//------------------------------//
// 11 - Catching up 
// Story: Horse-Based Economy 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

Seated on her original cushion, Buttercup exclaimed, "Wow... You have been up to so much..."

One of the other town elders raised a genuinely elderly hoof, unlike the younger Buttercup. "Another gathering of ponies? We thought we were alone, but then one other, and now two? How many of us are there?"

Another shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not complaining. If they're like the other ponies, we make passable neighbors. It sounds like they don't live like us, or the vault."

Applejack strode up to stand in front of all the tribal leaders. "Howdy. Ain't got much a chance t'say hi with the story goin' on an' such."

Buttercup waved with a smile at the fellow pony. "Hello there! You talk funny for a vaulter."

Applejack colored at that. "Hey... Ah may be a vaulter, but ah've live out in the wastes a long time..."

Stan threw a thumb at himself. "So she talks more like me. Ain't not a thin' wrong with that." The two shared a firm nod of solidarity.

Buttercup looked between the two wasteland wanderers. A sly smirk spread on her face. "So... You like ponies, do you Stan?" She brought up her hooves together. "It's so nice, seeing love blossom even in these dry lands."

Applejack went dark as she lowered her hat to block her face as best she could. "Hey! It ain't like that."

Stan chuckled softly. "I think you forgot..." But it clicked even as he said it. "Oh, right. You don't know what a ghoul is. Most of us don't have much want that way. Either way." He waved behind him. "You got a merchant out there that wants to hook you up with some apples and maybe show you how to plant some apple trees. Play yer cards right and they may even bring a little tree, skip the hard part. If yer interested?"

One of the other elders, a mare, nodded. "The guard mentioned that. We have to discuss it. We've given permission to trade for some things we certainly need. What brings you here, Stan, Opener of doors?"

Stan blinked. "That's a new title."

"An appropriate one," continued the elder mare. "You opened the door to our people. Not satisfied, you went to the vault. Against their initial desires, you opened their door. Even as they kicked and screamed all the while, the opener of doors could not be stopped. They still tell stories of the opener of doors."

Buttercup hopped to her hooves. "So! Did you open their door too? The new ponies. Were they happy or sad?"

Stan considered that, but Applejack was already answering, "They hired us to help announce their door bein' wide open! Oh." She coiled on herself and grabbed an envelope in her teeth. "Here ya go."

The envelope glowed, one of the elders, a unicorn, grabbed it in their magic and floated it over, tearing it open along the way. "For us?" she asked, having a peek. "Hm.. Hm...."

Buttercup angled her head at the floating letter. "I am an elder too, I should listen to this." So she said nothing further, watching the reading of the letter.

"About that." Stan waved at her, then the others. "You're kinda young for an elder, and I feel bad even mentioning that. People have been cracking comments about me being young for too many years."

"So don't do that." Buttercup extended her tongue at Stan. "They let me in because I showed 'great wisdom' with our brief trip." She made quotes with her hooves as she went. "You opened the door, and  I'm the mare they let stand in it and greet people as they come."

The other elder passed the letter along for the others to read. "It would seem this 'Celestia' wishes to greet us with open arms and a kind smile. They have been in contact with humans for some time."

A stallion accepted the letter, looking it over curiously. "What do they want, exactly?"

The first shrugged. "Nothing, but for our ponies to meet and trade. Both goods, and ponies."

Another elder started. "We do not allow slavery!"

The first held up a hoof. "Not that. Ponies moving one way or the other, of their own will."

"Oh." The elder calmed and looked to Buttercup. "What do you think?"

Buttercup took the letter when it was her turn to have a look. "I think this sounds great. The only thing happier than a pony? Two ponies. One thing!" All the elders looked to her. "We set the same rules. Any pony living here has to live the way we do. We have a nice thing going. I don't want to toss it out."

They nodded in agreement, all unified on the idea of not giving up their community spirit. The unicorn mare smiled. "Well, if they accept that and wish to join our tribe, then we will show them how, and they can pass the test, just as the vaulters do. And if one of us wishes to join them... We won't stop them. A pony decides their own fate." A new nod rippled among them, agreed on that point.

A stallion clopped a hoof down. "No elders."

"No elders," the others echoed.

Applejack inclined her head. "No elders? What's that mean? Ya won't take an' older pony?"

Buttercup whipped her head quickly.. "Nope, opposite, actually. If you're an elder." She pointed to herself. "That's a permanent position, until life flees me. None of us may leave unless the entire... village burned to ash or something... That would be bad. Gonna hope that never happens."

The others murmured with disgusted horror at the very notion of their little tribe suffering such a fate.

"Huh..." Stan frowned faintly. "Hope not, but ain't nothing's gaurenteed. Now, we can give ya directions to the town." The ponies perked and he did just that, telling them how to reach the pony town the way he'd come. Applejack was happy to corroborate and soon the elders knew the way with a crude map drawn to go with it.

"Sirs." The pegasus guard was at the flap. "The trades are comple."

Buttercup nodded at the pegasus. "Great. Store what we got. Um, did we end up getting an apple tree?"

"Just apples, ma'am!" The pegasus saluted with a wing. "Which are seeds? Did you know that?"

"A good day to learn... But you..." She looked to Claude and Applejack. "Do you know how to plant an apple?"

