Auroram Usque Opacare

Six

Dawn awoke suddenly in the night. She glanced at the clock and saw it was one in the morning. Sitting up she parted her curtains slightly and scanned the street. All seemed quiet, but then she saw one figure, a young colt spray painting on the wall. She watched this curious to see what he was doing. When he was done he quickly scarpered and Dawn could see the red painting. It showed a unicorn hanging from a tree with the words ‘erth poni zone’ inscribed beneath.

Leaving the room she crept down the hall, trying not to wake April. In the kitchen she took a swig of milk then sat down in one of the arm chairs. She surveyed the bookcase looking for some good reading material, when her eyes fell on what looked like a photo album. Removing it from the shelf she saw it was actually a scrap book of newspaper cuttings. April was very meticulous in some ways; the book was laid out in chronological order. She leafed through it not looking for anything in particular but then something caught her attention.

It was a series of articles she remembered very well. The first was headlined ‘massacre in Ponyville’. Nopony in Equestria could have not heard of the events that took place almost four years ago, they were the events that led to end of the monarchy and beginning of a republic for Equestria. And eventually the crisis they were in now. Reading the articles she recalled how the princess had withdrawn into herself following the death of her student; trust the tabloid to dig up sensitive details like that. With the failure of her sister Princess Luna to run the kingdom, even with the aid of their niece Cadence, there began the first of many protests demanding Celestia step down.

As Dawn watched the protest unfold back in her family home in Baltimare she was silently screaming for the princess to come out and defend herself, but she never did, and that just made the dissenters all the more angry. Then there was a tragedy, the royal steward was murdered in the royal gardens. The criminals responsible tried to justify their actions by pointing out he was a dragon after all. But Dawn couldn’t accept that excuse; he was only a baby dragon.

Seven

Dusk stepped onto the platform rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He’d arrived early as he knew if he’d stayed in the house he’d just have to listen to his mother fret over what he was going to do. While he waited he began watching ponies milling about on their way to work, they were all earth ponies and they all looked fed up with life. While he stood their came a whine from one of the overhead speakers that was used to announce when trains were approaching, but instead he heard a voice reporting the events of yesterday.

Having been there he didn’t pay any attention, but then tuned in as he heard something else mentioned.

“Needless to say Mr Claxon is the head of the UWF, formed a year ago in response to the outrage sparked by the Horn Act introduced by the Neigh Sayers.” The voice echoed out. Dusk remembered that act, and the out cry that came with it.

Ever since the republic was declared, somepony spoke up that they were being treated unfairly. Measures would be introduced and a different pony would complain they were the ones being discriminated against as the changes weren’t beneficial for them. And so the ball would be knocked back and forth between Earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns. The Neigh Sayers, which consisted mainly of unicorns, introduced the Horn Act to end discontent among unicorns by enhancing their civil liberties while at the same time reducing the earth ponies.

Unicorns made more bits, unicorns received priority when applying for work, and unicorns could take higher offices than any other pony. And so the ball of discontent was spiked into the earth ponies’ court, and had been stuck there for a whole year. The pegasi preferred to stay neutral in what followed, however their lack of assertive decision making alienated them from the unicorns while Claxon declared mythical ponies were just as bad as magical ponies.

Dusk was brought back to the present by a train slowing down in front of him; it wasn’t even announced on the speaker, since they weren’t allowed to interrupt the ‘news report’. Dusk stepped on to the train, surprised to see how empty the carriage was. First stop Dodge City.

Eight

Dawn readied herself for work, she hadn’t strayed out of the apartment in two days since she arrived, but now school was starting and she couldn’t digress any longer. April had made a cooked breakfast for her, she guessed it must have cost her a lot and swore she’d work to pay her back for the kindness she’d been shown.

As she walked towards the door ready to leave, April approached her.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the situation here.” Dawn saw she meant it and smiled appreciatively.

“Its alright, what’s done is done,” she replied.

“Be careful out there,” April called after her as she left the building.

Walking down the street she noticed the graffiti that she’d seen sprayed that night. Nopony had tried to wash it off. She briefly took in the caption ‘erth poni zone’. She then wondered how long the teaching position had been vacant for before they asked her to fill it. She continued on her way, her eyes sweeping over the squat brick houses spouting plumes of smoke from their roofs. As she reached the street corner she approached what she assumed was a factory with a heavy door.

