Working Ponies

Apple Bynx

A colt with his head in the clouds, Bynx often dreamed about flying with his heroes in the sky. No, not the wonderbolts, they were fancy ponies, he dreamt of gallivanting along with the other masters of the sky, the Wing Shifters. They soared and they sang, always upbeat, not a care in the world, save each other’s wellbeing. They were usually employed as Equestrias odd job ponies, whether that be flying around with a banner highlighting the newest craze, or giving a non-pegasus pony a fly around town, it was never anything too strenuous. They wore no identifying banners or medallions, in fact, other than the small green band they all wore; you’d never be able to separate them from an everyday pony. The songs they sang daily were that of the working class pony, “Oh Equestria, Oh Equestria, we work for thee, not as a courtesy, but for our beloved country!” were just some of the silly lyrics the Wing Shifters had come up with over the past few years. Bynx loved the ponies for their spirit and morals, as he noticed the world around him had been slowly decaying, whether it be morally, financially or emotionally.

“Hey Apple, get up sillypony!”

That stung, Bynx hated being called apple, it reminded him of the earth pony he knew in years past, another of his greatest heroes. As Bynx stumbled with his words, he forced his eyes open, revealing in front of him a grayish white face, with deep blue eyes only inches away from him. Like an ocean of pent of excitement the eyes continued to gaze at him, Bynx knew he was seconds from another earful from~

“Come on, were gonna be late! I’m not carrying you to the annual gathering of the Wing Shifters! Now let’s go, I already made you breakfast, so we can slapdash outta here!”

Bynx begrudgingly rolled over, rolling his roommate off of his bed. He hadn’t heard what she said, he could only think of last night… what was it that was coming up… something tremendously important…

“Holy hooves! Today’s the day! Why didn’t you wake me Flitzer!?”

Bynx exclaimed as he threw himself up, hurtling the sheets off of himself, he galloped towards the showers, hearing behind him,

“HEY YOU BIG JERK! WHEN I CATCH YOU I’M GONNA…”

The voice trailed off as Bynx threw the shower on, accidently pushing the dial past a comfortable warmth. As he haphazardly started his morning ritual, he heard a rapping on the door as Flitzer angrily shouted at him,

“I was waking you up you dafthoofer! I even made you breakfast, see if that happens again!”

“Schrorrey, yew row I steep hurd,” Bynx mumbled between his toothbrush, checking to see the time. 8:43, just short of fifteen minutes before the meeting of the Wing Shifters. Bynx threw himself into the shower, suddenly feeling like he was being made into stew, he hit the shower head off course, saving him from scorching lava. He threw the temperature handle towards the middle and the water quickly became cozy. For a while Bynx pondered everything, from his birth, to where he was right now, his big day trying out for the Wing Shifters. He thought of how he and Flitzy had met in flight school, Flitzy was afraid to fly, and everyone knew it, so Bynx prodded her along and before she knew it, she was out flying any of the mares in her class. Later though, Bynx would come to rely on her, she kept him happy in the dark times of advanced flight school, where he often struggled against getting up and leaving for Celestia knows where. He never was a social pony, often despising the things colts his aged talked about, always droning on about their awful thoughts on the mares in class, or the horrid genre of sound they called music. Bynx often sat on these thoughts throughout the day, never telling anyone, not even Flitzer. He hated the thought of dragging somepony down with his inner thoughts. Albeit Flitzer had no problem with this, and told Bynx everything, from what she thought was in fashion or how she felt about peanut butter, Bynx loved to listen and laugh with her rambunctious personality.

Bynx quickly shrugged off his thoughts, wondering how much time had passed on his reminiscing. He flipped off the water and toweled himself off, throwing his hair about as he dried it, it ended up looking quite silly. He pondered leaving it like it looked, quickly realizing Flitzer’s influence was pushing him towards acting like a sillyfilly. He shrugged it off and fixed his hair, leaving it the usual coffee with cream café color. He burst out the door to find Flitzer had left him a note

~Bynx, I’m just outside, meet you out here soon… or at the tryouts if you fall asleep in the shower again…

“It only happened once!”

Bynx had shouted at nothing in particular, quickly looking to see if anypony had heard. As the coast seemed clear, he trotted over to their table; toast with an egg and bacon smiley face was left on a paper plate. Bynx quickly gobbled it down, noticing a note at the bottom of the plate, reading out,

~AHH! You ate my face!

The note made Bynx chuckle with a little frowning face near the bottom of the note. Bynx threw away the plate, noticing the trash was nearing the top, decided to take it out. Might as well start being a work colt now, it’ll get me in the mood for the Wing Shifters… thought Bynx, steeling himself for the day.

As he rounded the corner of their house, he noticed Flitzer squealing and prancing about in front of the house, looking at him with great anticipation, her deep blue mane flapping about. Chortling, he dumped the trash and trotted over to her. As Bynx opened his mouth to talk about nothing in particular, Flitzer was already buzzing about today.

