Before I do anything else, I’m finding one of these “outhouses” and relieving myself, Devon thought as she walked down the row her tent was on. Plus, she wanted to find out what kind of conditions she was living under for the foreseeable future, so it was a win-win.
She found the outhouse quickly and was shocked by what she found. She had been expecting something like a porta-potty or something old-timey made of wood with a moon on the door. What she found was neither of those things.
The outhouse was built for several occupants and it had only three walls, and it also doubled as the shower area as well. It was a simple structure overall, with two areas with benches lining two of the walls. Those benches had holes in them into which you were clearly supposed to do your business in. There was no privacy at all on the benches, not only did the others using the outhouse see you, since one side opened up to the outside everyone outside could see you too.
That wasn't the least of the privacy issues though. On the third wall were three shower areas, all again with no privacy. It looked like drains collected the shower water and used that to flush the waste from the toilets away. This kind of setup might work for a pony, since they were always naked, but it was completely out of the question for a human.
She let out a sigh as she stared upwards to the sky, wondering if it would rain soon. Rain amounted to more of shower she was likely to have here. She definitely wasn't using this.
As she was looking at the sky she saw two night ponies fly by, and one of them she could have sworn was Phobia. They were certainly up late for night ponies, but their appearance reminded her that she needed to locate that pony's house at some point so she could look into a sitter for Robby.
Looking back to the outhouse she gave it a dismissive shake of her head. She would have to figure out somewhere else to go, at least for her to shower. There had to be somewhere that provided privacy for humans to shower. They couldn't really expect her to just strip naked for the world to see in there.
As she looked around the tents she saw no signs of other humans. Was she really the only human out here in the tents? As much as putting her with Amanda looked good on paper, and the extra privacy she had when not worrying about hygiene was nice, the fact remained they needed private facilities for humans to take care of hygiene needs. At least semi private locker rooms or something, divided by gender. She had to find the human shelter or one of the organizers and see what could be done.
She turned away from the outhouse and walked towards the road. This road ran straight through everything in town, and seemed to be the main street. She was away from most of the things in the town, but it wasn't that long a walk from what she recalled to get back into the main area. She remembered the area one building looked like something that might have been a school. Getting there could potentially help her with two problems at once.
It took her a good thirty minutes to walk back to area one. She hadn't really realized how long of a walk it was before because she was caught up trying to deal with Jessie fussing due to being held again and trying to make sure Robby was keeping up with her and not being run over by the crowds.
It's amazing how much time flies when trying to deal with such simple things.
The walk was rather dull. There were still crowds, lots of crowds, and she was sure that until everyone was settled properly there was going to be constant crowds. But walking through biblical amounts of ponies was getting to be old news after doing it all morning long. Scenery for the most part was trees and fields until she reached area one and buildings started appearing again.
Area one was definitely a school, otlr at least had been at some point. It was a simple three story building, and looked like it would have been a decent sized elementary school back home. Area two, next to it, looked like a gymnasium, athletic center, or something like that now that she looked at it again with less distractions. Hopefully someone here could tell her where she could bathe, wash clothes, and maybe find something that could serve as diapers for Jessie.
Her stomach growled and she added food to the list of things she needed to ask about. No one had told her anything about where she would get food. They had told her about where to find hay for Robby, but she couldn't live on hay herself. The complete lack of information she'd been given was infuriating.
A sign caught her eye by the school building. It was an announcement saying that they were intending to reopen the school in the fall if they could find enough qualified teachers, and it gave a contact number for prospective teachers to call.
Devon immediately pulled her phone out of her pocket and then frowned, no service. Of course there was no service, they were in the back-end of nowhere. She briefly squeezed the phone in frustration, but then entered the phone number into her contact information so she could make the call when she either found a landline phone or found somewhere with free WiFi. She then put the phone back away after turning it off to conserve power, satisfied that at least one of her goals was at least partially accomplished.
