On Hiatus, pending rewrite

One

After sixteen hours of this dreadful labor, the working day is finally over. The sound of the whistle blown to dismiss us from this arduous work is met with great relief by all the workers here at this mine. I place my hammer down at my station and merge into the stream of equally tired and disgruntled miners headed back towards the township. What a pitiful sight we were. Mere husks of living things. Subjugated, oppressed, defeated.

Slowly and gradually, the stream begins to thin out as ponies walk off towards their respective residences and look for solace in the night. I approach my own home. A tin shack, like all of the other shacks in the town. Walking in, I am greeted by possibly the only other living thing I care about. My dear May Flower. A beautiful, shining gem in this world of gray. She smiles as my weary face pokes through the doorway and pulls me in for a warm embrace.

"Thunder Hoof, my dear... you look exhausted."

I try my best to smile and appear fine, but there is no way to hide it. "I am, May. I am."

She caresses my face. "Come on, sweetheart. I have dinner ready. The overlords have allowed us access to hot water tonight, so we can get a good wash."

May wraps one of her soft, pink wings around me and gently walks me towards the small kitchen/dining room. I sit down in a creaky, old chair and she brings out some dense, dark bread to go with the hot soup on the table. I stare at the pegasus. Even in times as deplorable as this, she still manages to find a way to make me feel warm inside. Placing the tray of bread down, she rolls her eyes at me playfully and giggles.

"Stop staring, I'm already your marefriend. Hurry and eat!"

I can't help but smile. "Alright, I will."

From the dining room window, I can see far out into the night. The lights of Canterlot shine with extraordinary brightness, in contrast to the darkness of the sky. The overlords -the aliens, the humans- had taken the city for themselves. The stories some have told about that city are truly wonderful. They say that Canterlot always has running water and electricity, that Canterlot's streets are clean and all paved with the highest quality stone and marble, that the building are adorned with gold but most astonishingly, none of its residents have to ever worry about hunger... Quite different from the world I live in. May must have caught me staring, because her voice pulls me back to reality.

"Hey, Thunder. The soup is going to get cold. Don't think about what you will never be. It'll only make our situation hurt more. Make the best of what you have, Thunder. We will be fine if you do."