//------------------------------//
// 21. Log Driven Crazy 
// Story: Renaming Starlight's Village 
// by Brass Polish 
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Starlight’s Village was among the few settlements in Equestria where nopony could say for certain that the worst of the winter was over. The snow was melting, and no more was coming down. It was still cold and windy out. Needless to say no one was using the fans they’d acquired during the Summer. Sleeping conditions were getting better. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle for example were sleeping peacefully and comfortably in Sugar Bell’s guest room. This is until they were awoken by their glowing and vibrating cutie marks.
“I guess these are just our alarm call now,” yawned Scootaloo.
After a stretch, the three Crusaders left the Cafe, each helping themselves to a toasted bagel on their way out. They ventured outside to see several ponies out for - what they hoped was - a final snow shovelling. Several villagers called greetings to the Crusaders as they walked down the road. Party Favour and Bend Twist - alias Ben Knot - were amongst them. Pleased though they were of their services in the Village to date, the three teenage fillies were very concerned about Party Favour’s brother showing no signs of revealing his true identity any time soon. But they knew they could only be on one mission at a time, and so carried on towards the Cave without hesitation.

*****

However, hours after they reached it, they began to wonder if they did have time to confront Bend Twist. As soon as they’d arrived at the Cave mouth, they saw a cutie mark hover past them. It had two slanted designs; one was a green pointy pine tree, the other was a blue squiggly river. It drifted into the Cave and entered the Cutie Mark Grid to play tag with Evensong’s mark. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle looked to the crest of the hill before the Village, expecting to see a visitor approaching. There was no one there. They looked to the sky; perhaps it was a pegasus who owned that cutie mark. No one was there. Hours passed, and nopony came.
“Not another no-show!” groaned Apple Bloom. “And first thing in the morning, too! I was so comfy!”
Sweetie Belle’s teeth were chattering. “Let’s get outta this wind and wait in the Cave.”
So they went and sat, watching the purple sun and the green-and-blue slants chase each other around the Maze; both resolutely avoiding the Star in the center.

*****

Evening came. Sugar Belle arrived in the Cave.
“What's keeping you fillies?” she asked.
“Looks like we’ve got another no-show,” yawned Apple Bloom.
Sugar Belle looked at the Grid.
“Gaffe!” she exclaimed. “I know that mark. That’s Gaffe’s.”
For the first time in hours, the Crusaders’ senses were perked.
“He was one of us. Part of Starlight’s old cult.”
Sugar Belle looked more intently at the newly arrived cutie mark.
“I never knew what his talent was,” she went on, “but he obviously missed indulging in it. After Starlight was unseated and we all got our marks back, he decided not to stay in the Village. We all started fresh, while he went back to… whatever he used to do.”
“No doubt he’s having trouble with it,” said Apple Bloom, wearing her first pleased expression in hours. “Looks like he’s gotta come back.”
“I don’t think he will,” frowned Sugar Belle. “He swore he’d never come back to the Village. He must be refusing to answer the call.”
She shivered.
“You three shouldn’t stay in here much longer. You’ll freeze.”
So the Crusaders followed her to the Village to turn in for the night.

*****

First thing the next morning, the Crusaders’ marks went off again; albeit briefly.
“Should we go?” croaked Scootaloo.
“Yeah, lets go,” said Apple Bloom. “But if he doesn’t show up in an hour, we’ll come back and get some breakfast.”
This is exactly what happened. There was no sign of a visitor in the distance, so the Crusaders returned to the Cafe for scrambled eggs and brown toast. Party Favour saw them heading back to the Cave, and accompanied them. He’d heard that Gaffe’s mark was in the Cutie Mark Grid, and  he wanted to see it.
“Yeah, that’s Gaffe’s cutie mark alright,” he said when he saw it criss-crossing the Maze. “He was pretty quick to leave as soon as the Vault was broken open.”
He stared at an empty space in the Cave; he could picture Gaffe being reunited with his cutie mark and telling everyone present that he was outta there.
“He must’ve loved whatever it was his cutie mark told him he was good at,” he said. “I’ll bet it’s just as hard for him to come back to the Village as it was for Bend Twist to come here and reconcile with me.”
He chuckled at the bulging eyes of the CMCs.
“I found out a week ago,” he told them. “But I’ll let him keep up the whole Ben Knot guise for as long as it gives him confidence.”
“Do you want us to be there with you when you finally spill the beans?” asked Sweetie Belle.
Party Favour looked thoughtful.
“Well if Gaffe’s refusing to come back,” he said at last, “you may be on this mission for a while. I won’t bug you with it if you’re busy.”

