Pandemic: Starting Over

by Halira

Chapter 26: Ponies at Walmart Part 1

Wild Growth had been groggy when I called her, and I wasn't sure if she was hungover or what. She did arrange for two SPEC agents to come to the condo in an amazingly short amount of time. I had worried that I would be bringing a sleeping night pony colt with us, but we were out the door and on our way while it was still breakfast time for most people.

The two agents were a pair of humans named Larry and Moe. I'd asked them where Curly was, but they just gave me a confused look. Some people just didn't know about the classics.

They picked us up in a large SUV that provided plenty of space for all of us. Each of the colts stared out the windows with rapt fascination through the trip. Earlier, I'd managed to find a pair of sunglasses while digging through my desk and had used some string to keep them tied to Mèng's head. The colt had initially been very unhappy about having them on his face, but after he managed to knock them off and gotten the sun in his eyes, he didn't fuss with them much at all.

Lántiān quietly looked out her window as we traveled and held her foal up so her daughter could get a good view of the outside. That pair didn't show the same energy as the colts, but they did seem legitimately interested in the scenery. Lántiān had been able to get out for a while yesterday, but the view from the ground was undoubtedly very different from the air.

The part of the city we were going into didn't seem to have been too overturned by ponies, meaning that I didn't see tons of pony stalls and the concrete pavement pulled up in favor of dirt roads. I heard lots of reports of that following ETS. Our surroundings looked not too much different than what I would have expected out of Denver ten years before. There were, of course, billboards and signs that advertised pony products or had ponies on them, but they were still just signs and billboards. The only thing that wouldn't have fit into a human city was the large number of ponies flying in the sky and the ones I saw walking along the sidewalks. Most of the cars were human cars, rather than pony ones. The front ends of the pony cars had a visibly different shape, so it wasn't hard to tell them apart. Although there weren't many pony cars, they were still a relatively new thing.

After arriving at Walmart and filing out of the car, I gathered everyone around me for instruction. "Everyone is to keep together. I don't want anyone wandering off. Would one of you gentlemen be willing to push a cart for us?"

Larry and Moe looked at one another. Moe shrugged then raised a hand.

I turned to Lántiān. "Moe will have our main cart. You'll be pushing a pony cart with safety seats. Mèng and Qīng Yǔ can ride in that cart where you can more closely watch them. That won't be a problem, will it?"

She shook her head. "No problem, ma'am."

I turned to Shǔguāng and Líng. "And you two stay close. If you can't reach out and touch one of us or the cart, then you're too far away. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Auntie Sunset," the two colts said in creepy sync. I wondered if they practiced that. I wouldn't be surprised; kids liked to do weird things.

"Alright, follow me, and we'll have a nice fam-" I paused halfway through the word, and then decided that it was already that far out of my mouth and might as well be said. "-family outing."

The first hiccup in my plans happened before we were entirely in the store. The pony-sized carts that had seating for small foals were all in use. I debated waiting for one to show up, but standing around near the doors would have made me feel like an idiot.

"Larry, do you mind taking a second cart and keeping Mèng in the seat?"

He didn't look thrilled about it but went and grabbed another human-sized cart. I levitated Mèng up in the seat, and he laid down in it and looked around curiously at his surroundings from his new vantage point. A second later, I grabbed Qīng Yǔ with my magic, earning a surprised squawk from the little filly. I quickly released her as her mother came over and grabbed her with her mouth while giving me an icy glare. Lántiān did follow what I had intended and flew up and gently deposited her daughter in the seat of Moe's cart.

We were set to go in when a pony gave a loud gasp. "You're Sunset Blessing!"

I turned to see an excited unicorn mare, with night sky blue fur, tail and mane in different shades of pink, and a mark that was a rose embossed on a sword embossed in a shield. She was staring at me, looking downright giddy. Her announcement had drawn attention to me, and there was now a crowd looking at me, with human staking pictures and video with their phones, and ponies pointing and whispering.

There was no point trying to claim I was only a close look alike, and I needed to say something. "That's me. I'm just here to do a little quiet shopping, just like everyone else."

"Can my friend take a picture of you and me together?" the mare asked, practically bouncing. "I would love to have a picture of me and such a great transgender rights activist!"