“Oh my sweet Luna! Today is the day Bynx! Can you feel it!? Can you taste it!? Can you smell it?! Can you… hear it?

“Sweet Luna is right, sweet Luna what am I going to do with you Flitzer, if you go all giddy eyed up to the taskmasters, they’ll throw you something horrid, and I’ll never see you again.” Joked Bynx, as he attempted to ruffle Flitzer a bit.

“Pfft if anyone is going to get something horrid, it’d be you Bynx, you’ll probably get some amazing, brand spanking new job, and be grumpy on the first day, and get shipped to be a janitor.” Flitzer retorted, with a flick of her tail towards Bynx, and a triumphant look on her face.

“Hahaha, I love how easy you are to tease Flitzy… So what do you think we’ll do for tryouts?”

“I’m not sure really… I always thought they’d have us do simple tasks, and those that could do, and efficiently, got moved to harder jobs, and those who were… a bit… silly we’ll call it, got put with grimier jobs.”

“Huh… I guess we’ll see.” Bynx ended with a smile.

As they both took off, they headed towards the Wing Shifters building, nothing as breathtaking as Celestia’s Castle, but large and boisterous with its tall white pillars, and a large statues of pegasi in work clothes. One with a pitchfork in the mouth, and bags of seeds draped over her back, the statue represented farm hand pegasi. The second was a strong pegasus, moving multiple miscellaneous objects around whether they be rock or wooden planks. The third was a pegasus pulling a flag tied to the satchel it wore, and pushing a cloud with the front hooves. The steps were a tad menacing, but Bynx and Flitzer flew up them, getting giant smiles from recently accepted and sorrow filled frowns from ponies that had been sent to menial tasks.

“Buck up little buddy, your job, no matter what it is, has to be an essential part of making Equestria the nation it is, whether sweeping somepony’s porch, or changing a light bulb, without us, there is no Equestria.”

Bynx surprised even himself as he spoke, trying to encourage a sad looking mare walking past. She looked up at him and smiled, and with a new sense of well being. Flitzer bumped Bynx,

“And what exactly was that, Mr. keeps to himself? Did you think that mare was something else or are you just finally coming out of that shell of yours?” asked Flitzer, teasingly.

Bynx truly hadn’t noticed the mare’s appearance, only that she looked like she needed a pick-me-up. A feeling Bynx felt far too often, although never expressed. As they landed in line to be assigned to Celestia knows where, they began bumping each other, both far too excited to remain still. After a little fussing of Flitzer’s hair, and a stern hoof to Bynx’s gut, they waited just two ponies until the moment of truth. Bynx, being a bigger pony, could see over the ponies in front of them, and saw judges to be normal ponies, nothing overly glamorous or defining, just normal folk. A smile emerged as he thought to himself,

~Why can’t everypony be like that, just nice and have a decent head on their shoulders. It seemed like centuries passed while the colt being appraised was chatting with the panel. Five in all, they made gestures and stern looks at one another, finally looking towards the colt with flat faces, one spoke a few words. The colt must have jumped ten feet, prancing around with a giant smile, someone had hit the jackpot. The next two went faster, and both left mild faces, as if nothing too exciting was coming their way. Finally, Bynx and Flitzer were up, Bynx let Flitzy go first, on account of her being a girl, but still bumped her one last time as she went.

Bynx couldn’t make out what the ponies said as Flitzer was being evaluated, but now he was close enough to hear they would ask things about the ponies’ personality, their work habits, and age. Flitzer trotted back, a straight face held as she approached Bynx, then suddenly, she exploded, and just like the colt, jumped higher than anypony should without wings.

“WOO I got weather patrol!” Flitzer grabbed Bynx with her forehooves and hugged him until he thought his eyes would pop out of his face. Noticing Bynx was turning from his normal color and quickly matching hers, she let him go, and his brown coloring flushed back.

“Hehe… sorry… don’t know my own strength y’know…”

Bynx took in a big, fake, raspy breath and pretended to stumble with his words,

“wish me luck bud.”

“Good luck and Celestia bless… Janitor! hahaha!” Flitzer yelled as Bynx approached his spot on the floor. Ignoring her, he looked into the eyes of each of the judges. They asked him the same things they had asked Flitzer, and he filled in the holes, the only question that caught him off guard was when they asked about his wing power, with which he demonstrated by pushing as hard as he could, creating a wave of wind, knocking back Flitzer, whom he had aimed his stress releasing show at. The judges murmed amongst themselves for a short time, Bynx could overhear them mumbling something about janitorial services, he silently asked Celestia to sway them away from that decision. As they continued to fumble amongst themselves, Bynx’s heart began pounding, as if it were just now realizing that today, right now, at this very moment was one of the most pivotal in his life. Finally, after Bynx having almost made a dent in the floor where he had been shifting, the judges warmed up their lungs and one looked Bynx in the eye.

