The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Foal Foible

Amber took an enormous breath, smiled gamely, and let it out with a sigh. "All right," she said, facing the room full of foals she had suddenly found herself in charge of. "Should we, umm... get to know each other?"

Snow glanced up from his magazine, quickly pointing a hoof around the room. "Hayseed is the oldest. Dunno where Jamjars is. I'm Snowshoe, but call me Snow. We're twins. Logloss is dim but reliable. Bricks and Glitter are also twins, then there's Thumper. Don't ask Jamjars why she's called that, she thinks it's hilarious. After her, you get Poncho, and then Board Biter and Berry, who are the youngest twins. Darky is the youngest, and Mom hasn't named the new one. I'll stay out of your mane."

"Uhhhh..." Amber stared at the room of foals, and half of them stared back. "Could you run that by me again?"

Snow was already back to his magazine, though. Hayseed trotted forward, two of the youngest stacked on her back. "Do you know anything about what's happening?" she asked. "Mom hasn't been able to say much other than that we left Ironridge. And we're, well..."

Most of the foals who were old enough to nodded in agreement, as if an undercurrent of worry had been given permission to calmly break to the surface. Amber swallowed. "Well, I don't know much about your situation, but this is Riverfall, and I heard they brought you here because your house in Ironridge was gone? Starlight?"

Starlight shrugged. "I just did what Maple said she wanted to do. It was her idea."

"Who was that who looked like Mom?" a small, chipper unicorn filly asked. "Do you know her?"

"That's my and Maple's friend Willow-" Amber started to explain, before she was cut off.

"Hey!" a mud-colored colt growled from atop a dresser, barking the room into silence. "Enough bellyaching! Watch this!" He flung himself in a giant flopping arc, sending the unicorn screaming to get out of the way. "Booyah!"

"Bricks!" the filly grumbled, landing on her side with a gasp and a pout.

"I will sit on him to restore order," a thick, well-built colt announced, lifting his unshorn hooves and plodding dangerously toward where Bricks lay.

"Restore order!" a tiny filly chanted, grabbing a wooden block and slamming it against the floor to make noise. "Hahahahahaha-"

Amber darted across the room and seized the weapon. "This is a nice ship!" she insisted, reprimanding the filly. "Please don't damage this ship?"

The filly screamed in her face. Then two diapered foals on White Chocolate's bed started bawling.

"Everypony, shut up!" Snow exclaimed, slamming his magazine shut and using his hoof for a bookmark. "I'm just getting to the good part and can't enjoy it with you all making noise!"

"Snow, give me that," Hayseed insisted, reaching out a hoof for the magazine as the foals continued to wail.

"What? No!" Snow snatched it away defensively. "Get your own stories!"

Hayseed rolled her eyes. "Chewing on it made Board Biter happy last time, and we need to quiet them down somehow."

Snow looked aghast. Meanwhile, Bricks fought off his oppressor and reared up, beating his chest in victory. "Booyah! Hey, yellow mare! I bet you can't take me in a... Whoa!" He was promptly tackled again.

"I have no idea what I'm doing," Amber whispered, eyes pinpricks as the hot-pink filly who had nearly been flattened earlier took shelter between her legs.

Starlight growled, lighting her horn. She wasn't sure she'd be able to keep it up for more than a flicker, but maybe a bluff would work. "I will freeze you all in three seconds!"

Suddenly, there came a knock at the door.

Curiously, everyone but the crying foals stopped what they were doing to look, Bricks' ear in his captor's mouth. The door cracked open, and a white, hooded face peered through. "Is everything going fine in here?" Matryona asked.

"No!" Amber whimpered, voice cracking as the foals continued to cry. "No, it is not!"

Like a strong, gentle wind, Matryona blew the door aside, gliding across the room with her robe flowing so gracefully that she might have been flying. She reached the bed and with no struggle or even effort was laying, not even bouncing from the impact as she curled next to the foals. Three long, elegant feathers slipped from a fold in her cloak, just the very tip of her wing, and brushed each foal in turn as she leaned towards them, muzzle down and eyes closed.