"Say what now?" I asked in confusion. I didn't recall ever being called that. Nor did I remember ever giving any speeches on the subject, aside from disparaging talks back when I was human, or having donated to any cause. I was definitely no activist. "I think you might have confused someone else's actions with mine."

"You're a close family member to the two most notable transmares ever, Arbiter and Phobia Remedy!" the mare explained. "They give so much visibility, and you've given them so much support."

Great, now I would have people talking about me getting involved again with civil rights causes. I had no idea if the whole trans-rights thing was still even a thing since ETS, but I could only imagine it was for someone. It clearly was for this mare, but I didn't want to be in the spotlight. I also wanted to argue there weren't any transgender ponies, ETS had sorted all that crap out, but I felt I might be stepping into some social minefield I didn't know about if I did. These weren't my fights; I didn't have any fights left to fight. Why did everyone want to pull me into things that I had nothing to do with? Why couldn't they let me be?

I wanted to say no, but her eyes looked so pleading, and I resisted the urge to roll mine. Refusing her would cause just as much talk as taking a picture with her, so I was already trapped. I sighed and motioned her over to me. "Okay, a quick one, but then I want to be left alone to shop."

She squealed and hurried over next to me. A human man held a camera up and took a picture of the two of us, and she turned to me with a big smile. "Thank you. I can't wait to show all the ones left behind that I got a picture with Sunset Blessing!"

The ones left behind? I wanted to ask but decided not to go down that rabbit hole. I had satisfied her, and now I could shop.

The door greeter gave me a wary look as I passed by and didn't even bother to greet me. I decided not to be put out by it and quietly took in the lay of the store.

"It's so big and so many people!" Shǔguāng said in wonder.

I gave him a raised eyebrow. "I figured you would be used to lots of people since China has so many."

"They didn't get out much, ma'am," Lántiān explained. The way she was looking around the store made me wonder if that statement included her as well.

The store didn't seem much different than Walmart before the pandemic, at least at first sight. To our left was the grocery section, which covered that full side of the store. To our immediate right was clothing, primarily human clothing. The first part of grocery was the produce section, and it was swarmed with ponies, with a smaller mix of humans, and the displays of fruit were set lower to the ground than they would have been ten years before. I was also fairly certain the produce section had more than doubled in size from the average produce section before ETS, and based on the crowd, could stand to be doubled again. I intended to avoid the crowds of people packed together in the produce section if I could help it.

If nothing else has changed, then most of our shopping would be done out past the clothing. I directed everyone to follow me, and started trotting off to the right.

We were passing the smaller pony clothes section when I brought our group to a halt and considered looking at some things there. Pony fashion was not as broad as human fashion, at least not on Earth, but some clothing wasn't that uncommon. The foals could all do to have some saddlebags, and Lántiān could do with something to cover up her mark. Actually, I wouldn't mind something to cover mine up as well, although I needed more than just the mark covered to blend into a crowd properly. Also, a hat for Mèng might be an excellent alternative to sunglasses when he went out in the sun.

As I was considering whether to check into clothing, a tall black pegasus stallion came stumbling out of the clothing rack. He had a grey mane, and for some reason, he had a fake horn strapped onto his head. I couldn't see his eyes since he was wearing sunglasses, but based on his stumbling, I could assume he was drunk, on drugs, or had taken a heavy blow to the head at some point. No matter the cause, he wasn't steady on his hooves.

"I am Surn, guardian of the hyper sword, and master of mania!" the pegasus bellowed. "Tremble before me, evildoer! Your judgment awaits!"

A man came hurrying over and steadied the stallion. "Mohamed, maybe we should take you home. I think you've had enough time outside today."

The pegasus turned to the human and flared his wings. "My name is Surn, guardian of the-"

The man waved a hand. "Right, you're Surn, guardian of the thing. How about we go home, and we can play some Sonic Forces Hyper Remix Edition?"

Surn seemed to calm down. "I get to play as Sonic?"

"Yeah, I won't take your character. We can pick up some fast food on the way back. Sound good?"

Surn considered, then nodded. "I shall crush you at Sonic Forces HRE!"

The man started escorting Surn away and briefly turned to us and whispered. "Don't ask." I had no intention of doing so.

