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// Nor A Farmer! 
// Story: Rarity Gets Enslaved 
// by MagicS 
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I was absolutely sick of peeling potatoes. I can’t even tell how many hundreds I had peeled already this morning but I was just sick of it. They had woken me up before the crack of dawn, bad enough already, and marched me down into this kitchen with a dozen others and set us to work. Now I was side by side with a surly griffon, peeling and peeling and peeling. At least it was better than chopping onions. I had unfortunately already had to force my way through that before we started on the potatoes.

And as I looked at the massive barrels of carrots next to the potatoes I had a rather good idea of what I’d be peeling next.  

My hooves were sore and starting to get calloused. As I looked at the griffon next to me I almost wished I had the strong talons she had just so I had an easier time with all this. But griffon talons weren’t as pretty. It would just take a long spa treatment and hooficure to get everything back to normal once I returned to Ponyville. Oh, the thought of it is almost overwhelming.

I had to be a little careful with the peeler I was using so I didn’t accidentally cut myself. And the potatoes kept slipping out of my hooves, peeling them was such a bother. Some of them were so rough and misshapen and they had those eyes on them that made peeling them take even longer. I can’t believe how exhausted I was just from chopping onions and peeling potatoes.  

There were a few trolls watching over us all, how I wish the shoe was on the other hoof and they had to do all this tedious labor. I’d really like to give them a piece of my mind but I don’t think the other slaves here would appreciate that.  

“You’re slowing down, pick up the pace!” The gruff rude griffon said to me.  

I simply frowned, not wanting to start a fight. And my mind had been wandering a bit as it tended to do so I focused back on the task of peeling potatoes. It didn’t take long to get back into the groove, as troublesome as it was I had become quite good at peeling these potatoes by now. As long as I didn’t let my irritation get to me it would be alright.

Hopefully I wouldn’t have to do this again anytime soon.

Hopefully I would get out of this dreadful place soon.  

After about another half hour we finished with the potatoes and just like I thought, moved on to the carrots. These were at least a lot easier to deal with than either the potatoes and onions but there were still so many of them.

Grab a carrot, peel it, and then it goes on to the ones washing all the vegetables. Repeat over and over until the carrots were all gone too. Oh right, and discard the skin. The repetitiveness was getting to me in such a way that I was just automatically going through the motions but somehow was still worried I would accidentally miss or forget to do something. My mind was turning to mush. Just a jumbled mess of onions, potatoes and carrots. How many hours had I been doing this now? There weren’t any exterior windows in here, I had no idea what time it was. The company wasn’t good for conversation either, which really could’ve made this all easier. My mind is wandering again and I can’t even help it! It’s just too tedious. Here’s hoping I don’t make any mistakes or slow down again so my griffon neighbor doesn’t get upset with me.

It did take quite a long time again but we managed to get through all the carrots. And that was it for the vegetables so I’m not sure what I would be doing now.

Suddenly a shadow fell over me and I looked up to see one of the trolls standing behind me and the griffon. He raised his hand and pointed to a sink at the far end of the kitchen away from us.

“Cleaning duty. Wash all the plates and utensils. Then clean the floors.”

I was just about ready to explode. After all that work I had just done I was hoping for at least a little break, but to go right to cleaning up?! This was ridiculous. I was already so tired and my hooves so beat up and now I had to clean everything up too! Oh, my poor hooves were going to get so pruny on top of everything else now too. And cleaning the floors! I had by far enough of that yesterday. At least the kitchen tile would be far easier to deal with but this was still a large kitchen, there was so much ground to cover. My patience was truly wearing thin at this point.

My griffon friend didn’t seem to share my anger however, she simply nudged me along to the sink and all I could do was bite my tongue and get started.

Of course after about five seconds of scrubbing the first dish I simply had to voice my frustration to her.

“Do you really not have a problem with all of this?”

