The only chapter
Marshwillow stood over the graves of his parents and reflected upon their end. The sickness had overtaken them all, the fever, the chills, the coughing, and eventually, they had died. Marshwillow had survived somehow. His mother, Weeping Willow, an earth pony like himself, had died first, and then not even an hour later, his father, Marshmoss, a pegasus, had died as well. Marshwillow knew when they gave up the ghost because he could no longer hear their cries.
In just a day or two, Marshwillow had recovered and was faced with dealing with the bodies of his parents. It had taken all of his strength, but he had dragged their bodies out of the cabin they all lived in, placed them beneath a tree entwined with one another, and then covered them with rocks.
He looked at the cabin and realised there was nothing left for him here in the swamps. He had no family, no prospects, no clan, and no reason to keep enduring with the old way of life. The others in the clan had gone on years ago, heading off to civilisation. Marshwillow’s parents had held on to their ways right up till the end.
He craned his head around and looked at his mark, a giant skunk cabbage. Wasn’t going to do him much good where he was going. He sighed a heavy sigh of resignation and said goodbye to his parents and his way of life.
The raft looked crude but serviceable. Crude logs from kicked over trees and the branches kicked off, all bound together with creeping vines. He had made a serviceable rudder that he hoped would hold. He had woven several baskets out of palm fronds and filled them with food. Marshwillow turned away from his work and headed back inside the cabin.
He stood inside the single room, looking down at the packed dirt floor. The beds were piles of hanging moss. The cabin had no door. There was no furniture. There was nothing to take with him. There was nothing to say.
He backed out of the cabin and approached his parent’s graves to say one final goodbye. He stood over them, silent, he had never had much to say, and now was no exception. He caught the scent of death coming up from under the rocks.
It was time to go.
He kicked his raft into the sluggish river and hopped aboard. The raft took off into the water and he cast one final glance at his home of all these years. He lifted up one front hoof and waved. He sat down and took the tiller in one folded fetlock, carefully steering the raft as he began his journey down the river.
It took no effort to travel by river and the raft went where the river meandered. All around him the marshy swamp sang with life. Dragonflies buzzed, frogs croaked, birds screeched and sang to one another. Marshwillow watched everything as he slowly drifted past. The sun trickled through the thick overhead canopy, dappling the world around him with puddles of sunlight, and creating scintillating sparkles on the surface of the river.
There were no signs of other ponies as he traveled, but he already knew how it would be. He had wandered from home a few times, out walking for several days at a time in different directions. He had never even seen another pony other than his parents in years.
He eyed his baskets. He had only been on the river for a few days and already his supplies were dwindling. He was going to have to find a good place to pull the raft ashore and forage for more food.
In the distance, he saw a column of smoke rising up into the sky and wondered what might be burning. Too much smoke to be a campfire. And it was the middle of summer, so a fire wasn’t needed to keep warm.
He wondered if the river would wander by whatever had caused the fire.
Marshwillow was near whatever was the cause of the smoke. He could smell it now, it was thick in his nostrils, and he wasn’t too far off. He sniffed, smelling the distant smoke. He could also smell the hot smell of vegetation warmed by the sun, the scent of decay that was always present in the marsh, the smell of the water, and the smell of some rotted tree that was nearby.
He approached a clearing in the trees along the river’s edge, a place free of trees and their tangled knots of roots, and he steered his craft towards the tall grasses along the bank. He ran aground and once he did so, he grabbed his raft by some vines, and, using his teeth, tugged the raft ashore, grunting with each step as he backed up.
He let go of the vines, turned around, and nearly tripped over a filly. He let out a startled grunt but then pulled himself together, back away from the wide eyed and clearly frightened filly.
“Are you here to rescue me?” the filly asked.
The filly, a unicorn, was dirty and covered in soot. Her pelt, once white, was now a dirty streaked grey. Her soft pink and green mane was matted and crusted with mud. She had a few scabbed over cuts along her sides.
“I don’t know about rescuing you, but I can help you,” Marshwillow said. “I’m traveling down the river.”
“My name is Mouse… please help me,” the filly begged.
“Don’t worry Mouse, I’ll help you. My name is Marshwillow.”
“Marshmallow?” Mouse said, cocking her head.
“No, Marshwillow.”
“Oh,” Mouse said.
