The Earth-Pony Revolution (An Equestrian History Story)

by Quartez

Rating: teen
Tags: Tragedy, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Sad, Princess Luna, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark
Length: 20650

In the early days of Equestria, a town full of Earth ponies decide to split from the rest of the country.

Just after the formation of Equestria a village of Earth ponies form a daring plan: they're going to defy the authority of the Two Royal Sisters and form their own country, can these young Earth ponies succeed? Or is their revolution doomed to failure? They have the whole of Equestria to gain and nothing to loose but their chains! Earth ponies of Equestria, unite!

Published 2015-08-01 03:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-08-04 15:55:37 UTC

Earth Ponies of Equestria, Unite!

Chapter One: "Earth Ponies of Equestria, Unite!"

It was said that the life of Earth ponies was "nasty, brutish and short" never was that more true then the village of Ukrein, it was on the far-east side of the recently formed country of Equestria, it was a farming village, and it's population was mostly made up of Earth ponies.

One such pony was Apple Scruff who was an apple farmer with a yellow mane and a red coat, his destiny was apparent from his cutie mark which was three green apples.

He was on his way to Salt-Lick Cottage, a little place that served food and drink, his companion was a mare named Electron Shell, who was a light purple unicorn with a mane that was a mix of black and pink, her cutie mark was a circle enclosed in a larger circle, she often explained that this had something to do with her work which involved making cider and she often claimed that the methods for making cider were very complicated and may one day lead to something bigger, and though Apple Scruff was interested in what she had to say, he could never understand her long, technical explanations, which involved complicated words such as: "acids" "reagents" and (perhaps worst of all) "phlogiston".

The two were on their way to meet their mutual friends Golden Eyes and Iron Fist, the two were also farmers but unusually, they could read.

At this period of history; literacy was uncommon in Equestria, especially for two Earth ponies who lived in Ukrein, the two had just read a book by a mare named Trotsky and were excited about sharing it with the village, they entered to find that there was almost nowhere to stand, it seemed most of the village wanted to know what they had to say.

Golden Eyes came out on stage, as his name implied, he had bright, golden eyes.

They complimented his bright, short, straw-like mane and his yellow coat.

He had a carrot cutie mark, as that was what he farmed.

He was joined by Iron Fist, who was a rather fat stallion with a dark grey coat and an iron-grey mane.

His cutie mark was a symbol which he referred to as an "equals sign" this had something to do with his talent as an accountant, but most ponies in Ukrein knew nothing of maths and decided to take his word for it.

While Iron Fist liked his mathematics work, it was well known that he envied the Pegasi, he wanted nothing more then to be like Commander Hurricane and impress others with his flying and defend the country, but sadly these were things no Earth Pony could do.

At that moment Golden Eyes addressed the crowd: "my fellow Earth-Ponies, I have come here to inform you all of the new book I have read by Trotsky, the book is called: "The Earth-Pony Manifesto" and is about our lives."

There was a pause, it seemed as if he was waiting for the audience to show more interest, Apple Scruff gave him an encouraging smile and when nothing more enthusiastic came forth, he finally pressed on: "I'm not very good at giving speeches, but this so called 'Princess' Celestia and her sister have been trying to set themselves up as leaders of Equestria, what does that mean for us? They cover themselves in gold and live in a castle and us? We live in mud huts, we cannot read or do math. Especially in farming villages like ours, and once a year the princesses send their guards to our village to take away a large part of our food, giving it out to Unicorns and Pegasi, who didn't earn it at all! We're going to fix this, not just for ourselves but for all Earth Ponies! Tomorrow the guards will come to take away some of our food to hand out to the rest of Equestria, when that happens we will drive them away! If they come back, we'll drive them away again! This village belongs to the Earth Ponies! And we'll decide what happens to it and it's food! Once we've done that then we'll run this village the Earth Pony way, there won't be any talk of 'cutie marks', a picture on your flank can't tell you what to do! Anyone of us could be anything we wanted and we will be, there won't be 'jobs' any-more, we'll all just help each other, unicorns and pegasi can stay here, but only if they agree to our way of life, nobody should be in charge, we should all be able to decide what we want to do."

Electron spoke up: "But if there are no jobs how will we earn bits?"

"We won't need bits, we have food and houses and when we don't have enough of either, we'll make more, without the 'Royal' sisters taking away our food, then we'll have far too much of it."

Everypony seemed to be quite impressed by this, Apple Scruff certainly liked the sound of it and couldn't wait for the day when he could do more then just farm apples, of course, he liked farming apples and couldn't really think of anything better right now, but he was sure he would in time.

The meeting went on for sometime, with many questions asked,the stupidest questions came from a unicorn with a white coat and a purple mane, her name was Lustre and she made jewellery and clothes, it was strange that she didn't seem to understand Golden Eyes' idea, as she was one of the smartest ponies in the village, she was also known for being very generous, so nobody seemed to mind all her simple questions.

Everybody went to bed early, although they were so exited it was hard to sleep, tomorrow, the revolution begun.

The Earth Pony Manifesto

"Chapter Two: "The Earth Pony Manifesto"

The plans were set, the next morning when the the representatives of the princesses came to Ukrein to find Golden Eyes and Iron Fist waiting for them. "We've come for the food delivery" said Royal Mail.

"Forget it" said Golden Eyes "We're not letting the food we grew be given to others, especially unicorns and pegasi. You're violent and greedy and we're not dealing with you any-more, anything grown in our village stays in our village."

Royal Mail looked utterly bewildered, then he looked at Mellow Yellow, the pegasi captain who had come with him; she pawed at the ground with her hoof and only occasionally raised her head high enough to look Golden Eyes in the face:

"Oh well, we understand, but we really need that food because, um.." she went even quieter: "you grow most of Equestria's food and-" suddenly she stopped speaking as Golden Eyes interrupted:

"Equestria's food??! This is ours!" Mellow Yellow was shaking and looking determinedly at her hooves as if trying to hide her face behind her mane, Royal Mail decided to take over:

"With the Discord crisis ongoing we must present a united front, an Equestria divided against itself cannot stand-"

"Well maybe we don't want to be part of Equestria!" snapped Iron Fist "go back to those 'princesses' and tell them that this village stands on it's own!"

Royal Mail took one last desperate glance at Mellow Yellow, she wasn't the typical sort of pegasus and the only reason she had come was because no actual trouble was expected, most of the pegasi were helping the princesses in their fight against Discord, Mellow Yellow looked as if she was trying to get ready for some great effort and said with great speed and shaking of her voice:

"Pleasegiveusthefoodbecauseifyoudon'tthepegasusarmywillcomeand-"

Iron Fist looked as if he wanted to interrupt and she hastily squeaked: "I'dstopitifIcouldbuttheywon'tlistenbecausewithoutUkreinwe'llallSTARVE TO DEATH!"

Iron Fist stepped forward and Mellow Yellow jumped back with a squeak of terror, falling on her face then with another squeak she stumbled to her feet and hid behind Royal Mail, trembling and pressing her face to the ground as if trying to meld into the soil and become invisible.

Iron Fist was clearly exploding with joy on the inside, all his dreams of being threatening and ordering others around were coming true, he was ordering around a pegasus and a captain of the guard to boot and best of all, she was so timid there was no chance at all that she'd ever stand up to him.

"Get out of our village" said Iron Fist in the voice he'd been practising in front of the mirror for years "Or we'll drag you out."

"That's okay! Iwasjustleaving!" with that she shot away and didn't slow down one bit until she had crossed out of the Ukrein (a journey which took less then ten feet) she ran straight behind the sign which said "WELCOME TO UKREIN VILLAGE! HOME OF HAPPINESS!"

There was a pause before Royal Mail resumed: "Cloudsdale will not stand for this-"

the conversation stopped, Mellow Yellow had slowly and cautiously been glancing around the sign, her eyes were just visible from the side. As everypony became aware of this fact and looked at her, she gave a quick, quiet gasp of terror and quickly withdrew her head.

They resumed: "Cloudsdale will send in the pegasus army if need be!"

Iron Fist glared at him, "Yeah, you do that."

Royal Mail took a final offended glance and then disappeared behind the sign to retrieve Mellow Yellow. She took off with Royal Mail as soon as he told her they were allowed to leave, but he had to hold her hoof for most of the journey until she stopped whimpering.

The news spread quickly; Cloudsdale was going to war with the village and they had to prepare, fast.

Golden Eyes assessment of the situation was singularly unhelpful: "Right, we've not got any weapons, so I'll leave that with you" he said to Iron Fist, who quite enjoyed his first chance to intimidate others and couldn't wait to do it again.

Everypony was called to the town hall to get ready, Iron Fist made them all line-up with their hooves spread apart, it was something Iron Fist had probably seen in one of his books about the Pegasus army, which he kept under his bed and though nobody knew about.

It was a very uncomfortable position to stand in and it wasn't helped by the "helmets" he made them wear, it was clear he wanted something like the helmets worn by the pegasus army, but their was nothing like that in the village (except the helmet Lustre had made Iron Fist for his birthday, which he was wearing).

So most ponies had to make do with pots, pans, colanders, even chamber pots.

Iron Fist marched up and down examining his troops, Apple Scruff was wearing a mixing bowl on his head, to his left was a rather fat stallion called Berry Tongue he had a dark blue coat and a yellow mane and was wearing a large, shallow pan.

On Apple Scruff's right was a dark brown pony with a black mane, called "Forge Line" he was a blacksmith and had hastily modified a metal bowl and the head of a push-broom into something which looked a bit like a passable helmet.

Apple Scruff couldn't exactly hear or understand Iron Fist's speech, odd phrases like: "our foals' foals" or "this is just my opinion as an everyday stallion" could be heard, once the speech was finished everybody stamped their hooves on the ground in excitement and Apple Scruff joined in, so as not to be left out.

After this Iron Fist had them race around in circles whilst he and his friend Paint Palette stood by and watched.

Paint Palette was a mare with a yellow mane and a pink coat, her cutie mark was (rather predictably) a paint palette.

The two of them watched as the ponies ran in a circle, occasionally she took pity on them and asked Iron Fist to give them a rest, he occasionally obliged, although it was clear that he was torn between his friendship to her and his desire to appear as a tough and uncompromising soldier.

Privately, Apple Scruff thought this seemed like a bad idea, now not only were they inexperienced but also tired and sweaty.

on one of their rests Apple Scruff met a stallion named Silver Tongue who looked very distinguished, he had a dark green coat and a brown mane and beard.

he had apparently gone straight from his job (writing novels and text books) to helping Golden Eyes write some speeches and laws (for after Ukreign split from Equestria) and then was drafted into the army.

He was very tired, but was still determined to do his best; Apple Scruff was very impressed, not only at his dedication, but the mere fact that he could read and write and that his writing was good enough that many of his books were read in Las Pegasus and Vanhoover.

Silver Tongue claimed that according to Golden Eyes; then once the revolution was complete, everypony in the village would be able to read and write.

Iron Fist eventually allowed the exercise to end and set about "posting his troops", Apple Scruff was posted on the roof of a barn with Berry Tongue, like the rest of the army their "weapons" consisted of a pile of rocks each which they were to buck at the pegasi.

Iron Fist had called the two of them "Maniple Seven" Apple Scruff was sure this was another word which Iron Fist had gleaned from a book about pegasi, Apple wasn't at all sure what it meant or, indeed if Iron Fist knew what it meant, there was a good chance he was using it incorrectly.

As clueless as Iron Fist seemed to be, Golden Eyes seemed to be even more-so, he wondered if the army needed to be on roofs, and Iron Fist had to remind him that pegasi could fly, Iron Fist's only instructions had been:

"Stay on the roof and if you see the pegasi, buck the rocks at them",

when Apple Scruff had asked him which part of the pegasi's body he should aim for he responded:

"Aim for where it'll do the most damage"

Apple Scruff didn't think this was very helpful, but pretended he understood. Iron also told him:

"Apple Scruff, don't let pegasi get past you"

Apple Scruff thought this was rather an obvious thing to say.

Iron Fist didn't mention whether they should stand normally or in the pegasi army way he had taught them earlier, Berry and Apple had decided to stand in the pegasi way just to be on the safe side.

At that moment Iron Fist shouted "PEGASI, INBOUND! FRONT LINES, OPEN FIRE!"

Nobody seemed to know what this meant, a few of the ponies bucked some of the rocks and apples at the pegasi, but it quickly became apparent that they were too far away to hit, everypony stopped in embarrassment and then waited for them to get closer before resuming.