*****

The next day was a school day. Again, the Crusaders’ marks glowed and vibrated first thing in the morning. And again, it was brief.
“It’s just a reminder by now,” grunted Apple Bloom. “If Gaffe does show up, our marks’ll be more persistent.”
So they didn’t bother going to the Cave, and went about their school work. This went on for a week. First thing in the morning, the Crusaders’ marks would glow and vibrate for a moment. Sometimes, one of the Crusaders would visit the Cave to see if Gaffe was coming. Sometimes, a villager would offer to go to the Cave and see if there was any development. There was never any sign of him. The same sight met the eyes of anypony who ventured to the Cave. The cutie marks of Gaffe and Evensong Glisten spent the whole week chasing each other around the Grid.

*****

One day the following week, Double Diamond went with Scootaloo to check on the Cave. When it appeared that no one was coming, Double Diamond looked at the Grid. He watched Gaffe’s cutie mark, trying to guess what it meant.
“A pine and a river,” he muttered to himself. “Hmm… the snow and ice is melting… he must be a log driver!”
“Log Driver? What’s that?” asked Scootaloo.
“In Winter, trees are chopped down, sawn into logs, and piled onto frozen lakes. When the Spring thaw comes, the logs float down the river to the sawmills and paper mills,” Double Diamond explained. “The log drivers’ job is to keep the logs from snagging on the river banks and causing jams. It’s a tough job. Life-threatening, really.”
“And Gaffe doesn’t want to take a break from it?!” spluttered Scootaloo. “He’s got a pretty good excuse if you ask me.”
“I think he must’ve wanted to quit in the first place because the stress or the fear was getting to him. Or maybe he almost had a fatal accident,” pondered Double Diamond. “And now that he’s left the Village and gone back to his normal life, the fear and stress has been mounting. That’s why the Grid’s trying to call him back.”
“Then I hope he does decide to stop ignoring the call,” said Scootaloo. “Before it’s too late.”

*****

The hide-and-seek game between Gaffe’s and Evensong’s cutie marks entered its third week.
“I’ll go find him,” Night Glider offered one day.
The Crusaders were very appreciative of this. The morning after Night Glider left, the three CMCs’ cutie marks went off on schedule. For the first time in two weeks, all three of them went to the Cave, hoping that Night Glider was successful in finding Gaffe. Upon arrival, it appeared to be so.
“There she is!” exclaimed Sweetie Belle.
Night Glider flew towards them. She was soaking wet and very angry.
“He threw a lit bundle of dynamite at me!” she barked.

*****

While helping to clear up a log jam on a river bend just before Neighagra Falls, Gaffe, who was doing his utmost to ignore his glowing and vibrating cutie mark, spotted Night Glider flying towards him. He recognised her from their cult days, and knew at once what she wanted. He was having none of it. He grabbed a bundle of dynamite sticks, lit the fuse, and threw it at Night Glider, shouting at her to leave him alone. Caught by surprise, Night Glider just managed to dodge the bundle, but the straps got caught in her tail. She dived into the river to extinguish the wick. The water was freezing. And it did no good. The wick had been smothered in soap, and wouldn’t go out in the water. Panicking, Night Glider flew in and out of the ice cold water. It took six attempts, but at last, the flame was put out. She flew away at once, not wanting another explosive to be thrown at her.

