“Thank Celestia, I’m finally done.”
With an overly dramatic turn of her foreleg, Twilight slammed her pen down on her desk and with a long sigh of relief, she slumped back into her chair. She scrunched up her eyes and pressed her hooves into them for good measure. Then, after holding the position for a couple of seconds, she removed her hooves and stretched her eyes open to stare at the ceiling.
Within a moment, her vision cleared as she got used to not staring at her desk, for the first time since she got up this morning. A grin appeared on her face as she realised that her week of self-inflicted solitude was finally over.
She was a free mare, the shackles had been broken and the sky revealed. Anything was possible: she could do anything she felt like, go anywhere she wanted to be, have anything her heart desired. And there was a desire in her heart that had to be fulfilled first, she would get the thing she craved more than anything else. She would buy an apple.
With her quest accepted and her journey awaiting, she headed straight through the front door and into the embrace of a wonderful summer weather. The day was young, her thirst was tangible, and as she trotted down the street and towards the Saturday market, she thought about all the things she had missed over the last week.
Deciding to take a week out to get on top of a huge amount of studying is no easy decision, it takes serious sacrifices. First, there are the simple things, like being able to go for a trot whenever, and for as long as she liked. Yes, she had allowed herself to go for a trot -without stretching the muscles every once and awhile you can feel fatigue- but she seriously limited when she could trot, and for how long those trots could last. It was a necessary procedure when you remember the time she wasted half her study time trotting. Never underestimate how appealing a long trot is after three days of seven to eleven studying.
Second, spending time with friends. She had not seen the majority of her friends in Celestia knows how long; well, in a week but that’s not very dramatic, and it really is quite dramatic. The only interaction she’s had besides Spike has been one of her lunches with Pinkie Pie, granted it was a really good lunch. No pony can make up for lack of social interaction more than Pinkie Pie. Also, she seemed excited about a secret which added to the bundle of joy she is.
Third, apples. This doesn’t normally make it onto the list, but this time it was higher than ‘correct amount of sleep,’ which was now a close fourth. The reason for this change was a particular craving she got on day two. A craving for a certain fruit that was not on her list of supplies before hand; a craving that could not be fulfilled no matter how hard she tried. Bloody apples.
Honestly if it had been that hard to find an apple for Adam, he would never have fell from grace. (Yes, a bible joke. I know there is no Bible in Equestria so they wouldn’t get or make that joke, but I’m the narrator, and I do what I want.) But honestly it has been near impossible to get her hands on an apple, the farm is too far away for her designated walk time; she wasn’t allowed to take time off for more food shopping; and Spike, on his grocery round, got her green apples. Yuck.
So, she had spent the last four days wanting to eat apples, but constantly being denied it by the forces of the universe which so obviously wanted her to suffer. But today that would end. It was market day, and nothing could stop her now.
But when she arrived at the market, there was no apple stand to be found. In fact, there was no food stand of any kind. Twilight stood there bewildered as she looked around to see only appliance stands and empty spaces where the food normally belonged.
After the initial confusion passed, she decided to go and ask one of the remaining stands what had happened. Setting her sights on Caramel's horseshoe stand, she trotted over to greet him.
“Hi Caramel, how are you today?” She said with a welcoming smile.
“I’m holding up alright,” he replied, returning the smile. “How are you?”
“I’m doing fine, thank you. I was just wondering if you know where all the food stands are.”
Caramel raised his eyebrow at the question. “You don’t know?”
…
“What in Equestria is going on here!” Twilight yelled from the doorway of the barn.
“Well, it’s nice to see you too, Twilight,” Applejack huffed back at her.
Twilight looked around the barn in panic and confusion at the banners, signs, and various Ponyville farmers sorting through and organizing them. She then turned to Applejack with a worried look.
“Applejack, why are you doing all this?” she demanded.
“Ah dislike your tone Twilight. Ah would've thought you’d trust me enough to think there would be a good enough reason for all this. I mean we’re not doing anything extreme.”
“Hey Applejack,” a blue Earth Pony, who had trotted up to Applejack, said. “I just wanted you to know, Pinkie and I have sorted out the flags into two piles.”
Applejack was taken off guard and turned to him with a confused look. “What do you mean two piles? Noteworthy, we only had plain red flags.”
“Yeah, we put the completely plain red flags in one pile, and the plain red flags with a yellow horseshoe and sickle in another.”
Twilight's face turned pale as her mouth hung open, had she just walked into some kind of communist rebellion? She looked at Applejack, who seemed equally worried, for some kind of explanation but received only stunned silence as Noteworthy got back to his work.