There were plenty of humans milling about here; actually, it was mostly humans here. There was perhaps one pony for every ten humans and many of those ponies looked younger, teens and children, mixed with human children of the same age. She even spotted a few humans with distinct ponylike features such as ears or tails that indicated they had been infected with ETS when the cure went out. She again wondered why she was assigned a tent while other mixed families seemed to have been placed here.
There was one pony near the entrance who looked like they were there just here to give information, an amber colored pegasus mare with a matching amber mane and tail. She was the most monochromatic pony that Devon had seen and as she approached she noticed that the pony's eyes were amber too. If nothing else the pony had a distinct look that made her easy for anyone to identify.
"Hello, are ya here by yourself? Tell me your name and I can find where ya're supposed to be bunked down," the mare said in a pleasant voice as she approached.
"Um, I'm Devon Middleton, but I was already assigned a spot out in the tents. I was just looking for information," Devon said as she reached the pony's table. On the table were lots of papers that looked like lists.
"A human got put out in the tents? That doesn't sound right. Let me double check my lists just to make sure y'aren't supposed to be here and then I'll see what I can do to help ya," said the amber colored mare, who Devon decided to just call Amber in her head for the moment. Devon wanted to stop her from wasting her time, but secretly hoped that her name did pop up on a list here.
Amber ran an outstretched feather from a wing down the lists like a human would run a finger. The pony did this several times over the course of about two minutes before pulling it back and shaking her head.
"Nothing. Ya weren't assigned here. Though I couldn't guess why. It's pretty packed, but we could fit more still. Do ya have foals or another pony relative?" Amber asked.
"Yes, both my children. My daughter is barely a month old and my son who is five. Jessica and Robert Middleton," Devon answered.
The pony took another quick look through the lists and gave a confused shake of her head yet again.
"What type of ponies are they? I'm trying to figure out why that was done to y'all," Amber asked.
"Jessie is an earth pony and Robby is a night pony," Devon answered, feeling a little frustrated. She was grateful for the pony taking the time to try to find out, but this was taking a while and she wanted to get the information she had come looking for and get back to the tent. She didn't like the idea of being away from Jessie for too long.
"Night pony? Well, that at least explains who would have made the assignment. Tattered Wing had the final say on the assignment of the location of every night pony. I hadn't even realized there were any younger night pony foals at all. I thought the youngest ones of those were teens," Amber said with her tone picking back up, apparently happy to have solved that mystery.
"Where would I find this Tattered Wing? And is that a man or a woman?" Devon asked. She wished that so many ponies didn't insist on taking these weird names.
"She's a mare. She's very easy to recognize; a night pony that looks like she got in a fight with a pack of rabid dogs and lost. Ya'll find her at town hall, though I'm pretty sure she left and went to bed; she's nocturnal after all. Ya'll have to check this evening," Amber explained.
"I'll do that. Thanks for letting me know," Devon said gratefully.
"No, problem. Now, is there anything I can help ya with for the moment?" Amber asked in a perky voice.
"I'm trying to find out where I can shower, wash clothes, and find food. They told me where to find hay for Robby, and there is a shower back towards the tents, but those won't work for me," Devon answered.
"There's a cafeteria here that y'all free to use, they will be serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. We have laundry facilities here but they aren't really big enough to accommodate all the humans we have here, sorry bout that. All of Y'all are free to use the locker room showers in the building next door though, but what's the problem with the ones they have back at the tents?" Amber asked.
"There's no privacy, I have to either wash while still wearing my clothes or strip naked in front of all the ponies," Devon explained.
Amber just tilted her head in confusion. "I still don't understand, ya would be stripping naked in the locker rooms too."
Did ponies just not understand that humans needed privacy when naked? They were all human a month ago, how could they not understand this?
"I would be naked in front of males," Devon said in a level voice, hoping she didn't have to explain this further.
Amber still looked confused for a moment before it finally seemed to dawn on her what the issue was. She mouthed an O in response.
