Drill immediately brought his whistle up and blew, signalling a pause in shift as he leapt forward. After a brief look at the controls he shook his head, he didn’t know how to operate them and time was of the essence.

The trapped colt let out blood curdling scream after scream, tears rolled down his cheeks as he kicked and thrashed, hopelessly trying to set himself free. The upper half of his wing was already gone and the machine’s insides tinted red, along with the sound of crunching bones starting to ring out.

One of the kids ran off without a word, the other curling into a ball with his hooves over his eyes.

“Buck buck buck okay think Drill Bit, how are you gonna do this?” In less then a second several horrific images flashed through his mind, some imagined, some from memory. A crying mother and furious father, a cold, dark cell waiting to swallow him whole and a copper mare, falling to-

Drill snapped out of it and looked around, quickly spotting a sledgehammer with a big, bulky head. An idea came to mind and he retrieved it, before quickly jamming the dense steel head into the hardened teeth of the machine.

It groaned and creaked as it slowed down, unable to devourer the hammer as quickly as the colt’s bones.

Despite that, Drill could see the machine was still working, slowly the hammer’s head deformed and compressed as it too was being eaten. With the time he’d bought he moved to pull the colt away, jamming a hoof on his back with the other on the grinder’s frame.

He tugged and pushed, but even his earth pony strength couldn’t compare to the grinder's grip, and the colt was no closer to freedom. At that time Soda Stream arrived and her jaw dropped at the scene.

Drill snapped towards her. “TURN IT OFF!” He yelled.

Shaken from her stupor, the mare fumbled around with the controls as Drill heard the metallic crunching of the hammerhead. A quick glance revealed it was almost gone, and even more of the wing had been reduced to red paste.

“TURN. IT. OFF!”

“I’m trying! These controls aren’t simple!” Soda explained, furiously working the various buttons.

“Oh of course they drafted all the ponies who knew how to bucking operate it!”

Steel Beam arrived and hurried to help him. Grabbing the colt by the barrel and pulling him likewise, but to no avail. Drill released himself from the colt, try as he might, a change of tactics was needed.

Taking a step back, he looked around. Maybe there was something else he could jam into the machine? Then again, he could only buy so much time, and only so much screaming his ears could take.

He then spotted a fire axe inside a glass shielded case, eyeing up the razor sharp edge of the axeblade. In that moment his mind made a choice, a grim choice born of pragmatism, and necessity.

Bolting forward he swivelled around and delivered a swift buck as his hooves skidded across the floor, shattering the case into a thousand shards. Biting onto the axe handle and rushing back towards the boy.

The situation hadn’t gotten any better.

By now the hammerhead was gone, and the colt had all four limbs splayed out over the mouth of the mechanical beast, any moment he could get sucked in and suffer a most terrible, painful end.

It was now or never.

Drill pushed forward and raised the axe with both hooves, Steel turning to him in shock but quickly realising his strategy. One of the colt’s arms was pushed aside and with a clear point of entry…

Drill swang.

The poor colt threatened to tear out his vocal cords with how much he was suffering, his limbs gave in but Steel was right then to keep him in place. The axe slashed at his wing but stopped mid-way through, fresh blood spewing from the open bone covering the blade.

With shaky limbs and grim determination, Drill pulled the axe out and repeated the strike. This time hacking the rest of the way through, eliciting a sickening crunch as the marrow snapped.

Steel fell backwards as the colt was set free, but had little time to rest as Soda sprang forward with her scarf in hoof, ready to assist.

Drill stepped back, dropping the axe as the others tended to the injured boy, stumbling back onto his flank as he heard the rest of the wing get crushed. Staring at the trio while he came down from his adrenaline high.

The sounds of his own ragged breathing overtook all else, the warm flecks of liquid now registering across his face and the smells of real, fresh blood worming their way through his nose. Stronger than any amount of iron or copper.

He wasn’t having one of those days, he was having one of those days.

At the very least he had played his part, the boy’s wing was all wrapped up and when Steel turned to him to say something, Drill just nodded. He didn't know what was being said, he just nodded, still numb from the whole experience. The draft wasted no time and hoisted the colt onto his back before galloping out of the building, probably to the hospital.

Drill simply laid back and breathed, in and out, good air went in, and bad air went out.

Other workers soon arrived and many gasped at the unsightly scene. Soda explained the situation to them and tried to shield the other kids from seeing anything. It took time and a little help from her, but soon Drill was back on his hooves all cleaned up.

Though he certainly didn’t feel like it.