“Applejack… please -in Celestia’s name- whatever is going on here… just don’t do it.”
Applejack tried to respond, but she was interrupted by the familiar voice of a certain pink pony.
"It’s not ‘in Celestia's name’ anymore.” They both turned to see Pinkie Pie wearing a dark green waxed jacket and black beret cap with a red star on it. “It’s all ‘in the name of the revolution’!”
Twilight stared at Pinkie, finding it very difficult to comprehend exactly what she was looking at. So difficult in fact, she decided to turn back to Applejack. “You really need to stop this.”
“Oh silly Twilight,” Pinkie pie chuckled as she put her foreleg around her. “You can’t stop this now, it’s already too late. The class consciousness has been achieved, the proletariat have been awakened, and they have realised that they do not need you or the other bourgeoisie capitalists. They have realised that they can run this world for themselves, and they don’t want it to be run by a handful of rich pigs accepted in power by the money from labour they did not do. Now that they have realised this, your days are permanently numbered no matter what you do!”
“Pinkie no!” Applejack shouted.
“Come on, I’ve been practicing that speech.”
“How many times do I have to tell you, all this talk about revolution is stopping us from being taken seriously.” Applejack sighed and turned back to Twilight. “We’re all just having a peaceful protest to hopefully get some farm subsidies, that’s all. Pinkie is just being… well, ah really wish ah knew what she was doing.”
Twilight replied with an understanding nod, well she still didn’t fully understand, but she was just happy there was no armed revolution going on; they take far too much time and energy to deal with.
“Wait, how come I didn't know about this?” she asked Applejack.
Applejack turned her head slightly. “How didn’t you know about this?”
Twilight stopped for a second; how could she have missed it? Sure, she’d been keeping herself in solitude this past week but she must have had loads of opportunities to find out about it by chance: during one of her walks, her conversations with Spike, or the time she had lunch with Pinkie… wait.
“Pinkie,” Twilight questioned, “was this the surprise you wouldn’t tell me about?”
“SURPRISE!” She yelled throwing confetti everywhere. “You’re going to a collective farm!”
“Pinkie, no,” Applejack snapped.
“Yeah, you’re right, collective farms aren’t the best idea; but redistribution of land to certain groups and families based on merit seems promising.”
“Pinkie, I swear--”
“What? Too based on individualism instead of collectivism?”
“If you say one more thing to do with communism, ah’m kicking you out like Fluttershy.”
Pinkie huffed in response but stayed quiet.
“Wait,” Twilight interjected, “why did you kick out Fluttershy?”
“She’s a fascist, kept quoting ‘Mare Kampf’ and telling us to stop; she was quieter than Pinkie, mind you.” Applejack said with a shrug.
Twilight decided to not concentrate on that rather disturbing piece of knowledge and got back to the main focus. “So why are you going on strike for subsidies?”
“Easy day off, that’s why.” Said the familiar sounding blue pegasus who had appeared at the doorway behind them all.
Applejack scrunched up her eyes. “What did you just say?”
“Well, didn’t all the farmers get together and decide to have a Lazy Day?”
“Oh you, Rainbow Dash, did not just accuse me, me, of being lazy!”
“Well, I’m just saying. If I could start up a ‘union’ and get a day off myself, I would,” Rainbow said with a smirk.
“Well, maybe that’s something you can consider when you don’t have a family to feed,” Applejack spat back.
“Hey, if you wanted to feed your family, you would be earning bits right now,” she countered.
“Ah’m trying to give my family some security here. Maybe if you’d stop and think about it, you’d realise that ah can’t give my family everything they need by simply working from dawn till dusk on the field. And ah have to change that.”
Rainbow crossed her forelegs with a huff and slowly flew past everypony with only a friendly nod to Twilight and a confused look at Pinkie before she went to do whatever it was she was there to do. Applejack, who had been staring at her the whole time, sighed and looked down at the floor; Pinkie came over to comfort her with a small hug, which would have looked a lot better if she wasn't wearing that outfit (or worse, depending on your fashion sense).
“Hey Applejack,” Twilight inquired slowly, “why didn’t you talk to Mayor Mare about this?”
“I tried,” Applejack said looking up at Twilight. “but she just doesn’t listen; she treats us like we’re terrorists. I ain't no terrorist; I’m just somepony doing what I believe is right.”
“Technically, terrorist do think what they’re doing is right.”
“You are not helping Twilight.”
Twilight smiled apologetically. She felt as if she had an understanding of what was happening and couldn’t really think of any other real objections. Sure, she had barged in panicked and ready to sound the alarms, but that was only because she didn't understand what was going on or why; now she did, there was no real need to panic. She trusted Applejack, and if she thought it was something she needed to do, she would believe her.