"Sorry, I really don't think of things like that anymore. That might be hard to imagine, but that kind of thing just doesn't register to me naturally. I'm naked all the time, and don't think bout it. I can say that I don't think any ponies that may see y'all humans naked will really care, whether they're stallions or mares. We really don't care about that kind of thing," Amber explained apologetically.
"Humans could still be walking by, and just because the ponies don't care doesn't mean I'll feel comfortable with that," Devon explained patiently.
"Humans aren't likely to be out by the tents, and I'm really being honest about ponies not caring. Our sexual preferences really don't go that way anymore. I could care less about a naked human man, but I'd love to run my feathers over the stallion next door's tight hindquart...," Amber said with a growing smile before Devon cut her off.
"I don't need the details," Devon cut her off with a raised hand and a blush. "It would just make me more comfortable showering somewhere else, okay?"
"Okay, well, as I said y'all are free to use the locker room at the building next to this one. I think it used to be a YMCA or something, and those're segregated by sex. Expect there to be lines though," Amber said in an uncertain tone and a small frown.
"Thank you," Devon said with relief.
"Ya should really talk to Tattered Wing tonight and see if she can get y'all reassigned if it's going to be a problem. We don't want to make this any harder than it already is for y'all. Also ya might want to go talk to the First Pony Bank next to town hall. They're helping humans find permanent homes outside the shelters. I would get in on that right away so we can get y'all in a house ASAP."
"I appreciate all your help, Am..," Devon caught herself before she said the name she had assigned the pony in her head. That would be rude. "I'm sorry, I didn't get your name."
"Oh, it's Amber, very easy to remember, Amber the amber colored pegasus. Ya were thinking it was Amber, weren't ya?" Amber said with a chuckle.
"Yes," Devon said, surprised.
"Yep, that's my name, and I didn't even make it up. That was my human name too. I think at this point I'm going to keep my human name, it just works too well," Amber said happily. "It's been nice helping ya, but ya've got a line building up behind you."
Devon glanced behind her. There were about six other humans waiting to speak to Amber, and at least two of them looked pretty impatient. She quickly moved out of the way.
"About damn time," a discontent looking older man said as the line advanced.
She was torn for a moment on what to do next. She wanted to hurry back to the tent so she wasn't just leaving Amanda hanging with her kids, but she also wanted to get something to eat and see that bank too. After debating it with herself for a moment She decided to head back. She could get dinner later, and she had to head down by town hall to speak with Tattered Wing later anyway. It was still a madhouse in the streets and that would give the crowd time to dwindle down.
By the time she made it back to the tents she was hot and sweaty. She was happy to see that Jessie's puddle had dried while she'd been gone. She stepped into the slightly cooler air of the tent and was immediately greeted by the sound of an excited bit of baby babble from Jessie. A moment later Jessie collided with Devon's legs and was knocked down on the ground again.
"She certainly missed you while you were gone. As soon as she realized you were missing she started crying, and she only stopped a few minutes ago," Amanda said in a tired voice and even more tired smile.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know she would get upset with me gone. She'd been so much better tempered since I started letting her walk around. I didn't realize she was going to be difficult," Devon said as she bent down to help Jessie get back to her hooves. Jessie definitely didn't seem to be in a bad mood now. Jessie was staring adoringly up at her with a very clear smile on her face.
"She wasn't so bad after I figured out she could be mesmerized by a shifting tail. I know that might not help you out in the future since you don't have one, but it does seem to keep her distracted," Amanda said as she flicked her tail.
Devon looked over at Robby, he seemed to still be sleeping, but both his wings were now covering his head.
"Did Robby wake up? I see he shifted a little bit," Devon said with concern as she continued watching her son for signs he was indeed sleeping.
"He did a small groan before he brought that other wing up over his head, but didn't seem to wake up," Amanda said with dismissive wave of a hoof in Robby's direction.