The foals stopped crying.

"...How did you do that?" Amber asked, amazed, as Matryona carefully closed their eyelids, the entire room held in silence. "Even Willow can't calm her foals that fast."

"Instinct," Matryona replied, and left it at that.

Starlight blinked. "Instinct."

"I wish Mom had that much instinct," Hayseed whispered. "Is there anything you can teach me, for when she's not here like now, or...?"

Matryona sighed. "This room was recently used for harboring injured soldiers, and they don't like the way it smells. The fragrance I'm wearing overpowers that and makes them feel at peace."

As she sat there, one of the foals started sniffling again, and she instantly calmed them by bringing a feather back to their nose.

"...How did you know, though?" Amber squinted. "Can you just read them, or something?"

"Will it work on Bricks or Thumper?" Hayseed asked hopefully. "They make a racket for the sake of making a racket."

"The cure for that is attention," Matryona said. "Starlight, Amber, if you are helping their mother, you can go. I will care for things here."

Amber needed no second bidding, nudging Starlight with her tail and hurrying out of the room.

---

"...And that's everything that happened," White Chocolate sighed, standing on the shipdeck and hanging her head before Maple and Willow. She looked absolutely miserable, and every second spent before Willow's calm demeanor and dignified posture cowed her even more. "I didn't mean to intrude on your life here. Starlight just told me to come, and there was a teleporting unicorn and I was scared and not thinking and-"

Willow touched her chin with a hoof, lifting it back so they were face to face. "My life can handle an intrusion or two," she invited, concerned and gentle. "And it looks like you need it. Don't be sorry."

Suddenly, Amber tumbled out onto the deck, Starlight close behind her. "Whew!" Amber ran a hoof across her brow, laying on her back and staring up at the blue sky. "Someone else is watching your foals; I couldn't do that after all. Kids are cute, but not my talent. Hey, girls." She waved feebly.

Maple gave her and Starlight a strained smile, looking like she was still on edge about Willow and White Chocolate meeting. "Hi, Starlight, Amber," she greeted, trotting stiffly over. "They've been talking and I've... You haven't missed much."

"So could I get the deal with this one more time?" Amber asked, sitting up and scratching her neck. "She's your husband's old wife from Ironridge, and he left her to come here? And... she looks exactly like you?"

"That's pretty much it," Maple admitted. "Right now, we're trying to... I think Willow is trying to convince everyone that she's not mad for White Chocolate coming. Myself included. I just... As soon as this part is over, they're probably going to talk to Faron, and whatever he does, I remember what this was like for me, and..."

"What would you do if you were him?" Amber folded her ears.

"I don't know his situation." Sighing, Maple trotted toward the gangplank, the area below clear and devoid of ponies. "If he felt like me when he left... If he's better now, or if he isn't... He sent us to look for her, so he still cares about her. I don't know what he feels towards Willow. I've been realizing lately that my idea of how love and marriage and family works might not be all there is to it, now that I've seen how Sosans here aren't just reclusive and different but have reasons for being how they are. But that doesn't help me understand anything. If I were him... I'd curl up and want to run away, or not try anything at all."

Amber slung a hoof over her shoulder with a grin. "Good thing you're you, then, right?"

Maple chuckled back. "Mhmm..."

Behind them, Willow came trotting up, White Chocolate at her side. "We're going," Willow announced. "Back to my house, first. If things go the way I hope, we can go to Maple's after."

"White Chocolate?" Maple asked, noting the other mare's watery eyes. "You're fine with this?"

"I've given up," White Chocolate murmured. "I can't do what's best for myself and my foals. Whatever I'm worth, I trust myself in your hooves. If you think it's best, I'll come along."

Comments

[sploopy slooder]

nah fuck faron. depression isnt an excuse to walk out on 10 kids without even a warning or a note. dude is absolute scum.