A New Day
A bell broke the silence of the fields around Hope Hollow, the tone denoting that the work day was over and the ponies toiling amongst the soil and seeds could go home. Everything was tilled and watered, now it was up to the ponies who had the special talent for accelerating the growth of the plants to do their share and use the elixirs that the alchemists in Manehattan had provided. All of the ponies that had spent their day in the hot sun were to go home and relax until their next day of work.
A line of ponies formed, all of them covered in sweat and dirt, to the little shed where they kept all of the supplies for the work. Altogether there were about three dozen ponies out here working, ranging from lanky teens to hardened adults. They were all earth ponies of course, the pegasi were above and helping move clouds around that had come from Las Pegasus.
Cheerilee was towards the front of the line, her group had been working on the field closest to the supply shed and that left her lucky today. She put her saddlebags on the sill of the return window that was managed by an older mare and the two traded smiles before moving on.
Her back ached, so did her legs and every other part of her body. Cheerilee had been a teacher for all of her life, not some laborer. She wasn’t fit for this kind of work. In her old life she had always been a bit of a pudgy mare, not fat, but ‘comfy’ she would say. Time without food and hard work had fixed that and left her now in better shape than she had ever been. That came at the price of sore joints and a bad back, though. She wasn’t sure if the tradeoff was worth it, really.
The way back home was short, but she took her time. The energy to run places had left her sometime earlier in the day, so now she would wander back that way. That was the plan until a commotion caught her ears, more rabble similar to the events from yesterday. She had hoped that Trixie had the sense to leave, but it didn’t sound like it.
With a hefty sigh Cheerilee made her way towards the racket, this time situated near the entrance of the town where the massive wooden rainbow stood. A crowd had gathered around said rainbow, blocking the way of a cart that looked like it was trying to get into the town rather than out of it.
Scootaloo was at the back of the crowd, on her scooter with a saddlebag on her back marked with a letter bearing wings. Cheerilee approached the filly and tapped her on the shoulder.
“What’s going on, Scootaloo?” Cheerilee craned her neck to get a better look over the crowd of two dozen ponies before her and all she could see was a hint of golden armor. “Is the guard here? Did somepony call them on Trixie?”
“No, they came to get more food from us. That’s what I heard from somepony up there.” Scootaloo’s wings buzzed as the little filly attempted to fly to get a better look.
“More food? They were just here the other day.” Cheerilee squinted and tried to get a better view of the guards coming into town. They were only supposed to collect twice a month when the growers and the elixirs had the time to work. This was too soon, the crop wasn’t ready. If they were taking more food it was going to come out of their stores. Which was the reason the rabble was blocking their way.
“I said GET BACK!” A voice boomed from the carriage whose path was being blocked. A wall of shimmering blue magic burst into existence in front of the crowd and started to push them back. Cheerilee grabbed Scootaloo and dragged both the filly and her scooter to the side and out of the way of the retreating mob.
“Hey HEY!” Mayor Petals galloped into the fray and began pulling her citizens out of the pit of ponies being pushed backwards. “Everypony back up! Back up!” The crowd listened to their mayor and pulled away from the barrier, but stayed close enough in a loose crowd that they could back up their leader if something happened. “What’s goin’ on here?” The thickly accented mare asked the guards behind their shield.
“Ma’am.” The unicorn guard that had erected the wall spoke. “Under orders from Captain of the Royal Guard Shining Armor we’re to pick up your contribution to the national stockpile.”
Cheerilee had a clear view of the guards now. There were six of them, four unicorns and an earth pony and pegasus each. The commander was a unicorn, an old steel gray stallion with cold blue eyes. Seeing that many horns in one group froze Cheerilee’s hooves and left her heart in her throat.
“We’ve already given this week, surely this is a mistake Mister…?”
“Lieutenant Rhine.” The unicorn answered in a gruff voice. “We know you’ve already given, but these are orders. Double contributions this week.”
“You can’t do that.” Mayor Petals protested and stamped her hoof onto the ground. “That will take food from the stores we use to feed our ponies.”
“That’s not our problem, ma’am.” Lieutenant Rhine stepped forward, the other guards doing the same. “This is a small town, you can ration it out until the new crop comes in. The cities need more food now or else ponies will starve.”
“Then maybe those unicorns should work in their own fields, then!” A pony from the crowd shouted angrily.