"That's a relief, I worry about him getting enough sleep," Devon said as she went and sat down on her mat. She picked her daughter's mat up and flipped it over so the urinated side was facing down. "Do you need to potty again? I don't want you having another accident on the mat."
"I don't expect she is going to give you an answer, she'll just piddle when ready," Amanda said with a chuckle. "Maybe you should lay a towel out or something. We can designate a corner for the foals to do their business if we catch them."
"I suppose that could work, I completely forgot about checking about diapers. Maybe them being more aware will end up making them easier to potty train," Devon said as Jessie trotted onto the mat and snuggled up close to her.
"Maybe, but who knows? I'm keeping expectations low," Amanda said as she gave her own filly a nuzzle, causing Jackie to coo happily. She then looked back to Devon. "Did you find out anything of use while you were out?"
"Yes, I did," Devon said as she pulled her phone out. "I got a phone number to contact about teaching jobs. They're looking to start classes in the fall and looking for teachers. That seems like good news for us both. Also, if you want to shower there's a shower in the outhouse, but it isn't private. They said if you want a private shower you need to go to the human shelter and they will have group showers by gender there."
Devon stopped and stifled a yawn. How long had she been up? She had to think about it. Since sometime late yesterday morning, though she might have had a five minute nap here and there. Amanda gave her a long look as she tried to cover her yawn.
"A private shower isn't really needed for me. I'm fine showering in front of everypony, they aren't seeing anything they don't see when I'm just walking around after all. I just want to get this filly piss and crap off my back, it smells and feels awful" Amanda said as she stood up, giving a disgusted shake of her head as she caught a whiff of herself again. "If you can wait for me and Jackie to get a shower out of the way I can watch the foals long enough for you to take a nap, you look exhausted."
"You don't have to do that for me," Devon replied.
"We all need our sleep. Plus, call it earning a favor in the future if I ever want to have a little bit of time away from my little magic missile. I love her, but every parent needs a break from their foals sometime. Especially when the foal frequently gives me a heart attack by taking off into the air out of nowhere," Amanda said with a hoof covering a giggle.
"I wonder if I'll have to deal with that with Robby eventually. He can't fly yet, believe me he tried, but I figure it's just an age thing," Devon said as she glanced at her wing encased son.
"Hopefully he'll give at least a little warning. Once Jackie has run her surges out I'll be very happy if she stays ground bound till she's at least a teen," Amanda said with a smirk.
"It used to be the prospect of Robby someday learning to drive was a stressful thought, now I've got to worry about him flying through the air someday. Just imagining him falling from the air makes me want to strap his wings to his sides," Devon said while frowning, mainly to herself, as she looked at her son.
She wanted to run a hand over him, but was afraid that might wake him. She definitely needed the chance to sleep so she could deal with him tonight. He really was getting neglected by her in favor of Jessie, and there was no second parent there now to maintain shifts with the two of them. He would need her awake overnight more often. This again led to the problem of how she was supposed to be there for both of them. She had to sleep too.
Finding that mare that had offered to help babysit Robby was going to be near the top of the list of things to do tonight. She could bring Robby with her when she went out tonight and leave Jessie asleep with Amanda, if Amanda had no problem with it anyway. She'd find this Tattered Wing pony, see about the bank, get something for both Robby and her to eat, and then find Phobia. She could do some much needed bonding with Robby as they walked around too. It seemed a good plan.
"It'll be a stress for me too when Jackie starts flying properly. At least she's thoroughly demonstrated she can take a hard collision," Amanda said as she started walking towards the entrance of the tent, Jackie following close beside her. They were still leashed together and Devon imagined at some point the leash was going to trip one or the other of them up.
"Get yourselves clean and I'll hold down the fort. I'll see about giving you the phone number for that school contact when you get back, before I go to sleep," Devon said pulled her legs under herself in an effort not to just lay down.
"Do you get cell phone service? I haven't checked mine, or even bothered to charge it for that matter. Cell phones with touch-screens are pretty much useless to me since they don't work with hooves. I could use a hand making that call," Amanda giggled.