"Americans are strange," Lántiān observed dryly. She wasn't directly addressing me, so she didn't bother with the ma'am.

I wanted to say something in response but couldn't come up with an appropriate one. "We'll check on clothes later." I then led us past the section.

I led us to the health and beauty section. The sheer variety of smells given off by the various shampoos, conditioners, and soaps were slightly overwhelming. Still, I knew I needed to get a fair amount to deal with a household of six ponies, especially if Líng was going to coat himself in mud at every opportunity. I made my selections as quickly as possible, but then found that our group was trapped in the aisle by shoppers both ahead of us and behind us.

Behind us was a human woman with an electric cart that had the thing dead center in the aisle, and was taking her time browsing body soap. She stood up out of the cart and started checking out some more closely, and I quietly observed that there didn't seem to be any reason for her to be using an electric cart, since she was moving around just fine. Other shoppers were waiting to get into the aisle on the other side of her, but she seemed far more focused on the various types of Herbal Essence body wash than the people around her. At least she wasn't concerned she was sharing an aisle with a famous pony.

Ahead of us were a pair of pegasi, a mare and a stallion, fussing over different types of feather conditioner. The mare had a yellow coat and dark green mane and tail with light blue highlights, with a grey rain cloud as a mark. The stallion had an extremely dark blue coat with an orange mane, and I couldn't quite make out his mark.

"I'm telling you, Downpour, that stuff will mess up your feathers. You shouldn't cheap out on conditioner," the stallion said as he tried to pull a bottle of conditioner away from the mare.

"Let go!" Downpour yelled back. "It may be cheap, but that's just because it isn't as big a name brand, not because it is bad. I like the smell of it too."

"It makes you smell like Pinesol," the stallion replied, as he tugged harder at the bottle.

"Does not!"

"Does so!"

The stallion did a bigger yank and dislodged the bottle from the mare's grip. He then went tumbling backward into the display and knocked a full shelf down, instantly making all the various conditioners come crashing down on the floor, cracking bottles, breaking lids open, and spilling their contents everywhere.

The two pegasi looked at one another and took off into the air. I heard someone yell that there was no flying over the shelves allowed, but didn't have time to care. There was a wet mess, and it was drawing Líng to it like a moth to a lightbulb.

I grabbed the colt with my magic and hauled him back, but not before he got the mix of chemicals over his hooves. I looked around helplessly for something to wipe them off with so he didn't make tracks all over the store, but didn't see anything. With little other option, I wiped his hooves off with the sides of my legs. Great, now I got to walk around feeling disgusting.

The human behind us decided to leave and stop blocking traffic. No one else seemed eager to come onto the aisle while a third of it was coated in conditioner. We retreated while we could.

I directed everyone to stand out of the way by the bicycle racks. "Stay here, I'm going to grab two last things from health and beauty, and then we can look at toys."

"Toys!" Shǔguāng and Líng shouted in an enthusiastic response. Mèng, for some reason, looked around with equal excitement, even though I knew he didn't understand the word. Maybe he was just excited because his big brothers were excited.

"Yes, we'll look at toys as soon as I get back. Just stay here and don't make any trouble." I turned to Lántiān. "Make sure they don't go wandering off."

She snorted. "I won't let them out of reach of my wings while here, ma'am."

I nodded and went back into the cramped and busy section, one side over from where we'd just been. This aisle had dyes: dyes for human hair, pony manes, and fur. The foals probably wouldn't be recognized as anyone famous when we were out and about in the future, but I was far too distinctive. I didn't want to hide away my natural colors, but I also didn't want any incidents like the one that happened in Pony Hope, or even like the one in the cart bay. I wanted to be just another unicorn in the crowd. Cutie marks were hard to cover with any dye; just about everything that went over a mark would wash off with even a light spill of water. I would have to figure something else out for that part.

It took me longer than I would have liked to pick appropriate dyes. I had to spend time looking over the different colors, trying to determine what went well together, reading over the directions to figure out how much of a hassle it would be to apply the stuff, and making sure that there wouldn't be problems covering my particular colors. I did eventually get selections made, just in time to hear a loud crash near the bike area.