“On behalf of the committee, we find you Apple Bynx, to be a

~CRASH! Suddenly something outside had shaken the entire building, throwing Bynx to the floor. A thundercloud had suddenly formed over the building and was shooting down lightning towards the structure. Bynx looked at the committee, struggling to find themselves, then to Flitzer, who had fallen over and wasn’t moving. Bynx sprinted to her, checking to see if she was hurt. A quick scan showed that she was fine, no cuts or awkward looking limbs… but Bynx wasn’t a doctor, and wasn’t sure what to look for.

“PONIES OF THE WING SHIFTERS, I COME IN A POSITION OF VENGEANCE, I HAVE COME TO DESTROY, THE VERY THING THAT DID ME, ALL THOSE YEARS AGO, PRAY TO CELESTIA, BUT KNOW SHE CANNOT HELP YOU NOW! NOPONY CAN! I HAVE BLOCKED OUT THIS ENTIRE BUILDING FROM THE WORLD, KEEPING YOU ALL IN UNTIL MY REVENGE IS SATED.”

A thunderous voice echoed in Bynx’s head, he had to grind his teeth to withstand the booming, as if an entire forest was being pulled out of the ground at once, or a barn was falling on top of Bynx. He managed to open an eye and drunkenly waltz outside, looking up to see what looked like a windigo, only made of fire. Bynx quickly dashed back inside, to collect his thoughts, only to have his mind changed for him as half of the roof was smashed off by the creature’s muzzle. Bynx was flooded with adrenaline, and a million ideas filled his head, one of those was to fly as fast as he could out of the smoke covering the steps out. He quickly snapped that away and began to think of how to fight this creature.

As everything moved in slow motion, Bynx pondered what the creature had said, hoping to scrape together a strategy. It mentioned something about how the Shifters had destroyed it earlier? Did that mean it was a pony? In which case, it could be defeated with force. No that was silly, it was made of fire, and perhaps there was a source of water he could manipulate? Oh it was no use… As Bynx pondered the beast thrashed about, smashing the statues one at a time. It seemed it was just Bynx left with the beast, every other pony had gone to work or had scurried away.

Bynx took in a breath, steeled himself, and took off towards the beast, doing a fly around to see if the creature was weak in any areas. Seeing as the creature was simply more fire, even along the back, Bynx was running out of options. He considered trying to carry out everypony, but realized the beast was here for them, and wouldn’t just let him trot out with them. Suddenly, Bynx had an epiphany! He remembered that the Shifters used to accept earth ponies and unicorns, which was a tradition that stopped only a few years ago, due to the decrease in the need of these races. Bynx quickly dashed for the creature’s mouth, not even considering his decision. As he flew in, he noticed the monster was indeed hollow, although still fire and he felt himself roasting more than he had in his shower the morning earlier. Although, thank Celestia, he did see a cyan colored pony, horn ablaze with magic, glaring at him from inside the beast. Bynx swooped down hooves first, tackling this unknown pony into a spinning circle of fire and chaos. Bynx could feel his mane and tail shortening with the fire, as he felt what must have been straight lines of fire burning slashes into his sides and underbelly. Bynx was a strong pony, so he could only imagine how this mare felt in his hooves, amidst the fire and hooves in her face. Finally they came to a stop, and the blaze was banished by the unicorn, whom turned to blast Bynx another face hole. Bynx head butted the mare before she had the chance, causing her to look as if she had drank a few too many appletinis, and he allowed her to pass out in his hooves.

As he lied her down on the marble floor, he gently let her down rather than throwing her for all he was worth. Something drove him not to hurt her anymore than he had. Looking around, he assessed the damage, seeing that the roof was nearly gone, as were two of the three statues, along with the complete left-front half of the building. Bynx suddenly felt himself carrying the unicorn away from the battle, he couldn’t tell why, but he needed the back-story on this, or he’d forever be wondering what caused this mayhem, Celestia knows they’d cover this up as another pony gone mad. Setting her down atop a hill he felt a cool wind blow between them and felt his burns for the first time. He woke her with a teeny bit of prodding and mimicking of what Flitzer often did to him, shouting the poor ears off this mare.

“Urgh… I… wha…” The mystery mare grumbled at Bynx.

He began to look her over just in case she burst away and he needed to remember how she looked. She was… odd to say the least, she was a light cyan blue, with a blue and white lined mane, that had bits missing from it, perhaps they had been burned off… and finally her cutie mark was that of a hammer and anvil. Bynx took a look at himself as the mare rustled on the floor, shifting to get up, he had minimal damage, a few burns, only one seemed bad enough to have ol’ doc look at it. Other than that, his mane was a tad shorter, and he had been putting off his haircut anyway.

“Hi, My name’s Bynx, can I ask yours miss…?”

The mare suddenly bolted up and gazed with mouth agape at Bynx, sputtering something about fire, inescapable and all consuming. Bynx cocked his head, and she began to slow, coming to terms with where she was and what had happened.

“Let’s try that again, my name is Bynx, and you are…?”

The mare continued to fumble with her words, and started to shake, but with almost vibrating and looking like she’d collapse she managed to murmur,

“Look out… monster… inside… help” and with that, she collapsed.