But there was one thing she still didn’t know.
“Pinkie,” Twilight began, causing Pinkie's ears to prick up as she turned to Twilight, “where did you get that costume?”
“Oh this? Rarity made it for me,” she said gleefully.
“Rarity?” Twilight responded with a shocked yet curious look.
“Did somepony call?”
They all turned towards the doorway to see the mare in question. She stood standing tall, posed so she looked up at the sky, in a Chinese tunic and a worker's flat cap. She then turned her head towards the three mares and pranced over to them.
“Rarity, so happy to see you!” Pinkie said with a smile. ”Loving the suit.”
“Oh, you like it? I made it specially, much prefer yours though.” She turned to Applejack. “I’m here to help, wouldn’t miss this for the world!”
“Rarity,” Twilight said, “you own a chain of shops now, why do you want a communist revolution?”
“Communist revolution? I thought we were trying to get subsidies for the farms.”
“We are,” Applejack interjected. “There isn’t going to be any kind of revolution.”
“Comrades please,” Pinkie begged, “don’t betray me now.”
“So why have you made Pinkie and yourself revolutionary outfits?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, Twilight you have no idea how glamorous it all is. Ever since I read ‘Che Gamara: A Revolutionary Life,’ I’ve been dying to make some outfits like this.”
“Oh,” Twilight said with a sigh of relief, “so you're not some kind of communist revolutionary?”
“Revolutionary? Oh, Celestia no! Everypony knows the only way to reach the communist ideal is through democratic reform.”
“Huh?”
“Oh silly Rarity,” Pinkie interjected, “you must realise by now the bourgeoisie will never give away their power peacefully. Revolution is the only option.”
“I don't understand your attachment to revolution; even if democratic reform was impossible, which it isn’t, revolution very rarely leads to stable governments; no matter what kind.” Rarity countered.
“Reformers may be able to change small things like minimum wage, living conditions, education, et cetera, et cetera, but they will never be able to change the fundamental flaws of the capitalist system!”
“Democratic reforms are the only way to transfer effectively into a socialist economy, and then into a communist economy. If we try and skip to communism we will make mistakes and mess up!”
“Will you two be quiet?!” Applejack shouted at the top of her voice. “I don’t know what you think you are trying to achieve, but ah’m trying to achieve a better life for my family, and you two are not helping! Ah don’t want a revolution, ah don’t need any massive shift in power, all ah want is to live a life that is slightly more fair for me and my family. Is that so much to ask?”
“Oh,” Pinkie said calmly. “Then I probably shouldn't have sent that letter to Princess Celestia saying we were coming to take her throne.”
“What!?”
With an explosion of noise and colour, the side of the barn was blown open with large pieces of wood and splinters flying in all directions. Everyone cowered back in fright as a large figure emerged from the newly formed hole, towering above them menacingly.
Applejack, who had fallen back onto her back, shuffled backwards, away from a very angry Princess. She gulped when she realised that Celestia was heading straight for her.
“Applejack!” She spat with the most violent voice she’d ever heard her use. “You dare challenge me? I am the ruler of this land, I raise the sun in the morning, I give life to you all! I demand you explain yourself!”
Applejack sat in a stunned silence for a second but snapped herself out of it with a shake of her head. Applejack cautiously got up on her hooves, making sure not to make any sudden movements, and made her way over to Celestia. Using every bit of energy to remain calm, she cleared her throat and faced Celestia in the eyes.
“Listen, you’ve got it all wrong, I don’t want to challenge you; I’m perfectly happy with the political situation we have, I really don’t want a revolution. That was all just some misunderstanding with Pinkie. I’m just trying to get some farm subsidies, nothing extreme; important industries get subsidised all the time.
“And when we couldn’t convince the mayor to do it through diplomacy, we decided we needed to take action, not some kind of revolution, just a simple strike. Some say we’re holding the town to ransom, but what else can we do? All we have is our work, we built these farms with the sweat of our labour and we keep them going with it. And what else can we do but unite, we are all so powerless alone, ah would just be left to starve if ah did this alone. I can’t just stand by and let my family continue to be abused this way, we need a little bit of protection.”
Celestia relaxed her stance, her angry face turned into a smile and she looked directly into Applejack’s eyes with a friendly warmth. “Oh Applejack, of course you can strike, and you have every right to those subsidies.”
“Really?” Applejack looked gleefully back at Celestia.
“Nope, to the bucking moon with you!”
