"Sorry..." Maple smiled, trying to force her suddenly-unlocked composure into something more respectable. "You just... reminded me of somepony I used to know."
At that, the silvery mare in the doorway relaxed slightly, if not all the way. "Oh," she said, voice not quite loose. "Is there something you need, then?"
Maple cleared her throat, trying to see beyond the likeness of Willow and find uniqueness in the pony in front of her. "A friend just asked us to come to this address and make sure whoever was here was doing okay. I didn't really know who..."
The mare's face shadowed. "Tell Kero I'm fine, it works perfectly, and thank you very much."
"...Who?" Maple's brow furrowed.
"Oh..." The mare left out a bigger breath than Maple knew she could hold, tension draining from her features as she pushed the colt with her back into the house. "Sorry." She smiled, apologetic. "I guess I thought you were somepony else, too. Please, come in? My name is White Chocolate..."
With heavy hoofsteps, she turned and stumped down a staircase to the left, hugging the wall of the house. It revealed itself to be a depression in the ground beneath the tall hummock, leaving room enough for a high ceiling despite the fact that the hill was only three or four ponies tall when seen from the outside. A rug adorned the wooden floor beneath, along with a scattering of foal's toys, and several passages wound off to other rooms that glowed with warm amber light.
"I'm Maple," Maple offered, following slowly behind. "And this is Starlight."
"If she has another son that looks like Sunburst..." Starlight muttered under her breath.
"Hmm?" White Chocolate stopped, looking over her shoulder. "Did you say something?"
Starlight blinked. "I said 'hi.'"
"I'm Snowshoe!" the colt helpfully added. "Mom? Want me to go let everyone know company is here?"
"Everyone?" Maple tipped her head. "Who else is here?"
"My other children," White Chocolate puffed, reaching the ground. "And I think that could get a little chaotic. Snowshoe, please-"
She was interrupted by a little face peering around the corner of an entrance. "Mom? Who are you..." The filly broke into a wide grin, and she raced off like a tempest down the tunnel, caterwauling. "Oh hey, ponies! We've got company, everyone!"
Like the roar of an incoming avalanche, White Chocolate's house came alive with noise. Several voice rose, and something crashed in the distance like a toppling tower of pots and pans. From somewhere else, a foal started crying.
White Chocolate's ears folded, and she smiled in denial. "I had... just finished putting most of them to bed..."
"Sorry!" Maple lowered her head sheepishly as a band of little ponies began congregating at the entrances to the room. "I guess we should have come earlier..."
"Who are you guys, huh?" A sturdy colt stood with forelegs spread wide, as if he was daring someone to try to tip him over. "I haven't seen you before!"
"You're a unicorn!" A filly bounced, pointing rapidly at Starlight. "I'm learning telekinesis! Wanna see if you're better at it than me? My mom says I'm the strongest!"
"Mom?" another foal asked, standing with an infant on his back with the patience of a saint. "Berry is chewing on my mane."
White Chocolate huffed, adopting a businesslike tone and staring down the army of foals like an army commander. "No, it's fine. Kids? Go back to bed. It's past your bedtimes."
"Not miiine!" a foal sang. "You said I could stay up an extra thirty minutes if I did it reading!"
In the distance, another crash rang out, followed by a squeaky call of, "Hey, that's cheating!"
"Don't worry, Mom," Snowshoe announced, bodily lifting one of the smaller foals and staggering off down a tunnel. "I've got this! Leave it all to me!"
Maple was staring at the cacophony of foals, jaw dropped, trying and failing to get a count on just how many there were, when she felt a nudge on her shoulder and turned to see White Chocolate's sky-blue eye. "Do you mind going down that way, then turning right and closing the door? It'll be a lot easier for me to calm them down if you're not standing right here."
"Sure." Maple nodded, slightly dazed, and made sure Starlight was with her before stepping toward the indicated tunnel.
"I can show them the way!" A colt imperiously saluted, before bolting off ahead and quickly vanishing from sight.
"This is so chaotic," Maple whispered above the din as she shepherded Starlight down the corridor. A pair of foals tore past in the opposite direction to underscore her point, a colt chasing a filly, both with maniacal grins and no inhibitions.
"My ears hurt," Starlight grumbled back. "I already have a headache from my horn, too."
"Sorry, kiddo..." Maple nudged her. "I guess it looks like she's doing okay, though? Sort of? So maybe we won't be here for too long. I'm curious who she thought we were, though, and how Faron knew her. And I do need to rest very badly, so hopefully she lets us stay a while and talk..."
They emerged into what was probably a kitchen, a shelf-table ringing part of one side and several stacked cabinets and countertops placed against the other. The floor was tiled stone, safe for cooking near, and the colt that had barreled ahead stood like a silent guardian, eyes closed and hoof regally pointed to another entrance. Several metal dishes lay on the floor where they had collapsed from a stack, undoubtedly from the high-speed chase Maple and Starlight had passed earlier.