This time they struck, pegasi began dropping like flies, but there were hundreds of them, as they got closer Apple Scruff seemed to realise just how scared he was, he quickly turned and began bucking.

The pegasi were clearly not the best the army had to offer, most of them were off fighting Discord.

It looked like the leader was a pale blue stallion with a rainbow mane and tail, he swooped about, avoiding the rocks; the first great scare was when the cider warehouse blew up; it seemed as if the pegasi had lit it aflame and the fire was spreading.

But the pegasi were taking heavy losses; Iron Fist didn't do any bucking himself, he merely shouted occasional phrases like: "GREEN TAIL, BY THE LEADER!" "LEFT FLANK, SUPPORT: GO!"

The noise was so great nopony could hear him.

The Panic was so great nopony could follow him.

And nopony even knew what he meant.

Apple Scruff just kept his back to the rock pile and bucked, he jumped every-time he saw a pegasus swoop over his head, proof that he had missed; but luckily, they hadn't attacked him, they seemed to be trying to take out the buildings more then the ponies.

But then came the second great scare; Apple Scruff heard a cry and then he looked to his right, Berry Tongue was lying flat on the roof, a spear through his head.

First Apple screamed, then he ran over to him, but it was useless, he was dead.

"No! GET UP! THEY'RE ARE TOO MANY OF THEM!"

it was finally too much for Apple; nothing seemed real, it was all a nightmare; it had to be, nothing this bad could happen.

He was screaming, not just about Berry Punch; he was screaming about everything: "JUST STOP! HE'S DEAD, PLEASE EVERYBODY!"

on instinct, he bucked at the rock pile Berry Tongue had left behind, there was a ringing noise, rock hitting metal.

The rainbow haired general, spiralled over Apple's head, sinking as he went, his helmet dented and arranged wrongly.

There was a pain like Apple had never felt before in his left flank, he screamed and looked behind him, there was a spear in his flank.

He stumbled, he was sliding off the roof, he looked down, the sound of the battle all around him, the pain in his flank, it was too much.

Then, he passed out.

The Birth of a Nation

Chapter Three: "The Birth of a Nation"

When Apple Scruff did wake-up he was in a bed with Electron Shell bandaging his flank, "I didn't know you were a doctor" he muttered

"I'm not, but the few doctors we have are busy."

"There must have been a lot of injuries", Apple Scruff thought to himself, he looked outside, it was raining heavily

"The pegasi left a bunch of rain clouds over the village" explained Electron Shell.

Apple Scruff looked over at the other beds in the room, two were occupied; a yellow earth pony with a brown mane and green eyes who had a bandage around his back left leg; and another earth pony with brown hair and a grey coat, this one had brown eyes and his right foreleg was in a sling.

"Sticky Wicket" said the first, in response to his unasked question.

"Ebony Eyes" said the second.

Apple Scruff smiled at his new friends, he was well aware that he must look ridiculous with his flank covered in bandages, but before he could even joke about it then somepony entered the room:

"All war-wounded in the hall as soon as possible".

Electron Shell had already finished the bandage, and so they all struggled to their feet and out the room.

The four took their seats in the hall, there didn't appear to be many other wounded, Apple only saw two other ponies who were injured, Earth ponies, were, after-all, tough.

Apple was a little exited, he couldn't help wonder why he had been called to the hall, he began to wonder: was he going to be asked to go on stage?

Maybe even get a medal?

At that moment, Golden Eyes and Iron Fist entered from the left side of the stage, with Paint Palette and Moody Blue, she was Golden Eyes' wife and had a white coat and an electric blue mane.

Golden Eyes spoke: "My fellow ponies, the battle was long and hard, I myself am not much of a public speaker, I began with but a vision and if you were to tell me, even just a few days ago that I would now be speaking to you all, having played a pivotal role in our victory-"

Apple Scruff didn't recall seeing Golden Eyes at the battle at all, had he appeared after Apple Scruff passed out?

"But we are only so good as those who assist us and so, I would like to present this medal of meritorious conduct to Iron Fist, for his decisive role in our victory."

Everypony stomped their hooves upon the ground in approval, those few with injuries were careful not to aggravate them.

"I would also like to thank all our soldiers, especially those who (despite injuries) did their part."

There was more stomping, Apple Scruff would never admit it but he was betrayed, confused; as far as he could see it was only him, Sticky Wicket and Ebony Eyes and those two others who had been injured in the line of duty, was it too much trouble to mention five names?

Perhaps even invite them on stage to talk?

But Golden Eyes had already moved on, he went on and on talking as did Iron Fist, they verbally meandered about their childhoods, their plans for the revolution, their hope for the future; Apple Scruff did manage to pick up the important points: The village was to be divided into several sections which would all cooperate and trade with each other; they were no longer Ukrein,

"we have achieved the first stage of Trotsky's plans, and we shall have a new name to honour this fact, "The Union of Brony Brotherhood Republics".

There was a brief pause before somepony asked: "What's a 'brony'?"

Golden Eyes answered: "A brony is a combination of 'brother' and 'pony' to remind us all that we are all brothers."

"Even the mares?" asked Lustre,

Golden Eyes responded: "We are all united in brotherly love, we considered using the word 'pegasisters' but we felt that this was absurd, first: because the pegasi, by-and-large are our enemies and second: because 'Pegasisters' sounds utterly ridiculous"

this, everypony agreed upon, it was better to expand the word 'Brony' to include mares then to call them something ludicrous like 'pegasister', which did not have much of a ring to it.

"Our new nation may be called the UBBR to save time" continued Golden Eyes "and now, we shall conclude this meeting with a performance of our new national anthem."

The four on stage stood up and began to sing:

Ponies of the world, we shall unite!

We've nothing to lose but our chains,

together, we shall pool out might,

and brake loose from our reins!

Our dreams shall not be broken,

Our vision Can never die!

Our allies shall be woken,

our flag shall forever fly!

Our allies shall be woken,

our flag shall forever fly!

At the end of the song there was mass cheering, and the flag was unfolded, it was most likely the work of Paint Palette, it consisted of a red background with a yellow hoof, crossed over a yellow sickle, hooves and crude farm implements, the tools of the trade for Earth ponies.

Pegaus Sharks! We'll Keep Our Eyes Peeled!

Chapter Four: "Pegasus Sharks! We'll Keep Our Eyes Peeled!"

Far off in the west, our foes now are gathering,

The Earth Pony state, they'd surround!

Again thunder booms from the city of Cloudsdale,

we're going to win this time round!

As the cheery music blared and the rain drummed on the roof of Salt-Lick Cottage, the entire village stood and stared at the screen; it showed flickery, sepia toned, sped-up footage of Earth Ponies working tirelessly, with an enthusiasm nopony in the village had.

The footage was interspersed with cartoons of trains labelled "UBBR", which seemed to grow larger and larger as the film went on.

To factories, to farms and to horse-carts!

In sunshine our halyards fly!

O'er the world's oceans and countries,

The flag of the ponies raised high!

A crude cartoon of Cloudsdale appeared on-screen, populated only by a giant, ugly caricature of a pegasus, with fanged teeth, fiery eyes and ludicrously sharp wings; a few ponies gasped, clearly they had never seen a real-life pegasus and thought that this was an accurate representation.

The cartoon pegasus looked over at the hard working Earth ponies and suddenly became violent; she struck the UBBR with lightening bolts, destroying little cartoon trains and factories.

So bolder and heartier in fiery tempo,

with science, with struggle, with toil!

Until all the world will be stormed by the ponies,

who'll drive all our foes from it's soil!

The footage of the Earth ponies working was paused, then the pegasus appeared on screen, looking very smug indeed, she squeezed her lips together, narrowed her eyes and pressed her hooves to her cheeks and a caption appeared on screen: "A BREAK IN DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS!"

To factories, to farms and to horse-carts!

in sunshine our halyards fly!

O'er the world's oceans and countries!

The flag of the ponies raised high!

The pegasus appeared again, wearing an indescribably smug face, her eyebrow was cocked and she was smiling out of the corner of her mouth; then she held up a piece of paper labelled "ULTIMATUM" and handed it to somepony off-screen.

A caption appeared: "CLOUDSDALE DELIVERS AN ULTIMATUM" it gave way to a second: "AND OUR RESPONSE?" a cartoon hoof could be seen holding the message, which then flew apart, the pieces reforming into an army of Earth ponies who charged forth.

So let the storm-clouds rage,

and surge with the pegasai tide!

So forward you Earth-ponies,

forward you soldiers;

forward Earth-ponies with pride!

To factories, to farms and to horse-carts!

in sunshine our halyards fly!

O'er the world's oceans and countries!

The flag of the ponies raised high!

The screen then showed another cartoon; a group of Earth ponies building a huge structure: "WE MUST BUILD OUR OWN WEATHER FACTORY!"

The screen then showed footage Earth-ponies working hard at drawing blueprints, mainly Golden Eyes, Iron Fist, Moody Blue and Paint Palette.

To factories, to farms and to horse-carts!

in sunshine our halyards fly!

O'er the world's oceans and countries!

The flag of the ponies raised high!

The cartoon pegasus was on-screen again, hiding her face under her wing in fear, the image was captioned: "WE BEAT THE PEGASI WITH OUR ARMY, NOW WE'LL BEAT THEM WITH OUR TECHNOLOGY!"

The next image was a cartoon Earth-pony laughing, she stopped, pointed at the screen and a caption appeared: "HAVE YOU JOINED THE CONSTRUCTION ARMY?"

The final scene showed the cartoon pegasus, now crying her eyes out.

To factories, to farms and to horse-carts!

in sunshine our halyards fly!

O'er the world's oceans and countries!

The flag of the ponies raised high!

The film ended and the lights came on, and Golden Eyes, Moody Blue, Paint Palette and Iron Fist took the stage.

Iron Fist was still wearing his helmet and medal; neither he nor the others on stage looked nearly as tired as the rest of the ponies who were assembled in the room.

"Well" said Golden Eyes, "I think Paint Palette's film said it all; if we're going to stop the rain we need to build our own weather factory, any questions?"

A number of hooves went into the air, (more then half of then, Apple Scruff suspected, were simply going to ask what those captions said) Golden Eyes pointed at one:

"How are we going to do that?"

Golden Eyes responded vaguely: "We have ways, there are kinds of machines which can do a pegasi's job"

"But who's going to design these machines?"

Golden Eyes simply told him: "Me, Iron Fist, Moody Blue and Paint Palette have done so, we have many years of experience in designing machines and organising ponies."

Apple Scruff was more then a little taken aback, Moody Blue was a clothing designer and Paint Palette was an artist; none of these ponies knew anything about machines as far as he knew.

Perhaps they had read a book on it?

Maybe Electron Shell was helping, she was the only one who seemed to really understand all this "science" stuff, But he didn't dare speak up.

If this rain didn't stop it was going to leach all the nutrients from the soil, they'd never grow anything ever again.

This machine was going to work, it had to.

Everypony else was either thinking the same thing or they didn't know enough to question Golden Eyes because nobody spoke, it seemed to have just been agreed that this was going to happen because it had to.

With that, Golden Eyes called an end to the meeting and everypony began to file out.

Apple Scruff approached Golden Eyes and Iron Fist and called out to them, they turned to face him:

"Yes, Apple Scruff?" asked Golden Eyes

"I just wanted to ask about the Weather Factory, can we really do it?"

"Yes" was the simple answer.

Not daring to insult his friends by questioning their idea he found himself saying:

"Well, I'll help, of course, anything you need"

"That's great, you can take any job you wish"

Apple Scruff thought about it, he had no idea what kind of things this might involve and which part could he possibly be qualified to fill?

Come to it, what was Golden Eyes doing?

Apart from the fact he could read, he wasn't any more qualified then Apple Scruff.

"Well, what are you doing?"

"I'm director" said Golden Eyes briefly.

Apple Scruff had no idea what a "director" was, but it sounded very important.

"Well-" begun Apple Scruff but before he could continue Golden Eyes was on his way out:

"just show up to the construction site at four am tomorrow" he muttered as he left.

"We may need you before that" said Iron Fist vaguely as he left.

Labour is Magic

Chapter Five: "Labour Is Magic"

Apple Scruff didn't know when he was supposed to get ready.

Just to be sure; he woke up at one in the morning and then ran over the Hayseed Swamps to the construction site, but nopony was there.