“What happened?” Marshwillow asked.
“Our airship crashed. There was a thunderstorm. A bad one. Everypony’s dead,” Mouse said and she began to sniffle.
A moment later, Marshwillow felt two legs around his neck squeezing him and the filly was reared up on her hind legs hugging him. She was smaller than he was, but about the same age as he was, or so he thought, He couldn’t tell for certain. He wrapped one foreleg around her withers and held her close for a moment. It was nice to see another pony. To feel another pony.
It was nice to see a filly.
After a moment, Mouse let go and pulled back. Tears had left streaks along her face and more continued to fall. She took a deep breath, held it, and then let it out. “You don’t want to see the crash. Everypony burned. I couldn’t get them away. My mother held me in her magic and I survived the crash. She’s gone. They’re all gone. Even our butler.”
“I’ll take your word about it. You can come with me if you’d like… are you hungry? I have a few apples left, not many, and a couple of tubers,” Marshwillow offered.
“I’d love some food,” Mouse squeaked.
Marshwillow led her back to the raft and gestured at the baskets. The filly gingerly stepped onto the raft and stuck her head into one of the baskets. She came up a moment later with an apple in her teeth, a big green one. Her horn glowed and the apple hovered as she began to eat it.
“Eat a few more, I’ll stop and forage for us along the way… and let me shove the raft into the river,” Marshwillow said.
Mouse stepped away from the raft, looked off into the direction of the smoke, and then watched as the raft was dragged to the river. She hurried after it and jumped aboard just as the raft was beginning to drift with the river current. She turned again towards the smoke, waved, and then turned her head away with her eyes closed, suppressing a cry.
“Do you know where we are going?” Mouse asked as she opened her eyes once more.
“Nope,” Marshwillow replied.
“I suppose I should go home… but my parents are dead. I don’t know what to do,” Mouse said sadly.
“My parents died too. Got sick. I just buried them a few days ago,” Marshwillow said in a low voice as he took the tiller in his folded fetlock once again.
“I’m sorry,” Mouse said. “So you just set out on your own I take it?”
“Yeah I did,” Marshwillow replied.
“With no idea where you are going? Anything could happen! My parents had a plan about where they were going… we were going to Saddle Arabia. And we crashed. How can you just set out without knowing where you are going?” Mouse said as she lifted another apple in a soft pink bubble of magic.
“My mama once told me, “Life along a river flowing, never knowing, always going,” and I had to think about what she said real hard. You’ll just end up where life needs for you to be if you just go with the flow of things. I came along and rescued you. And now, I ain’t alone no more. I have me a right pretty filly to eat apples with me and keep me company as I go.”
Mouse sat down on the raft, which soaked her backside. She felt an odd jumble of emotions. Sad, hopeful, and something else that she couldn’t quite put her hoof on. She looked at the moss green earth pony with the dark green mane and studied him carefully.
“I ain’t got no idea where this river will take us,” Marshwillow said.
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It's a nice little story. Kinda sad, but at least Marsh made a friend.
This was extraordinarily well written. Hardly any grammatical errors and well paced. You really made me feel sorry for both Marsh and Mouse, and I wanted to cry when Marsh left home. I thought Mouse was Sweetie Belle at first, but then I remembered the tags. Also, will you, by any chance, make a sequel?
5030886
I don't know. Maybe. This is has been sitting around my drive for a while. It was going to be a long story, but I sort of forgot the direction I was going with it.
5030891 I hope you will.
This strikes me as an excellent start for a longer story. Encounters with odd animals, Luna in their dreams but not able to find out where they are because the land has changed so much in the last thousand years. Perhaps a rescue by Steve the river serpent later on. Help yourself to anything that looks good. If anything.
This is a lovely story.
Please, make this part of the Chase-verse...
5031030
Hmm, unicorns fleeing Canterlot, knowing which way the wind was blowing. Politically.
5031037 It literally has "The Chase" wrote all over it ! I know that you have a problem with the ammount of chars in Chase already, but you don´t need to focus on then...maybe some quick glances while they find Ponnyville and start all over, while they witness all the changes. Marshwllow is a blank page, since he had no contact with the politics...Mouse has witnessed everything in Canterlot, but being a foal maybe she is not contamined yet.
And bonus points if she is from House Avarice !!!! Imagine if Bucky, later, after get knowing booth and their story, suddenly discover she is from his old family, but without the sins !