"No service, but I'm sure there must be a public landline somewhere, or somewhere that has Wi-Fi. This place can't be that isolated," Devon answered, hoping that it wasn't going to be overly complicated to just make a call.
"Definitely, we've got this. I'll be back shortly. Then you can get some sleep," Amanda said right before exiting the tent.
Devon sat and let Jessie cuddle in her lap like an overgrown kitten. Then she scolded herself for thinking of her daughter that way. She shouldn't let herself fall into thinking of her daughter in animal terms or she'd start treating her like one. Jessie was her daughter, not a pet, even if she was now four-legged and furry. Jessie was not an animal.
But the fact remained Jessie and Robby weren't humans anymore, despite not being animals. They had different needs and thought processes than her, and she had no guidebook on what those might be. Even the adult ponies seemed clueless on what to do with foals. It was up to her to just figure it out on her own.
She was exhausted, and couldn't keep her eyes open as she waited for Amanda to return. Within five minutes of the mare leaving Devon drifted off to sleep where she sat.
Wild Growth looked over her temporary room she'd occupy while her house was being built, and debated with herself how much she should even be unpacking. She'd need to repack again in just a few months anyway, and she didn't actually use most of this stuff. She was pretty sure at least three of the boxes were clothes, and those were utterly useless.
The room was simple and small. Her full sized mattress ran two thirds of the length one wall and if she turned it the other way it would still run half of the room in length. If she were human this room would have felt cramped, but as a pony it felt of average size. Even the mattress that had before felt just big enough now felt like she had been upgraded to a king sized mattress or larger. In truth she could have done without the bed, in favor of her oversized throw pillow or the bean bag chair, both of which made for comfortable beds for one pony. She'd yet to locate the pillow though, and the bean bag chair would be kept in the living room.
The room had one window set lower to the floor that could be opened to look out on the overgrown backyard, and it was this view that had attracted her to this room. She walked over to the window, and standing on her hind legs carefully used her forehooves to open it up in order to enjoy the afternoon air and smell of vegetation.
Overgrown was definitely the word for the backyard. The grass stood taller than she did, and everything was in need of trimming. A bush on the side of the two story house grew to where it completely covered her brothers' window next door to her room. A narrow stone path could just barely be made out between the overhanging grass stretching from the backdoor to where the property line ended, which in turn was another solid wall of overgrown grass.
As her chosen name implied this type of wild growth had a certain appeal to her, but she knew that it wasn't very practical, nor were her preferences important since this was her partents' house; even if she was the one who bought and paid for it. She'd probably spend a lot of time with her parents bringing the foilage of the backyard under control, at least until she officially started working.
This was going to be a long year. Starting next week the Westvaco corporation would begin getting things set up for her to begin work. She was going to be the source of a lot of jobs for the area, her papa's included. They supposedly had a set of fields already picked out for her to grow into forests on a day by day basis, and would have humans and ponies get to work chopping them down, clearing and replanting them as quickly as they could so she could just grow them again; rinse and repeat. With her they had an seemingly unlimited supply of trees without having deforest any further areas.
Of course in a little over eight months she would have to pack up and go on a world tour to do the same elsewhere for them. A different place almost every other day for three months straight before she got to return home again. This would be the cycle of her life from now until she was old and grey; nine months in Riverview and three months running all around the world. For this they would make her rich, and she'd make the world a better place in the long run.
It was a little daunting knowing her whole life was largely determined now when she was only seventeen. This was the burden she had because of her power. No pony could do what she could, and that ability had to be used to make everypony and every human's life better, that was stressed to her constantly. She was a tool to be used, all based on a genetic play of the slots that had left her with the magical jackpot.
With a sigh she left the window, leaving it open to let the air in. She wandered back out of her room with the intent to deal with it later. She was restless and wanted to move around. Her thoughts had made her feel extremely constrained.
"Everything okay? You look a little distressed," she heard her mama say to her from across the hall.