Then he went to Golden Eyes' house and knocked on the door, but nopony answered.

Then he went to Iron Fist's house and knocked on the door but nobody answered, so he went back to the construction site.

Around half past three, he met Silver Tongue on his way, when they got there Sticky Wicket, Ebony Eyes and three others were there, and the seven decided to hide under an rock outcrop to get out of the rain.

The three new ponies introduced themselves, the first was a huge Clydesdale with a green coat and yellow hair, he was called "Big Bad John" which was an unusual name.

Then there was an old mule, he was called "Old Leviticus".

And the other was a blue mare with a red mane, she was called "Rose Garden", nopony seemed to know when they were supposed to start or where the others were.

More and more ponies began to appear, they were all very interested when they found out that Apple Scruff and Silver Tongue had met Iron Fist and Golden Eyes in person and immediately began asking about them.

Apple Scruff was very honest and told them all he knew: he wasn't sure how the Weather Factory was supposed to work and he didn't know if Golden Eyes knew either.

He admitted that Golden Eyes once claimed he had an idea for a machine that could make cider much faster then a pony could, but he never told anypony much about it and forgot about it soon after, so Golden Eyes wasn't exactly very organised.

Old Leviticus didn't seem surprised to hear it but Big Bad John said nothing much, except the occasional "Yes" or "No".

Misery was creeping through the crowd, they were cold and wet and their hooves were dirty from going through the Hayseed Swamps, but they stayed.

At half past six Iron Fist and Paint Palette came with Moody Blue and Golden Eyes, and they started telling the ponies what to do, Silver Tongue and Apple Scruff were told to break up rocks.

So they stood on a cliff and Big Bad John and other big ponies would drag the rocks over to them from the quarry and they'd smash it them into little pieces, it took so long to move the rocks that there were long stretches where they had nothing to do, so they took it upon themselves to help the others, digging a hole or putting the smashed up rocks into buckets.

Occasionally Paint Palette would come to help, but Iron Fist (who was sheltered in a cave with Golden Eyes and Moody Blue) would call her back, insisting they needed her help.

"There must be something very important in that cave", thought Apple Scruff, probably, they were working on the blueprints.

It was miserable work, the rain lashed down on them, tickling their faces, pressing their manes down and soaking their bandages, all this walking had made Apple Scruff's war-wound worse and now the bandages were stained through with blood.

Each pony had be told that they could leave when they wanted to eat or use the bathroom, but in practice, this simply meant eating grass as getting somewhere where they could eat real food would mean leaving for a long time and nobody wanted to leave their friends to do all the work.

As Golden Eyes' had explained at the meeting, the former Ukrein was now called "Ponyang city" it, along with everything south of it (the Hayseed Swamps and this area where they were building the weather factory) was now part of the UBBR, the pegasi must have been aware of this as they had covered the entire area in rain clouds.

But Big Bad John didn't complain, he went right on doing the work of six ponies, dragging the rocks, soaked with rain, his mane pressed to his face, covered in mud, his hooves slipping on the wet ground, grunting: "If Golden Eyes says it, it must be right" or "I must work harder".

They worked though the day and into the early hours of the morning, and then at one AM they were allowed to go home, they trekked through the Hayseed swamps in groups and back to Ponyang city only to wake up after a few hours to begin again.

Apple Scruff overslept and woke up at nine AM, he ran to the construction site, slipping and sliding on the wet ground and the wound on his flank now particularly sore, only to find half the ponies weren't there; amongst them Moody Blue, Iron Fist and Golden Eyes.

Paint Palette simply told them to keep busy and admitted that she didn't exactly know what they were supposed to do, so very little actually got done.

Golden Eyes and Iron Fist showed up with Moody Blue after half past eleven looking quite worn-out and retreated to the cave as soon as Iron Fist asked the others to mix the ground up rocks with water and pour them into the hole, this was apparently called the "foundation of the Weather Factory".

It was hard knowing how much water to add, the rain caused the buckets to fill up with water before they'd even put any rocks in, eventually they settled on tipping out a random amount of water and then adding some powdered rocks, which formed a thin paste.

At one point Iron Fist called Apple Scruff away, to speak briefly:

"we hear you've been telling others that the Weather Factory is a bad idea."

"Well, I sort-of told them not to get their hopes up-"

"Well don't" Golden Eyes said curtly, "We've got enough problems."

"Is it Discord?" asked Apple Scruff

"No, there's some new threat in the Crystal Empire called 'King Sombra' and we need to present a united front to stop him, he'll probably join with Celestia and Luna and try to smash us to pieces, and you don't want that do you?"

"No!" exclaimed Apple Scruff alarmed by this news.

"Fine, dismissed" said Golden Eyes, walking away,

"what does that mean?" asked Apple Scruff

"it means 'back to work'."

Apple Scruff worked harder then ever, the threat of King Sombra pushed him forward, he worked all day, if there was nothing for him to do, then he'd help others, he tried to emulate Big Bad John and his work ethic, constantly saying to himself: "If Golden Eyes says it, it must be right" and "I must work harder."

He didn't stop to eat, he felt light-headed and nauseous, but he pushed these feelings deep inside himself and re-doubled his efforts.

He thought to himself that he should learn to read and write so that he could help with planning and made a mental note to do just that as soon as he went home, even if he had to stay up all night.

Then after he had been told to go home, he staggered across the Hayseed Swamp with Silver Tongue, who was terrified, he was sure Apple Scruff was going to drop dead, but he didn't.

He made it all the way back to Ponyang city, said "good night" to Silver Tongue and entered his house, he stumbled inside, thinking about starting to learn read and write but these thoughts were driven from his mind as he vomited and then; collapsed upon his bed into unconsciousness.

Onward to Shining Future

Chapter Six: "Onward to Shining Future"

Apple Scruff was sick.

He woke up at five PM to find that every inch of his body ached, he was alternately horribly cold and then far too hot, he felt nauseous, tired, but unable to sleep, the wound on his flank was more sore then ever.

It was agony to lie down and the wound wept terribly at the smallest amount of pressure, he forced himself to get out of bed long enough to drag his former "army helmet" to the side of his bed so that he had something to vomit into, and made use of it as soon as he was back in bed.

He wondered if somepony would come looking for him, but they didn't.

It wasn't until nine PM when somepony knocked on his door and (with effort that made him feel light-headed) he shouted for them to enter.

It was Electron Shell: "I didn't see you at the construction site" she explained "I was worried."

After he described his symptoms she looked at his war-wound and concluded that it was 'infected' Apple Scruff didn't understand, but she explained that this meant it wasn't going to heal very fast and he was going to be sick until it did, it also meant he couldn't work on the Weather Factory.

Apple Scruff was quite worried and even more-so when she explained that the Weather Factory needed help more then ever, it had fallen to bits and sunk into the ground.

Apple Scruff was so troubled by this that he vomited again, and once more when she explained why: Golden Eyes had given a speech explaining that the Weather Factory had been attacked by King Sombra.

"How?" groaned Apple Scruff as his vomiting subsided.

"I don't know and I don't know if that's true, anyway"

"What do you mean?"

"I saw the plans" she explained "I worked on it myself, but I don't think they know anything about technology or even construction, Golden Eyes never built anything in his life, he always got others to help even if it was something as simple as a barn."

Apple Scruff felt worse then ever, his worst fears were coming true, Golden Eyes really had no idea what he was doing.

Before he could ask more questions, Electron Shell spared him the effort by answering:

"Iron Fist doesn't know either, he keeps calling himself Co-director and saying that gives him the right to tell me what to do, but he doesn't know anything about science or magic, this Weather Factory might take forever to build and it probably won't work, not for long anyway, it might blow up and kill us all."

Apple Scruff vomited again.

"I need to go" she said before he could vomit again, "I'm going with Golden Eyes, Moody Blue, Iron Fist and Paint Palette on a trip, I've been told not to tell you what we're doing, but I'll be back soon."

They said their goodbyes and she left.

Apple Scruff's various friends visited him day-by-day; Silver Tongue showed up the day after Electron Shell and gave him some apples and carrots as well as a book called: "The Little Fillies and Foals Folio of Fun!" Which he explained was a book which taught how to read and write.

He brought lots of other books about reading and writing as well, he had owned them since he was a colt and since he could read himself, he didn't need them anymore.

As Apple Scruff felt better and better he eventually took the bandages off and found the wound was gone, but his back leg was stiff and it caused him trouble when walking, he was also very hungry, bad that wasn't uncommon, he had heard that the rain storm had ruined the farms.

The only food they had was that which had been stored and they were scared of eating it too fast, so everypony was vowing to eat only three times a day at most and even then, they made sure to eat a lot less then normal.

Apple Scruff had lost quite a bit of weight and so had the others, without Golden Eyes, Paint Palette, Moody Blue or Iron Fist to tell them what to do nopony knew how to rebuild the weather factory, so they did nothing with it.

The rain made it impossible to do most normal work, so ponies kept themselves busy either building a schoolhouse or by learning to read and write.

Apple Scruff had learned more then half the letters of the alphabet and could draw most of them, he tried writing his name one day and it came out as: "Addle cff" he had left blank the letters he couldn't draw and (if possible) substituted them with letters he could draw.

Ponies who could read and write were in high demand, they met in the partially constructed schoolhouse and taught the others.

Apple Scruff brought his books to these meetings so other ponies could look at them and he had decided that once he could read and write properly he would pass them on to somepony else, so that eventually everypony in the UBBR would be able to read.

One day, the rain stopped.

Nopony knew how or why but the rain clouds were gone.

It was too late for the farms which were now ruined.

It would take years for the soil to return to a condition where they could grow food again and everypony was more worried then ever, but they were sure that soon things would be fixed once Golden Eyes and Iron Fist came back from wherever they had gone.

They kept their mind off their worries by banding together to finish the schoolhouse, with the rain gone work went fast and it was finished in a day, after this they went on to start constructing a library, for all the books they would eventually own and write.

The fateful day finally arrived four days after the rain had stopped.

Golden Eyes demanded everypony come to the school-house and he stood at the front of the hall, where the literate ponies usually stood, when they were teaching.

Everypony looked very thin, except for those who had been on the trip, Electron Shell was nowhere to be seen; but this was important, so Apple Scruff didn't want to interrupt by asking where she'd gone.

Golden Eyes now had a nice, red cloak with a white fur-trim; Iron Fist had a new hat, it looked a lot different then his old helmet, it was made of fabric rather then metal, it was dark green, circular, with a metal symbol on the front and had a black visor on it.

Golden Eyes spoke briefly: "There are two announcements I must make, as the first is a matter for the military, I must direct it to my head of the armed forces, Iron Fist."

Apple Scruff couldn't help but wonder what was going on, hadn't Golden Eyes claimed that there would be no jobs?

That all labour would be divided equally?

He listened carefully as Iron Fist spoke:

"A grave threat is bearing down upon us, Princess Celestia and Luna have decided to go declare an unjust war upon the Crystal Empire."

There was silence in the room as Golden Eyes took the microphone again:

"It is my pleasure to announce that soon we shall devote our energies to the production of greater and greater weapons, our food crisis is solved! Soon we shall have houses and goods aplenty! I have, in the course of my trip, secured an alliance with the benevolent King Sombra."

Snowstorm in Ponyang

Chapter Seven: "Snowstorm in Ponyang"

Nopony seemed to want to address it, or admit that it had ever been different, it was a simple fact: they were allied with King Sombra.

At once things began to change and fast; the abundant stores of food seemed to have disappeared shortly after Golden Eyes, iron Fist, Moody Blue and Paint Palette had returned to the UBBR, and for a few days nopony had anything to eat except grass.

Apple Scruff had lost even more weight and he wasn't alone, but Iron Fist seemed to have lost nothing, in fact, paradoxically he seemed to have gotten a bit fatter.

But it wasn't long before more and more trains were arriving from the Crystal Empire filled to the brim with food, nobody questioned the alliance with Sombra for long, it was hard to when he kept helping them.

More and more buildings were being built by Crystal Ponies, they came early in the morning, worked with great speed and efficiency and then went back to the empire at night, by rail.

Thanks to their efforts Ponyang city was a lot bigger and nicer, Apple Scruff's house had had another two floors added to it and now that he had learned how to read and write he had passed his books on to Big Bad John (who he felt deserved them most of all).

There was now a whole new part to the UBBR; a bridge had been constructed across the Hayseed Swamps making it much easier to come and go and a new city (called Stalliongrad) had been built near the Weather Factory.

