The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Wagon Up

"Gerardo," Maple whispered, taking the griffon aside in a corner next to a stack of toy boxes. "Can I ask a favor?"

"Certainly." Gerardo bowed, giving her his ear.

With a shuffle of drying fur, Maple pulled out a small key, designed to be held in a pony's mouth. "This is the key to my room on the ship. You remember where it is, right?"

Gerardo fidgeted. "I can't say I'd easily forget..."

"Then can you take this and put it there? For safekeeping?"

Maple produced a shimmering crystalline orb, clear and colorless save for a jagged teal core that seemed to glow in the dim light, countless golden flakes suspended in the shell around it. "It's what Howe wants, and I'm not sure if I trust him yet. The windigo heart. But carrying it with my cutie mark makes me feel sick if I hold it for more than a few hours, and the sooner we get it somewhere safe, the better. Besides, I'm..." She shuffled nervously. "Things are going well so far, but I have a feeling something's going to go wrong, and it would be so much easier to take care of this before it does."

Gerardo took it with a talon and returned a grin. "Hah! Saying you have a bad feeling about something is a perfect way to invite something bad happen. Then again, so is saying nothing can possibly go wrong..." He tucked the orb into a large pocket on his uniform. It was about the size of a newborn foal's head, or maybe an exceptionally large mango, and stuck out sorely but was still safely contained. "I'll be back swiftly. If you aren't here when I return, I'll search for you along the road to Grand Acorn."

"Thank you, Gerardo..." Maple smiled, hoping he'd take it as forgiveness for their altercation on the ship. She was feeling better, at least, despite the shrieks of eleven foals still ringing in her ears.

"Then I shall be off!" Gerardo primly darted up the staircase and out the door, stopping to ease it closed behind him.

Maple exhaled... and glanced around. Starlight was nearby, standing still with a clear mix of impatience and nervousness that was easy to sympathize with. The sooner they could depart, the better... but Howe was still abroad, searching for Sosan assistance to move the huge family.

There was also White Chocolate, leaning stunned against a wall. The task of calming the children was complete, at least until the next stranger appeared in the house to make noise and set everything off, and fortunately the younger foals were easy to distract from their plight. But the mother herself looked increasingly less-capable of coming to terms with the evacuation notice, and Maple had no idea how to help her. So, she walked closer.

"Now that that's all done..." White Chocolate sighed and closed her eye, ears twitching at Maple's presence. "Was that right, what Gerardo said? That the Defense Force is planning a flood?"

"It's..." Maple swallowed. She wanted to say it's a precaution, but that felt like unnecessary sugarcoating. "They threatened to," she went with. "This is all news to me, too. I don't know how much is a good idea to say, though..."

White Chocolate looked up, vulnerable. "Do you think they will?"

"...I have no idea." Maple didn't mention that she had met Selma, and that he came off as a needlessly cruel pony, keeping her and Starlight as a captive audience and then dragging her into his fortress when Gerardo hadn't gone down on that first evening as quickly as he would have liked. Her mind flitted over a claustrophobic sequence of being carried in magic through tunnels, of being tied to a pipe and prodded and mocked, of her probably-insignificant revenge of the stolen card key still floating inside her cutie mark... and realized that if push came to shove, she could see the unicorn captain pulling a trigger and washing away a district. But White Chocolate didn't need to hear that.

"I'm sure whatever happens will be for the best, though," she said instead, giving a smile that she didn't really feel and hoping it reached her eyes.

White Chocolate bought it. "Thanks..."

Maple didn't meet her gaze. Eventually, she heard the other mare shuffle up beside her.

"You know," White Chocolate began, "every time it feels like Ironridge is at its worst, I start... wondering." She swallowed. "I was little when Project Aslan ended, but I remember what it was like before that. Everyone was happy and optimistic, and they fought so viciously afterward even though they still had so much. But after the airships came back and Arambai left, everyone started thinking those were the good old days, because as unhappy as everyone was, we had more than we did now. For me, it got even worse when Faron left. What scares me isn't that my house could get flooded, Maple. It's that if it does, and my family becomes homeless or Sosa runs out of money to let us provide for ourselves, or anything else... that I'll start thinking of now as the good times, even when it's so lonesome around here."

