Walking down the dirt byway beside the dirt road, the three ponies were together, Isobar and Wakes Week talking about a variety of topics: the headline of today, how Ambling is working out, Isobar's organization for foals and of foals, Wakes Week's umbrella-making business, her friend's time at the newspaper station, how the Princesses are doing what they were doing for Equestria, neighboring kingdoms such as the Dragon Lands, the Changeling Hive, Griffonstone, and Yakyakistan; spontaneous singing, plans for a short week-long stay at a big city like Vanhoover or Manehattan, and whether they were hungry or not and where to eat if they were.
Amid this casual chatter that elicted from the two talkers smiles and the occasional laugh, Watts Onion paid attention to the conversation without saying a single word. A little pout went on to his face though he kept his pace and did not look anywhere else. For a while.
After that, he looked at the other ponies across the street. Ponies talking there, too, even between open windows. Under the sunny blue sky, most of the ponies that he saw were with somepony else. Whether they talked or not did not matter to him—they were with each other.
"Uh, we're here, Onion," a voice said.
Onion tossed himself around, his breathing quickening. "What was that?!"
Isobar and Wakes Week merely looked at each other before looking at the crazed unicorn. "We're at the house now, Onion. Say your good-byes to your family—don't forget to hug them, alright?"
Wakes Week twisted her mane, eyeing him and smiling as she motioned a hoof towards the wooden door.
Onion gulped; sweat was going down his face in beads.
The other two ponies did not say anything.
Onion ambled his way—or, attempted to, since his hoofsteps were uneasy and inequal—and opened the door, walking inside and through the hallway.
The smell of cooked garlic and onions wafted outside.
The two left outside looked in. "Should we enter?" Wakes Week asked.
"I think we should let this be a personal thing," Isobar answered.
Approaching the long dinner table, he saw his parents at the kitchen area with his father at the stove and his mother at the toaster. The savory smell only intensified as Onion walked nearer.
Lacrimal turned around from his heated big pot. "Watts!" he shouted in a good-natured tone.
Electric Arc turned around, too, seeing him. "Let me guess: You've been rounding up some friends and preparing for the big journey ahead of you. Am I right?" She smiled wider.
Watts smiled back and nodded, getting even closer to them. "Actually, we're almost done. There's just one more thing I have to do, mom and dad."
The smiles on both of the parents' faces disappeared.
The smile on Watts disappeared, too.
Silence—tense silence, loving silence.
"I know what you're going to say," Electric Arc managed. A pause, glancing away from him for a while.
"It's time to leave, isn't it?" Lacrimal uttered.
No verbal answer. Only that same frown.
The boiling of the pot, the ticking of the toaster, and not much else.
Hoofsteps going down. Several.
"When's lunch gonna be ready?" Onion Chutney asked as he appeared and the rest of his siblings appeared in the hallway. "I'm going—" The three of them stopped right behind Watts. "Oh."
A collective silence gathered at the hallway and at the dining room.
"I think we should step in," Wakes Week whispered from the outside.
"What?!" Isobar shouted in a hush, looking at her with terrible amazement. "And ruin this family moment?"
"If we're going to help Watts in his journey," she replied, "we might as well help him say his farewells first."
"But, he can do it on his own and—"
"And, if we're there," Wakes Week interrupted, continuing on, "we can make the farewells even better. He doesn't have to be solitary about it."
So, she walked in.
Isobar just blinked as he watched her stay inside. Groaning and rolling his eyes, he went inside though on quiet hoofsteps.
"Watts?" Chutney said, slowly nearing his brother and his sisters following him. "Is everything OK?" He looked at their parents who slightly turned their gaze upon him. "What's happening?" he asked them.
"He's going to go," Lacrimal said.
The older sister gasped and placed her two hooves on her cheeks. "Watts is leaving already?! Why wasn't I told about this before?!"
"Forecast, calm down," Lacrimal ordered, adopting a gruff tone before turning his face immediately back into a concerned pout. Looking at the younger sister, he said, "And you, Onion Bulb, please don't do anything bad with the storage. We wouldn't want to sour this moment with missing food."
"What's that for?" Wakes Week whispered.
A shush.
The entire family looked at the two newcomers in the hallway and near the entrance, including Watts who opened his mouth in surprise and shock.
The pegasus, in the act of shushing Wakes Week, opened his eyes wide at the sudden attention; his irises shrunk at that and so did Wakes Week's as they both looked back at the Onion family before them.
"Run?" Isobar asked.
"Run," Wakes Week replied.
And the two ran out of the house.
Hoofsteps stopped quickly.
Everyone in the family kept looking at the open door.
Then, Lacrimal turned his gaze back upon his son. "You don't have to say goodbye to us, Watts. We know that you're coming back."