Nopony seemed to mention the fact the Sombra had destroyed the Weather Factory, it was vaguely implied that the royal sisters were the ones responsible and these implications grew more and more severe until it was just generally understood that it was all Celestia and Luna's fault and that they were the sworn enemies of the UBBR.

There was no word if they were ever going to rebuild it the Weather Factory, but nopony mentioned a lot of things, Electron Shell was one; Apple Scruff couldn't find her after the trip to the Crystal Empire and nopony knew where she'd gone.

Everypony else who'd been on the trip to the Crystal Empire was unavailable, Iron Fist, Golden Eyes, Moody Blue and Paint Palette spent their time in the school house and a sign had been screwed to the door announcing that nopony else could come in; sometimes guards were outside, in helmets and armed with spears.

Once or twice Apple Scruff had been told that it was his turn to be a guard and he did it, hoping that he might see one of the ponies from the trip as they went in or out, in the hopes that they'd tell him where Electron Shell had gone, but he never saw them.

As the months passed Apple Scruff's leg got less and less stiff, but it still hurt when it was cold, which was getting more and more common, for some reason nopony could account for, the UBBR was getting colder and colder, the farms were almost certainly useless now, but with so much food coming from the Crystal Empire, there was no real need for them any more.

The whole of the UBBR seemed to be getting ready for war, ponies were drafted at random into the army and given helmets and armour and spears and taught to use them by soldiers from the Crystal Empire.

Apple Scruff had already been trained and it seemed as if everypony else had.

Armoured carts were being made and ponies were being pulled into newly-constructed weapons factories to make them, there was a general climate of war and hatred; posters seemed to be everywhere showing pictures of Celestia or Luna with cat-like eyes, sharp wings and blood soaked fangs; trampling over foals or crushing cities beneath the hooves with captions such as:

"THIS IS THE FACE OF THE ENEMY!"

"YOUR LAZINESS SHALL BUY LUNA'S VICTORY!" and

"ROYAL HORSESHOES SHALL NOT TRAMPLE THE MOTHERLAND!"

Sometimes these posters would take the opposite approach and show UBBR citizens winning some great victory, saying things like:

"GOLDEN EYES CLEANSES THE WORLD OF FILTH!"

"THE WRATH OF THE UBBR SHALL CRUSH THE TYRANTS OF EQUESTRIA!" or

"THE MARCH OF IRON FIST'S ARTILLERY CANNOT BE STOPPED!"

New songs were now being circulated, all with a military theme; such as "The March of Iron Fist's Artillery" Apple Scruff's favourite was a song about a mare who's husband had gone away to war, he felt that it was, ultimately a very nice love song and it was played practically everywhere.

The day when all of the UBBR stopped came whilst Apple Scruff was at the Spear Factory, he was attaching the spear heads onto staffs, when somepony entered in military dress; he shouted for everypony to assemble before "The Ponyburo Building".

Everypony seemed to be rather confused by these instructions; but they soon realised that crowds were forming out side the schoolhouse, it had changed quite a bit since being made, the crystal ponies had made it larger and more extravagant; in front of the building there was now a large statue of a mare and a stallion (both Earth ponies) standing on their hind legs and putting their hooves together, it seemed as if they had changed the name as a final step.

Since this was the "Ponyburo Building" it stood to reason the Golden Eyes, Iron Fist, Paint Palette and Moody Blue were the "Ponyburo" as they were the only ones allowed inside.

Everypony was shivering, the cold had gotten worse and seemed to everyday, Apple Scruff's war wound throbbed painfully.

Golden Eyes spoke briefly, his words though few, caused the whole of Ponyang to freeze: "I have come to inform you of an unfortunate development, our nation has been betrayed by King Sombra; we are now at war with the Crystal Empire, Sombra's troops will be upon Ponyang in four days time, I will now turn over to Iron Fist for evacuation plans."

The Siege of Stalliongrad

Chapter Eight: "The Siege of Stalliongrad"

"Retreat" was the word Iron Fist had used and this time there was no question whether or not he was using it correctly; he had given simple instructions: anything that could provide weapons or food or shelter to the invading Crystal Empire army was to be destroyed.

Their houses, their food stores, their weapon plants all had to be be burned to the ground (the Ponyburo Building had been spared) they were allowed to take only that which could be carried or loaded onto their personal carts.

Apple Scruff had been forced to give up his cart to the army so all he could take with him was an album of family photos.

Luckily, Big Bad John had managed to take all Silver Tongue's old books and Silver Tongue himself had been allowed to keep his cart so all of his books (which were still quite a rarity in the UBBR) were safe.

Once everything had been destroyed and the carts loaded up, they marched, their hooves cutting through the snow which seemed to get worse every single day.

Apple Scruff tried not to cry, it was hard, his flank ached from his war-wound, he was cold (he had no clothes to wear) and he was tired, they had marched for hours, but worse then any of that, the home he had lived in all his life, the one his parents and grandparents had passed down to him was gone.

He had set it aflame himself and watched it burn in front of his eyes, he forced himself to go on; watching the inspiring sight of Big Bad John, he wasn't trying not to cry like a little colt, he was determined; probably thinking to himself: "If Golden Eyes' says it, it must be right" or "I must work harder".

Apple Scruff forced himself on trying to keep up the sing-a-long they had started to distract themselves, it was the song about the mare who's husband had gone to war :

Oh, her song! The song of a fillies' true love;

to her dear one: travel with the sun!

To the one who Katyusha loves so,

send her greetings to me, one-by-one.

They continued on, the Ponyburo were at the front, being pulled in an ornate and large cart, Apple Scruff had seen them before, they had thick fur cloaks and hats that covered their faces, even scarves, these articles of clothing couldn't have been designed by Lustre as she hadn't been allowed to make clothes in a while; first she had to turn her attention to the Weather Factory, then she had been forced to hand over her stock of fabric which was apparently being used for army purposes (whatever they may be).

She was just ahead, looking as bad as Apple Scruff felt, she was openly sobbing, but still pulling forward with the cart that had all her possessions in it.

The Ponyburo were the only ones allowed to ride in a cart (except for the fillies and colts), everypony else who was old enough, had been told to trot and, if possible, pull a cart themselves, this maximised cart-space for the transport of supplies and military equipment.

But Apple Scruff didn't mind, they probably needed a quiet, warm, large cart so they could think and plan out the strategy.

Let me know that she is true and faithful,

let me hear the love song that she sends,

tell me as I defend our home that grateful,

true Katyusha, your love will defend.

There were no rails to take, they had blown them up to stop the Crystal Empire's army from using them, they marched towards the bridge across the Hayseed Swamp, this journey would have normally taken a much shorter time, but the snow was thicker now, they were weighed down by their supplies and they were tired and hungry, they had not rested since the speech.

Once they crossed the bridge, they would destroy it too; their destination was Stalliongrad, once they were there, then they would be ready for Sombra's army, who would be too worn out from the trip to offer much resistance.

Apple trees and pear trees a-flower,

river mist was rising all around,

young Katyusha went strolling by the hour,

on the steep banks o' the rocky ground.

young Katyusha was went strolling by the hour,

on the steep banks o' the rocky ground.

The days passed in Stalliongrad, the Ponyburo set up shop inside a building which nopony else was allowed to enter; everypony else had to find a place and make it their own, all food was shared, in this situation nopony wanted to see others have to suffer.

Iron Fist would only leave the Ponyburo to "inspect the troops", he made a number of ponies knock out the windows of their houses, he said that this well give them "a better shot at the enemy" and the buildings quickly became bitter cold.

The cold was getting worse, it was colder now then the Frozen North where the Crystal Empire was located, Iron Fist was exited about this development, he claimed that the invading army wouldn't be ready for such a cold climate, they'd be weak and helpless when they arrived.

Everybody was worried about fighting the pegasi again, but their fears were quelled, King Sombra had almost no pegasi left, he had lost them after a failed invasion of Equestria; naturally, all the insults and implications and hatred directed at Celestia and Luna had dried up, as far as the Ponyburo were concerned the royal sisters were loyal and great allies of the UBBR.

Apple Scruff had barely any chance to speak to the Ponyburo, the only chance came when a mare and her colt came to see the building where Apple Scruff was ordered to spend most of his day in anticipation of an invasion, he was supposed to stand at the broken window, the cold gnawing at his face, ready to attack if Sombra's army came.

The little colt was very exited to see real army ponies at work and asked if he could see the view from the window and pretend to be a soldier, so his mother put him on her back and stood at the window and he stared out of it.

At that moment Iron Fist stormed in and demanded to know why a "civilian" was standing at Apple Scruff's post:

"I just wanted to see what it wa' like to be in tha' army, mister" pleaded the youngster.

To which Iron Fist just snapped: "Get out! Apple Scruff, actual soldier, get back there!"

Apple Scruff did it without question. After Iron Fist had left he wondered if he should have told him off for being so rude or asked if somepony else could take his place; because he was cold. Or indeed, what Iron Fist would say if he raised the possibility, but it was too late for that.

The day came. Iron Fist had heard reports that a crystal pony had been seen in Stalliongrad, the soldiers were at their positions and then, they waited.

It took only a moment for the first group of crystal ponies to be seen and at once, spears rained down upon them, they shattered like glass.

Apple Scruff couldn't see any of this from his position, he was too far back, but he could hear it, the screams, the crashes, the death, he began to shake.

Apple Scruff's first kill (and no matter what he tried to tell himself, it was a kill) occurred six hours into the battle; a battalion of unicorns was marching towards the building where he was stationed, and then he felt it.

He was back.

It was the Battle of Ukreign all over again, his war-wound throbbed.

The nightmare came back in full-force; he remembered the terror at seeing the pegasus army swoop down on him, the horror at seeing Berry Tongue dead.

He attacked.

He threw his spears as fast as he could, propelled by mania, he didn't care if he missed or not, he had to stop them.

He had to stop them before he saw death again, if they didn't die, somepony else would, maybe him.

He was screaming, there was screaming everywhere, not just stallions and mares but fillies and colts, death was everywhere, dust rained from the buildings as the blasts from the unicorn's horns hit them.

He was brought back to reality by a flash from one of the unicorn's horns, it was heading to his building.

Time stopped, all he could see was a still image of the unicorn, a blast from it's horn halfway towards him.

His mind was empty.

Then he recognised those ponies, they were Sombra's army.

He was Apple Scruff.

They were at war.

And then time resumed as he saw the flash from his right side, he looked over as the stallion fell, he couldn't have been very old (he looked younger then Apple Scruff) he hit the floor and Apple Scruff ran over.

"NO! GET-UP! IT ISN'T OVER AND WE'LL DIE! ALL OF US!"

there was another flash, Apple Scruff turned around, the other soldier was dead.

He was alone.

"NO! DON'T! COME ON, I NEVER SAID A WORD TO YOU BEFORE YOU WERE DEAD! I DIDN'T KNOW YOU! WE COULD HAVE BEEN FRIENDS! PLEASE! I DON'T WANT TO BE ALONE!"

He fell to the ground, cowering, he had to get away from the window. The window was death.

He shook and started to cry, "n,n,no......I won't die.....I don't..I don't want to...be..here."

There was a crash, it was the roof, he opened his eyes, there was a pegasus there, it was the one with the rainbow mane and tail, the one who he had hit at the battle of Ukrein, now, more then ever, he could remember it.

"Get up, soldier!" the pegasus exclaimed.

"NO!" Apple Scruff screamed "THEY'LL KILL ME!"

"Not if we have anything to say about it!" said the pegasus proudly, "Speed Racer's the name, you guys did good, but we'll take it from here."

He forced Apple Scruff to his hooves and made him look out of the window, the crystal ponies were running, being chased all the way by pegasi and unicorns and Earth ponies alike, Equestria's army.

Apple Scruff would never forget it, ever; it was all true, Celestia and Luna were their allies, the Equestrian army had come at the eleventh hour to save them.

The Everfree Conference

Chapter Nine: "The Everfree Conference"

Things moved fast once the war was over, all the citizens of the UBBR had been told was that King Sombra had been defeated and it was all thanks to the UBBR, they were all calling it "The Great Pony-atric War".

The Ponyburo disappeared for a very short while, they went to The Castle of the Two Sisters to meet with Celestia and Luna, when they came back, Stalliongrad had been nearly rebuilt.

Furthermore, they announced that everypony could now go back to Ponyang; they returned to find it better then ever, and there was more news; the UBBR had expanded, it now controlled a great deal more territory to the north and south; so far north in fact, that it now had half of the former Crystal Empire.