As she got closer the door smashed open and a group of struggling ponies came tumbling out. They were all colts built for heavy labour. She stopped in her tracks not wanting to get too close. It looked like four ganging up on one, who tried to get up and run away but was tackled down. Horrified she watched as the four began kicking him while he lay in the ground. After about a couple minutes they seemed to lose interest and walked back inside leaving the injured colt lying on the road bloody and bruised.

Ponies passing by just glanced the other way and walked around him, nopony offering to help. She began making her way forward determined to do something, but as she got close a leg came out in front of her stopping her from getting close. She turned to see a heavy workhorse covered from mane to hoof in soot and grime.

“Don’t draw any more attention to yourself,” he warned. She thought he was threatening her but then realised he was talking in a hushed tone.

“Why did they do that?” she asked appalled.

“After the scene you made the other day, they found out he didn’t leave his post as he was supposed to and come down to join the mob.”

Dawn remembered the siren and how ponies seemed to charge out of nowhere forming together.

“This can’t be legal,” she said angrily. He just looked down at her sadly.

“Who’s going to stop them?” he turned to go back into the factory. As he went she heard him say, “Sorry Derek.”

He closed the door behind him leaving Derek on the pavement. Dawn considered helping him anyway, but she knew from the way passing ponies looked at her, she was still high profile. If she did this she might get chucked out, or end up like Derek.

Reluctantly she continued on her way trying not to think about the pony she’d left behind. She’d get to school; she’d start work and forget all about this. She couldn’t be far now, but as she got closer she could hear some commotion taking place. It sounded similar to the crowd she’d encountered when she arrived; she prayed it wasn’t somepony else getting harassed, but as she turned the final corner to the school she saw, it was much worse.

The crowd wasn’t massive like the last one had been, but big enough. They were all dressed similarly so their faces were covered. They swore and shouted at the building flinging bricks and bottles at it from over the fence. The school itself was wrecked, the windows were smashed, the walls chipped, the doors buckled off their frames. Dawn saw fillies being herded by their teachers to a safe distance, some were crying, other more boisterous ones were cheering the rioters on.

From where she stood she could tell all the ponies in the crowd were relatively young, they looked like they should be in their final years of school themselves. Then she saw one colt charge out of the front doors, his face covered in a scarf. The crowd tensed and Dawn feared what was going to happen next. There was an almighty explosion from the entrance hall, burning fragments of wood and various pieces of debris flying out. The crowd cheered and laughed as the fire spread quickly, clearly they threw some kind of fuel around.

The crowd dispersed quickly after that, and Dawn wondered where the fire department was. She approached the huddled group of school ponies and teachers.

“Excuse me,” she announced to the mare who was trying to calm them all down, “I’m the new teacher, what’s going on here?”

She turned around and looked sadly at Dawn, the same look she’d received from the pony back at the factory, a resigned look. “I’m afraid you won’t be teaching here,” she said pointing out the obvious, “somepony heard we were teaching unicorn history and, well you see the result.”

Dawn stood stunned at this. The segregation, the hanging unicorn drawing, the attack at the factory and now this. This wasn’t a fight for equal rights… this was fascism. Dawn stayed to help make sure the fillies got home safely, before returning home. She took the long way back to avoid passing the factory again, but instead she passed by the old town hall. Looking up she saw a banner stretched across the whole face of the building. It bore the two main aims of the UWF, but below it was a third statement which had been added recently, it read ‘the only good unicorn is a dead unicorn’.

Nine

Dusk yawned as he stepped off the train. The past few days had been exhausting. He never thought he’d be working in PR, strutting around Appleloosa and Dodge City trying to coerce ponies who just wanted to be left in peace to get on with their work. If asked how successful the trip had been, he’d say it was mixed. Yes they’d agreed to support the bill, but he guessed they just said that so he’d leave them alone.

And now here he was in Ponyville. It was strange to be walking around a town that several years ago barely made it onto the map, but was now famous for all the history its name carried. Of course most of that was down to the massacre that knocked all of Equestria off its hooves. The notion of murder was almost non existent until those days, and wasn’t just one isolated incident, residents, animal and an entire battalion of guards were slaughtered.

The other members of the UWF seemed excited to be here and were already talking about sight seeing. Dusk didn’t have it in him to tell them they were here to do work, so he decided to let them go about their own business while he took this opportunity to get a brake from politics and find something physical to do.