After hurrying back out of the aisle, I saw that several bikes had been knocked down from the bike racks and Shǔguāng was quivering under Lántiān's wing. Larry and Moe were already busy trying to put the bikes back on the rack, and thankfully nothing seemed to be damaged. Qīng Yǔ was crying. Mèng was looking around like he was on the hunt for something to attack. Líng looked a little spooked, but otherwise okay.

I hurried over to Lántiān. "What happened? You were supposed to be watching them." I turned to the two agents. "And why weren't you two keeping him safe?"

She looked down in shame. "Shǔguāng tried spinning the wheel on a bike. I thought nothing of it, and I didn't realize how clumsily they were set on their racks. I managed to pull him away before they fell on him. I am deeply sorry, ma'am."

I looked down at the shaking colt under her wing. "You aren't hurt, are you?"

"No, Auntie Sunset. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

I nudged Lántiān's wing out of the way to get a better look at him. "You're sure? No scrapes, no bumps, no bruises? It's okay to tell me. I'm not mad at you."

He shook his head. "I'm okay, Auntie Sunset."

I looked him over closely, just to make sure, then turned my head up at the two SPEC agents. "Is anything damaged?"

"Tag or two got scuffed and ripped, but the bikes are fine. It should be all good with the store. They're probably more concerned about whether you'd sue them for unsafe displays than a few ripped tags," Larry replied.

I was tempted to sue. Shǔguāng could have been seriously hurt. It ultimately wasn't worth it. If I sued, some news outlet would pick up the story, and there'd be more attention than I wanted. He had avoided injury, and that was what was important.

"I'm not in a suing mood. Let's just try to keep out of trouble," I said with a sigh. I had been holding the two boxes of dye stacked on top of one another in my magic, and took the time to deposit them in one of the carts. "Since no one is hurt, let's go look at the toys now."

Author's Note:

If you don't see your OC and you requested it, don't worry, this visit goes over multiple chapters and I have a lot of OCs to cover.

Comments

[Gargon94]

This is an interesting part so far. Can't wait to see what you do with my OC.

[badninja]

The two agents were a pair of humans named Larry and Moe. I'd asked them where Curly was, but they just gave me a confused look. Some people just didn't know about the classics.

Heathens!

Ah, Wal-Mart were you go to either feel better about your own family or complete despair at humanity. Now the question is how few lanes will be open with all they usually have.

[Leafy]

As I was considering whether to check into clothing, a tall black pegasus stallion came stumbling out of the clothing rack. He had a grey mane, and for some reason, he had a fake horn strapped onto his head. I couldn't see his eyes since he was wearing sunglasses, but based on his stumbling, I could assume he was drunk, on drugs, or had taken a heavy blow to the head at some point. No matter the cause, he wasn't steady on his hooves.

"I am Surn, guardian of the hyper sword, and master of mania!" the pegasus bellowed. "Tremble before me, evildoer! Your judgment awaits!"

A man came hurrying over and steadied the stallion. "Mohamed, maybe we should take you home. I think you've had enough time outside today."

The pegasus turned to the human and flared his wings. "My name is Surn, guardian of the-"

The man waved a hand. "Right, you're Surn, guardian of the thing. How about we go home, and we can play some Sonic Forces Hyper Remix Edition?"

Surn seemed to calm down. "I get to play as Sonic?"

"Yeah, I won't take your character. We can pick up some fast food on the way back. Sound good?"

Surn considered, then nodded. "I shall crush you at Sonic Forces HRE!"

The man started escorting Surn away and briefly turned to us and whispered. "Don't ask." I had no intention of doing so.

This is meant to seem like he’s out of character, but this is actually in character.

Also, how did you get the other info?

And who’s the man that escorts him out?

Other than that......

Is he in part 2?

[Halira]

10491226
Checked your blog posts to try to find out any details, and you had one about your OC. Combined with a little information from your 50 questions. I try to include as much character of the OC as I can for each person included. Some the details are easier than others.

Won't be in part 2, as I am trying to fit a lot of people into this Walmart run.

[Leafy]

10491397
Aww.....

But this was really intresting!

Ponyies! Going to walmart!

This was really funny, considering that I just went to walmart yesterday....

[PonyofEntropy]

Great story! Really enjoying it. Keep up the good work.

[Mocha Star]

Where's my OC? Lol. Jk.
This is a great chapter.