Under the Rule of Yaks

Apple Bloom scooted the shovel forward, filling it with excrement, which she then lifted to dump in the bucket. “Ah wanna know why they don’t just keep the buckets underneath the holes in the first place. It’d be a lot easier ta clean it up if the yaks would just shit in the bucket.”

“Because if they didn’t, we’d be doing something else?” suggested Scootaloo, replacing the now-full bucket with an empty one. “I mean, it’s a crap job, sure, but I’d rather be cleaning out down here than in the stockades, or worse, pinned down as a private toilet.”

“Yeah,” agreed Sweetie Belle, letting her own shovel come to a stop. “We all wish we could be entertainers or cooks or outfit designers, but sanitation engineer isn’t the worst job.”

“Ah’m not sayin’ it is,” growled Apple Bloom. “Ah just think that it would be a lot easier if we just put the buckets under the entrances. That way, we could all just be doin’ Scootaloo’s job, which is a lot easier.”

“Well, let’s think about this logistically,” calmed Sweetie. “If we were to do as you’re suggesting, it would be a lot easier. However, we’d probably need more buckets. They’d fill up pretty fast, too. You’d probably need a drum, or something.”

“Yeah, but you’d have to use one of those big bass drums,” waved Scootaloo. “You know, the ones that have the band’s logo printed on the front? Or maybe a timpani. Something big, you know?”

“Not that kind of drum.”

“What, you think a snare drum’s going to solve the problem? You’d have to empty it out six times a day! And we’d probably still have to deal with all of the overflow.”

“I meant one of those fifty-gallon drums that are used to ship large volumes of liquid!”

“Both a’ y’all, simmer down! Ye’r missin’ tha point.” Apple Bloom took a deep breath, then scrunched up her nose when she remembered where she was. “We’re just fillies, right?”

Her friends nodded in unison, and Sweetie Belle even posited an “Uh-huh.”

“Do y’all remember a month ago, when that meant that we didn’t hafta work as hard?”

“That was a long time ago, Apple Bloom,” sighed Scootaloo. “We were different ponies back then.”

A loud splat drew all of their attention as a fresh patty of yak shit slapped onto the floor right where Apple Bloom had finished cleaning up.

“Oh, come on!” she groaned. “Ah just cleaned that spot three times!”

Sweetie Belle sighed, scooping up the fresh patty with her shovel. “It was just a few months ago,” she admits. “I remember what it was like…”

There was unrest in Ponyville. There was talk that Twilight had abandoned the town, and while it was true that she wasn’t here, her closest friends and fellow bearers of the elements had been trying to calm their tempers. Every one except Spike, that is. When news of the invading yaks had reached him, he had left to go “talk” with their leader. But everyone knew what that was code for. He was deserting them, to make sure he was on the winning side.

Applejack was the only one to not discredit the rumours. That, in particular, had convinced everypony that Spike had left them to their fate. She was routinely quoted as saying, “If’n y’all have time ta be flappin’ yer jaws, then y’all have time ta shore up these here defenses. Pull yer hooves outta yer keisters and grab that there sand bag.” Apple Bloom couldn’t even ask her at home, because she was always either busy or sleeping.

The first place they heard about was Fillydelphia. It had fallen in three days. Then Trottingham in two, and when the yaks reached Whinnyapolis, they took it down in a day. Everything seemed to point to them coming from the north. So that’s where the wall was built. Some citizens fled south, hoping to escape, but Rainbow Dash called the rest of them together.

“Ponyville is our home!” she had said. “So many of you were born here! A good number of you have lived here all your lives! This is where I’ve lived for years! Sure, I wasn’t born here, but I live here, now! My loved ones live here! I’m not just going to abandon them! I’m not going to abandon you! Are you going to abandon me?”

It wasn’t a long speech, but it didn’t have to be. It convinced the majority of the citizens to stay and fight for their homes. It was instrumental in drumming up the defense of the town and managed to double the militia, as untrained as they were.

But when the yaks invaded, it didn’t do anything.

While everypony in Ponyville was shoring up defenses on the north side of town, as that’s where the yaks were coming from, and indeed, that’s where the yaks had set up their invasion camp, the attack was from the south.

As it turns out, the yaks were not alone. An army of dragons had joined them, and while the yaks had acted as a distraction, Ponyville succumbed to the invasion of the dragons.

The town didn’t go down without a fight, however. Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack fought bravely, taking down two dragons and one yak for every pony they saw go down. But with the dragons and yaks outnumbering them, and with most of Ponyville’s defenses being a collection of agricultural enthusiasts and artisans, the town was soon overwhelmed against the onslaught of well-armed, well-trained mercenaries. Pitchforks and rakes were no match for swords, spears and axes.

In a single day and night of misfortune, Ponyville was lost. Its citizens were rounded up and bound, and the dragons had their first pick. Twelve out of every hundred citizens were selected to pay for the dragons’ onslaught. Seven total were selected by traitors to act as their personal slaves; two for Spoiled Rich for shutting down the alarms, two more for distracting the guards, and three went to Trixie for smuggling in a dozen yaks in her trojan wagon. Diamond Tiara was also singled out by her mother to not be her slave, but to be in the care of Duke Grot, the yak who would be in charge of the town in the days to come. She would be treated well.

Everypony that wasn’t selected for service would either be sold off, or they would belong to the town itself, which would put them under the duke’s command, or one of the various enforcers under him. Everyone was pushed into performing tasks for the yaks.