She scowled but didn’t stop cleaning her own dishes. “You get used to it. Some of us have tried to escape or fight back before but the trolls are pretty ruthless in managing us, and as I’m sure you’ve noticed considering how much you like to talk they’re also good at ignoring complaints. At least the slave quarters are nice.” She finished, shrugging.

I sighed, yes the trolls definitely didn’t let things get to them as easily as the Diamond Dogs. Although I have been holding back quite a bit from complaining too much… vocally… we’re so far from Equestria I just don’t know what to do. I can’t simply walk home after nagging them all into submission even if that was possible.

I don’t like to call it nagging in the first place either.

Well my conversation with the griffon ended rather quickly, she didn’t want to continue and I didn’t want to bother her. We continued to scrub and stack plates and clean the knives and peelers and what else had been used this morning. All this dirty water, if I accidentally cut myself on a knife it would be horrible. I did a good job though, I wasn’t going to give the trolls any excuse to extend our work. Every plate was sparkling by the time I was done with it and the utensils were good enough to use again immediately. Rarity always outdoes herself.

Right after finishing up though I felt a dry rag thrown against the back of my head.

“Now clean the floors!” The troll bellowed as he kicked two buckets of water with mops in them at us.

If I was about to explode earlier now I was REALLY about to explode.

Instead despite the steam that was surely coming out of my ears I grabbed my mop and started cleaning the floor. Oh you better believe my face was red though. The other slaves besides me and the griffon were organizing and putting things away before they left to do whatever, we had to mop around them and unfortunately not everyone was considerate enough to avoid places we had already cleaned so our work took a bit longer than it should have.  

Mopping up the floors with soapy water first and then cleaning all that up until it was spotless and dry. My muscles were so sore and smelling all that cleaning solution, whatever it was, had started to make me woozy. My hooves were trembling as I finished up drying the last bit of tile with my rag and I had to sit down for a second.

“Oh dear, I’m really not made for this.”

My griffon friend rolled her eyes at me. When I saw that I huffed at her.

“Well sorry for not being used to this kind of work, not all of us can have such sturdy bodies you know?” I told her.

“Yeah, yeah, relax, I didn’t say anything.” She said. “You’ll toughen up eventually anyways.”

“Hmph, I certainly hope I’m not here long enough to toughen up.” That would be awful.

“So you’re already working on your great escape plan? Maybe you can let me in on it? I’d really appreciate that.” She said to me with a condescending smirk.

“I could do without your sarcasm you know. And when did you become so talkative? I would’ve liked that more when we were working to pass the time.”

She just shrugged. “Down time.” She hooked a thumb over her shoulder and I looked to see the troll that had previously given us work directing the other slaves to their new duties. The two of us were left with a moment to rest.

I rubbed my eyes before stretching my back. “What’s your name? I’m Rarity, from Ponyville in Equestria.”

“Gertrude, from Griffonstone. Haven’t seen it in a long time even before I got stuck here though.” She said with another apathetic shrug.

It was obvious to me that she had quite the story behind her life, but it was doubly obvious that she had less than no intention of sharing it. Well fine then, I wouldn’t ask her about it either and we could go back to saying nothing to each other until the troll overseer came back over and sent us off wherever.  

My stomach rumbled and I blushed in embarrassment, refusing to meet Gertrude’s eyes.

“You get a short break but then it’s back to work.”

I spun around to see the troll overseer walking towards us. He pointed at Gertrude. “Griffon, it’s masonry work for you. You know where to go.” Gertrude scowled but walked by the troll without a word, then he turned to me. “As for you it’s the orchards and farms for now. Follow me.”





I recall when I briefly attempted to help out at Sweet Apple Acres to impress Trenderhoof. In hindsight I now wish I spent more time there to prepare myself for all of this.