It was quiet as he walked along the street, nopony seemed happy there. He decided he’d leave the town itself and find a farm; they were bound to have work there needing done. However he was surprised to discover that for a rural town like this, there weren’t farms scattered all around as he’d expected. Dusk asked a passing pony who was delivering the mail, she explained all the farm land had belonged to one farm and it had closed down years ago. Disappointed but not deterred, he made his way for it, if only to see what kind of a place it was.

It didn’t take him long to find, he reached the perimeter fence, easily identifiable as it was surrounding what used to be an apple orchard. Following the fence he arrived at the main gates. A sign read ‘Sweet Apple Acres’, but beneath it somepony had written ‘closed for good’. He wasn’t sure why but something about that sign made him feel a twinge of sadness.

Looking up the lane he saw an abandoned farm house and a barn, to his surprise there was activity in the barn, the gate was still locked though. He decided to check it out. Taking a step back he ran at the gate and jumped, clearing it easily. Landing on the other side he began walking towards the barn. Closer now he could hear banging of metal on metal and as he reached the open door he peered in and saw the barn was packed with farm equipment. Tractors and horse drawn ploughs were only the beginning, and in the centre of the barn he saw a unicorn hammer out some sheet metal to make what appeared to be an aviary.

He looked up as Dusk entered the barn.

“Hey there, how can I help you?” he said seemeing friendly enough.

“Sorry I was just looking around; I was told this place was closed down,” Dusk enquired.

“Aye it is, but the local council gave me permission to this barn,” he said. While he was talking he continued working using his magic.

“You build bird houses?” Dusk asked pointing at the aviary.

“Build and fix just about anything, and yourself?”

Dusk smiled at this, in all the destinations he’d been to that week he had yet to find anyone he could relate to. He glanced at his flank which his cutie mark, a spanner. He received it when he first started working with his dad in the shop; he became pretty popular at school for getting his so early. He ended up dropping out, seeing no reason to continue his education when he’d already found what he was good at and he didn’t need books to help him with it.

“Funny enough I’m the same,” he informed him, “I work as maintenance in a factory in Manehatten, but before that I worked at my dad’s repair shop.”

“Well what do you know; nice to find someone you have something in common with. The names Arty.” He said extending a hoof.

“Dusk.” He replied meeting his hoof, he warmed to Arty instantly.

“Well it’s a pleasure. Tell me Dusk, what brings you to Ponyville?” Dusk froze, could he tell Arty his real reason for being here, he was a unicorn after all, he didn’t want to antagonise him.

“Just a break you know, Manehatten’s good and all but occasionally you need a change of scenery to stop yourself going mad,” Dusk said and Arty laughed in response, he felt slightly guilty for lying but he figured it was a better alternative to being associated with extremists.

“Oh boy, tell me about it. I’m from Filly Delphia myself, moved here a year or two back. Only supposed to be a here a month for my health but when the time came to leave id already felt more at home here than I ever did where I came from.”

“A year or two, so you weren’t here during that… incident?” he could help inquiring, but Arty didn’t seem to mind.

“Nope, when I got here everypony was trying to move away from being associated with it. I learned its better not to bring it up with most folk here.” Dusk nodded, he’d remember that. “Hey, you wouldn’t mind lending me a hoof with this here would yah?” Arty asked.

“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Dusk responded. They made quick work of the bird house and moved onto some other bigger machines, it was nearly night fall before Dusk remembered what he was supposed to be doing. He explained he had to leave and they said their farewells, Arty invited him to come back the next day.

Walking back into Ponyville he asked a passing pony where Sugarcube Corner was, as that was where they had been invited to stay during their time in Ponyville. The stranger was helpful enough, pointing him in the right direction. When he arrived he met the other members of the UWF gathered in the main shop conversing with the owners. The two didn’t seem pleased to have them staying there, but didn’t say anything.

“Dusk, where have you been all day?” one of the members asked.

“Just getting a feel for the place, and I lost track of time.” He lied; he knew it wouldn’t go down well if they knew he’d spent the day with a unicorn. “We’ll get to work tomorrow; let’s just get some rest now.” He announced. They thanked their hosts and made for the vacant apartment above the shop. Strange, Dusk noticed foals’ toys but saw no sign of the foals themselves anywhere.

There was only one bed in the room, and a series of camp beds the owners had set up for them. Dusk offered the bed to anyone who wanted it, but they all seemed insistent he sleep in it. Deciding not to question this he accepted. He found sleep came easily, and when he awoke it was pitched black, and the other members were nowhere to be seen.

