White Chocolate's foyer couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a flurry of activity or as still as a tombstone.
"Mom," Jamjars finally complained, "what gives?"
The mare herself was panting, ears flat, clearly fighting back a panic attack. "We'll... We'll just have to..." Her visible eye dilated.
"My apologies," Gerardo assured, taking up a more visible stance in the center of the room. "Had we any clue they would have been so prompt, I assure you we would have found a gentler way to break the news to you beforehand! And the danger is hopefully not real. As it stands, all that's being dealt with is the mere chance of flood-"
"A flood?" White Chocolate paled even further, wobbling.
Gerardo shrugged. "Well, I've only seen maps and had to trust that the somewhat counter-intuitive simulations would be correct, but that is indeed what would happen if the Defense Force succeeds in blowing up the Water District dam."
At that, White Chocolate promptly fell over. Hayseed was at her side in a flash, catching her substantial weight on a strong back, while Starlight and Jamjars shot Gerardo identical glares. "Really?" they intoned as one.
Gerardo gulped, taking in White Chocolate's reaction. "Perhaps there was a more tactful way of putting that..."
The room held its awkward silence for one second longer, before a foal broke it with a warbling, roosterlike scream. "Arrararglargh! We're all gonna capsize and drown!"
From there, everything devolved into chaos.
"Mom?" Hayseed struggled under White Chocolate's weight as Gerardo blinked and Jamjars facehoofed, a cacophony of foals racing past, some hoarding their possessions and others joining the racket for the sake of making a racket. "Mom, you're heavy. Are you alright?"
"Whoo..." White Chocolate moaned, struggling to get her hooves under her. "I need to lie down, but... there's no time for that... Go get your brothers and sisters together so we can move them. Jamjars, give me that paper..."
Jamjars blinked crossly at her. "Mom, you look like a beached whale. Let me have this. I can be in charge!" As if to emphasize her point, she summoned an orange telekinetic glow that was practically lost in her massive mane, seized the tail of a passing filly, and grounded her with a thump.
As two more charged in to take the downed filly's place of yodeling panic, Maple tromped in from the left-most corridor, mane undone and streaming with water. "What's going on in here?" she asked, a note of fear to her voice, looking decidedly smaller with her entire coat plastered to her sides. "They didn't deliver the notice already, did they?"
Gerardo coughed. "I may have had a momentary lapse of judgement in which information would be useful and which would cause undue panic..."
"Maple!" White Chocolate lurched her way to the dripping mare, mane and tail growing disheveled, panic in her eye. "I don't know what to do! I've never taken them all outside at once before...!"
While the chaos unfolded, Starlight slunk her way across the room to the stairwell where Jamjars stood, doing an excellent job of appearing in control while doing absolutely nothing. "Hey, you!" She pointed a hoof at Jamjars. "What does that paper say? How long do we have until we need to be out of here?"
Jamjars frowned, as if she wanted to tell Starlight to mind her own business... and then smirked, reaching down to take Starlight's hoof and help her onto the staircase. "Say," she began mischievously, eyes flashing. "You're smart, right? Want to be my second-in-command?"
Starlight blinked. "Huh?"
"Look at them!" Jamjars swept a hoof at the alarmed room, moving from an uncertainly-shuffling Gerardo to a soaked Maple to White Chocolate, who was swarmed by foals and infinitely too overwhelmed to take charge. "They have no idea what they're doing. Mom's always been that way, 'cause she let our family get in this big of a mess in the first place, but that griffon just freaked everyone out and your wet mom isn't doing anything to help anypony! Hayseed is too busy being a goody fourshoes to get with the program, Snow's a wuss, and everyone else is too young!" She gave a snort of exasperation and tossed her gigantic mane. "Obviously, someone who actually knows what they're doing needs to take charge. So do you want to be my second-in-command, or not?"
"Wait a minute..." Starlight's brow furrowed. "You're actually trying to be helpful? I remember all that stuff you did last night."
"All what stuff?" Jamjars tossed her mane again. "Teasing Snow in front of you? You have to admit, he was being awkward enough to deserve it before I even said anything. Besides, I just wanted to see what you were made of." She huffed and looked back out at the sea of chaos in the foyer, several heaps growing where foals were stacking belongings they didn't want to part with. "So yeah, I am. My family's a mess, but someone's gotta do it. Are you in?"
"As long as you don't bug me about who I like again," Starlight accepted, glowering. "Now can I see that paper?"
Jamjars hid her mouth with a hoof. "Hee hee... Well, fine. Just remember, the harder you try to keep a secret, the more egg you'll have on your face when it gets out. Here."
She turned the evacuation notice to Starlight in her mouth, still talking around it. "It says we've got until tonight, so I don't think we should leave right away. It's probably disgusting out there, and will cool off when the sun sets. So we need to think of a way to calm these morons down so they don't use all their energy now and can still walk when they need to." She lifted an eyebrow, the notice threatening to slip free of her little teeth. "You have that magic thing you did. Think you can make all of them freeze to cool their heads?"
Starlight frowned, studying the paper. "It says to go to Grand Acorn. But they're also moving part of Copsewood, and isn't that big? It'll probably be crowded, so the earlier you get there, the better place you'll be able to get. They'll probably be packing ponies into warehouses and stuff at the end."
Jamjars looked like she had swallowed a lemon. "Ugh! You're right..." She shook a hoof, Gerardo in the background making a feeble attempt to rally order. "Then we'll need to get them organized enough to move quickly..." Her eyes brightened. "Unless we could send someone ahead to pick out a spot and keep everyone else out! Your griffon looks like he could-"
They were interrupted by a knock at the door.