Applejack shook her head, lacking the apple tending powers of her Equestrian self. "Ah 'magine you'd want to take the seeds out and plant those? In nice, uh... dirt?"

The pegasus looked ready to fight, but though better of it. "Sirs." They bowed and scurried away, leaving the elders to their business.

Stan made an apple-like shape with waves of his hands and fingers. "No expert neither, but inside each apple's a bunch of seeds. Ya saw 'em, didn't ya?"

Buttercup perked up. "Wait... I thought that was just... something to eat..."

The unicorn chuckled softly. "We've been eating the seeds when we could have been planting them? What foals we've been... Let us make it a law, that no seed of an apple will be eaten. Collect them all to be planted, until we have many fine trees to make more apples with."

The others nodded in agreement, clopping their hooves with the announcement of a new law.

A new pony poked their head in. "You summoned?"

The unicorn nodded to them, repeating the new law. "See that all hear it."

"Of course." They rushed off to see it done.

Stan shrugged. "That merchant wanted to show you some tricks fer it. He'll be upset if you cut him out, but that ain't my business. You do what you want." He turned for the door, patting Giddyup on the way. "That's one letter down. Should we stop by the vault to be sure they got theirs?"

Applejack hesitated. "Um... Been mighty nice meetin' y'all..." She bowed her head and trotted after Stan to catch up.

Buttercup giggled into a hoof. "She really likes him. It's so cute."

The unicorn wrinkled her snout. "They are strange, even for a human. She could find far better partners."

The stallion shrugged. "And he's small, as humans go. I don't know what she sees."

"The opener of doors," breathed out Buttercup. "Isn't that enough?"





Applejack caught up with Stan as they mosied through the town. "The vault's not too far from here, and this's a calmer part of the wastes than a lot of it... So ah ain't got nothin' 'gainst visitin'. Better to be sure the letter got to 'em, and if it did, means we can chat with 'em in the future, and maybe the other way 'round?"

Stan ran a hand across Giddyup's back. "Want a ride? Glad we're in agreement. Let's stop by the vault, then swing back to Ponyville."

With a sudden spring, Applejack jumped and climbed up onto Giddyup's back. "Sounds like a plan! Giddyup, did ya like that?"

Giddyup considered as he walked. "I enjoyed speaking with Buttercup. She still desires that name and will not share. She should share."

Stan laughed at that. "Poor thin'. Ain't nothing wrong with either name, and we can tell ya two apart easier this way." He gave a light wave at the guards, headed past them the other way. "It's  kinda nice, knowin', 'least around these parts, people are startin' to know ponies well enough."

Applejack nodded swiftly. "Yeah! Um, ah take partial credit fer that. They've been seein' me for some time now. An' ah mind mah manners."

Giddyup swung his head around to face her. "Your behavior has been quite good. I apologize, I lack any specific treats to encourage further good behavior."

Applejack blinked at that. "Ah ain't a pet. Don't gotta give me nothin' to act proper." She crossed her arms, bouncing atop Giddyup. "'Sides, ah'm an adult!"

Giddyup faced forward. "I did not intend... We will visit your old home."

Applejack perked an ear. "Sure are... Wait, yer changin' the subject!"

"Did it work?"

Applejack clopped a hoof to her face. "Yes... Ah'm lookin' forward to hearin' how things are goin'." She chuckled softly. "Think Skyline's gettin' used to family life?"

It took a moment for Stan to remember the name and situation, snapping his fingers when it came. "Right. Now Ah'm wonderin' too... The mare that caught him seemed like not the sort that'd let him wander off."

"Reckon not." Applejack leaned forward over her mount. "Can't wait!" A new thought came and she tapped at Giddyup. "Maybe Twilight'll be there too. Ya miss her?"

"She is a skilled repair engineer." Giddyup clicked and whirred, various things going on internally. "All systems are nominal. Repairs not required."

Stan stepped up onto the top of the hill they had been hiking up. "Good to hear that." He turned slowly, taking in the sorroundings expansively. "But she can do mods too, if there was somethin' ya wanted to ask 'bout."

Giddyup kept up with Stan easily, coming to a stop next to them. "No hostiles detected. Odds of hostile contact, 15%."

Applejack hiked a brow. "Those odds fer today or what, sugarcube?"

"Until our next destination." Giddyup raised a hoof to point towards the vault they couldn't see yet. "It is safe. Relatively."

"Ah'll take it." Stan took up the journey anew, descending the hill. "Ah don't say it 'nough, but ah'm powerful glad to have you around, Giddyup."

Giddyup went in so close, he brushed Applejack along with his own side against Stan. "I am happy to hear that. I am pleased to have you as a child. You have proven... more enduring than my other children."

Stan winced at that turn of conversation. "Just doin' mah part... Look..." He worried his hands, searching for words.

Fortunately, Applejack was there. "Sugarcube, Giddyup. Stan ain't gonna stop bein' there, not just 'cause the years went by. He can... still be hurt. Like you, really."

"Like me." He was quiet a moment. "I understand. I could be destroyed. Too much time between repairs could elapse. Understood. New topic: That cloud has the appearance of a rabbit."

Stan snorted, but did look at the cloud. "Yeah... kinda does." He didn't pry for Giddyup to return to that somber line of thought.