Ten

Dawn couldn’t sleep that night; in fact she was having trouble sleeping any night since the incident at the school. When she arrived back April picked up on her shaking and predicted what must have happened. She wanted to lock herself in her room and have nothing more to do with the city, but April insisted she leave the house with her from time to time.

April didn’t work, a number of years ago she received a large inheritance from a late husband and was able to retire on it. However the money was quickly disappearing in recent months with inflation so high. It was the main reason Dawn had chosen to live with her, having a job meant she could support April, who’d always been kind to her.

A couple times they left the house and travelled the short distance to the corner shop, but even in that short space Dawn saw enough of the street to last her a life time. That morning they had been in the shop, April was paying for their groceries and Dawn was checking for jobs on the notice board. She wasn’t surprised to find none, but was taken aback when she saw a flyer for a fundraiser.

She didn’t recognise the name of the host but it claimed to be raising money for Harmony. She’d heard of Harmony before, a peace organisation campaigning for an end to the divisions that had been created among ponies. They weren’t very high profile, never being successful at stirring mass support for their cause. Still she was surprised anypony would dare put up the notice so deep in ‘Earth Pony territory’.

Making a mental note of the time and date, she left the store with April. That evening they had a fairly modest meal, agreeing that it would be best to ration their food while things remained uncertain. She went to bed early but couldn’t sleep, she wanted some fresh air, but her window was nailed shut for safety reasons. Taking a breath she mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do, and she left the house and stepped out onto the street.

She breathed in the night air, it may have been full of pollution from the factories, but it was the closest thing she had to being back home. She walked down the street, remaining vigilant. During the nights she could usually hear some commotion down one street or another, but tonight it sounded much closer, and different from a horde of drunken thugs. Turning the corner she came out onto the street that she knew was blocked off. She expected to see the high barricade with the words ‘unicorn territory’ painted on, but she didn’t.

The barricade lay in ruins. Large ponies with their faces covered charging in. Through the gaps in the wall she saw houses on fire, unicorns being dragged out into the street and beaten up. Occasionally an earth pony would come back through the wall carrying stolen goods. Dawn rushed forward, not sure what she was doing. She darted through a hole in the barricade, and it was like she stepped into another world. All around there were fire and screams.

She saw a family of unicorns huddled behind a mail box, trying not to be seen by the rioters. She rushed forward, seeing her they began to panic but she motioned for them to stay quiet.

“Are you alright?” she whispered loudly. They nodded still not sure whether to trust her. She scanned the street. “Their occupied, if you move now you can get far enough down the street that you’ll be safe.”

“Alright,” the father said clutching their foal in his arms. Following her lead they began to move low and quickly along the street, weaving in and out of objects that would obscure them from anypony looking their way. When they arrived at the end of the street Dawn looked around to make sure they weren’t followed before turning back to the family.

“I don’t think they saw us, keep going and don’t stop until you know you’re a safe distance away,” Dawn said. The mare embraced Dawn quickly and they both thanked her profusely before continuing on. Reluctantly Dawn turned back to the street she came from, and ran back into the inferno. Unicorns were now charging in, attempting to fight off the invaders, others cast water spells trying desperately to put out the fires.

As dawn ran past a building she was forced to swerve out as the front window burst into flames. She halted as she heard a scream from within the house. She hesitated for a second before charging back rearing at the door. The door was weak from rot and smashed in easily. Dashing in she squinted her eyes through the smoke trying not to breathe any in. she began looking through the rooms for whoever screamed, then when she came to the kitchen in the back of the house she saw a unicorn filly crouching in the corner.

“You have to come with me” she shouted over the roar of the flames, but she didn’t move. She looked more afraid of Dawn than the fires. Dawn approached her slowly leaning down so they were eye level. “Its alright, I wont hurt you,” she assured her, “I want to help you, but you have to trust me.”

Reaching out a hoof she looked pleadingly at the filly who timidly reached forward and grasped her hoof.

Dawn swept her up, placing her on her back.

“Hold on.” Dawn shouted, barely able to make herself out now. She raced out of the house, the filly’s front legs wrapped tightly around her neck. She charged back out the door, onto the street where the battle raged on. Looking up the way she escorted the family she was dismayed to see it was totally barred by brawling unicorns and earth ponies.

“Do you trust me?” she asked turning her head to look at the filly who nodded, “I’m going to take you back to my house until this calms down, I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She didn’t argue so they set back off towards the barricade trying not to be seen by lingering looters. Arriving at the hole she came in, they squeezed back to her side of the wall, and without waiting to be caught ran back towards April’s house.