They sat opposite each other inside the break room roughly half an hour afterwards. Soda Stream poured him another glass of sparkling water, her own speciality, which Drill picked up with shaky hooves but drank all the same. No matter the mare’s effort she couldn’t get him to face her, Drill always looked down at the table or to the sides.

“Remember what I said? About this not being a place for kids?”

Soda reared her head. “Yeah?”

“Well, I wasn’t saying that for dramatic effect.”

The mare slowly nodded as she took a swig from her own cup. Some work continued inside the plant but only under strict supervision, and with many of the kids now reading through manuals and engineering books that didn’t make sense to them. If nothing else just to keep them occupied and as far away from the machines as possible.

But now he’d have to explain to the work office why there’d be such a serious backlog. A notion that made his stomach churn-

Both ponies then heard a loud growl from the bowls of Drill’s belly, the stallion wincing as it twisted into a knot.

“Sometimes I really wish we had a snack machine in here.”

Soda smiled and brought a bottle up, refilling his cup. “Yeah, and I wish I worked at the pub…I’m gonna miss that old scarf.” She pulled out a cork and jammed it into the glass bottle again before returning to him. “Still, you did a great thing Drill, I couldn’t do what you did.”

“It shouldn’t have happened in the first place…” Drill spoke slowly, the memory of the colt’s screaming still echoing in his head.

“I know, it’s difficult, but now you’ve got the perfect reason to get your old crew back, right?”

“Damn right,” Drill said before climbing from his seat. “I’ve got a call to make.”

Still mentally drained, Drill dragged himself into his office, a room with a large glass window that doubled as an observatory over the plant floor. The place was adorned with dozens of file cabinets and small objects, a notice board on one wall, a personal heater on the other, and a desk in the middle.

He wasn’t interested in any of that however.

Instead, he reached for the telephone box in the corner and dialled in a few numbers. Within seconds another pony was on the line.

“Hello, operator? Drill Bit, can you put me through to Administrator Ballpoint? Work Office.”

“One moment please.”

Drill waited impatiently, tapping a hoof on the floor as the lines switched around at a snail’s pace. Granted, it was faster than walking, but maybe some air would help clear his head?

Then again, it was freezing…though when wasn’t it freezing.

He finally heard a voice not too unlike one would expect from old Canterlot’s brass call in, it was ridden with static and Drill had to focus but it was audible. “Hello? Administrator Ballpoint.”

“Good afternoon sir, this is Forepony Drill Bit, Ironside Row Ore Processing. Listen, we’ve just had an accident involving an eleven year old, and on top of the report I have a couple questions.”

“Oh? Well, what happened?” The Administrator sounded more curious than horrified, already making Drill internally grit his teeth.

"Well, somepony had the bright idea to replace all but five of my safety standards trained crew with a pack of kids.” Drill cleared his throat. “One thing led to another and a pegasus got his wing caught in a grinder. The machinist who knew how to operate it isn't with us, so we had to amputate the poor boy’s wing before the cursed thing ate him."

There was a brief moment of quiet before Point replied. "Oh, that sounds horrible Mr. Bit, do you know where the child is now?"

"At the hospital, I've drawn back operations for the time being. Mr Ballpoint, with all due respect, an ore processing plant is no place for a minor, I'd like to request my old crew back before something else happens."

"I'm so, so sorry Mr. Bit, but I’m afraid that's not possible at this time. Maybe if you trained your new charges on those safety standards you could've avoided this?"

"Are you saying this is my fault?" Drill glared at the phone.

"I'm not saying it's anypony's fault, accidents happen, but there are ways they can be prevented and can still be prevented."

“Mr. Ballpoint, please don’t tell me you're seriously considering turning my plant into a daycare.”

“I’m doing no so such thing Mr. Bit, I can recall at least some of your previous crew, but not all of them.”

“That’s not good enough, I want these kids gone! They shouldn’t be here!” Drill exclaimed.

But Ballpoint didn’t respond, at least not immediately. There was a window of silence and for a moment Drill looked at the phone, wondering if maybe the connection had been interrupted before it spoke.

When Ballpoint responded he did so slowly, and solemnly. “I will repeat, I can recall some members of your old crew, and lessen the burden on your back, but for the time being it’s up to you to manage this.”

Drill swallowed his pride and took a deep breath. “Thank you, administrator, for future reference please warn me about these things. Today’s not been nice to me.”

“My pleasure Mr. Bit, I’ll forward the incident to the Captain and maybe he’ll consider something.”

With that, Drill placed the phone back on its holder and rubbed his temple. Sometimes he wished he’d gotten one of those cushy office jobs with the Factory Inspectorate, then he could be the one making all these decisions, alas he had no such power and slumped back into his desk chair.

“Well buck, now what?” He mumbled to himself.