"...I should be able to relate." Maple stared at the floor. "Technically, the worst thing that's ever happened to me is that I've tried to do something and ended up exactly where I was when I began. I didn't lose anything except the things I could have gained. I don't know if that counts, but... the important thing is to remember that things can get better as well as worse, and as long as things don't get so bad that you can't survive... there's always room for that to happen."

To her side, White Chocolate shifted. "I wish things would get better around here, for once."

"You could try to make them better," Starlight offered from a corner.

White Chocolate blinked at her. "How? I can't leave the house because my foals need me, and even if I could, what would I do? Look at me!" She waved a foreleg at herself. "I'm not a unicorn, have no talent or useful skills, can't do physical work, and might as well have only one eye. I wish I could do something, but there's nothing for a pony like me to do..."

Starlight frowned and pointed a hoof. "Well, once you have your foal you can do work, right?"

"It isn't that easy..." White Chocolate shook her head. "I'd still have an infant to care for, and would be competing against hundreds of strong stallions with work histories and just as much need to do something with themselves as me. And I wouldn't be in shape, period..."

"Well..." Starlight bit her tongue. "You could be an artist, or something."

White Chocolate managed a chuckle. "Me? I'm not that creative. Maybe if I had a brand for it, but... it should be obvious I'm only good at making one thing..."

Starlight glared. "You don't need a cutie mark to tell you what you can and can't do."

"Girls, please..." Maple cut in, stressed. "I don't suppose there's any more things we can do to prepare? Packing food, maybe? It'll probably be a long walk to Grand Acorn..."

White Chocolate got up from the wall. "Yes, we could... I'll also need to find something to wear, and... hmm..."

"Are you sure?" Maple tilted her head. "It's very hot out, today..."

"I'm sure," White Chocolate sighed, indicating her rump. "I... don't like showing off this brand. Or the fact that I'm expecting, when most of my neighbors know I used to have a husband and don't anymore..."

Maple winced. "You've kept it a secret for all this time? But... But what about making sure you have medical-"

"Not a secret." White Chocolate drooped. "They know. Maple, I know you're not from Ironridge, and maybe they do it differently where you're from, but... when a community loses something that holds them together, like Sosa and shipbuilding, they try to find something else that they've always honored and honor it more, because it's what they have left. Something like family. And for the disloyal wife of a disloyal husband like me..."

"I get it." Maple silenced her with a hoof to the shoulder. "That's enough. I understand."

White Chocolate shuddered.

Suddenly, the door echoed with a tapping hoof... and Jamjars cracked it open.

"Good pre-noon, my ladies!" Howe grinned fantastically, his silly mane nearly catching on the doorframe. "I bear cool tidings of great usefulness! To be more specific: look what I found!"

---

Parked outside White Chocolate's door was a generously-sized wooden wagon, two equine harnesses at the front and a full, walled-in flatbed for cargo. It lacked a roof, though with the present, wispy state of the sky, that was more of a danger for sunburn than getting rained on.

Maple eyed it appreciatively, Starlight standing on her back to get a look inside. While undeniably big, and very much better than she could have hoped for, she had a nagging doubt that White Chocolate's family was bigger.

"Wow. Slick." Jamjars waddled around a corner of the wagon, carrying her poofy mane behind her like a balloon on a far-too-short string. "Did you steal it?"

Howe's goatee drooped. "I am disparaged that you would insult my honor, oh fluffy one! Please! The Howenator merely happened upon a contingent of good Sosan workers bringing these in to assist with transporting the elderly and infirm! ...And also their valuables, since this is something of a rich retirement community these days, but that's not important! So I said to myself, 'Hmm! Howe, old pegasus, your friends may not be crippled by the weight of time, but they could undoubtedly use a-'"

"Thanks, Howe," Maple interrupted, sensing wryly that he could keep going for hours if unchecked. "It's great. We'll use it. Now, if only we could get a canopy to shade the foals..."

"Would a blanket help?" White Chocolate asked from the doorway, keeping her back half out of sight and eyes on the constant activity of ponies in the street beyond, doors periodically slamming and couples walking by with thick bundles of belongings strapped to their backs.