It was true, everypony knew what exactly Rhine meant by ‘the cities’. Most earth ponies and pegasi had been relocated to smaller towns to work the fields or help with weather. The cities were mainly unicorns and those that couldn’t do the hard labor required due to injury or age. The fear of unicorns in the towns where the food was grown, the trauma that still pervaded every field across Equestria would prevent any unicorn from joining in the work in a mixed town.
The crowd seemed to agree with the one who spoke up against the guards and the ponies began to coalesce again into something more solid and angry. Cheerilee held Scootaloo back as the townsponies of Hope Hollow began to encircle the guards who had come to take their food. In response, Lieutenant Rhine fired up his horn. That little gesture did little to calm the crowd, who now only saw a unicorn prepared to use magic against them.
“Everypony calm down!” Mayor Petals raised her voice to drown out the crowd who were loudly agreeing with the sentiment that had been raised. The tired looking pink mare turned from her own ponies back to Lieutenant Rhine. “Listen, you can have what you need from our stores.” She turned back to the crowd once again. “We’ll get through this as we have time and time again. Together. It will be hard, but what hasn’t been? We’ve tightened our belts a lot over these months, what’s another inch? It’s all for the good of Equestria, for the other ponies no matter what race they may be.”
“She’s right!” Scootaloo hopped off of her scooter and strode forward. “We need to do whatever we can to help! This is what Equestria was built on, right? The story of Hearth's Warming is about this stuff exactly” The filly had the rapt attention of all the ponies in the crowd now, including the guards, as she spoke. “We can’t hate ponies because of what they are! We have to help them when they’re most in need when we can! Not everypony can work like we can…not everypony is okay.”
“Nopony really is.” Rhine sighed and stepped forward. “We’re just doing our job, and I’m sorry our job is this.” The old stallion’s face softened and he stepped forward into the town proper. “I’m not here to starve you or hurt you. I’m here to do my sworn duty and protect the ponies of Equestria, and right now that means making sure the ponies in the cities don’t starve.”
“We understand.” Mayor Petals responded with a smile. “I don’t know if we can manage half and still be okay for the next couple of weeks. Can we work something out?”
“Aye, I think we can.” Rhine turned to the guards surrounding the carriage they had brought along. “Stay here while I figure this out.”
—--
“How we lookin’, Bloom?”
Apple Bloom trudged across the dry street of Appleloosa, her muscles aching and eyes stinging from the hot sun overhead. The filly, not so little anymore after a growth spurt she had over the last few months, had spent her entire day out in the orchards of the desert town. She was one of the only ponies left who knew how to properly maintain and plan an orchard and could still physically do the tasks required.
“East Orchard is dry.” Apple Bloom stepped up onto the porch of the town hall where her cousin was waiting. “Got Strawberry to go get some more clouds to water ‘em. Should be done tomorrow.”
“Good, good. Your potions coming along too?” Braeburn was standing in the doorway, a cheery smile on his face as always despite his circumstances. He had lost his ability to walk during The Event, some sort of fall. He didn’t like to talk about it much. Now his hind legs were suspended off of the ground with a type of harness connected to two metal legs that ended in wheels to supplant his two dead legs.
“If Ah could get the right ingredients for ‘em.” She grumbled. “Foal’s Breath and Dimerticulum ain’t exactly easy to get, y’know.”
“Ah’ll take your word for it, cousin.” Braeburn grinned sheepishly and moved to look down the street. “Got another complaint that Chief Strongheart is creepin’ north again. Demandin’ more of the southern orchard from us.”
“It is their land, Braeburn.” Apple Bloom sat on an old wooden bench and it creaked under her weight. “They let y’all have it a few years back, but it’s still theirs.”
“Yeah…well we have a deal that half of our first harvest goes to them. They need to let us actually make it that far before they go and start demandin’ things from us.” Braeburn’s demeanor turned sour and he let out a sigh. “They got the north bank of the river from us already, bad enough they control our irrigation now…”
“Ah don’t understand why ya don’t just invite ‘em in.” Apple Bloom grumbled. “Integrate or whatever. They know how to grow here better’n we do.”
“Well, we were sittin’ around campfires and singin’ kumbaya every night there for awhile. Then, y’know, the world ended.” Braeburn clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Ponies turnin’ into monsters and killin’ some of ‘em didn’t exactly engender the spirit of camaraderie. Now they don’t wanna come to the table anymore. Can ya blame ‘em?”
“‘Spose not.”
Apple Bloom sat on the porch of the town hall and looked over her new home. It wasn’t Ponyville, it never could be, but it was better than Manehatten ever could be. She had family here, probably her only family left in the entire world, and that was good enough. Sure she had to do enough work for three ponies, but she was raised to do that. She was just following in the hoofsteps of her older sister.