Apple Scruff returned home to find that the cold had gotten worse and Sticky Wicket had been killed in the war.

There was a speech by the Ponyburo, all of them got medals, there was no mention of Sticky Wicket or any other casualties, or the intervention of Equestria's army.

Equestria was a villain again.

There were violent tales of how Celestia and Luna only fought King Sombra because they wanted to control the world and saw him as a rival.

They needed to re-arm, they needed to have a bigger army, they had gotten lucky once, but wouldn't do so again, the next time the royal sisters would be targeting them.

War seemed to be everywhere again, all the films involved war, a movie had been made about about a battle that probably never took place, some fight by marginalised Earth Ponies to fight back against the tyranny of Celestia and Luna, it was called: "The Battleship Pony-Tempkin" it ended with the unicorns marching down the steps of The Castle of the Two Sisters and blasting everybody in sight, stallion, mare, colt or filly.

There was a particularly distressing scene where the unicorns blasted a young mare and the stroller she'd been holding rolled down the steps, out of control, with the young filly still inside.

Another film had been made about the battle of Ukrein; it featured two handsome, young actors playing Iron Fist and Golden Eyes and portrayed them as great heroes, Apple Scruff didn't question it, he was unconscious for a good part of the battle, he couldn't say what actually happened there.

Great questions were already being asked about what Celestia and Luna did during the war, it was said they had won their victory through some kind of new magic called a "Sonic Rainboom", ponies were terrified, the Ponyburo claimed that the two sisters would soon turn their wrath upon the UBBR.

They claimed that the UBBR had to find out how to use these techniques themselves and defend themselves; all over Ponyang signs had been installed: "RAINBOOM SHELTER, THIS WAY".

Leaflets were being handed out, telling the ponies how to protect themselves, sirens had been installed to sound whenever the pegasi came to rainboom the UBBR, they hadn't been used except for testing purposes, when they sounded (which they did twice a month) the citizens had to run to the nearest rainboom shelter, which in Apple Scruff's case was in the local library, not far from his house.

Things had gotten better in that respect, literacy was common, thanks mainly to the work of Silver Tongue, Apple Scruff, and Big Bad John, they made all their students promise to teach at least two other ponies so that literacy would spread quickly.

Work on the Weather Factory had resumed, they were told it was an important part of Rainbooms, they didn't have to contend with the rain any-more, but the snow was getting worse, they had better carts now, but so many had been killed in the war that those who survived, however injured, needed to work even harder.

But the great trouble finally came when the Weather Factory was half complete.

Big Bad John was moving a great load of stone, repeating his mantras under his breath: "If Golden Eyes says it, It must be right, I must work harder" when suddenly, he lost his footing, his hoof slipped on the ice and he fell over, his cart tumbling with him, down the incline, into the quarry.

Apple Scruff and Ebony Eyes were with him, they screamed and ran after him.

"Are you alright?" asked Ebony Eyes

"My leg....." groaned Big Bad John.

Apple Scruff screamed again as he looked at it, it was twisted upwards in a hideously unnatural manner, it was broken.

After they called for help, two ponies from the army came and moved Big Bad John to Horseshoe Bay, they said a transport would be coming soon and left him in the hands of Apple Scruff and Ebony Eyes.

Eventually a sailing ship came,

"What's going to happen to him?" asked Apple Scruff once Big Bad John had been loaded on-board ship.

"We're taking him to the Frozen North East" the captain shouted down, "There's a hospital there."

At that moment Old Leviticus came galloping over, "HE'S LYING!" he screamed,

Apple Scruff and Ebony Eyes looked over,

"Why would they take him by sea? I heard the two soldiers talking!" Leviticus gasped "It's a trick, there is no hospital! They're selling him to the griffons! They'll kill him, make glue out of his hooves!"

The three looked over, the ship was pulling away, panic gripped them, they ran down the pier shouting all the way:

"GET OFF! JOHN! GET OFF THE SHIP! THEY'RE SENDING YOU TO YOUR DEATH!" They ran and ran, but the ship was too fast; and as it pulled away from bay it sailed straight forward, the direction in which the Kingdom of the Griffons resided.

The Other Side of the Iron Curtain

Chapter Ten: "The Other Side of the Iron Curtain"

"Say what you will about the royal sisters" said Crew Cut, "But they never had to build walls to keep their ponies in."

Crew Cut turned to Checkpont Charlie; the two of them were patrolling the Frozen North West, last they had heard a number of ponies had fled from the UBBR and they were now building a huge wall to keep them in, uncreativlely it was simply called "The Frozen North Wall" and it would divide not only the north, but all of Equestria in half.

Checkpoint Charlie nodded: "First Discord, then Sombra, now this 'Golden Eyes'? Do you think there'll be another war?"

"If somepony crosses that new wall, probably"

Checkpoint Charlie, shivered, not just at the thought of more warfare but at the bitter temperature: "Here? Well, it'll be a very cold war indeed."

"We surrendered territory to them, yes" said Princess Celestia to the assembled masses "By giving them land, and helping in the reconstruction of Ponyang we hoped to earn their friendship, me and Luna personally reassembled the city. But the situation is not as simple as that. A wall is already being built, from the Crystal Mountains in the Frozen North to Macintosh Hills in the south an 'Iron Curtain' is descending across our land, behind that line lie all cities in east Equestria; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the UBBR sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to UBBR influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Ponyang, what lies in those cities is a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in a riddle"

there was a great deal of hoof-stomping in approval, but mixed with a great deal of concern, the ponies cleared out as soon as the speech was done, no doubt she needed to confer with Luna.

Sure enough, just as soon as the speech was over Luna entered.

"we need to discuss the North, soon-" began Celestia, but Luna cut her off:

"it's already happened."

Luna placed a photo on the table, it showed a pony in a UBBR army uniform vaulting over a concertina of barbed wire, the first pony to jump the Frozen North Wall.

She jumped it even before it had been built.

"She was part of the construction team" explained Luna; "The citizens of the Frozen North West were shouting at her: 'come over!' she jumped over the barbed wire, they quickly threw her into a cart and raced her away before anypony from the East could chase her down."

"This is going to become more and more common" said Celestia "At least until they finish the wall."

There was a brief pause as they considered the horror of this, the ponies of the UBBR didn't have long to escape, soon, that wall would be swarming with eastern guards, ready to kill anypony who tried to leave.

Celestia continued: "We must make a proclamation, any citizens who come across from the UBBR will receive the same benefits and privileges as any of our citizens. Those ponies who dare to cross the wall have enough to worry about as it is. We may as well make things easier for them."

Luna nodded: "Well, at least we don't have to worry about them; but what about the griffons? or the dragons? They'll make a pact with the UBBR sooner or later, or else they'll be conquered by them. We must send them gifts, visit them, make friends with them before they turn to the UBBR."

"I agree; but it may be more complicated then that, they're attempting to break the harmony of these kingdoms, convince people to fear and hate each other, riot, break everything down and then, once the kingdoms have been pushed to war, then they'll take advantage of the situation to invade."

"We'll offer our aid, push the UBBR back out. What about the Rainboom project? We know that they're working on it, and more, King Sombra was working on finding a kind of magic which allowed him to cross into other dimensions, other universes. It's what allowed him to take the Crystal Empire away. I have reason to believe that a number of Sombra's researchers crossed into the UBBR."

Concern was written upon Celestia's face: "They were offered shelter? In return for working for the UBBR?"

"Yes, it was a secret operation known as 'Operation Neigh-perclip', they'll give the UBBR information on the Rainboom and on Universe-crossing magic, they'll almost certainly try to expand into other universes now, we must do the same, beat them there"

Celestia nodded: "Have our best students work upon it." She sighed, she'd give anything to bring Star-Swirl the Bearded back to life, he would be quite an asset; it was said that he had magic that could send a pony across the universe. But it was a one-way trip and the two royal sisters weren't prepared to send any of their subjects on a suicide mission. She wondered if the UBBR would have the same concern for their own subjects. The race was on.

Ignorance is Strength

Chapter Eleven: "Ignorance is Strength"

Over the course of the next year things changed rapidly in the UBBR, another speech was called; a new organisation had been formed to protect the UBBR: It was called the "Commissariat for State Security" or "CSS", Iron Fist was to head the organisation.

Simultaneously, another new organisation had been formed: "The News Agency", now that most of Ponyang was literate, they deserved a newspaper to deliver information, it would also make films, it was headed by a mare named Kino Pravda; the newspapers and films told the same old story: The Royal Sisters were evil, the UBBR had enough food, everybody was happy; the Weather Factory was doing just fine, but the Cloudsdale Weather factory was a dangerous, badly constructed place and it's industrial run-off was killing the pegasi of Equestria.

Apple Scruff was feeling very sorry for Iron Fist; "he must be very busy" thought Apple Scruff and he was sure the stress of what was happening was getting to him.

Apple Scruff had seen Iron Fist recently and asked if he had eaten; true, Iron Fist was fatter then ever, but one could never be sure about such things anymore; the food supply had dried up since the Frozen North wall had been built and most ponies had lost a lot of weight.

The newspapers had already explained why: Equestria had employed teams of pegasi to drop Vampire Fruit Bats, Parasprites and Star Spiders on the UBBR's farms to kill all the crops.

Posters were everywhere showing pictures of pegasi air-dropping bats or Star-Spiders.

Their were posters of Parasprites with the Equestrian flag on them swarming the farms, Iron Fist grumpily refused Apple Scruff's generous offer to share his own, limited, food with his friend and Apple Scruff trotted away sadly, wishing this silly war with Equestria would end so that his friend could relax and stop being so serious all the time.

In truth Apple Scruff didn't care about victory, he just wanted peace with Equestria and so did the rest of the UBBR; the newspapers were full of stories about Princess Celestia and Luna angrily rejecting offers of peace, but even so, Apple Scruff thought back to the siege of Stalliongrad and couldn't help but feel that even if all Equestrians were rotten, he would always be grateful for that day.

Apple Scruff didn't need to ask Iron Fist any questions anymore, luckily, the newspapers were answering everybody's questions, Big Bad John had been taken to a hospital and died there; the only reason the ship seemed to be headed towards the griffons was because prevailing winds had forced it to adjust course, Old Leviticus was just crazy and he had been taken away to a hospital until he got better.

Electron Shell was working for King Sombra all along, that was why she disappeared, Apple Scruff was very betrayed by this, he was spending a lot of time with Rose Garden, but he felt nopony could replace Electron Shell.

Rose Garden definitely wasn't working for Celestia or Luna, that, Apple Scruff could be sure of because she joined him everyday and helped him search the farms for evidence of vermin, air-dropped by Equestria; they frequently found food that had a slight rainbow tinge to it, or water that seemed to have a rainbow sheen on it as if it had been mixed with oil, this, they had been told was the tell tale mark of infestation and they always reported it.

The Weather Factory had been finished and was working well, despite what Electron Shell used to say, this was proof, Apple Scruff constantly had to remind himself, that despite what he wanted to think, Electron Shell never deserved his friendship.

the UBBR had also managed to enter another universe, not many details were made public, but apparently a UBBR citizen named: "Pony Gagarin" had been selected to go through a magic-mirror, he came back with strange tales of creatures who stood on two legs all the time and had deformed hooves.

This had made Equestria very worried, they were loosing the race to the mirror universe and they had started teaching very complicated magic and science to their fillies and colts in the hope of trying to create a generation of super-geniuses.

Apparently it wasn't working very well, Apple Scruff laughed at the thought of a pony trying to teach her students things which she hadn't even learned, he stopped when he thought about it too much, the idea of a mare trying to explain something very complicated made him think of his conversations with Electron Shell.

There was apparently a war in the Dragon kingdom, the Dragons had been inspired by the example of the UBBR and had chosen to create a similar society; their leaders were trying to stop it, UBBR had already sent troops over to calm the situation and Equestria had sent it's own troops over, it was trying to take over the country for it's own ends.

Luckilly the Equestrians were defeated and UBBR was nice enough to make the Dragon kingdom part of the UBBR; so that they could be protected against more Equestrian threats.

Finally, the UBBR now had the Rainboom, Apple Scruff was awed by the footage which was shown in the theatre, it showed a pegasus swooping down onto a target and then zooming up, resulting in a great big rainbow cloud shaped like a mushroom.