"And, don't forget to write us letters," Electric Arc quipped. "Knowing that you're still in good condition is going to assure and reassure us throughout your search."
Chutney laughed, leaped and hugged his brother, Watts staggering and almost falling to the floor. "Watts, don't you dare leave us guessing!"
"I'm going to make sure that we have all the papers ready!" Forecast yelled. "Everything must be accounted for! We need to prepare for turning the living room into a room where ponies will stay in to meet the one-and-only Watts Onion! I know that you haven't become famous yet, but that's why I added the word 'yet'! It's a 'yet' thing that's going to take place in the future and I know it will take place in the future because I know you're going to come back because—think about it—it can't be that bad in Winsome Falls, right?"
Everyone else just looked upon the semi-hyperventilating Forecast; Chutney stopped hugging Watts, though he kept smiling at his brother.
"What? That's not the only thing I'm excited about! Winsome Falls souvenirs are cool to own! They have this cool painting of Winsome Falls at the last town before you get there—I forgot the name, but it's still cool to have that painting up on the walls and everypony visiting you, Watts Onion—" pointing a hoof at her brother "—everypony is going to know that you're the hero who saved Equestria from uncertainty!"
"'The Hero who Saved Equestria from Uncertainty,'" Watts repeated, looking at his older sister. "Now that has a charming ring to it."
Forecast burst into guffaws, leaning on her Onion Bulb who responded with an irritated face as she endured the laughter.
The parents smiled a little, though that melancholy on their faces did not go away.
"Are you sure you have everything?" Lacrimal asked.
Watts nodded.
"Are you really sure about that, Watts?"
Watts nodded.
"Really, really sure?"
Watts nodded again.
Lacrimal sighed.
Silence once more.
The boiling of the pot, the ticking of the toaster, and not much else.
Then, a hug.
A family hug.
Silence, though it was not a tense silence. It was a loving silence, a silence that required no words to express what was being shared and shown here: a familial love.
Seconds, even a minute dragged on, yet the hug was still there with not much movement.
A tear went down Watts's cheek.
The squeeze tightened.
Silence gave way to whimpers.
Whimpers gave way to cries.
Cries gave way to sobbing.
And so, first the parents and then Watts and Forecast and Onion Bulb and, finally, the stalwart Onion Chutney who looked up throughout it all finally succumbed, bawling his eyes out as he embraced his brother in full—Watts returned the favor.
The family ascended to tears.
An ear peeked in. Then, it went away.
"Yeah, it's full-on crying now," Isobar said to Wakes Week.
She had an aghast face. "Are you recording this all? That's not how you remember your friends' important events!"
Isobar shushed her with a glare.
"Oh, I'm not going to be intimidated," Wakes Week muttered as she turned away from Isobar.
No words were said. Only the moans and the weepings that resounded through the hallway and out past the open door. All the family was in one embrace, Watts in the center of this loving and caring hug. All eyes were closed as they poured down the streams of tears that rushed like a river down their faces, dripping to the floor or to another family member—but, they did not mind nor care, for they went on crying no matter how many tears were on their coats or manes.
Finally, after a few more minutes, the tears dried up as they sniffled and rubbed their noses, letting go of each other yet now smiling.
"I can just tell y-you right now, you're gonna make it back home better than ever!" Forecast proclaimed, raising a hoof in the air and jumping. "Don't let us hold you back, but don't forget us as well, little brother!" Rubbing Watts's mane, she grinned.
"She's right," Lacrimal said, standing more proudly than before, facing his son with an honored look. "We're going to be missing you and I know that you'll be missing us, Watts, but this is something that, if I were to be honest about it—" He looked up, pausing "—sounds greater than growing some onions in the middle of some town in the middle of Equestria."
"Don't you think they'll get angry if they get wind of what you just said?" Chutney asked, sounding somewhat worried.
"Who? My parents?" He gave a vigorous roar of laughter, disguising the dried tears on his face. "I've already told them that and they're quite fine about it, thank you very much!"
Onion Bulb, sniffing, spoke up: "So, is he gonna leave yet? Because, I want to tell him something."
The parents looked at her affectionately—tender eyes and mouths. "Go on, sweetie," Electric Arc coaxed.
Bulb gulped. Then, facing Watts—who was also now facing her with anticipation in his face—she said, "I brought some stacks of paper and several quills and ballpens." She took the saddle bag off of her and plopped it on the floor, right in front of Watts.
Watts eyed the small brown bag with its few pockets.
"For letters," Bulb said, smiling as she looked at Watts. "We'll rotate whoever writes the letters. You could also have your friends write letters to us as well and to their families as well."