“How’re you doin’, Bloom?” Braeburn wheeled up beside her and asked quietly. “Like actually doin’, not how work is goin’ or nothin’.”
“I’m tired, Braeburn.” She mumbled. “Ah miss my friends. Ah miss Ponyville…Ah miss my family. Other’n that, Ah guess Ah’m okay. Just tired and frustrated.”
“It’ll get easier. It has to.” Braeburn didn’t sound sure of that statement, but they both knew it was something they had to believe. “Lotsa ponies are frustrated. Quotas from the cities ain’t helpin’ neither…”
“Just one big powderkeg, feels like.” She turned to look down the road and squinted as the sun caught the surface of something bright and reflective. She brought a hoof up and focused, a column of figures soon coming into clear view. “Hey Braeburn, y’all didn’t happen to call the guard for our buffalo problem, didja?”
“No? Why?” Braeburn asked as his gaze followed her own. “Oh what now…” He made his way down the steps, the wheels of his back half clunking against the wooden stairs as he did. He was already making his way to the edge of town to cut them off, and Apple Bloom followed right behind him. “This is the last thing we need. Better hope it’s just a checkup or somethin’.”
The last two Apples stood at the entrance to Appleloosa and waited for the column of approaching guards, all unicorns from the look of it, to come to them. Their position didn’t go unnoticed, as soon they had a crowd of townsponies forming behind them. They did their best to sate the curiosity of the crowd, but they had precious few answers to go around. Talk spread through the group of dusty overworked ponies that the guards were here to help them reclaim the land the buffalo had taken back and to help them enforce their borders, or that they were bringing more ponies to work.
It was hope, and that was dangerous.
“Howdy.” Braeburn tipped his hat to the guards as they approached. “What can Ah do ya for today?” He gave his best Braeburn smile and beamed at the head guard, an older unicorn stallion with a faded blue coat and steely gray eyes.
“My name is Lieutenant Rubicon.” The stallion started in a gruff voice. “I’m here under direction from Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor, to receive an additional contribution to Equestria’s national food stockpile from the municipality of Appleloosa.”
“Ah’m sorry?” Braeburn blurted out. The gears in his head were visibly turning as he took that sentence apart and put it back together again. “N-no this is a mistake. Y’see we just gave not even a couple weeks back. Ah think y’might’ve got turned around there, friend.”
“No. I haven’t.” Lieutenant Rubicon stated. “There’s a food shortage in the cities right now and we need extra food to support the rising populations. This a direct order from the office of the Captain of the Royal Guard himself. Will you comply?”
“NO!” A resounding roar came from the crowd behind the two Apples. The singular word was then followed by an angry slurry of others, all in the negative to the Lieutenant’s question. It took both Apple Bloom and Braeburn considerable effort to quiet the crowd, which now consisted of almost the entire town.
“Now-now listen, Mister Rubicon.” Apple Bloom swallowed the lump in her throat and addressed the stallion. “We ain’t got the food to give ya. The buffalo have been takin’ some of our land and until the apple harvest comes in proper, we’re runnin’ on fumes here. We can’t give ya nothin’ without starvin’.”
“Who are you?” Rubicon asked.
“That there’s Apple Bloom, my little cousin, she’s runnin’ all of the orchard operations.” Braeburn’s explanation was met with a look from the Lieutenant that was a mix of skepticism and disgust. “But she’s right! We can’t give y’all what we don’t have.”
“If you won’t give it, we’ll take it.” Rubicon nodded to the guards behind him, about a dozen armored ponies, who all marched towards the crowd. “These are orders.” The guards were met with a wall of now-angry ponies who blocked and otherwise impeded their progress into town. “Tell your ponies to let my guards through.”
“No!” Braeburn took off his hat and threw it on the ground. “In fact, Ah’m gonna have to ask y’all to leave Appleloosa right now. Ya can come back when it’s time to get what’s owed, and not a moment sooner.” The crippled stallion pushed forward until his chest was pressed against Rubicon’s plate-covered chest.
“Do not cross me, boy.” Rubicon growled.
“Ah ain’t crossin’ nothin’. Yer the one who seems bent on doin’ somethin’ stupid here today.” Braeburn shot right back.
“Is that a threat?”
“Nah, it’s a fact.”
“Stop it, the both of ya!” Apple Bloom forced her way between the two stallions and pushed them apart. “Yer both bein’ stupid! We can work somethin’ out! Ah know we can! That’s what Equestria is about, right? We can negotiate on this! It ain’t gotta be one or the other!”