5031083
Er, eeenope.
Not from Avarice. They were all rounded up and captured. Luna rooted them out. None would escape her.
I dunno.
5031092 Ummm, maybe from a lesser noble house serving then, but not taking part in the horror they spread ? Sorry to insist, but i love the idea of House Avarice past sin´s (great history, by the way), in some way, coming back to haunt Bucky...i mean, in a more personificed way, not counting the hundreads of dreadfull things they did and are still being undone...
A sad story, though with certain charms. The title in particular reminded me of this:
Not really much to say. This is only a beginning. A journey awaits these two, but there's no earthly way of knowing quite exactly where they're going. Even if the raft isn't made of hard candy.
Still, a good read for what there was of it.
You know, I don't even know how to tag this story.
Why is it that with almost every single story you've written I desperately want a sequal to it
With the teasers you give to the characters, such as in the Question, The Catch and even here I can see so much potential for a good story. You do your job too well
Hmmm....Well, I'd call the end a cliffhanger...An evil one with an opening for more story....
5031092 I agree with marcelojj, at least partially.
Maybe have Marshwillow and Mouse make a cameo appearance in Ponyville?
Marshwillow's cutie mark is a cabbage, which to me means crops, especially crops that can grow and even thrive in less-than-ideal conditions, like the way Ponyville is currently.
Something like this:
DISCLAIMER: I KNOW THAT PART OF THIS IS MAKING AN ASSUMPTION OR TWO, SO IF I AM INACCURATE, FEEL FREE TO CORRECT ME ON THIS
A guard approached Bucky, his ears flat in a submissive posture.
"Prince Buckmin- Bucky, we found these two drifting downriver, we checked for traps, and they check out, what do you want done with them?"
Bucky looked the two ponies over, one filly and one colt, his eyes falling on the colt's cutie mark, a cabbage.
"What's your name, and what does your cutie mark mean?" Bucky asked in a commanding but gentle tone.
The colt slowly walked forward, his head down.
"Marshwillow sir, and my cutie mark means I grow crops."
"Crops like cabbage?"
"Yes sir."
Basically, introduce them to Bucky, have him recognize that Marshwillow's talent is useful for revitalizing Ponyville, and have Bucky assign Marshwillow (and Mouse) to Silver Shill and Applejack.
It ties up the loose end well enough, but still leaves room for a sequel, or inter-quel for Marshwillow and Mouse.
I just whipped the above in italics together in 5 minutes, but it's the general idea.
5143164
Skunk cabbage is poisonous. His talent is eating toxic vegetation and not dying.
Skunk cabbage
5143227 Oh dear...
I didn't know that.
I clicked the link, and it said that skunk cabbage has medicinal properties.
Maybe he can use it to help treat the hoof rot?
It took no effort TO travel by river and the raft went WHERE the river meandered.
I marked this story to read later right when it came out, and promptly forgot about it. Having just now rediscovered and read it, I can't help but think this would fit well as a small part of the Chase-verse. Perhaps Bucky and the others could notice them from the airship at some point and stop to pick them up?
Just a thought. I did like it, though.
I like it. I'm hoping to see it become something more.
I really like this story, it has great potential and I am hoping to see sequel!
Cute for being so short. I'd love to know what happens with Marshwillow.
Also, is this the same little Mouse that pairs up with Rye Mash?
6462725
No.
No tags! No tags at all!
6776120
Nope.
Ya know - this would fit well into the Weedverse quite nicely. Just saying.
7586338
I've thought about it, but the plague thing... I dunno. I keep thinking, this should get a rewrite.
7586343
No need for a re-write unless you want to target something specific larger to the Weed-verse. You've got a backwater with three ponies, two of which just died. The third hasn't seen another pony for years, so you can basically drop this in anywhere and at any time. If you wanted you could make the excuse the sickness was something to do with what's going on with Sumac and Co or it could just be run-of-the-mill swamp sickness. You could very easily have them pop up in the background for Gloomy or Stinkbug, they don't even have to have much screen time. But, you've got two characters who are off to see the world because the have nothing else and because I don't think anypony has told them they can't or shouldn't. (This does seem to be a bit of a theme for you and I'm not saying that's bad.)
All stories have to start somewhere and this is a start.