Apples. So many apple trees I couldn’t believe my eyes, I don’t think even Sweet Apple Acres has this many, it was incredible. And we were still within the castle grounds too. I didn’t really know anything about apples, sorry Applejack, but I didn’t think they grew in a place like this. I looked at the strange gray soil beneath my hooves, fitting in with the color of the mountains the castle was built on and around. It did not seem like the fresh and healthy soil that fruit liked. And yet here in front of me thousands of strong looking trees stood, each with hundreds of apples hanging from their branches. Red, green, golden, pinkish, the sheer variety was certainly greater than what the Apple family had.  

I wasn’t given much more time to look though, after the kitchen overseer had brought me down here another troll pointed me towards the trees. They had numerous buckets stacked up for the apples, wagons to carry the buckets when they were filled, and ladders to get up into the trees and pick them. At least the troll who managed the apple orchards was not so gruff and angry as the kitchen overseer had been. He actually smiled! Yes, the first troll I had seen smiling and actually looking happy. From what I could tell he seemed to really love apples. He politely and calmly explained to all of the slaves that we would be picking the apples and sorting them by type into the buckets. Why couldn’t every troll be nice like him?

Hm, I don’t want to sound like I’m growing fond of them. Just one having manners hardly excuses everything else.  

“Make sure you separate them by color, different apples are used for different things, and I take my apples seriously.” The troll said to us. “Apples are our favorite fruit, you can’t find them outside of the castle. That’s what they mean to us trolls.”  

So now the rest of the slaves and I were getting a cultural lesson on trolls from him?

“Now get to work, and none of you better try sneaking one either!” He said that rather jovially though.

I went with the other slaves into the seemingly endless rows of apple trees, grabbing some buckets and pulling along a ladder with me I climbed up into the first open tree and started picking. A pony behind me was manning the wagon, pushing it along and gathering up the filled up buckets in this row of trees.  It seemed like an easier job than what I was doing. Picking these apples was as tedious as peeling those potatoes.  

Applejack would probably be rather jealous of me right now though.

The work was slow going however and I was already tired even before coming out here, sweat was dripping from my brow and I bet I looked like a right mess! At least it wasn’t hot out, the sky was still dark and as dreary looking as it was the last time I saw it directly. It almost looked like it was perpetually going to rain but I hadn’t seen nor heard a single drop in the few days I had been here. At least my magic was still good enough to pick the apples that were out of reach of my hooves, although eventually I’d run out of energy to do that too.  

“Please, please, let this be the last thing I have to do today.” I said to myself.  

At last finishing up with that first tree I grabbed my ladder and moved on to the next, the pony with the wagon grabbing my buckets and stacking them with the rest. I sighed and rubbed my forehead to try and alleviate some of my stress before climbing up and starting the whole process over.  

I was getting sick of apples very quickly. 

I was getting sick of doing this work very quickly.  

The thing was I couldn’t even tell how late in the day it was because of the sky, I had no idea how long I had been awake or how long I had been out in this apple orchard. Was it almost time to retire soon or was it hours away?

After going through maybe ten trees I heard a whistle blow.

“That’s enough!” I looked to see our smiling troll walking through the rows of trees, but this time there were five other trolls walking with him and carrying an assortment of bags and farming tools I only vaguely recognized.

“Good job with the apples, the slaves with the wagons will take them back to the castle’s storehouse. The rest will continue out here, seeding the soil past the orchard with corn.” At that the other five trolls started handing out bags of seed to some slaves while others were given shovels and various other kinds of groundbreaking tools to till and move the soil.

I ended up with a shovel in my hooves.

With mouth embarrassingly open in aghast surprise I looked up at the troll who had handed it to me.

“You can’t be serious, darling.”

Unsurprisingly, I was ignored.

And so I was forced to dig holes in this rough, unforgiving soil while another pony stood beside me dropping seeds into them. Considering this other pony was a stallion I feel like it would’ve been fair if our positions were reversed. It also would’ve been gentlemanly if he at least offered to switch but of course I had no such luck there either. Instead I dug a small hole, stepped back a few feet, and dug another in a straight line. What a joyful activity. 