Watts took the bag and opened it, fumbling his hoof about before picking up several pieces of paper and a clean white feather.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you that there's ink, too. How can you write letters without ink, anyway?" She grinned.
Watts chuckled as he rubbed Bulb's mane.
She giggled at that.
Lacrimal's eyes went wide open. "I almost forgot!" Then, he rushed to the stove, picked up the steaming pot and dropped it on the table, causing some drops of soup to splatter on the table. "You have to eat a heavy lunch, son!" he demanded with a happy attitude. "You can't go straight away to Canterlot or to Winsome Falls on an empty stomach!"
Electric Arc, eyeing one of the shelves in the kitchen, also took off and grabbed some candy and chocolate bars and hoofed it to Watts. "And, some sugar to get you going! Good for those long trips and when you have a long day of investigating and other searching around in that place!"
"I'll also write on the newspaper about how Ambling is behind you in all of this!" Forecast declared. "We're going to haev a grand celebration as you leave, and then, after that, we'll get you some clothes when you have to enter those freezing cold areas and—"
"There's no freezing cold areas between here and Winsome Falls," Chutney said. Placing a hoof to his head, he went on: "I should know. The maps have gotten to my head."
"What if somepony made the path freezing cold? Anything can happen and who knows?!" Forecast yelled, flailing her forehooves in the air in half-panic.
Chutney placed a hoof around Watts's neck. "And, don't worry too much about us, brother! We're going to be OK while you're away. I admit, it's gonna be quieter without you around, but it's going to be a few months at most. Just a few months—and, after that, having you will feel much better." Then, he gave his brother one more hug—this one was quick, however.
Watts smiled as one more tear went down his face. Choking up a little, he let out: "Thanks, guys."
The rest of the family smiled at him in reply.
Silence. Loving silence.
Dandy Soda sat on his rocking chair in the middle of his green lawn, resting and look up towards the sky. The breeze went through the place, swaying and bending the small blades of grass. The fancy hat he was wearing on his head flopped and wavered but never completely fell from his head as a steady hoof kept it fixed and positioned there to give him that old and kind look.
The distant sounds of bustling Ambling—with its collected chatter, its verbal exchange of topics and ideas and opinions, its creaking of carriage wheels, among others—finished the atmosphere that Dandy Soda was in: in the middle of his yard, far enough from a growing village.
A loud creak.
Dandy Soda sat up and instantly looked at the source of the creak.
A wagon or a cart pulled by three ponies. The contents of the wagon was covered by a cloth, but the ponies who were walking were conspicious and obvious in the open.
"Isobar!" Dandy yelled, getting up from his seat and walking to the group.
They stopped. Watts Onion and Wakes Week looked surprised, Isobar had a pleasant face upon him as he walked towards the old pony.
They shook hooves without saying a word. "And, I guess they must be the ponies you're helping in that Winsome Falls business!" He nodded at them. "How are you?"
Watts Onion nodded back at him without saying a word.
Wakes Week asked with joyful mood, "How are you, sir?"
"More than merry about Ambling's youth!" Dandy said. "I feel happy myself about not keeping the immense wealth to myself! If Isobar wasn't here, I wouldn't have brought that up into my own mind but—Isobar has become the figure for everypony here to follow when it comes to raising foals!"
"I notice you have a zeal for them," Watts finally spoke.
"'Zeal' is the right word for it," Dandy said, extending a hoof and offering a shake.
Watts spent a few seconds examining the stallion's hoof.
Then, they shook.
"My money's going to a good interest, that's why!" He grinned, putting his fancy mustache on display as it made that grin all bushier and the more genuine. "Investing in the future—well, isn't it all?" He let off a hearty laugh punctuated by hoarse noise. "But, I shall not bother you with what may seem to you unnecessary details and other such things. I've already heard of your special duty to fulfill, isn't it so, Mr. Onion?"
"Uh, yes, yes, Dandy Soda," Watts said, stammering a little.
Dandy Soda took a long look on the valiant young stallion. "Ah, if only the rest of Ambling's youth were just like you!" he announced. "That marvelous undertaking I have dreamed of ever since I was awakened to the idea—the very thought!—of it is a force that must not be reckoned with." Then, he took off his top hat and looked at it. Glancing at the confused Watts Onion, he said, "I must sound quitee monotonous to you if I stick to one topic, but it has been in my mind for days."
"Yeah, Onion," Isobar said, placing a hoof around his friend's head. "He's been very excited over the prospect of the organization."
"And, I guess you already called in your friends about helping the foals here, didn't you?" Wakes Week spoke up, having an inquisitive attitude in her voice.
"My philanthropist buddies have affirmed their approval of the matter," Dandy Soda said, "although only time will tell if they will truly pull through and send in the necessary materials and resources—not just money!—to bring those foals to enjoy worthy productivity."