Now they didn't have to worry about Equestria threatening them, if Equestria sent it's pegasi to Rainboom Ponyang, they could fight back with Rainbooms of their own.

The food supply got better as time went on and the UBBR got more cities: Horsesaw, Cherponyl, The Neigh-Sung Industrial District, but there was a lot of important things across the UBBR so the CCS decided that nopony could leave their home city without permission, it was a sensible policy, thought Apple Scruff and Rose Garden.

Things were looking up, apart from the cold which was worse then ever, but soon, everything would be fine, they were sure.

Equestrians had begun visiting the Brony Union, that's what Apple Scruff had heard, but he'd never seen any of them with his own eyes, of course, the newspapers explained this: why would somepony come all the way from Equestria just to see a silly old farm?

They already had farms in Equestria, the visitors wanted to see big, important things like the Weather Factory, this was good enough for Apple Scruff.

Although, one day, he saw Silver Tounge and an Equestrian Unicorn (and she must have been Equestrian because she was wearing clothes) she was purple and had a white mane, her eyes were a little strange looking. He waved at her, she waved back.

Love Letter to Equestria

Chapter Twelve: "Love Letter To Equestria"

Silver Tongue and Dippy Hooves sat in the finest restaurant in the Brony Union, only those who worked for the CSS, the News Agency, the Ponyburo and foreign journalists were allowed to enter.

"Did you see that pony on the apple farm?" asked Silver Tongue

she nodded slowly.

Silver Tongue pressed on: "Did he look okay to you? Or did he look very thin and sick?"

she thought carefully before answering: "I don't know"

He sighed, and tried again: "do you remember that great line of ponies? I was lying, they weren't lining up for the newspaper, they were lining up for apples, we get three apples a day to eat, that's not a lot is it?"

she thought about this carefully: "I don't know."

He decided to try one last time, to see if this mare could understand: "Do you know what my job is?"

"You're going to show me around the Brony Union!" she said cheerfully "and it looks very nice!"

he looked around and said in a low whisper: "No, you're a reporter, your job is to tell the truth, my job is to stop you from doing your job."

Celestia and Luna listened carefully to the stallion's words, it had not been easy to escape from the UBBR

Pony Bezenov continued: "All the visitors who come are kept away from what's really going on in the UBBR, they don't see the miserable farms, the prison camps, the ponies who live in squalor, they see the places where the leaders live in luxury and come home with great stories about how the Union is a paradise"

Luna was trotting up and down, she was on edge; she had been since Pony Gagarin crossed into the mirror universe;

"What about this 'Mirror Universe'?" asked Celestia, "What did you find there?"

"We don't know. It's classified; but something followed Gagarin back. Some dark force; we don't know what, but I'm sure the Frozen North Wall wont contain it. Gagarin has been going mad. He has nightmares every night. Somepony caught him shouting at the sun, once. Needless to say, that pony didn't live long enough to tell anypony else."

Celestia added this to her growing list of worries, some dark force marauding around Equestria like a nightmare given form.

Celestia pressed on: "are they trying to keep us from fighting in the griffon war?"

he nodded: "Yes, but there's more, he provoked that war and he wants to use the same tactics to conquer Equestria, he wants your citizens to look favourably upon the UBBR, they must see it as better then their own country or at least, a nice place to live. He wants ponies rejecting your rule, rioting in the streets and then? He'll do to you what he did to the dragons, what he's doing to the griffons, he'll send in the armies claiming that he's only trying to help, then he'll conquer your country and turn it into part of the union. Bow-Zey-Fang, the leader of the dragons is working for him, when he's finished with the griffons then Vlad will be in power, you're at war, your majesty, it's a war of ideas and you're not even fighting."

Silver Tongue hadn't seen much of Apple Scruff or anypony else since his work at the news agency started.

He looked through the drawers of Golden Eyes' desk cautiously, if he was sighted it was all over and there was no telling what would happen to him.

Suddenly he heard hoof steps, from outside.

It was too late, there was no good running out there, it looked like he wouldn't be escaping to Equestria after all, he hoped Lustre's mission had gone better as the door opened and the guard glared at him:

"Drop it."

He complied.

"Silver Tongue, you are under arrest for the crime of espionage"

Silver Tongue knew this was going to happen eventually, he trotted foreword in surrender. On the floor was the last document he examined, it would mean nothing to Equestria, but it would be world-shattering news to any citizen of the UBBR.

It was a personal letter from Golden Eyes to Moody Blue in answer to a previous letter which asked: "What are we becoming?" it simply said: "We're like Celestia now."

The Everfree Crisis

Chapter Thirteen: "The Everfree Crisis"

Apple Scruff hadn't seen Silver Tongue in a while, nopony had.

They seemed to have decided not to discuss it.

But there were bigger developments occuring; the Griffon Kingdom had chosen to ally itself with the UBBR as had the Dragons, they had arranged a big meeting in Horsesaw and thus, the Horsesaw Pact was formed.

And that was when the next bit of trouble was beginning; the newspapers announced soon after that the Equestrians had been spying on the Brony Union, Apple Scruff had heard that they had been sending Pegasi (made invisible by magic) to fly over the Frozen North Wall and look around.

The Ponyburo and the leaders of the Griffon and Dragon kingdoms had to go to some mountain in Central Equestria to sort things out, there had been a little building hastily constructed there for the meeting called: "The Camp of Canterlot".

Apple Scruff found himself at a loose end again, whenever the Ponyburo left then nopony got any work orders; Apple Scruff didn't know if he ought to farm or guard the Ponyburo building or join some new construction army, so he just did his usual farm work and then wandered around.

He didn't get to close to the edge of Ponyang because there were scary ponies there who wore uniforms and demanded to see everypony's travelling orders before they'd let them leave the city, Apple Scruff had been given some papers, but they said he wasn't allowed to go anywhere.

There was another line for apples nearby, Apple Scruff never had to line up for apples, because (even though he felt guilty about it) he kept a few bags of apples and hid them whenever the Army ponies came around (which they did a every four months) demanding he hand over all his apples so they could be distributed evenly.

Apple Scruff didn't eat them all himself, or even most of them; he gave them away to ponies who needed them because they had no other food, many of them wanted to give him money, he only accepted if they had enough.

Money was very strange these days, they all got little coins called: "bridles" from the Ponyburo, but bridles weren't good for very much because whenever you went to the stalls to buy things you usually found that everything was sold out and the stalls were the only places that really used bridles, apparently bridles were useless in Equestria.

It didn't matter anyway because trading with Equestria was a crime.

Ponies who bought apples from Apple Scruff's secret store paid him in Equestrian bits.

The city guard usually asked for bits from random ponies; "they must be collecting them", thought Apple Scruff.

Or perhaps, he wondered if they were trying to keep Equestrian currency out of the UBBR, Equestrians were bad ponies, they might have put poison on it so that any Earth pony who picked it up would die.

Apple Scruff accepted bits anyway because there were other ponies who sold things and would only take bits, these ponies didn't own stalls, you had to go to their houses to buy anything off them.

Most of the things you got from them were things you weren't supposed to let anypony know that you owned. They sold clothes and jewellery which was bad because only rich, selfish ponies like Celestia or Luna wore things.

Apple Scruff had bought a scarf and hid it under his bed, he couldn't wear it outside, but he liked it anyway, it was had alternating patches of black and white on it, it looked quite like a chessboard.

He had also bought some books and some records, Apple Scruff would have spent some time with his friends; but most of them seemed to have gone away, the only pony he still spent time with was Rose Garden, so he decided to go to her house, which took a while because of the snow.

They decided to go to the theatre, all theatre shows began the same way these days; the UBBR's national anthem would play and everypony had to stand up and join in:

United forever in friendship and labour,

our mighty republics will ever endure!

The great Brony union will live through the ages,

the dream of the ponies, their thoughts are secure!

Long will our nation stand as proof,

of the ponies' mighty hoof!

Long live her ponies, united and free,

strong in our friendship, tried in fire!

Long may our crimson flag inspire!

Shining in glory for ponies to see,

the days, dark and stormy,

while Golden Eyes led us,

Our eyes saw the bright sun of freedom for all!

And Iron-Hoof, with faith in the ponies;

inspired us to build-up the land that we love!

The anthem went on for four minutes, the cold outside had aggrevated Apple Scruff's war-wound and he wanted to take a seat desperatley, but everypony else was standing, so he did likewise.

Long will our nation stand as proof,

of the ponies' mighty hoof!

Long live her ponies, united and free,

strong in our friendship, tried in fire!

Long may our crimson flag inspire!

Shining in glory for ponies to see!

The show started with a newsreel, it was a regular feature, called: "Today in Equestria", it showed what Equestria looked like: mass-food shortages, high crime rates, rioting in the streets.

It went on to show a band called The Hoof-Beats performing, though Apple Scruff would never admit it, he knew that the footage wasn't exactly accurate, they had been dubbed over with some kind of stock-music.

He knew this because he owned several of the Hoof-Beats albums and they never played a song that boring and repetitive.

The film paid special attention to the fillies in the audience, who screamed and cheered, the narrator explained that they had been driven mad by rock n' roll music and that's why you weren't allowed to hear rock n' roll in the UBBR.

The only real news about the Brony Union involved Pony Gagarin, he had died in a cart crash; Golden Eyes had said simply: "One isn't a true Earth pony, unless they enjoy a fast ride in a nice cart."

Luna pointed at the picture of the Everfree forest again, it had been taken from the air, and it showed an air base, right behind the Frozen North Wall, any pegasus posted at that base could attack the Castle of the Two Sisters in less then ten minutes.

Thus far Vlad and Iron Fist were denying everything, they denied that it was designed to attack the castle, that it was their airbase, that it was even an airbase at-all.

Iron Fist was being especially obstructive, he was refusing to answer questions promptly, after any question was asked, he would pause and wait for it to be translated into the language of the griffons, this was entirely unnecessary as Vlad spoke perfect Equestrian.

Luna had been getting worse, she looked murderous as she looked at Iron Fist and asked again:

"Is your country installing airbases in the Everfree Forest?"

there was a pause as the translator started whispering in Vlad's ear, Luna finally had enough:

"DON'T WAIT FOR THE TRANSLATION!" she roared, her eyes glowing; "ANSWER, 'YES'! OR 'NO'!"

Celestia was looking very tired, she tried to keep Luna away from official duties these days, ever since Pony Gagarin had crossed into the other universe, Luna had become a real nightmare.

The Revolution Will Not Be Realised

Chapter Fourteen: "The Revolution Will Not Be Realised"

Half a year had passed since what ponies were now calling: "The Everfree Crisis", Iron Fist had agreed to get rid of his airbases if the princesses moved further away from the Frozen North Wall, which ment abandoning The Castle of the Two Sisters.

But something had happened.

All the citizens of the UBBR heard was that Celestia's lust for power had reached grotesque new heights, she had banished her own sister to the moon to secure more power from herself and was now living in a decadent castle where the former Camp Canterlot had been.

Equestria had apparently found someway of entering the alternative universe, it was reliable and could be used many times a year, it seemed as if Equestria had truly won the race.

But the Ponyburo was apparently no-longer interested in such research.

After banishing her sister Celestia had created her own answer to the Horsesaw pact, it was called the "UEP Guard" which stood for "Unicorn, Earth pony and Pegasus", their was already an elite unit of this army called "The Wonderbolts" and anti-Equestrian propaganda was reaching an all-time high.

The snow had not let up at all, it was still getting worse and worse, Apple Scruff hadn't seen Rose Garden in a long time, but he had long since learned that questions got you nowhere, dissapeared ponies were gone for good.

Iron Fist soon issued an order, there was a speech to be given outside the Ponyburo building and attendance was mandatory, Apple Scruff struggled through the snow which was now up to his chest and stood there, with all the others, his war-wound aching terribly.

A platform had been built over the snow with steps leading up to it a mare stepped foreward, and begun to sing:

Pray to him, the source of all our wisdom,

long may he live, the ruler of our land,

Golden Eyes, mighty leader! Mighty leader watching from a-far!

Golden Eyes, mighty leader! Mighty leader watching from a-far!

At that moment a dozen ponies came marching forth in military uniforms, they were wearing the same type of cap as Iron Fist, as well as a grey jackets, shirts and ties, they joined in:

Come to us and bless us with your smile!

Teach us how, to be as kind as you!

Golden Eyes, mighty leader! Golden eyes, mighty leader!

Mighty leader, watching from a-far!