This area of the castle grounds was completely open, unlike the orchard that was covered in trees. I suppose it must’ve been seasonal farmland that wasn’t always in use. Of course I had no actual idea, I wasn’t a farmer. But really, the area this castle stretched was gargantuan, looking over my shoulder I saw the walls rising in the distance and beyond those were yet more towers and buildings, it must’ve simply been another part of the castle rather than its limits. Just how much was there? Looking forward I saw what Daylight Gleam had described as the royal family’s portion of the castle, a massive castle within a castle that stood on the higher peaks of the mountains, with walls and towers coming down from it that made up the rest of the castle. It looked like one single fortress standing up there and looking down on the rest.

Shaking my head I got back to work, it was at this point that my seed carrying companion decided to speak up.  

“Lovely day out isn’t it?”

My eye began to twitch.

“My village sent me out into the world to spread the word about our newfound way of life that preaches equality above all. I ended up finding myself here but the trolls unfortunately haven’t been too receptive to the truth of equality.” He continued on despite me not responding to him, I wasn’t even really paying attention.

“That’s a shame.” I automatically said.

“Yes, truly, the Word should be heard by all. I even brought my scripture here with me but it was confiscated. Luckily I’ve memorized it all by heart, would you like me to tell you about it?”

He continued to prattle on and on while I didn’t listen. I don’t even know what he was talking about, I was too busy digging holes and just nodding along to whatever he was saying.  

“My name’s Lemon Squeeze, what’s yours?”

“Rarity.” I said without even looking at him.

“Great! If I ever see you again we can talk more about the Word. I’d love for as many to see the infallible truth of our gospel as possible.” He said cheerfully, I could hear the smile in his voice. 

Needless to say that cheerfulness just made me angrier and I completely stopped talking for the rest of the hole digging while his inane chatter continued despite my lack of response in any way. Is it hypocritical of me to do this after complaining about Gertrude not talking much? Whatever, I’m angry, I don’t care.

The digging was getting to be more difficult since I was already tired and my legs felt like jelly. The soil was dry and tough and didn’t feel like something crops would grow well in but I still made as many holes as I could.  

After a while another troll came by with a wagon pulled by two more ponies. He threw a large bag out of it at mine and Lemon Squeeze’s hooves.

“Spread this fertilizer and when you’re done with that come back to the orchard, there’s firewood for you to chop.”

Well this was just fantastic, now I got to go back over all those holes I dug and the rest of this ugly soil and spread fertilizer. What a lovely way to spend my day.  

And that’s how the next two hours of my life were spent. I went around with Lemon Squeeze, first dropping big clumps of fertilizer and then spreading it all evenly over and around the holes I had dug. Looking around me I saw the other slaves doing the same, I had no idea how long it would take to grow but eventually there would be a large cornfield out here. Oh but after that I was hardly done. Now it was time to chop wood!  

Fine! Bring it on!

I got a splinter.

I have never chopped wood with an axe before and I intend to never do it again after today. This. Is. The. Worst. I am so tired, I can’t even feel my legs, I have blisters all over my formerly perfect and lovely hooves, soon they’ll be covered in rough callouses if I keep doing work like this, my mane is matted with sweat, I don’t even have any mascara or eyeliner, I haven’t had a real meal in days, my rest has been continuously interrupted, and everyone is just so rude and apathetic.

I want to cry.  

But I refuse to let these trolls see me like that! No, absolutely not! I refuse to let this get to me, I have been through so much in my life and I’m not about to breakdown from some work that Applejack would call a “normal day”.  

It was difficult and I slowed down quite a bit but I finished up with the firewood that had been placed for me, dropping the axe I nearly collapsed to the ground right next to it as well. Panting so heavily that it was uncouth I desperately needed some rest and a bath. In either order.  

A shadow fell over me again that day and I looked up to see one of the trolls standing over me.