*****

In the Cave, the Crusaders were helping to untangle the dynamite bundle from Night Glider’s tail. As soon as it was free, Night Glider kicked it to a corner of the Cave.
“I hope he gets a limb pinched off!” she growled in a shaky voice.
The Crusaders took her to the Village Hostel to get dried off and warmed up. She calmed down after a hot shower and a mug of chocolate tea.
“I’ll go back to the river tomorrow,” she said as she and the CMCs sat by the fireplace. “But I’ll need to take you with me, Sweetie.”

*****

The following morning, the log drive still hadn’t reached the Falls. Another jam was holding up the flow, and Gaffe and his co-workers were working hard to try and shift it. Gaffe saw Night Glider flying towards him.
“I told you to get lost!” he roared.
He reached for a bundle of dynamite and a match. Then he noticed that Glider had a passenger. Sweetie Belle, riding on Night Glider’s back, lit her horn. Just as Gaffe had struck the match on the trunk of a nearby tree, it was extinguished. The dynamite was whisked from his other hoof. He made a grab for another, but was lifted off his hooves in a magical grip. It was no strain on Sweetie Belle’s horn, and there was no extra weight for Night Glider to carry. None of the other log drivers batted an eyelid as Night Glider turned and flew away with Sweetie Belle.
“Guys! Help!” shrieked Gaffe as he was levitated away from the river. “They’re foalnapping me!”
“It’s probably for your own good, Gaffe!” called an old stallion standing on the bank.
“You banana skin!” Gaffe yelled as he was carried out of sight.
“Don’t drop him, whatever ya do!” one of the other drivers called to Night Glider and Sweetie Belle. “We don’t want this to become a salt water river!”

*****

At last, when Sweetie Belle’s, Scootaloo’s, and Apple Bloom’s cutie marks went off, the glowing and vibrating was more persistent. Their quarry had finally arrived. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo raced to the Cave entrance to find Sweetie Belle and Night Glider dragging a very reluctant Gaffe back to his former colony.
“I swore I’d never come back!” he hissed, trying in vain to break free of Sweetie Belle’s magic.
“Gaffe!” Apple Bloom shouted over the unwilling stallion’s attempts to escape. “Starlight’s Village isn’t the same place it used to be!”
Gaffe went on trying to claw away.
“Maybe don’t call it Starlight’s Village,” suggested Scootaloo. “It can’t be helping.”
Sweetie Belle, who showed no sign of strain from lifting the burly log driver, turned Gaffe around so he was facing the Village. Gaffe stopped struggling. He could see that the little town certainly had changed.
“Apple trees,” he remarked. “I never would’ve guessed. Now the town looks like an equal sign with an afro.”
Everyone chuckled.

*****

They managed to congregate in the CMC Clubhouse. Gaffe had calmed down, but Sweetie Belle did not release her magical grip on him, just in case he made any sudden attempts to get away. It was no strain on her horn what-so-ever.
“So Gaffe,” said Apple Bloom, “three weeks ago, when your cutie mark glowed, vibrated, and split… did you not think maybe you should follow it?!”
“It was heading for this Village,” said Gaffe flatly. “No way did I think I should follow it.”
“But it must’ve been driving you crazy all this time,” insisted Apple Bloom.
“Everything drives me crazy,” sighed Gaffe. “My mark pestering me, my job trying to kill me, a cult trying to zombify me… I can’t win.”
“Tell us about your job,” said Scootaloo.
“Sure. It’s horrifying,” said Gaffe, his cheek pulling his mouth into a toothy smile. “Every single solitary aspect of it scares me to death. The heavy logs, the tools, the machinery, the river currents, the hungry wildlife, the freezing conditions, the big rocks, the burling, the timber thieves…”
“The explosives?” scowled Night Glider.
“Well I did tell you to go away,” said the unabashed Gaffe. “You and me put on a big smile like everypony else in the Cult of Equality, but when it all came tumbling down, I decided to suck up my fear and return to the normality I had foolishly abandoned.”
“And just look at what it’s done to you,” said Night Glider contemptuously.