"Again!?" Jamjars pouted. "Great. Now it's probably some salespony thinking they can..." She flung the door open, and was silenced.
"Ah, good morning, fillies!" Howe curtsied, standing with his wings folded and his back to the road. "Listen, um, Starlight, I know you all told me to keep a lookout since I'm slightly intimidating and all that, but I saw a stallion handing out warnings and heard the most awful racket from within these walls, and fate compelled me to see if you needed assistance." He blinked at Jamjars. "Also, your staring is making me really uncomfortable for some reason."
Starlight was about to say something vindictive regarding him and Maple, but was interrupted by a wide smile breaking across Jamjars' face. "Eeeeeeeeee!" She clutched what was left of her cheeks, most of the available room taken up by teeth. "Your mane," she gasped, "is amazing. I need need need the name of your stylist!"
"Eh heh heh..." Howe chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "Please, hold your applause, my good citizen! The Howenator isn't actually... used to having it be appreciated."
"Howe," Starlight interrupted, "can you go away? Everyone is freaking out inside and Maple and Gerardo can't get it under control and the last thing we need is more noise!" She stomped a hoof for emphasis.
"More noise, you say?" Howe pushed his head past them, eyeballing the room and grinning devilishly. "On the contrary: I feel more noise is exactly what this situation calls for! Behold!"
He brandished his cutie mark - a brilliant red megaphone - and an exact likeness of it appeared in his forehooves. He tossed it up, caught it in a wing, held it to his muzzle, and bellowed into the house, "Greetings, friends and neighbors all! Would you mind toning it down a notch so old Howe can take the stage?"
The house stopped, frozen by the volume of his blast. Maple and White Chocolate's ears were already down; they covered them anyway. Gerardo shrugged off a wince, looking incredulously to the doorway. Most of the fillies and colts were petrified, curious ears swiveled Howe's way for more.
Howe lowered his voice. "That's cool. Very cool. The Howenator is proud of you all, little children. Now... go listen to your mother, or something."
Smugly, he let the magical megaphone dissolve into whatever ether it had formed from. "Now how's that for a show-stopper? I told you I would be useful to have around!"
Back in the house, a foal began crying, triggering the caterwauling to resume.
"Well..." Maple gulped, her coat halfway dry. "This is an improvement, I guess."
"And yet still so far to go..." Gerardo lamented. "Somehow, I don't believe effective parenting is supposed to work this way."
They stood in front of a carefully-closed wooden door, along with White Chocolate and Howe. White Chocolate kept eyeing the latter apprehensively, her two smallest foals held with one foreleg. Jamjars waited smugly behind, with Starlight trying to strike a balance between getting too close to or too far from the filly and Hayseed watching both carefully. Snowshoe was too busy trying to jam together an old suitcase in his room to bother anyone, as was one other of the elder foals.
The remaining five were locked in a bedroom.
"Now, you two..." White Chocolate hummed, still looking dazed as she rocked the foals in her grip. "Let's get you napping so I don't need to watch you, and then we can let the others out of their forced time-out..."
Jamjars blanched. "Where? This is their room! You wouldn't let Snow watch over them, would you?"
"In my bedroom," White Chocolate answered. "And we'll just have to hope... that someone sends help for ponies who have trouble moving on their own. I'm certain there are elders in this town who won't be able to walk that far..."
Howe threw a salute. "Want me to go scan the crowds? Traveling by air is a feat they can only dream of performing themselves!"
"...Thanks." White Chocolate swallowed.
"I'll help you put those two to bed," Maple offered, her coat spiky from the drying water. "I've got something I'd like to ask you about, anyway..."
They retreated together through the corridors of the underground bungalow, none of the others following along. "What is it?" White Chocolate hummed when they were sufficiently out of earshot, apparently sensing it wasn't meant to be shared.
Maple's ears folded. "Not anything important. I just... have a better place now to put that thing I asked you to hang onto for me."
"Oh." White Chocolate's face fell. "So I guess it really was just a promise for this morning..."
"N-No!" Maple stammered. "I didn't mean it like that! I..." Her shoulders slumped. "I talked to some ponies about helping you. Important ones. If Faron wanted you back, and your whole family... would you want him, too?"
White Chocolate sighed, pushing open the door to her darkened bedroom with a shoulder, her bed sitting plush and empty with only a single depression from the previous night. "That's a big if, Maple. He knew what he was leaving behind. You do, too."
"If..." Maple swallowed. "If you could run away... like him, but taking your entire family with you, to a place where they'd be cared for and you could live without all the memories of this place and Ironridge... would you do it? If only the decision was in the way, and all the logistics were taken care of...?"
"That sounds like what we're doing right now." Defeated, White Chocolate slumped, then moved to the dresser where she had stashed her moon glass before. "I heard your friend. He said we were evacuating from a threat of flood, because the Defense Force wanted to blow up the Water District dams. Does it matter if any of us want to keep our old memories, bitter or sweet, if all it takes is one explosion to wash them all away?"
Maple stepped forward... and squeezed her shoulder, despite her wet coat. "I don't really know..."
"Here's your orb," White Chocolate finished, dredging up the artifact with far less trouble than she had had finding the obsidian earlier. "I spent some time staring at it last night. I hope you don't mind. I just hope..." She sighed and hoofed it over. "I hope that some time, I get something to hope for."
Silently, Maple accepted the orb, tucking it away and into her cutie mark when White Chocolate wasn't looking. She felt a familiar twinge of her muscles, reminding that she wouldn't be able to carry it for long... but that didn't matter, then and there.
"I won't leave Ironridge," she assured, feeling White Chocolate's coat against hers, "until you do. I promise."