"Hmm..." Maple tapped her lip. "We'd also need some clips, and some sort of poles..."

---

Fifteen minutes later, Maple stood on her hind legs in the back of the cart, awkwardly leaning against the curtain rod from White Chocolate's bedroom. It had been roped upright to a corner of the wagon like three others from elsewhere in the house, finally making use of the cord she had stolen in the Defense Force fort that Selma had tried to tie her with, and was presently forming the support structure for some improvised shade. Starlight had offered to do the task with her telekinesis, and Maple had instantly shushed her. As fresh as the filly's horn was, she wasn't about to let Starlight waste her magic if she could help it.

"Nnngh... Nnn!" She wobbled, grunting around a mouthful of fabric and somehow keeping her balance. She pressed herself against the pole, freeing both forehooves to work an extra-strength toothed clamp that had once belonged to Jamjars' sizable collection of mane supplies. Finally, there was a click, and the last corner of the cart canopy was in place.

Howe floated down from his side as she fell back on all fours, grinning. "Hah! That ought'ta show the sun who's who around these parts! In your face, weather!"

"Um..." Maple bit her lip, already sweating from the heat. "Maybe it's best not to taunt...?"

"Eh, you're probably right." Howe glanced up at the sky, which was about an hour off from midday, and shrugged, a similar cart passing nearby with a rattle of gravel. The two elderly ponies in the back looked decidedly jealous of Maple and Howe's improvements. "My humblest apologies, oh great Nature! Please, uh, feel free to smite me for my indiscretions, or something. But could you spare my friends? And maybe my mane, too, if it's not too much trouble?"

Jamjars rolled her eyes, walking past him and hopping into the lowered back of the cart. "Who are you talking to?" she asked, laying down regally in the middle.

"It's, uhh..." Howe scratched at the back of his neck. "You know, never mind! Maple?" He indicated the dual harnesses at the front of the cart. "Do you believe it's time to get this show on the road?"

Maple glanced at him, then at White Chocolate's door. "I guess we really are the best two ponies to pull this thing, aren't we?"

"Eeyep!" Howe gave her a wings-up.

With a sigh, Maple paced back to the door. "Well, I guess we better get it loaded, then..."

---

White Chocolate stood nearby, waiting in the cart's shadow with a short silver cloak that blended nicely with her coat. It hid her cutie mark and nothing more, and she self-consciously shuffled from hoof to hoof as Maple and Howe helped load foals into the cart, trying to stay as much out of the road's sight as possible.

"White Chocolate..." Maple grunted, boosting a fat colt into the wagon with aid from Jamjars' telekinesis. "There are a lot of ponies passing by, and none of them are looking at you. I really think that today, they have better things to worry about."

"They probably do..." White Chocolate drooped, staring back at the entrance to her house. "I'm sorry if I'm being difficult. You two are doing all the work, here, and I'm just hiding..."

"Hey!" Jamjars protested from the wagon bed. "I'm helping, too! And there's gonna be a lot more work to do if someone doesn't get rid of Snow's magazines, because they're taking up way too much room!"

"But they're mine," Snow's voice protested from closer to the front of the wagon. "You're bringing your mane supplies! And look at all these boxes of food!"

Jamjars huffed. "My supplies are actually useful. See that blanket that's keeping us cool?"

Maple hummed, interrupting. "How much food do we need, here? Grand Acorn has entire warehouses of fruit. We've been in them! We could take that out, if it's a problem."

"True that!" Howe had her back in an instant. "Grand Acorn is overflowing with fruity goodness!" He cringed. "Err, when it's not being flung at your head, of course. That's... never pleasant."

White Chocolate shook her head. "Most of it is formula for the younger ones. Some of them can handle solid food if it's mashed well, but we need those."

"Then maybe you should come up here and see for yourself!" Jamjars looked down from the railing at her mother. "No offense, but you're a walrus, Mom. You'll take up a ton of room! And we don't even have everyone else up here yet. Don't tell me you want to walk, either!"

"I definitely don't want to walk..." White Chocolate grimaced. "Maple? Howe?" She looked up at the cart bed, which was at her neck level. "I might need help making this jump..."

