, then maybe you should also fix your soulless attitude!”

Celestia and Luna widened their eyes and covered their mouths. Although Gusty was a wonderful mother, she could also be reckless, as she had no filter to express her thoughts, which it often led her to trouble.

“Soulless? I was the only one who was willing to give you a home after you married that pegasus!”

“That pegasus was my husband.” Gusty smacked her hoof to the floor as she firmly emphasized her point. “And you never actually cared about us, you just took us in so you could pay your taxes!”

“Careful about what you´re saying.”

Celestia and Luna looked at each other. They were worried that this would end up with Ms Prickly kicking them out. Luna pulled slightly Gusty´s skirts.

“Mother…”

“Luna no! This isn´t your business!” Gusty scolded her.

Luna looked down. Celestia put her hoof on her shoulder and smiled at her, as to say that Gusty didn´t say that to her because she didn´t love her or appreciate her efforts to help her. She was just stressed.

“You really think that? Fine, then in that case, you´re of no use. So get out of here!” Ms Prickly said.

Gusty gasped.

“You can´t do that!”

“Well, you´re the one who thinks I can!”

Celestia came up with an idea. She ran between the two of them.

“Wait! Wait! It doesn´t have to be like that!” she commented.

“Celestia! Get back with your sister!” Gusty scolded her. “Let the adults talk!”

“Really? Because it looks like you two aren´t acting like ones.”

Gusty and Ms Prickly realized that. They looked at each other ashamed, but still upset at each other.

“Go on then.” Gusty enabled her.

“Mama got kicked out. So what? There are still plenty of jobs out there. I´m sure she´ll be able to get at least one of them.”

“If it involves creativity, I´m sure she´ll do great!” Luna added.

The two mares realized that the fillies were right. There still was a chance for them.

“Fine. I´ll give you another chance. But if you don´t get a job between this afternoon and tomorrow a, I´ll kick you out and I´ll get other ponies to take care of me, understood?”

“Only two days?” Gusty and Luna asked at the same time. Gusty´s tone was full of worry. Luna´s was more of an estranged one

Celestia glared at them.

“I mean… Yes ma´am.”

Ms Prickly raised her head and returned to her house. Once she was out of their sight, the three ponies sighed in relief.

“Finally, she´s out…” Luna mumbled.

“See? I knew it was a good idea!” Celestia said with pride.

“How am I going to get a job in two days?” Gusty said worried.

Celestia widened her eyes while Luna glared at her.

“Or maybe not…” Celestia bit her lip.

Author's Note:

Oof, almost didn´t get to write this chapter due to a stomach virus... :facehoof: