Bad Old Days by DCFTEF

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(03/04/2020)

 

 

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In the bad old days before the Sun & Moon Princesses unified the equine kingdoms into Equestria a unicorn filly was born into a muddy earth pony village. She was sickly and not expected to live. In these hard times there was little hope for a runty foal who could barely fill her lungs. All her earth pony parents could do was keep her warm and pick out a nice spot in which to dig another tiny grave when the inevitable happened. They had already dug 3 tiny holes and left a piece of their broken hearts in each.

 

But while her parents were picking out a box for her coffin the little unicorn refused to die. When she was out of danger her parents named her Clover, the lucky fourth who survived infancy. Just Clover, no second name like the fancy Unicorns. It was a plain, simple name for a filly who would have a plain, simple life in a plain, simple village.

Sickly little Clover built up her strength fast. Before she even had a cutie mark she was helping her father plow his muddy, rocky field. She soothed her mother's tears when the frosts came early and the family brought in another poor harvest...and she stomped her tiny hooves in fury when the Unicorn Lord's tax collector came to take away the best of it.

As fast as he could, Clover's Papa scooped her up and rushed her inside the cottage while Mama apologized to the tax collector for her outburst. She had to give up 3 more bushels of beets and potatoes before his anger was assuaged.

Inside the cottage, Clover's Papa put her across his lap and spanked her bottom soundly, tears flowing from his eyes at the injustice and falling onto his blameless filly's bottom. He had to do it loudly, so the official outside could hear that he was doing a proper job of teaching his daughter her place.

Clover snorted away her tears.

Papa usually listened to every word she said and made her opinion feel important, but today he slapped Clover on the backside again.

He felt awful for being so hard on her when she was right, but she had to learn.

Clover understood, but that wasn't good enough for her.

 

She was a smart filly, and it didn't take her long to understand that she could never make things fair by force. There were pegasus outlaws who hid out in the clouds and hills who tried that, launching raids and stealing back some of what the villagers grew. They were folk heroes, who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Frequently, one or more of their severed heads were hung from the Unicorn Lord's gate. Clearly their way of doing things was no solution.

Only knowledge and hard work, Clover decided, could improve her people's situation. While other fillies and colts enjoyed their few hours of playtime, Clover taught herself to read with the one single book in town. It was a spell book, owned by the village's wizard/doctor/barber/chemist/cheese maker, and from it Clover learned her first magic.

Smart Clover memorized the one book in her village and walked to other towns in search of more. Often she returned home late at night, shivering cold, having avoided monsters and bandits in the dark. There just weren't enough books available to give herself a proper education.

 

So at 11 years of age Clover made a sad decision. If she was ever going to become a skilled unicorn and make her village's prospects better she had to leave home. She didn't know when she would be back...it could be decades. Clover tearfully hugged her parents goodbye, knowing in these cruel medieval days she might never see them again. With her village cheering and waving farewell, she set off into the world.

 

Rumors told of a Unicorn Lord who considered himself very progressive and enlightened. He founded a school to educate aristocratic young unicorns but allowed commoners to attend too if they agreed to pay their way with hard work. Clover knew she could do that! She walked for weeks, sleeping outside, foraging for food and hiding from gangs of bandits who would sell her into a terrible life of slavery. The filly asked directions in every village, and sometimes cruel or just silly ponies sent her the wrong way, but at last Clover found the benevolent Lord's town and begged for admission to the school.

She was laughed at.

It was a huge pile of stones, some many times heavier than Clover herself, but they didn't know she'd grown up dragging stones like this out of her father's muddy field. The determined unicorn filly dragged what she could, and used levers and ropes to shift the rest. It took her two days, with nothing but grass and puddle water to sustain her, but she accomplished the task. Clover got into the school.

School was not easy for a commoner. She was expected to work as a servant for the rich students. She and the other common students cooked, cleaned the school and did laundry in exchange for their place in classes. At least they were luckier than earth pony foals, who had no hope of school at all. Many Unicorn Lords even made it a crime to teach an earth pony to read.

Even among unicorns, strict social separation was enforced and commoner students were frequently reminded of their place with a painful lash across their rears. Any member of the school staff was encouraged to give a servant-student a few licks if they felt it warranted...wealthy unicorn students delighted in getting their classmates in trouble and watching the painful show.

 

Clover did not tolerate the demeaning entertainment.

The first time fault was found with her cleaning she did not run away yelping like the other servants, scooting along with her rump held low to avoid more spanks (as the rich students laughed). She pulled a chair into the center of the room, bent down over it and lifted her tail out of the way, challenging her tormentors to do their worst. Her bravery was noted: Clover got spanked twice as long and twice as hard for her defiance.

 

The head-mare of the school identified this commoner filly as a problem. She would have quietly expelled the peasant but Clover protected her place in the school by being a top-notch student. Always at the head of the class, it would have hurt the school's overall reputation if she were to disappear unexpectedly.

A talented rebel was dangerous to the social order though, so Clover was given a new job where she couldn't agitate and inspire the other servant-students to their own shows of defiance. The filly was made personal servant for one of the 6 dormitory houses, incidentally the one the head-mare herself oversaw. Here she could keep a close eye on the upstart.

Clover's every day began before dawn; she was responsible for cooking breakfast and having it ready when the wealthy unicorn students rolled out of their soft beds. After she cleaned up and washed the dishes she was allowed to go to school...the same classes as the students she cooked for and cleaned up after.

In addition she cooked dinner, did the laundering and cleaned the whole dorm herself. After dark, when all the other little ponies were going to bed she finally got to do her homework and study, a single candle lighting up her tiny room under the stairs. She had to chop wood to pay for her own candles.

Often she went to her straw bed with painful stripes across her rump; the cruel head-mare nitpicked any small shortcoming with her work and punished harshly for it. She would have whipped the little filly for poor marks in class too, but Clover never earned a poor mark, to the nasty mare's great vexation.

 

Outside the unfair little world of the dormitory Clover's achievements did get noticed. Having arrived barely literate she became the academic star of the school. Not yet conditioned to the cruel social hierarchy they were expected to follow, many privileged unicorn youngsters became her friend and she was invited out to the playing fields, where she proved an athletic hero as well. The tough little filly, who had grown up helping her Papa plow fields and her Mama carry baskets of rich ponies' laundry was a demon in the jousting lanes, able to knock down fillies and colts much older than her.

The local Unicorn Lord had noticed his little asset as well.

The annual Wizard Tournament was a big deal, and the Lord was hosting this year.

The problem was, his fiefdom had not won any prizes in the last three tournaments and things didn't look good this year either. It would be a huge embarrassment if the Lord did not get a single trophy from a tournament HE was hosting. While she couldn't help with the adult events, Clover was the obvious choice to represent the school and her Lordship in the youth events. She was young, still just a twelve year old filly competing against teenagers but Clover was exceptional. If anyone could bring glory to Liege and his school it was her.

 

The Unicorn gentry exploded at the suggestion.

That was a regular sentiment among the aristocrats. Some of their more open-minded foals tried to convince them Clover was a star, but a talented upstart represented danger for the upper class. They didn't want to make a hero out of a commoner. Only the names of Nobles belonged in the history scrolls.

The Lord's long unsatisfied desire for trophies won out though, and Clover was named to the academic team and the individual jousting event...the youngest in the history of the school.

 

The festival started with a grand parade and opening ceremony, with famous Wizards coming into town accompanied by jugglers, acrobats and singing heralds to announce their arrival. One powerful Wizard rode in on a real elephant! Another had a captive dragon who breathed fire over the cheering crowd!

Poor Clover got to see none of this; she was busy washing the breakfast dishes of her classmates. She did a good job and made sure every tea cup and saucer was put away properly. She ensured the laundry was done and the dormitory spotless before hurrying off. The first academic event started only 10 minutes after Clover finished her cleaning.

 

The academic competition was hard fought, as many schools possessed smart, well prepared students to offer as champions. All were older but none worked as hard as Clover. One by one she bested rivals in contests of wit, knowledge and magical creativity, hoisting her school to second place in the standings.

sneered her greedy Lord,

Seated nearby, the cruel head-mare saw her job in peril. If the little shit failed she might get blamed herself. She took the opportunity to slip away and whisper a warning in Clover's ear.

That changed nothing for Clover, who didn't intend to lose anyway.

 

All hope of victory came crashing down in the final event though. Another school boasted a brilliant teenage colt who was more than a match for Clover's skills. The last challenge was purely scholastic, the student was required to present a magical thesis and prove it to a panel of learned Wizard judges. The colt nailed his presentation, explaining, then demonstrating why it was impossible to send a magical beam through a wall of pure quartz. It was a marvelous presentation that earned perfect scores from the judges. As Clover's school had already been trailing it was now mathematically impossible to win...even another perfect score from Clover wouldn't be enough.

Clover did not acquiesce as readily as her classmates though. She still had her eye on the biggest prize, not because she feared the nasty head-mare, but because she was Clover the Commoner and she never gave up.

She had an hour to get her presentation ready. Clover knew the one she had prepared with the help of her team-mates and teachers would not be good enough so she threw it away and galloped to the library to write another one.

 

At the appointed time the academic hall hushed and Clover stepped up to make her presentation. She asked that the slab of quartz from her predecessor's thesis be left in place. The twelve year old set up a simple rock on a pedestal, warmed up her horn and sent a magical beam straight through the quartz, transfiguring the stone into a bright red apple. The audience erupted in shouts of disbelief, calling it a cheap illusion. No pony could beam magic through solid quartz, not even the great Wizards who sat as judges. Clover asked a neutral pony to bring the apple to the chief judge, the most learned of all Wizards in the land. She did not touch it, so there could be no accusation of tampering.

Tentatively, the bearded Wizard took a nibble. He gasped.

There was thunderous applause, but Clover did nothing until it died down, then she explained how she'd done the impossible; sidestepping the refractive nature of the crystal by phasing her beam through a chaos dimension then back into the real world. The rival colt was the first to hoist her onto his back. His thesis had been perfect but the little commoner had proven him wrong and he was a good sport about it. Clover was triumphant and her school won the gold trophy.

 

These was little time to celebrate. Clover was also entered in the jousting event, which was that afternoon. Overjoyed with victory, she galloped back to the dormitory to fetch her jousting gear.

Waiting there was her cruel nemesis, the head-mare.

 

“I did what you wanted, I won a big shiny trophy for the Lord.”

But the head-mare had a point to make. Clover might have won, but it was always the upper classes who would get the glory. This peasant needed to be reminded of her place.

Clover defiantly snorted.

The nasty mare sneered;

But a giggle from some of the rich unicorn fillies who were peeking from the doorway told her something was wrong. A glance into the kitchen revealed a pile of dirty dishes, put there by the mean fillies while Clover was championing them at the academic competition.

 

Clover did her duty, scrubbing the pile of plates and bowls. Most hadn't even been used...the bullies and just smeared food on them and tossed them in the wash tub. It made Clover furious. They'd probably wasted enough to feed her hungry village for a whole day, but she cleaned it all and went to see the head-mare.

The merciless look on the mare's face said otherwise.

Poor Clover took a deep, nervous breath because she understood that lesson would be taught with the horse whip.

It hurt like nothing she'd ever experienced.

Clover was a tough kid but no foal is immune to pain. Even during the ordinary spankings she got for not cleaning or cooking properly the little filly cried. There was nothing she could do about it, no matter how clever or hardworking she was no enchantment could bless her with an armored rear-end. Spankings always hurt.

The horse whip was something different though. Clover screamed, she bawled, she suffered intensely as the head-mare lashed her narrow filly backside with the brutal implement. The mare did not do this as a loving adult, sanctioning poor behavior with a corrective spanking, but as a dominating tyrant, determined to crush this talented filly's heroic spirit before it could overturn the whole feudal system. Every terrible slash of the whip was meant to hurt and be remembered for the rest of Clover's life as a warning to respect her rank in society.

The braided whip left painful welts and bruises with every cut. A lesser pony...even a grown adult...might have passed out from the pain of the abusive whipping but Clover was determined to remain conscious and walk away from this terrible torture. She had come here to grow powerful so she could go back and help her beloved parents and village out of impoverished despair. This nasty mare would not defeat her.

 

The head-mare's strength gave out before Clover's endurance. Her arm was so worn out she dropped the whip.

She was right. Clover was exhausted and still in swollen, throbbing agony. Her rear had even been cut by the pitiless thrashing, leaving it raw, welted and weeping blood in a few painful spots. Even determined Clover considered giving up and collapsing in her tiny room. The head-mare was right, she could barely walk let alone carry a lance.

Wincing against the pain that came with every step Clover wobbled her way to her little room and got her stuff.

 

Her worried team-mates breathed sighs of relief when the star jouster finally arrived, but they were horrified when they saw what the head-mare had done. Even the aristocratic unicorns agreed she had gone too far.

That was not good enough for Clover.

 

Adult jousting armor covered the whole pony but for lightness the junior kits only protected the front of a foal. A complex set of straps distributed some of the weight to the rear to keep a young jouster's weight balanced. Unfortunately these straps ran right across the wearer's rump, chaffing painfully on Clover's badly bruised backside.

Shaking their heads in disbelief at her grit, two older students lowered the school armor onto Clover. Armor was horrendously expensive so only the wealthiest knights and lords owned their own. Even the aristocratic student ponies used armor owned by the school, so this was one area where Clover at least got the same protection as the rich kids.

 

When Clover stepped into the lists for her first joust the crowd gasped at the state of her rump. Just a few hours ago they had watched this clever youngster spank the older foals at the academic contest. No pony could understand what had happened since then but hundreds cried injustice at the abuse.

Clover wished they would just be quiet.

She intended to silence all her abusers...herself.

Rival after rival were knocked down by Clover's lance. She took her share of hits too but always got up, ready for the next charge. Not all her opponents were as determined...a single hard crash into the ground convinced many older colts and fillies to tip their lance in submission and not risk another tangle with the ferocious 12-year old. The commoner crowd roared its support. Her fellow students cheered for their champion. Even the unicorn gentry politely clapped and admitted this young commoner was something special. Clover just thanked her lucky stars every time a rival surrendered early. She was in awful pain so the fewer runs she had to make the better.

 

By evening she found herself in the final for the second time today.

Ponies were even ignoring the adult events to watch the junior jousting final.

Tired, swollen and aching, Clover didn't know if she could deliver. Again her opponent in the final was a big teenager, but this one was not a gentlecolt like the one who was first to congratulate her on the academic victory. He was a big, snorting brute who was a true blue-blooded aristocrat and wanted to teach the 'uppity' Clover a lesson.

Wincing, her helpers yanked the straps even tighter across Clover's busted up bottom. She squeaked in pain but charged into action bravely.

 

She got knocked down hard.

Head spinning, Clover almost gave up...the big colt had gotten a really good hit against her...but she lined up for another charge.

Again she got knocked down. This time he hit her unfairly, in the helmet. It was against the rules in the Junior category but the referee had been given a sack of silver coins by the colt's wealthy father. No foul was called.

Her friends were worried about her.

Clover sighed. They had a point.

Maybe restraint was the better path here. Second place was still not bad.

Happy that she'd seen reason, her friends eagerly stripped off the armor. Maybe Clover would win it all next year, or when she got older.

Her friends halted in disbelief but Clover was serious.

But her adult trainer objected;

 

Her friends and trainer argued against it, and tried to forbid Clover from jousting, but the referee was crooked and he said if the filly wanted to charge it was her decision. He didn't care if she was killed.

She turned to her friends and told them;

Her friends sniffed the liquid.

Clover shivered and ordered;

 

The referee dropped his flag and the hulking colt charged.

Reluctantly, Clover's friends tossed the bucket of vinegar on her tormented rump.

It stung so badly that the little pony took off like a rocket. Without the weight of armor she was fast, and finally got the hit she wanted, directly in the center of the brutish colt's chest. He crashed hard, rolling into the haybales. His father galloped over to check him out, and spoke for his dazed son.

Clover won her second huge trophy of the day.

From the stands the cruel head-mare seethed.

The Lord stood up and applauded his fiefdom's victory, but he cast a disapproving glance to the mare. This commoner had served her purpose...now get her under control before she becomes some kind of hero to the peasants. The head-mare nodded back confidently. She'd move this upstart to dungeon duty, and let her spend the rest of her time at school scrubbing sewers.

 

But she would never get the chance.

As the crowd celebrated the little commoner's triumph a wise old Wizard was quietly asking questions of her teachers.

He was the one who'd nibbled her transfigured apple at the academic contest...and he was a big fan of jousting as well. When he finally got the chance he approached the young champion with an offer.

 

So Clover did not stay at the snooty school. With the powerful Starswirl's help she didn't even give her Lord any of the trophies or medals she'd won, choosing instead to send the gold back to her village where it could buy years of extra food. As Starswirl's apprentice she finally got to return to her village and found her gifts had done much to help the ponies she loved. Her academic trophy was kept safe though, displayed in a position of honor in her town.

 

Sadly, Clover's jousting trophy was lost, melted down to feed the needy as she'd hoped. It made no difference, as her brave, wise deeds grew in fame and her name was stamped again and again on the history scrolls. As for the cruel head-mare and the bullies that tormented her, their names were lost to time as no pony bothered to write them down. They were forgotten, while history forever remembered the name of Clover the Clever.

 

END