---

Getting White Chocolate into the cart safely and respectfully turned out to be an incredibly awkward affair, in large part due to Howe's ineptitude with mares, and was ultimately accomplished when they maneuvered the cart as close as possible to a hillside and laid down two planks as a flat bridge for her to walk in on. Eventually, the mare was laying on her side at the head of the cart, using her fluffy bathrobe as a cushion, and instantly agreed with Jamjars' analysis.

"Snow," she announced, "your magazines are huge and need to stay behind."

"Mom, no! What if they get destroyed by floodwater!?"

"We have eleven colts and fillies..." White Chocolate hesitated. "Twelve, counting Starlight, plus necessary supplies and me. If those old books come, you're walking to make up for it, and it will be hot and miserable! I don't think it's even the best example to let you have them in the first place, but..."

Maple paced to the side of the cart, thoroughly sweat-drenched without even having pulled it more than ten paces. "What's this about? What makes these magazines so important?"

Jamjars' eyes glinted mischievously. "Ever heard of a 'waifu?'"

Maple frowned in confusion.

"Good." Jamjars turned back to to the cart. "Keep it that way."

"Knock it off, Sis!" Snow shoved her. "These are important to me! You're the one bringing conditioner!"

Jamjars rolled her eyes. "Buddy, you will be begging me for this conditioner after we've spent hours in this sun."

"Children, please-" White Chocolate couldn't get a word in edgewise.

"I don't need to ride!" Starlight volunteered from the ground, yelling to make herself heard. "I'll just walk! It'll make it easier!"

At that, Jamjars perked up. "Hey, Snow!" She grinned. "Feel like making a deal?"

Snow hugged his stack of belongings protectively as Maple boosted another foal into the already-crowded wagon. "I don't trust you..."

"It's easy," Jamjars proclaimed, swaggering. "I'll walk too, selflessly giving you my spot to keep your garbage, and after that, you owe me!"

White Chocolate frowned, ready to intervene. "Owe you what?"

"I dunno." Jamjars shrugged. "Whatever he has that I want at Grand Acorn." Snow opened his mouth to protest, and she cut him off. "And I promise I won't ask for your magazines! Those are yours to deal with."

"Jamjars-"

"Deal." Snow stuck a hoof out, waiting for it to be shaken.

Jamjars ignored it, bouncing out of the wagon to the lush grass below. "Okay!"

From the side, Starlight saw Jamjars shoot her a glance... and wondered if whatever she would get from Snow was what she really wanted out of walking.

"Okay, everypony," Maple hummed, closing and latching the gate at the back of the wagon. "That's ten foals and one White Chocolate, plus Jamjars and Starlight down here and Howe at the front. Do you see anything missing, and is there anything left I should check the house for?"

White Chocolate took a silent headcount, grouping several squirming foals toward her with a hoof in the impromptu canopy's shade. "I think we're good, Maple. The key is..." She pulled open a pouch on the inside of her cloak, pulled out a metal object and tossed it to the waiting mare. "Can you do one last check to make sure nothing's on or could easily break, then lock the door for me?"

Maple nodded and disappeared inside the house. A minute later, she reappeared, completely drenched in water. Everyone stared.

"I figured this would keep me cool at least for a while," she explained, before winking, locking the door and tossing the key back up to White Chocolate.

"Well?" she asked, dripping, taking up a harness and turning to Howe. "Ready?"

Howe was already strapped in. "Ready!"

White Chocolate gulped, looking down at the still-steady exodus of ponies marching past on the sun-dried street. "Ready."

"Ready," Starlight droned, standing clear of the wagon's path with Jamjars very near by.

Maple nodded. "Then we're ready."

With the clopping of hooves against gravel, the wagon harnesses strained, and the wheels came to life, rolling out to join the colorful tide of equines bound for Grand Acorn.

Comments

[Davidp1522]

Just how floofy is Jamjars exactly? This has sudenly become important.

[Czar_Yoshi]

8689619 I'd say about one tier below Adagio Dazzle. Though, if you notice, I didn't use that exact word...

[sploopy slooder]

i still find it utterly insane that they know valey's in trouble and theyre not only not helping, theyre not even doing ANYTHING about it.