“Very well-” Rubicon started, but was interrupted when his eyes were drawn up over Braeburn’s head. Apple Bloom looked up just in time to see a rock fly over her cousin’s head and hit the Lieutenant square in the face, specifically one of his eyes. He immediately clutched his face with a hoof and let out a scream.
One of his guards reacted and a bolt of magic caught Braeburn in the side, toppling the stallion over. Apple Bloom jumped in front of her cousin, but she was pushed aside and a field of magic materialized over her cousin’s prone form to keep him down.
The crowd erupted and surged forward.
The guards were being pushed back, so they let loose a volley of magic was let loose from the horns of the guard in response and numerous Appleloosians fell in the dusty street.
“Y-you gotta stop this!” Apple Bloom rushed up to Lieutenant Rubicon with tears in her eyes. “This ain’t right! Yer killin’ ‘em!”
The Lieutenant looked down at her, one eye shut with blood trailing from it an a look of rage on his face. He raised a hoof and brought it down on the filly, sending her careening back towards her fallen cousin. Her vision swam as she stared up at the sky, the sound of screaming and magic once again plaguing her waking moments.
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fuck.
FUCK.
11176569
:^)
Oh boy, I wonder who in their right minds thought a sudden extra collection round was a good idea, because I can't imagine they'll be given good treatment for pulling something this stupid.
Why the hell did Shining Armor give that order?
Good god, Luna is stupid. Even if the riots are beaten into submission, farmers are your most valuable resource. Killing a single one of them harms the entire country, because you don't have spares. Make the unicorns do some simple jobs that don't require a ton of strength. Hell, just give every unicorn a household tomato plant or something. Absolutely any course of action would be smarter than this.
Honestly feels like this guard is a fake who come cause riots, that or it someone higher up who really stupid
Glad this story is continuing on. Still chances are that this will be the spark that ignites the powderkeg at this point.
Well...when shining armor or cadance or luna hear what happened here, I'd like to see rubicon explain why he punched out apple bloom and the microseconds he'd last afterwards
Ow, how prophetic does it turn out, no less by the very end of the chapter ! Definitely two very... different way for the same problem to turn out. And I find it interesting than two of the CMC to be involved. Gives me some kind of a "two sides of the same coin" feeling that's kinda neat.
As for the next step... when the word goes to the world at large, this "Rubicon" fellow won't hear the end of it. And I'm not sure some disciplinary action will do any good to quench what as now become a thirst for blood situation (no less by the hoof that's feeding you). Maybe the end of unity in Equestria is upon them, the first domino to the ultimate catastrophy.
Great to see this one going back online ! It was a great read. And well... I don't know if there's going to be an "uphill" from then on. But I'll be glad as ever to see how bad it will turn out
Somebody crossed Rubicon, eh? That sounds like a decision you don't turn back from.
Also, I'm gonna laugh if this story becomes "and that's how G5 was made!"
The immediate solution isn't always the best one. Collecting more food from towns that are already barely scraping by wasn't going to go smoothly no matter which way you sliced it. They tried to push the envelope, and now the whole thing is looking to burst.
11176589
That was Luna.
"The attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed, but I assure you my resolve has never been stronger."
-Applebloom (Probably)
I don't blame Luna. The stress and weight of an overtaxed ruler. And it's true, potential riots in the city seem,by virtue of proximity, a bigger threat than potential riots far away. Especially with more and more mouths to feed arriving all the time, due to the assumption of safety in the cities.
What's the right answer? Let the citizens in the cities starve, then begin fighting with each other over the scraps? Turn away all the refugees? Magic up food out of nothing?
Finally got time to catch up. I sorta of expected something like this to happen. Equestria is now ripe to burst.
All it takes is one spark for the powder keg to blow...
And so, crumbles the dream of a nation where ponies live in harmony...
It was a desperate decision, the most logical decision, but not a good one; nonetheless. Nothing could've stopped the civil war from starting. Absolutely nothing. After the devastation that Equestria has suffered? Friendship won't be enough to fix this.
It isn't Luna's fault, it isn't anyone's fault but a embittered, rageful, racist old unicorn king. And now innocents are paying the price.
You know... since Discord is at full power now, couldn't he solve the food shortage issue with a simple snap of a lion's paw or eagle's talon? And even if he can't manifest such things into being--although we've seen him do just that in the show--he could always just go to another dimension and bring some back.