The first order to come down from the duke was the construction of a large arena, right where the town square used to be. It was the consensus of the townsfolk that this would be a long and arduous process, but it just took a few short weeks. Since the entire town was involved in the construction under penalty of whipping, everypony helped, and it was done quickly. Then came the reconstruction of certain buildings. Aloe and Lotus were gone, given to the dragons, so their spa was remodeled into a public bathhouse where ponies were made to clean their masters. Davenport was now acting as a walking seat for Spoiled Rich to ride around on, so Quills and Sofas was looted and refitted to be the public toilets that the three of them were now cleaning up. Sugarcube Corner and Carousel Boutique were still run by Pinkie and Rarity, respectively, as the Cakes had fled to protect their twins, but Sugarcube Corner was now a brothel, and Carousel Boutique was now a slave training facility and pleasure dungeon. Rarity still made outfits from time to time, but rather than dresses, they were mostly for either bondage or humiliation.

Ponyville barely resembled what it had looked like a season prior. It had been a beautiful, idyllic village filled with happy ponies going about their lives with smiles on their faces. Now it was a dirty, seedy forced-entertainment complex. The citizens, now slaves, were little more than toys, there to keep the yaks happy. Nopony had genuinely smiled since the sign welcoming everypony came down, removing the name of Ponyville, and replacing it with “Yakville.”

Scootaloo shook her head. “I don’t like to think about it,” she sighed. “It just puts me in a bad mood.”

“It’s nice to remember that our lives were once going somewhere,” offered Sweetie Belle. “That has to count for something, right?”

“It’s just a reminder that we’re not going anywhere, now,” growled Scootaloo. “I was going to shadow Rainbow Dash. I wanted to be just like her; the awesomest, coolest, most amazing pony there ever was. And now I’m stuck down here, cleaning up yak shit because we’re the only ones who can fit down the steps!” Out of frustration, she kicked the bucket, spilling its contents back over the bottom of the chamber.

“Hey!” shouted Apple Bloom. “Don’t take out yer frustration on us!”

Scootaloo put her hooves up in the air. “You’re right, you’re right… I’m sorry.” She tilted the can back up and grabbed Apple Bloom’s shovel. “Like I said, I don’t like thinking about it. It just makes me angry.”

“Ah can see that…”

Scootaloo sighed and started scooping up the shit. “I know, it’s not your fault… You both had dreams before this, too. Dreams that your sisters were willing to help with.”

It was Apple Bloom’s turn to be upset. “Ah don’t even know if Ah have a sister anymore. What if she’s…“ She sniffled. “What if Applejack’s… dead?”

Sweetie Belle reached over and put a hoof on Apple Bloom’s shoulder. “If she is, she’s not being forced to do the same stuff we are.”

“She’s probably even being rewarded by whoever’s in charge of whatever afterlife she went to for being such a good pony when she was alive,” added Scootaloo.

Apple Bloom shook her head, grimacing at the thought. “A don’t wanna think about this anymore!”

“You brought it up,” Scootaloo shrugged, filling the bucket. “For all we know, she’s still alive and being forced to suffer a fate far worse than our own. I doubt she’d do this kind of thing willingly, so she’s probably tied down with her jaw held open.”

“Oh, fuck off!” snapped Apple Bloom. “Ah don’t wanna hear another word about mah sister, unless y’all decide ya wanna be nice about it!”

The other two sighed. They knew Apple Bloom was looking for some kind of relief. In truth, they all wanted something better.

“Well, Applejack is probably still fighting back. That’s more than I can say for Rarity. All she does anymore is shout and scream when I see her, and she’s forcing other Yakville citizens to do these horrible, awful things. This very morning, I saw her step on the back of Roseluck’s head, pushing her face down into a dog bowl full of yak shit. Watching Rose struggle like that, flailing in her restraints, screaming for air, seeing the tears stream down her face as Rarity spanked her and demanded that she swallow it all and thank her mistress for the privilege?” She shivered. “Be glad that Applejack would never consider anything close to that.”

A chill went down all of their spines as they pictured it.

“Ah’m sorry, Sweetie Belle,” sighed Apple Bloom. “Ah know it ain’t easy. It weren’t mah intention ta bring it up to ya.”

“I think we all just needed a way to vent,” breathed Scootaloo. “I don’t think it worked. I don’t feel any better.”

“Maybe that’s because venting is meant to be a relaxation technique, and we’re having trouble relaxing because we’re working?” offered Sweetie.

“We’ve been able to relax at work before,” argued Apple Bloom.

“Yeah,” noted Scootaloo. “What was it that propelled us through finding a date for Cheerilee and trying to avoid Babs and working on our cheer routine for the Equestria Games?”

“I believe we sang our way through that,” noted Sweetie. “But also, I think that’s because those were things we actually wanted to do…”

“So ya don’t think singing would help now?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Only one way to find out,” shrugged Scootaloo.

There was silence for a moment, then all eyes went to Sweetie Belle.

“What are you staring at me for?”

“Y’all are usually the first one to start singin’,” Apple Bloom snorted. “We typically just follow in kind.”

“Plus, it was your idea,” added Scootaloo.

Sweetie Belle nodded. “Oh, alright…”

She raised her head up, took a deep breath, and belted out the first few notes. “When you’re down and out, and the wo–”

She fell silent as a great glob of rancid brown yak shit slammed into her face, knocking her to the floor. Immediately, Apple Bloom rushed over to pick her up and wipe down her face.

“I think we should just shovel quicker,” Sweetie coughed. “No more singing until we’re under open skies…”