By the time their shift was done Drill Bit felt exhausted. Usually, he took it as a sign of a good day’s work but that couldn’t be any further from the truth.

The screams still haunted him, that feeling of blood on his face, the stench of iron in his nose. It’d bothered him all day after and weren’t he already starving from his lack of breakfast he might not have had the stomach for dinner.

But as it stood, he couldn’t care less if it was just a thin bowl of potato and leak soup, he’d have eaten a hoofful of rocks if it settled his stomach. He didn’t even need to leave the cookhouse as the bowl was already empty by the time he reached the door.

So now with a full belly and the evening to himself, he went to the only place he could think of.

The Pipe & Hole Public House.

“Seriously, who named this place?” He thought to himself, eying the building.

It was at least a fitting name, being one of the older buildings in the city, it had many renovations to make sure it could keep up and that meant a vast, complex network of piping was strewn across its exterior. So much had been torn out and added that maybe not even the original designer could make sense of it.

The only areas that didn’t have piping were the ice-covered windows and the bright, fluorescent velvet and scarlet sign above, depicting a mare with some rather…suggestive clothing kicking back a tankard.

Were it not New Canterlot’s only place he could get a drink, Drill might’ve chosen differently.

“How much would it hurt to build a theatre? The Kirins want it, don’t they?”

Speaking of which, there was even a poster on the door advertising an upcoming show, it wasn’t for several days however so he brushed it aside and pushed through the doors, delving into a world of colour and music.

There was a haze of cigarette smoke and alcohol, tables upon tables of ponies relaxing with a few drinks after another day’s labour. From soot-ridden coal miners to off-duty watchponies, to the greenhooves of the farmers and the tired bodies of construction workers.

All of them were dimly lit by the lights above, reserved for the stage in the very back where a snow white mare with pink and purple curls stood, singing to the gentle tune of a band behind her with the voice of an angel.

Drill briefly smiled as he walked inside, already invited by the warm atmosphere and sat down by the bar.

It didn’t take long for a barkeep to approach him and when she did his head was hung low. “Rough day?” She asked.

“More than you think, something hard please.”

The purple mare smiled as she drew a cup, but as she did so Drill got full view of her leg, it was covered in several riveted leather sleeves which ended in a metallic imitation of a hoof.

Between the joints where the sleeves didn’t cover, Drill could see the machinations of machinery underneath. a network of pipes, pulleys and pistons. The workings of an artificial limb.

The ageing stallion turned his head away as she served him a cup of moonshine, he grabbed it and stared into the foggy concoction, wondering if it would wash away his woes. Even now he could still hear the colt’s banshee shrieks through his mind, the sickening crunches of bone and sinew....

He needed this.

Rearing his head back, Drill took half of it in one gulp and shook his head, coughing slightly.

“Thanks Berry, you don’t know the kind of day I’ve had.”

“It can always get worse.” She added.

The corner of Drill’s mouth raised into the ghost of a smirk. “I dunno, mine was pretty bad.”

“Well, was it-” Berry propped her chin up with her artificial leg, leaning towards him “-this bad?”

“In a way…”

Berry’s smile waned as a dawn of realisation struck her. “Oh sweet martini, that accident was at your place?”

“W-wait, how’d you know?” He said, looking up at her.

“Word travels fast, especially when everypony sees a certain steel grey stallion rush through town in broad daylight.” She explained.

With a grumble, drill rubbed the back of his neck with embarrassment plain as day over his face. “Right, should’ve known.”

“You know, If your drinking to bury that kind of stuff, it’s not gonna work.” Berry continued, pointing a hoof at him.

“I know but…it helps.”

“It does, but don’t depend on it like I did.”

Drill’s prior embarrassment turned to guilt as his memory flashed with vivid sights and sounds, the feeling of blood on his face and the weight of that dreaded axe.

“I just…I can’t get it out of my head, the sights, the sounds, and it all happened so quickly.” Drill let his chin sink and rest on the bar table, barely able to hold himself up.

“What did you do?”

He paused for a moment, hesitation hardening the tip of his tongue. But a gulp of the remaining liquor loosened his lips. “Everything I could think of, until I saw the fire axe…”

Berry stared at him for several seconds before connecting the dots and widening her eyes. She began refilling Drill’s cup, prompting him to look up in surprise.

“Double booze ration?”

“You’ve had a bad day, you deserve this.” She said, pulling the bottle away.

Drill nodded and kept his cup close, taking small sips instead of the big gulps he had prior.

But that was when a familiar voice called out to him from within the crowd. “Hey Drill Bit!” He heard, shortly after a scarlet and lapis unicorn jumped onto the chair next to him with a spin wearing a smile.