Wakes Week smiled.
"But, I shall not delay you any further about Isobar's fine organization and group." Turning to Watts again and putting back his hat on his head, he said, "How do you feel about this momentous mission ahead of you?"
Watts moved his hoof around through the short grass as he stayed silent, moving his eyes around, too. "Well, I'm supposed to be happy and glad."
"Supposed?" Dandy asked in bewilderment.
Isobar and Wakes Week looked on him with earnest faces.
"But, Mr. Onion, I understand your predicament," Dandy said, walking to him. "I have had my share of lonely times away from family and friends. There, in those new locations, with only myself there. It was liberating in one sense, but it also only confirms that ponies aren't at their best when they're by themselves. Besides—" His smile grew larger as he pointed a hoof to the friends beside him "—you're not completely lonely! You have two friends who, I'm sure, will be right there for you every second of the way!"
"Actually," Wakes Week interrupted, gesturing with a rotating hoof, "we're supposed to be four, but Dally News told us that we'll just meet her when we get to Canterlot. She will catch up by train."
"The more the merrier, then," Dandy said. Looking up to the sky, he then said, "I wish we could stay and talk more but you have your royal task to fulfill and I wouldn't want to be impunctual against the Princess of the Night."
Watts gave a subtle sneer before reverting back to his polite smile.
"Now, carry and make haste!" Dandy yelled, rushing back to his chair as he did so.
The three ponies then waved their hoves at them.
"Goodbye!"
"Have a good time there!"
"Enjoy the day, Dandy Soda!"
And, they left, leaving Dandy Soda alone once again in the middle of his vast green lawn of grass with only that small cottage of his beind what was different besides himself and his rocking chair.
He relaxed and lay down on the chair as it swayed back and forth in a slow yet timely manner.
"These foals," Dandy said. "When I was young, both young and old encouraged each other. Now, it's a weird thing when the young go about doing what seems to be the realm of heroic deeds!"
The dirt path winded here and there, turning left and right, sharp and smooth its turns and curves through the hills and the small mountains that boasted of their great height and their forestry which adorned it with a finesse that only many trees could give with their woodland animals—the birds chirping their simple music was there, indeed—infusing vitality and fervor into the illustrious forms of land.
At the sides of the path were the smaller plants; though they were smaller than the trees, they were nonetheless as beautiful if not more so with their budding flowers and their enticing berries that decorated the bushes with a color other than green and brown. Flowers, too, abounded there, furnishing the path in their little natural etiquette and poise. Tulips and sunflowers were only a few among the many kinds of flowers that flourished in full splendor, bringing varied and diverse paint to the road.
Fields of grass and only grass were aplenty beside the route. Areas of bliss and of peace, the place for plain activities like a tiny picnic with several friends, eating a few sandwiches and some donuts or some other dessert, laughs and wonderful conversation being the norm on that friendly hill.
There were clouds in the bright morning sky though they weren't too many to cloud the day. Instead, they were, like the bushes, adorning the sky with their beauty. Some pegasi were there, fixing and arranging the clouds to this or to that position with distant orders being given to move this or that cloud to a certain place. That did not detract from the calmness of the landscape—rather, it added to it, providing it a sense of work, a sense of moving about despite the relative stillness.
There were signs along the way. Most of them were wooden signs but some of them were metal. All of them told of directions and of locales' names—villages, towns, cities, other regions that would interest the adventurous or curious pony. One of them had the words "Canterlot: Forward"
And when one would look forward, there was that royal city where a good chunk of it was hanging over open air with the ground some distance away. A tall yet smooth mountain was beside it; with it there was a waterfall which created that streaming sound of rushing water finally resting at the end to become a temperate, clear, and fresh river.
As one would approach the city, one would notice that the path became conrete and paved at some point on the way. Yet, the plants did not disppear from sight. Rather, they helped beautify the path even more since they were of a different kind as well: more than just the bushes and the flowers, there were also some short trees dotting the pathway, emitting from them the fresh smell of the land.
As one would get nearer to Canterlot, one would also heard the city noises becoming louder—words and carriages, among others. They blended in with the natural melody, forming something unique: a normal sound that was yet different and, as other ponies might claim, never being heard elsewhere.
The three ponies were approaching and nearing Canterlot, getting closer to the drawbridge crossing the river and, beyond that, a big gate with its white walls and towers.
Isobar asked, finally, "Why didn't we take the train again, Watts Onion?"
"It's practice!" Watts shouted with a happy character.
Wakes Week sighed. "We could've saved a lot of time if we just boarded a train. Plus, we would've saved lots of energy, too. Instead of walking, we could've sat down and built up more energy."
"But, it's still practice for the Winsome Falls journey!" Onion insisted.