Wild looked over to her parents' room. Her mama had paused in unpacking a box as she sat on her bed looking at Wild with concern.
Wild put on a forced smile before answering, "I'm fine, just a little restless."
"Your papa told me about the letter before he left. Did you want to talk about it?" Jean asked in the quiet tone of voice that said concerned parent.
Wild walked into her parents room. Her mama had made considerable amount of progress unpacking already. There were at least half a dozen boxes already unpacked and broken down in a corner, and only four boxes in the room remaining to go through.
She sat down on the floor across from her mama and tried to put on a happy face, but her lowered ears refused to lie about her emotions.
"What's to say? I'm not going to end up attending. I don't have the time to do something like that, and it's kind of pointless now anyway," Wild said, unable to keep the downcast tone from her voice.
"We all know how much you wanted to go, and how hard you worked to earn that scholarship. Your papa, grandmother, and I are all very proud of everything you did; your sister is too," Jean said with a half smile as she patted the side of the bed next to her.
Wild came and hopped up onto the bed next to her mama, then she stared down at the floor.
"All that hard work feels pointless now. I don't need anything I learned in school anymore; all that math, biology, and chemistry. I really put my all into really learning those things because I was sure I'd need them in the future, but now I have super magical powers that override any need to know anything about anything. If I hadn't put all that work in I would still be in the exact same place right now," Wild said with the corners of her mouth turning downward.
Jean raised a brow. "So, you feel like you haven't earned your success?"
"It's more than that. It isn't just I didn't earn my ability to do what I can do, I have my whole life dictated by it. The second I put my hooves to the ground a few weeks ago, and made everything grow like crazy, all choice about my future ended," Wild said as she stared down at the floor with a frown.
"If you don't want your life to go this way it doesn't need to. You can't be forced to do this job, you aren't a slave," Jean said as she put a comforting hand on Wild's back.
"Ponies and humans are depending on me. I can't flick my tail at this, and I do want to do this; I love what I can do. It's just...I don't know." Wild shook her head as she leaned her body against her mama. Jean wrapped an arm around Wild for a hug in response.
"So, you feel like there's not going to be anything else to your life now. Is that what it is?" Jean asked.
Wild nodded. "Yeah, I'm going to be doing the same job for the rest of my life, there's no need for me to strive for anything. I have no more goals other than being taken seriously as an adult by the twins, and that's not much of a goal."
"Don't let your brothers get on your nerves. They actually look up to you and idolize you more than they do me and your papa. You treated your sister the same way when she was going off to college, and didn't adjust right away to the idea that she wasn't a child anymore," Jean said in a nostalgic tone.
Wild supposed she did exactly that, now that she thought about it. The age difference between her and Rosetta was about the same as between her and the twins.
Her mama continued, "As for not having anything to strive for that's just not true. Life isn't all work, and you'll have plenty of life outside of work; more than most working people do thanks to all that vacation time you get. Find some hobbies, get involved with causes, learn new things on your own, and hopefully down the line start your own family. You've got a good job that you love doing, now you've got to start figuring out the rest. The world is wide open to you."
That actually seemed obvious now that it was being said to her, and she felt silly for not even considering her life outside of work. She was so focused on overarching goals that she'd lost track of all the smaller things and had continued to not pay them attention now that the big goals were met.
She turned and wrapped her forelegs around her mother, careful to not squeeze too tightly as she hugged. All that was needed was a small adjustment in perspective, to brighten up her day. "I love you, Mama. Thanks for talking to me."
Her mama laughed as she hugged Wild back. "Anytime, sweetie. Now let me get back to work. Your papa should be back from your sister's errand any time now and I want to suprise him by having this room done."
Wild smirked as a mischievous gleam entered her eyes. "That reminds me, I have a neice or nephew on the way and I'm the rich aunt that gets to spoil them rotten. I should find the computer and start trying to find things for him or her."
Her mama just laughed in response.