*****

“How did you get your cutie mark?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Well I grew up on a cranberry farm,” said Gaffe. “It was pretty far from the river, so for a long time, I never saw or even knew about the log drive.”
“Did you like cranberry farming?” asked Apple Bloom.
“It was okay… but…” Gaffe gave a noncommittal shrug and tilt of his head. “One day, at the start of summer, I was walking along the irrigation canal, following an unripe cranberry that had blown away and was floating along. I got to the river, and I saw two logs stuck on the other bank. Just as I was wondering how they got there, an old stallion came along on a rowboat. He wasn’t using a paddle to move his boat, but a long wooden stick with a metal hook on the end. I watched him free the two logs from the bank and send them floating away. He saw me, we waved to each other, and then off he went. The next year, I went back to the river at the start of summer, hoping to see him. He was there, shifting some trapped logs. We waved, we introduced ourselves… his name’s Cant Dog. The next year, we met up, and he invited me on a trip on his rowboat. He even offered me a shot at moving some stranded logs with his pole. He told me about his life on the log drive. I thought it sounded cool. Then when we got back to the canal, I got my cutie mark.”

*****

“Then when I grew up and got a job on the log drive…”
Gaffe’s face seemed to become more lined. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Night Glider glanced at Sweetie Belle to make sure her horn was still glowing.
“I tried going back to work on the farm, but it didn’t do anything for me, and it soon became clear that my family were managing just fine without me,” said Gaffe. “But log driving turned me into a wound-up bundle of nerves.”
“Have you…?” Scootaloo piped up.
“I quickly found out I was no more suited to on-the-side work,” Gaffe said sharply. “I tried making deliveries, and working in the food tents, and contacting riverside communities to let them know we were coming. But I was no good at any of those. I make… everyone says I make a good log driver… but it’s a great big pile of yikes!”
“Okay, let me get this straight,” said Apple Bloom, standing up and slowly pacing the Treehouse. “As a colt, you’d never seen the main log drive go down the river. And yet you chased that career after you got your cutie mark for cleaning up just a few logs after the main drive had gone by.”
Gaffe’s face fell.

*****

“Cleaning up the leftover logs after the main drive gets to the mills…” he breathed. “That’s been Cant Dog’s job for ages. If I were meant to do that… I’d be taking his job away from him.”
“You don’t have to take it from him,” said Scootaloo. “I’ll bet he could use some help in his old age.”
“You’re right there,” said Gaffe, perking up a bit. “Come to think of it, it has been taking him longer. I think last year, he was still cleaning up well into the Fall. That’s what I can do. I can join him. Just like I did on my first upriver adventure.”
His cutie mark glowed and vibrated. As did Apple Bloom’s, Scootaloo’s, and Sweetie Belle’s.
“Three weeks,” muttered Apple Bloom. “It took three weeks to solve a problem that could’ve been solved in minutes.”

*****

“I’m sorry, Crusaders,” said Gaffe. “I never believed that the answer to my problem really was in this town after all.”
Night Glider tapped her hoof.
“Sorry to you too, Night Glider,” said Gaffe sheepishly. “I’m happy you and the other villagers are leading a good life here.”
Night Glider nodded, but said nothing. Gaffe stood up. Sweetie realised her magic wasn’t holding him anymore, and so put out her horn.
“I guess there’s no need to go back to the river,” said Gaffe. “Maybe I’ll just stay here for a few days and try to relax. Then I’ll go to my old home on the cranberry farm and wait for Summer to come.”
He pursed his lips, trying not to look at Night Glider.
“I’ll go tell them you’re not coming back,” sighed Glider.
“Thank you,” smiled Gaffe.

*****

Night Glider returned to the Hostel quite soon.
“We’ve got a problem,” she said to Gaffe and the Crusaders. “On my way out of town, I remembered the dynamite was in the Cave, so I thought I’d go grab it and bring it back to the log drivers. But it’s not there. I can’t find it.”