Somehow, it was getting bigger, the flag of the UBBR had been unfurled behind the singer, there were more ponies in miliary uniform now, marching in perfect unison, singing, shouting...

Royal horse, you bless us with your beauty!

Hallowed horse, how wonderous is your glow!

Golden Eyes, mighty leader!

Mighty leader watching from a-far!

Everypony's attention was swept upwards to the balcony, the ponyburo stepped forth, there was Golden Eyes, he wore a red cloak, and more jewelry then Celestia or Luna ever wore.

There was a pair of ornate, golden wings attached to the back of his cloak and an ornate helmet made of solid gold with a unicorn's horn between the eyes.

Moody Blue and Paint Palette were wearing Equal amounts of jewelry and Iron Fist was dressed like the military ponies, but with far more medals.

The military ponies were chanting now: "GOL-DEN-EYES! GOL-DEN-EYES!" the citizens joined in, except Apple Scruff who was too shocked to speak; he just stood there, surrounded by hundreds of ponies and soldigers, all of them shouting the praises of Golden Eyes and then, as Golden Eyes raised his hoof, it stopped.

He spoke into the microphone: "Citizens of the UBBR! Never again will we be threatened by our enemies! I decree that my empire shall devote itself entirely to the making of weapons! To the building of walls! For the protection of ourselves and our way of life! The Revolution is over. ALL PONIES ARE NOW FREE!"

He raised his hoof to a chorus of cheers and applause and as he did so dozens and dozens of pegasi swooped over head; Golden Eyes' airforce.

The noise was deafening.

Apple Scruff looked at the Ponyburo, well-attired, well-fed, standing inside a palace.

Then he looked at his fellow citizens, naked, hungry, cold.

he looked at the snowstorm which continued to rage.

Something Apple Scruff had been ignorant of, something hiding behind a desire to think the best of his friends, was making itself known.

One quiet word escaped his lips: "Free?"

Pony-So Number Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen: "Pony-So Number Fifteen"

"Spontaneous Demonstration" was what the newspaper had said.

There was no mention of the fact that attendance was mandatory, or that it had obviously and carefully been planned and choreographed.

Just that the entire population of Ponyang had chosen to express their gratitude to the Ponyburo in general and Golden Eyes in particular.

The newspaper also claimed that the event was only supposed to last an hour but "popular demand" made it stretch on for three hours.

In truth, nopony was told coming in how long it was supposed to last and Apple Scruff personally witnessed a number of ponies collapse from the cold, primarily colts, fillies and the elderly.

But he had a plan, he was running away, if it wasn't too late he was going to escape, he wouldn't let himself be disappeared like Rose Garden or Lustre or Silver Tongue.

He cursed himself, silently, maybe he should have questioned it before, ponies didn't just disappear into thin air.

Scarlet Quill had come to Apple Scruff for apples before and Apple Scruff now came to him for fake travelling papers.

He handed them over but he pleaded Apple Scruff to reconsider, he didn't know if they'd fool the guards.

But Apple Scruff was going to try, he'd rather get killed trying to escape then live like this for any longer.

Apple Scruff was leaving everything behind, even his family photos, it would look too suspicious, all he had was a cart of apples and two sets of fake papers; one giving him the right to leave Ponyang and another claiming he had to deliver Apples to Cherponyl.

As soon as he crossed the border he was going into the Hayseed swamp and then west to the Frozen North Wall, he was going to follow it along until he found a safe place to cross it.

His best bet was Rambling Rock Ridge, once he was over he was going to tell Celestia everything he knew about the Brony Union and how it worked and he was going to spend the rest of his life trying to let ponies know the truth about what went on behind that wall.

He approached the border, there were three ponies there.

They were all unicorns and they were in uniform, the youngest looked the least scary so Apple Scruff went to him.

"Papers, please" he said;

one of the guards glared at him, he quickly corrected himself: "I mean, papers! Now!" he looked over at the guard who was still glaring at him and added: "Citizen!"

Apple Scruff reached into his saddle bag and handed the guard the papers, he studied them for a moment, then called the other guard over, Apple Scruffs heart raced.

"This says you're delivering apples to Cherponyl"

"That's correct" said Apple Scruff, trying not to let his voice shake.

"Cherponyl?" asked the guard suspiciously,

"Cherponyl" he repeated.

The guards looked at each other, then one of them walked into the guard post, levitating the papers with him.

"I should run", thought Apple Scruff, but it was useless, where could he go?

They had his papers, they knew who he was; Apple Scruff wondered if he should have used a fake name, but that would only make things worse; two lies were more likely to get him caught then one.

Two guards left the guard post and then, all three of them pointed their horns at him:

"Apple Scruff, you are under arrest for the crime of un-permitted travel."

In less then two hours it had happened.

They had put a bag over Apple Scruff's head and dragged him away by his tail, he was on a cart at one point and then when it was over, they brought him inside.

Inside where, he didn't know, all he could see was a long corridor with numerous doors, they opened one and threw him inside.

It was blank and windowless; the light seemed to come from every surface.

He stood their for what seemed like an eternity, wondering what was going to happen, what happened to the ponies who never came back?

Were they locked up in a dungeon?

Or banished to some place far-away?

Or locked in a dungeon in some place far-away?

He had a long time to think about it, he stayed there for hours, in his more hopeful moments he wondered if this was the extent of his punishment, maybe he'd just be kept here until he died?

Then, after so much waiting, came the voice:

"Apple Scruff, Pony-So Number 15."

Another bag was placed on his head, but first a gag was placed on his mouth, there was a bridle and reins attached to it, so the guard could steer him around.

His legs were bound so he could walk, but not buck.

He was led outside, he could feel the cold, he was sure it was night, things always got colder at night.

Was this how all those ponies disappeared?

Moved at night, where nopony else could see or hear them?

He was sure he was being put on a train, there were no seats, he just stood.

There was a noise like somepony tapping the side of the train with his hoof and it took-off, swaying so badly Apple Scruff fell over.

He didn't know where he was going but it had to be worse then where he left and that was a tall order.

When he was taken off the train, the bag was removed from his head.

A sign ahead said: "PONY-SO, FORCED LABOUR CAMP # 15, PONYODOK"

He had heard the name: "Ponyodok" before; it was one of those cities most ponies weren't allowed to visit. Even those rare few who had permission to leave their home town.

He was led inside, there was a great open courtyard flanked by guard towers.

Then he was led into a building, it was filthy and small and he was thrown into one of the cells; his restraints were removed, the door was locked and the guard left.

There was somepony else here, with a long, shaggy beard and mane, Apple Scruff's eyes widened:

"Silver Tongue?"

The pony jumped up:

"Apple Scruff??!" Simultaneously they exclaimed:

"THEY GOT YOU TOO??!" Silver Tongue smiled bitterly:

"They got me a long time ago."

"What are you in for?" asked Apple Scruff

"I was spying for the Royal Sisters" said Silver Tongue matter-of-factly.

"I tried to escape" sighed Apple Scruff.

"I'd like to talk more, but we'll have plenty of time for that, in two-hours they're going to wake us up and bring us out into the yard. Keeps us cold and tired, stops us from thinking too hard."

He indicated some loose slats of wood on the floor, "Your bed, see you tomorrow".

They were woken up by the guards and marched at horn-point towards the yard.

Once there, they were simply left to their own devices,it seemed the guards didn't care what you did as long as they were cold and hungry.

Silver Tongue said simply: "The name's a bit deceptive, we're only forced to work when there's things to do. This place is as inefficient as the rest of the union; there are long stretches where there's just nothing to keep us occupied."

Apple Scruff was looking at the wall, smooth and polished:

"Do you think we could form some kind of pony-pyramid and climb over?" he whispered.

Silver Tongue laughed: "Of course we could! But we're in the Frozen North! There's no escaping for us, we'd die long before we managed to trot back to civilisation! But we could die in Equestria if that's what you want"

"What?"

"That's the Frozen North wall, part of it anyway. See the sign?"

Silver Tongue pointed up, it was so small, you'd never know it was there; unless somepony pointed it out:

"YOU ARE ENTERING THE EQUESTRIAN SECTOR.

CARRYING WEAPONS OFF-DUTY FORBIDDEN."

Silver Tongue continued:

"We're somewhere between the Crystal Mountains and the border. They're aren't any Equestrian guards nearby so we're not escaping to the west if that's what you think. Not in the traditional sense, we could climb over the wall and die trying to get to Vanhoover though."

"Doesn't sound very appealing."

"It's more of a moral victory then anything."

At that moment the ground shook, like a very gentle earthquake.

A few hours after they were allowed back inside.

They weren't taken outside for the rest of the day, which, according to Silver Tongue was most unusual.

The Cherponyl Disaster

Chapter Sixteen: "The Cherponyl Disaster"

"There has been an incident, it has been contained.

Your assistance is not required, remain on your side of the Frozen North wall.

Any ingress into our territory will be considered an act of war."

Celestia put down the letter from Golden Eyes and turned to Electron Shell for the truth:

"The explosion came from Cherponyl, where the Weather Factory is. Those who saw it reported a giant rainbow cloud expanding from the area. My guess is that the death-trap finally exploded."

Then Celestia turned to General Speed-Racer:

"Your opinion?"

"We need to move, now. Their army is going to be tied up pretending this whole thing never happened. We need to end this before war breaks out"

"I agree" added Electron Shell, "This is about preventing suffering. If that Weather Factory exploded (and we have every reason to assume that it has) then the fallout is going to destroy the East's ecosystem. Hundreds will probably be dead already and without a Weather Factory, their farms are doomed. We need to put an end to Golden Eyes' Empire."

Things were going bad even by the standards of Ponyodok camp.

The prisoners awoke late, to find the guards had apparently fled, leaving them all locked up.

And that wasn't all, the whole camp was covered in ice now; Apple Scruff didn't know if the cold had gotten yet worse or if the guards had some machine to keep the cold out which had failed in their absence.

In either case, they had to get out of the cells.

Silver Tongue had been examining the situation and finally spoke: "Metal contracts when it gets cold, so we should be able to buck it out of it's frame"

Apple Scruff was just about to do that when Silver Tongue stopped him;

"wait" he muttered. He began inserting the wooden slats into the gaps between the bars and the door so that the bars were half levered out of the doorway.

"That should make things a little easier" he said, and the two set to work.

They bucked the at the door for twelve minutes, their hooves aching, until at last, it burst free.

"Come on" said Silver Tongue at once, "let's help the other prisoners."

Celestia landed in the Frozen North.

Speed Racer, Electron Shell, Mellow Yellow, Lustre and Jelly Tart exited the carriage.

This area of the wall was almost never patrolled, and, as a result random ponies had a habit covering it in graffiti. Most prominently were the words:

"EQUESTRIA DOES NOT END OVER HERE, THE MOTHERLAND IS ALSO OVER THERE!"

A sign perched over the wall said simply: "YOU ARE LEAVING THE EQUESTRIAN SECTOR."

Celestia stared at the wall for a moment, breaching this wall could mean war.

"We have to do it" encouraged Speed-Racer "there are probably a million ponies on the other side of that wall trying to escape!"

With the prisoners freed, Apple Scruff, Silver Tongue and the others entered the courtyard.

What now?

Where could they possibly go?

Behind that wall were miles of snow and that was assuming they could break it down in the first place.

At that moment, just as things seemed most hopeless, there was a loud, booming voice from the other side of the wall:

"MISTER GOLDEN EYES, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!"

There was an explosion.

The whole wall fell.

From the Crystal Mountains to The Macintosh Hills, the wall came down.

Apple Scruff and the other prisoners looked at the other side.

Princess Celestia stood there, smoke pouring off her horn.

Storming the Winter Palace

Chapter Seventeen: "Storming the Winter Palace"

Celestia stepped forward.

Apple Scruff recognised most of the ponies with her, except for Mellow Yellow and Jelly Tart, who was an excitable light purple Earth Pony, who's fluffy pink mane bounced as she skipped around.

Celestia spoke:

"Citizens of the United Brotherhood of Brony Republics, you are free, we are proceeding to Ponyang to put an end to Golden Eyes' illegitimate rule."

The whole camp went up in cheers, Apple Scruff raced straight to Electron Shell; one question sprang straight to mind:

"What happened?"

"Golden Eyes stranded me in the Frozen North, outside the Crystal Empire. I kept trying to tell him the Weather Factory was a failure, he didn't want to hear it."

"All this time, you were on the other side of Equestria?"