For all his energy, Drill only met him with a sluggish reply. “Ah, hello Toy Chest.”

“Nice to see you two!” He exclaimed, before turning to Berryshine. “Hey Berry, have any more smoothies kicking about?”

“Only raspberry I’m afraid, Bloom’s been cutting down on berries in general recently. I think the girl’s trying to grow more veggies.”

Toy’s head and ears drooped like a deflated balloon, “Aw…”

“Oh you big colt.” Berry laughed. “You know what? I do have one thing.” Shen then pulled out a labelless bottle with an orange band of cloth and popped its cork, pouring its contents into a tankard.

Toy gave it a sniff and stared awestruck as he was gifted the drink. “No way,” he gasped. “Buck's Fizz? Where’d you get this?”

“It’s homemade, might not be very many berries left but there’s still plenty of oranges.”

“Thanks Berry!” Toy then eagerly drank from the tankard, leaving a foamy moustache when he drew back for air. Wiping it off he turned to Drill Bit with his childlike grin. “So Drill, what have you been up to, anything exciting?!”

The stallion cringed as he was abruptly reminded of the day’s events, it seemed it didn’t matter how much he tried, it kept creeping up on him. “Not…really…”

“You're sure? I heard something big happened, finally found a diamond in all that rock?”

Drill let out a deep sigh, he knew Toy Chest meant well but sometimes that naivety really annoyed him. “Suppose there’s no beating around it.”

He turned to look Chest dead on and spoke quietly, barely enough to be heard over the bar’s background chatter. “There was an accident involving a machine and I had to cut a colt’s wing off.”

And immediately after he thrusted a hoof forward to cover Toy’s mouth, lest he scream and draw attention to them. A move that seemed warranted as the toy maker’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, and barely a squeak came out before Drill moved in.

Berry meanwhile had to fight to contain her laughter.

After a few moments, Drill let go and the two stared at each other, unamused while Toy grimaced.

“D-Drill Bit…w-what? How? What happened?”

“Most of my workforce got pulled into factory work and I was given a pack of children as replacements…inside an ore processing plant.”

A painfully long moment of silence passed before Toy Chest responded, his voice comparable to Drill’s. “Oh…oh that’s horrible.”

“Yep…”

Drill turned back around and hunched over the counter, taking another sip from his drink. Berry met him whilst cleaning a glass and glanced at Toy’s increasingly concerned face.

“You're actually a hero, Drill Bit, you saved that kid’s life.” She commented.

“I don’t feel like it.” He replied. “I feel…dirty almost.”

“Well, can’t you do anything about it?” Toy asked, looking concerned for his friend.

“I don’t know, I tried but the child labour laws in this town are bucked up, he wouldn’t have lost his wing if I still had my old crew. And I’m stuck with these kids for the foreseeable future, so who knows what’ll happen next.”

“Well…why don’t you try starting a petition? If it gains enough traction then maybe the captain will rethink the laws?”

Drill stopped himself short of scoffing, it was the kind of naive, optimistic thing he’d come to know from Toy Chest and he was only a word away from dismissing it. But something in his head clicked and he heard the echo of a voice long passed.

“Press on Drill Bit! For a brighter tomorrow!”

The stallion’s eyes lit up and a new kind of energy filled his body. A spark that led to a flame as an epiphany ran through his mind. “Actually…you might be right, maybe I could.”

“Well you best think of a compromise,” Said Berry. “I doubt he’d be keen to repeal it entirely.”

“Yeah, and Iron Might can be pretty stubborn.” Toy added.

“How about we start with the dangerous jobs? Coal mines, Mills, Ore Plants.”

Berry noticed a small witty grin appear on Drill’s face, it wasn’t much but it was enough and she joined in. “Well you’d better be ready, I’ve found you need to give something up to get what you want.”

Drill turned to her and thought about it, it was the right thing to do and he knew it, but something told him it wouldn’t be as easy as getting a few signatures and passing it on.

But the events of that day had left a mark on him, if the guilt was bad now there was no telling what was next. It only served to fuel his resolve further however and stoke the fire in his heart.

So with a deep breath, he answered. “I think I can handle it.”

Berry smiled and pulled out a pen and paper from under her counter, before gesturing to the ponies in the pub.

“Go nuts sugerplum.”

Author's Note

While amenities are few in New Canterlot, every creature of age is entitled to a cup of moonshine after a hard day's work.

With how popular smoking was before The Frost there was a demand for tobacco to return, but growing such within the Hothouses was out of the question. So many tried growing their own more questionable herbal remedies, to varying degrees of success.