“Good work pony, now report to the rock quarry.”

“Rock quarry?”





My exhausted body was led to the far side of the castle grounds I had been working in. At this part of the castle a large hole had been dug into the ground and rocks were mined and taken out of the earth, large cranes carried pallets that held who knew how many tons of rocks from deep within and deposited them on the edge of the quarry, peering inside I saw dozens of slaves moving and towing rocks onto fresh pallets. Some tugged them with ropes or carried them on their backs, others pulled wagons overflowing with rocks from tunnels even deeper inside the quarry or pushed smaller wheelbarrows full of rocks. I saw some slaves, ponies, hippogriffs, etc. cutting and picking at the rocks and walls with pickaxes, trying to get them down to a more manageable size for moving while simultaneously expanding the quarry. There were rope pulleys and lifts to get from one level of the quarry to another while stacks of hardhats and racks of pickaxes and other tools sat at the top, ready for any new slave to grab when they were forced to work in this dreadful place.

I looked up at the troll who had led me here, I will note his patience, he had no problem with me not knowing where to go so I will categorize him among the very few slightly more polite trolls I have met so far.  

“I… I’ve been working all day you know. I was up before dawn working in the kitchens and I haven’t had a single moment of real rest.” I tried to explain to him that I really couldn’t work anymore, there was just no more energy in my body. I needed my beauty sleep! “I’m not really built for such hard labor either you know, just look at me!”

The troll shrugged. “Not my call, come, down to the quarry.” He pushed me along with one of his strong arms.  

I wanted to scream.

We walked to the nearest lift and I was made to grab and equip a hardhat, luckily I knew how to wear one without further ruining my mane, and a pickaxe. The troll came down with me so I suppose he must be here to observe things or perhaps watch over me specifically, I was new after all, maybe they were making sure I actually worked or were trying out what I was best at. Well if that was the case they should’ve had me sewing or fixing up clothes and tapestries.  

The lift lowered to the bottom of the quarry and the two of us stepped out, I was taken to a pile of large rocks that had been piled in a corner of the quarry, there weren’t many other slaves around, all of them were doing their own thing, most of them ferrying more rocks out of the tunnels at this level. As I looked at the rocks piled up before me I was filled with trepidation, the pile was huge, two, maybe even three times my height.

With pickaxe in hoof I turned to my troll watcher.

“And my job here is what exactly?”

“You are to break apart these rocks into smaller rocks.” He said simply.

My jaw dropped, I turned disbelievingly from him back to the pile and then back at him again.

“All of them?”

“All. Yes. I would get started soon if pony wants to be finished by the end of the day.”

No. Absolutely not. This. Was. Absurd!

I dropped the pickaxe and yanked off my hardhat, throwing it down onto the ground where it bounced off and rolled to between the trolls feet.  

“No! No, no, no! I refuse! Do you have any idea how absolutely ridiculous this is?! I can not do this after everything else I was forced to do today, I am not some workhorse whose body is made of muscle. I am a lady. And I am not some slave who can be ordered around to do whatever! I have been trying to keep patient and not vent my frustrations for I at least was hoping you would all have the sense to treat me well enough, but clearly I was wrong! You are all the most absolutely rude and ill-mannered creatures I have ever met! This is patently absurd! I am not going to be lifting a single hoof for you and the rest of you trolls ever again! You will not get anymore work out of this pony! None indeed. I am tired, I am sore, and I will not debase myself any longer!” I stamped my hoof in anger, holding my head up high in as dignified and proud a manner as possible. I meant everything I said, I don’t care about the consequences, they won’t have me working for them after this!

The troll just stared at me impassively for a few seconds before leaning down, face close to mine.

“Pony doesn’t want to work any longer?”

I glared at him. “No! Pony doesn’t want to work any longer!”

He continued to stare with a frown on his face for a moment longer before responding. “I think you should see some things before you make such a decision.”