"I was one of Celestia's greatest sources on Golden Eyes. We can talk later, you heard the princess; we have to go to Ponyang."

"I'm going too." said Apple Scruff simply. "I'm going to Ponyang. I let this start and I'm going to help you end it."

Electron Shell looked at Celestia, who nodded.

"Silver Tongue?" asked Apple Scruff.

"I've been here too long, I'm weak" he said simply, "I want to fight, but I don't know if I could help you."

Celestia nodded again: "I understand, stay here and look after the others."

With that, she pointed her horn at the prison, a beam of gold light erupted from it and hit the prison causing it to glow.

"It is warm in there, now, take shelter and we'll put an end to this."

Celestia pulled the carriage with the others inside, they flew over the UBBR, towards Ponyang city.

From the air they could see the extent of the snow-storms and the rainbow liquid which had fallen from the sky after the explosion; it grew thicker and thicker as they moved closer to Ponyang.

One thing stood out to Celestia in particular: the bitter cold.

"Wendigos" she thought to herself, it only made sense; this kind of hatred and mistrust attracted them.

It seemed as if they were trying to freeze the whole Union, but they were kept at bay by the happiness and friendship of the citizens.

It was the cruelty of the rulers alone that attracted them.

When they landed upon the snow, the carriage and Celestia sunk until only the top of the carriage and her horn were visible from over the snow-line.

At once Celestia's horn began to glow and the snow around the carriage began to melt and part, cutting a trail from them to the Ponyburo building.

As they trotted over they saw the bodies of two guards, lying on the ground, covered in rainbow liquid and snow, they didn't see anypony else anywhere.

"They must be taking shelter inside" thought Apple Scruff.

He forced himself not to consider the other possibility.

The doors were sealed and frozen, at once Celestia blasted them off their hinges and they entered the building.

The whole inside of the building was cloaked in darkness. A suffocating blackness which it seemed no light could escape.

Celestia, Electron Shell and Lustre tried using their horns to provide light, but it was no good, the darkness was too thick.

Celestia stopped and thought and then, reached her decision:

"Everypony forward."

They all stepped forward and the blackness swallowed them.

Apple Scruff looked around, he was alone.

It seemed as if the darkness had wrapped around each member of the party; cutting them off from the others.

He panicked:

"ELECTRON SHELL?!" he called out.

There was no answer.

"LUSTRE? CELESTIA? ANYPONY?"

But it was no good, the blackness had taken everypony but him.

Then he heard a dark, cold voice:

"They're still your friends. Golden Eyes and Iron Fist love you and only want what's best for you. Admit that you see them as friends and you'll be saved."

Apple Scruff thought about it, fear gripped him.

He wanted to escape, but he couldn't lie and he wasn't going to:

"No." He said simply.

The voice called back:

"Love them and you will be saved, They will forgive you and show the error of your ways."

"No. they're not my friends and I'm not theirs. They had my friendship and they lost it. I don't know exactly what they've done or become; but they're not the ponies I became friends with."

At that the voice became enraged, and something came out of the darkness; Some, horrible winged creature of darkness itself.

It swooped at him and he knew it was all over, but he wasn't going to lie.

He wouldn't compromise his honesty for any reason; even to save his life.

Then, just before the creature could touch him, it vanished.

It took the darkness with it and he found himself standing alone in a corridor.

Speed Racer galloped forward.

Darkness or no, this room had to have an ending, if he just kept galloping he could reach it.

A voice called to him:

"We only want your friends, give them up and you can go."

Speed Racer had spent his whole life in the military and he knew a thing or two about honesty.

As far as he was concerned there was nothing worse then a traitor:

"No. I'll never join you, I remain loyal to my friends."

"Then die for them."

Suddenly, the ground opened beneath him and he fell.

He was scared but he wasn't going to give up his friends.

Then he hit the ground softly, he was in a corridor with Apple Scruff.

Mellow Yellow stumbled around, trembling.

She was scared, the darkness was all around.

Then, she saw something, it was a box of matches.

A voice called to her:

"Please don't light the matches, I'll die"

"Who are you?!" She squeaked in terror.

"I am darkness itself and I don't want to die, don't kill me."

"Why would I do that?" she asked, her confidence returning.

"Because you're scared of me"

"Oh, I'm not scared of you" she said kindly. "I feel sorry for you, it must be just awful to be trapped in a horrible building like this. I'll let help you any way I can"

"You can help by dying."

At these words the darkness closed around her throat.

It was about to choke her, but she didn't give in, she wasn't going to kill it, she could, but she wouldn't.

With that thought foremost in her mind the darkness left the room; leaving Mellow Yellow in the corridor with Apple Scruff and Speed Racer.

Lustre looked around.

A voice called to her:

"I'm trapped here."

"Why what a coincidence!" quipped Lustre, "Me too!"

"I have been here longer, I want to leave"

"Another similarity...."

"Only one of us can leave at a time, if I leave, it may be many hours before you can escape"

Lustre didn't hesitate: "Oh, very well then, you have been here longer after all"

There was pause.

The voice called back:

"I don't understand"

"After you, I insist, I can wait."

The darkness closed around her, tighter and tighter.

But she didn't change her mind.

Then it faded away to reveal the corridor with Apple Scruff, Mellow Yellow and Speed Racer.

Jelly Tart skipped along singing to herself:

"La la la la la..."

There was a hoarse voice:

"Die....."

"No I didn't!" She quipped "It's always been that color!"

"You will die........you will all die."

Jelly Tart just giggled; "You talk kinda gloomy, don't ya?"

The darkness roared at her and something dropped down towards her; a fist of pure darkness.

She casually side-stepped it and it landed at the floor, smashing a hole into it.

There was a slide there, she eagerly jumped upon it and slid down shouting:

"Thanks for showing me the door, Mr Spooky!"

She arrived at the bottom to find herself in the corridor with the others.

Celestia and Electron Shell trotted along, trying to assess the situation.

Voices called to them: "No escape, your magic is not strong enough!"

Celestia and Electron Shell had the same thought.

The only way they were going to beat this darkness was together.

"We'll see" muttered Electron Shell to the darkness.

Celestia stooped down, they crossed horns.

Both horns began to glow yellow and the light spread outwards, burning away the darkness.

Until there was only the corridor with the others and at the end of it, a door.

Sunrise in Ponyang

Chapter Eighteen: "Sunrise in Ponyang"

They all looked at each other and nodded.

Celestia opened the door, beyond was a crystal throne room.

Golden Eyes sat upon his throne, he was still wearing that horned helmet.

He was flanked by Iron Fist, Moody Blue and Paint Palette.

"Your reign is at an end" said Celestia "And it wasn't short enough, surrender now and you won't be harmed."

"I cannot be harmed" said Golden Eyes in a voice which echoed around the crystal chamber, "I am the one true ruler of Equestria, my rule shall stand for a thousand years."

Celestia was undaunted: "Your fate shall be decided in the courts."

"I am the courts."

He pointed at Iron Hoof: "He is the armies." He pointed at Paint Palette:

"She is the mind of the people." Then he pointed at Moody Blue:

"And she is their heart, we are Equestria now. All live and die for us. We more eternal then the sun itself."

"Not quite!" exclaimed Celestia; a blast of golden light erupted from her horn and was met by a blast of pure darkness from the horn of Golden Eyes.

The others stood there, open mouthed in shock.

An Earth pony using magic.

How much had he learned from the works of Sombra?

"There must be unicorns somewhere in this building powering that helmet" thought Electron Shell.

The others attacked; beams of fire erupted from the eyes of Moody Blue and Paint Palette.

The ponies dived for cover; but Apple Scruff wasn't fast enough, one of the beams was flying right towards him.

He froze, memories of Stalliongrad coming back in full force.

At that moment Speed Racer blasted forward snatching him out of the way:

"That's two you owe me now, Apple-flank!" she quipped dropping him behind a pillar.

The ponies leapt and ducked trying to escape the blasts, Lustre and Electron Shell fighting back with blasts of their own.

Apple Scruff turned his back on the pillar ,closed his eyes and said simply:

"Forgive me, Iron Fist."

He bucked, knocking out a piece of the pillar and sending it towards Iron Fist.

Iron Fist raised his hoof and the piece of debris stopped; in mid-air.

As if it was being levitated by a unicorn.

In his booming voice he said simply:

"For a moment, Apple Scruff but your moment is passing."

Then he hurled it back, Apple Scruff dived out of the way.

He looked up, the ceiling was collapsing; a great part of it was about to fall on Speed Racer.

He dived knocking her out of the way.

Then, he smiled and said:

"Now it's just one!"

They leapt up and resumed the fight, the walls were falling apart.

And something was trying to force it's way in.

A horrible ghostly hoof, titanic in size, looking like it was made of coldness itself.

It was reaching towards the throne.

It looked as if Golden Eyes' evil was finally backfiring on him.

Just then a blast from Lustre's horn hit something behind the throne; it looked like a mirror, built into the wall and it shattered.

Electron Shell's eyes widened, why hadn't she noticed it before?

The portal to the other universe.

Electron Shell didn't know the exact details, but it was clear that this was some pivotal part of Golden Eyes' unnatural power.

Golden Hoof's glowing scarlet eyes narrowed.

His knees buckled.

The blast from his horn faltered.

The beam of golden light hit him and he fell to the ground.

His body was cracking; so were the other members of the Ponyburo; green light and purple smoke were hissing out from the cracks.

Now that the portal was gone; they were falling apart from within.

And so was the building.

Great chunks of masonry rained down from the ceiling; whatever dark power kept them together was also keeping the building together.

Now that is was gone, they were both falling apart.

"EVERYPONY, RUN!" shouted Celestia.

They ran for the exit.

As soon as Celestia and her army were clear, that ghostly hoof appeared again blocking the exit.

The Ponyburo bounced off it as they tried to exit, they were trapped.

Celestia and the others put their own hoof through and tried to pull the others free, but it was no good.

Their hooves passed through the Ponyburo as if they were made of air.

Whatever they had done, whatever darkness they had embraced had rendered them beyond saving.

No force in the world could pull them free from that collapsing building.

Or stop their bodies from breaking apart.

They had no choice;

"There's nothing we can do!" shouted Speed Racer "Run!"

Reluctantly they turned and ran.

Out of the door, out of the building and emerged into the sunshine.

The snowstorm had stopped.

The snow was contracting towards the Ponyburo building, everypony had left their house to watch.

As the circle of snow pulled towards the building, they saw something circling it, pearly white, giant horses with dead eyes.

They circled tighter and tighter, snow piling up around the building.

There was a horrible noise and burst of dark purple smoke and something which sounded like a ghostly voice wailing: "CRYSTALS!"

When the smoke cleared; it was all gone.

The Ponyburo building was gone and the sun shined in the village.

Winter, Wrapped Up

Chapter Nineteen: "Winter, Wrapped Up"

Things quickly went back to normal in the village.

"The Union of Brony Brotherhood Republics" was gone.

Some wanted the village to be plain old "Ukrein" again and some wanted an entirely different name; but all agreed they wanted to be part of Equestria again.

Cherponyl and Stalliongrad were gone, the explosion at the weather factory had resulted in days of out of control weather in the area.

By the time the pegasi had gotten it under control, the cities were gone and the whole area was a dead-zone.

Apple Scruff had forgotten what it felt like to be un-bothered by his war-wound; it hadn't been this warm for a long time.

He trotted around with Electron Shell watching the village be reconstructed:

"I thought you were gone forever" sighed Apple Scruff.

"I thought the same about you."

Both of them had been given medals at a special service in Canterlot, but neither of them felt like wearing them.

They were tired of hearing about wars and armies and they were glad to have peace again.

"I never stopped thinking about you" she added;

"I tried to stop thinking about you, but I couldn't."

"I still can't believe that the building's gone" she sighed "we could have learned so much."

"Does anypony know what the source of their power was?"

"We can only guess, something to do with that portal. And the work of King Sombra. I suppose in the end all that darkness just consumed them."

Silver Tongue came over, his beard and mane trimmed back to normal levels:

"it's like waking up after a Nightmare that went on for too long" he said.

They looked around, never forgetting just how lucky they were to be free.

"Do you really think it's over?" he asked.

The three found themselves looking to the North and then up at the sky:

"Maybe for a long time" said Apple Scruff "But I think Golden Eyes and Iron Fist left some marks on Equestria that won't be healed for a long time."

The three friends sat there and enjoyed the sunshine, for the first time in a long time, harmony had returned to Equestria.