Thanking the colt, they stepped down the next tunnel, curving further down beneath the earth. It passed through a sturdy, well-abused door, which Maple carefully shut behind her, and emptied into another high-ceilinged room that formed an aboveground hill of its own. Dim light poured down through a high window with blinds drawn, illuminating a vast, plush raised bed sitting on a sea of green carpet so thick Starlight sank up to her belly, like it was snow.
"I wonder if she wants us getting this wet..." Starlight said, flicking her dew-laden ears.
"Probably not..." Maple glanced around, before finding a slightly more solid mat for them to stand on.
For several minutes, they waited, listening to the sounds of commotion slowly diminish outside. Then, there was a knock on the door, and it swung open. "Mom?"
Maple smiled apologetically, recognizing an older filly from the foyer. "Just us, I'm afraid."
"Oh." The filly blinked. "Well, if you see her, tell her that Board Biter was eating Snow's magazines again, and he yelled at me for not stopping him even though it's his own fault for not picking them up, and he yells at me when I tell him to do that, too."
"What about Board Biter, honey?" White Chocolate's voice called from behind, the mare making her way down the corridor.
"Snow's magazines," the filly said simply.
"Oh." White Chocolate sighed, standing in the doorway. "Well, that's his fault. Oof. I think they should finally be settling down again..." Her eye focused on Maple and Starlight, taking in their sprinkled appearances. "Oh my, you two are drenched! I'm sorry, I should have noticed, I... Hayseed?" She looked down at the filly standing by her side. "Can you get two towels? And maybe an extra for good measure. And then put on some tea? What kind of tea do you two like?"
Hayseed nodded, turning and slipping out of the room. "Sure thing, Mom."
"Anything is good, really." Maple shrugged. "I'm not all that familiar with the kinds you have here..."
"Anything..." White Chocolate nodded, looking back after the retreating filly. "She's a good child. I hope the rest grow up to be more like her."
Maple hummed, not knowing what to say.
White Chocolate looked up. "Sorry, what were your names, again?"
"Maple and Starlight."
"Maple and Starlight..." White Chocolate waded through the carpet to a well-cushioned rocking chair, heaving herself up and sprawling out on her side, adjusting her bathrobe and mane. "You said a friend asked you to come see how I was doing?" She smiled. "That's nice. It feels good to know there are still ponies in the world who care about me and how I'm doing. I don't think I get reminded of that often enough..." She looked up. "You, too. You came through the rain to get here, it looks like, didn't you?"
Maple smiled sheepishly from atop the rug, looking around for a safe place to sit down. "Sort of? We actually came all the way from the Stone District, but..."
White Chocolate sighed, shifting around on her chair and starting it rocking. "I'm sorry if I'm putting words in your mouths or assuming you're saying what I want to hear, though. Please, tell me about yourselves. Who asked you to find me? If there's somepony out there looking out for me, it would be nice to know..."
"Well, he didn't really tell us anything other than where to find you..." Maple shrugged, crossing her hooves and fidgeting from standing too long. "But we were asked by a stallion named Faron. Do you know him?"
"...Faron." After a long silence, White Chocolate's voice cracked, her visible eye glassy. "Oh. I guess he does still think about us, then..."
"I brought the towels!" Hayseed's voice chirped from outside the door, which nobody had bothered to close. "Here ya go, ladies!"
She stumbled through the carpet with a mountain of fuzzy linens on her back, proudly depositing them at Maple and Starlight's hooves, before walking up beside White Chocolate and nuzzling her cheek. "Hi, Mom. Did you say what kind of tea you wanted? I put some water on to boil."
White Chocolate hummed, unable to change her posture.
"Well, I forgot," Hayseed admitted. She glanced at Maple. "Hey, did you say Faron?"
Cautiously, Maple took one of the towels, rubbing it against her chest fluff. "I did..."
Hayseed's eyes widened. "You've met him? He hasn't been here in forever! He's my daddy!"
Maple stared as if hit by a brick, hundreds of words from different sources rushing into her head at once. Arambai, talking about how Sosans who had grown too desperate or depressed could be given one-way access to the ferry to Riverfall, to leave the remains of their old life behind and to start a new one. Faron, and his distant, wistful mannerisms as if he always regretted leaving his past life behind. Willow, and how White Chocolate looked just like her... or perhaps how the former looked like the latter, to a pony going the opposite direction. Herself, and how her own husband from Ironridge had left abruptly not two years ago, knocking down every hope and dream she had carefully built and leaving her and her friends to pick up the pieces of her life... and the unwelcome possibilities of how her life could have gone, were it not for Amber and Willow. One too many things clicked in her head, and before she could stop herself, she felt a single tear touch the side of her muzzle.