To Each Their Own

by Wheller

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Derpy Hooves checked her compass again. She loved this compass; it had been given to her as a gift when she’d gotten her job with the Ponyville post office. She always had it with her when she travelled. It had also gotten her into trouble.

Two years in a row, during Winter Wrap Up, Derpy had been in charge of gathering up the birds that flew south for the winter, she was never allowed to go get them again, the first year she accidentally went west, the second she went north. Mind you it wasn’t actually her fault, somepony of whom she’d never learned the identity had slipped a magnet into her saddlebags both years, causing her compass to always point south, regardless of what direction she’d actually been facing. She’d figured it out both times before she’d gotten too far, and always made course corrections, but it was still time wasted, and time wasted caused winter to end late. It could have happened to anypony. But it happened to her because she was different.

Derpy always kept a positive demeanour and a smile on her face regardless. Even when she was hurting on the inside, things were better now. She’d made friends of Lyra, Bon Bon, and even Trixie! Trixie in particular was always quick to come to Derpy’s aid whenever somepony gave her a hard time about something. Derpy would do the same for her if it ever came up... but it never did, Trixie had been living in Ponyville for nearly a month now, but most of the residents shunned her, many of them refused to acknowledge her presence, or even serve her in the shops. Bad blood from the Ursa Minor incident was still present.

Derpy had wandered over to where Trixie was walking. “It’s just like old times you know!” She said smiling at the Unicorn.

“I only wish. Helping the ponies of Ponyville was a cakewalk with what I have ahead of me.”

Derpy frowned, but Trixie gave her a smile in return. “Derpy, you’re a great friend, and Trixie is very happy to have you... But I’m just not ready to share what I need to do yet. But I promise you that when I am, I will come to you.”

Derpy smiled at the unicorn. She loved the feeling of being appreciated.

...

When they stopped to refill on water, Derpy couldn’t help but notice that Trooper Willoughby was agitated about something.

“Mister Willoughby?” Derpy asked him.

The Kangaroo turned to look at her. “It’s Trooper, actually, but you don’t need to worry about that. You can just call me Willoughby, miss...?”

“Derpy Hooves! That’s what my momma named me!” Derpy said enthusiastically.

“My mum named me Benjamin... but I don’t really like it,” Willoughby said. “Is there something I can do for you...? Derpy?”

“Oh, um, I just noticed that you looked like something was bothering you. So I wanted to see if I could help!” Derpy said.

“Oh, no, I’m fine. I’m just keeping my guard up, Military trains you to do that, it’s saved me and the rest of the crew of M3 Light Tank 105 dozens of times,” Willoughby said. He was lying through his teeth, and Derpy knew it. Something was up, but the Pegasus mare decided not to press the issue further. If Willoughby was lying, Derpy figured that he had a good reason to do so, even if she didn’t like it.

“Well okay, but if you change your mind, come talk to me!” Derpy said cheerfully. Willoughby gave her a small smile, and informed her he’d do that, another lie.

...

Lyra was happy for another break. She sat down in the snow, her head still pounding.

“Big Macintosh? Is all the cider gone?” She asked the red draught pony who had unhitched himself from the wagon.

“Eeyup,” he said simply.

“Good,” Lyra said. “I want to know how that Berry Punch can continue to drink that stuff and put up with how you feel the morning after.”

“In her case, she continues drinking it the morning after,” Bon Bon said. The two of them chuckled slightly, but clutched their heads in pain, laughing hurt.

Berry Punch was, of course, the town alcoholic. None of the ponies in the caravan, in this rare case counting Vinyl Scratch and Trooper Willoughby who weren’t from Ponyville, had ever seen Berry Punch sober, and if not for her, Derpy would be the laughing stock and prime embarrassment for the town, even though Derpy didn’t actually come close to being that bad with her behaviour.

Lyra shook the thoughts about Berry Punch from her head, which proved to be a mistake as she had literally shaken her head, and again clutched it in pain. There had to be something that anypony could do to get her back to normal. She made her way over to Vinyl Scratch, and opened her mouth to ask her a question.

“There isn’t anything to do about it. It has to go away on its own,” Vinyl said, she’d practically read her mind. “Hangovers are poorly understood in medicine by design.”

Lyra understood why.

“I do have something special that might help you though,” Vinyl said, grinning at her.

Lyra perked up, her eyes grew big in excitation.

“Don’t drink,” Vinyl said, and with that her grin got wider.

Lyra scowled at her.

...

Big Macintosh helped hitch Braeburn up to the wagon. Big Macintosh was getting tired, and Braeburn had insisted on pulling it for the next couple hours, despite the fact that he was hung-over from the night before.

Big Macintosh however was perfectly fine, he did make the cider himself, so he knew just how much he could handle. The others not so much, he’d tried to convince Braeburn that he could pull it for another few hours, but the Appleloosan had stubbornly insisted on pulling it. Big Macintosh mused to himself that stubbornness was a trait of the Apple family that he’d somehow missed out on.

The caravan rolled on. It was only the second day of their journey, and they weren’t anywhere close to the edge of the Whitetail woods, the forest that they were currently wandering through. Of course, their progress was slowed by the snow, not to mention that they were a relatively large group, and in about five kilometres, Big Macintosh would be passing a big milestone in his life. The furthest he’d ever been from home. He’d never really been that interested in the world outside Sweet Apple Acres, he’d always been preoccupied with farm work, but with no work that needed doing, now that Braeburn was pulling the wagon, his mind was ticking away. He suddenly found himself curious about the world outside Ponyville... and even Equestria itself.

Big Macintosh knew that only two members of their expedition had ever been outside Equestria before, Vinyl Scratch, and Trooper Willoughby. Heck, Willoughby was a kangaroo! Big Macintosh didn’t know exactly where South Island was in the world, but he figured that it had to be as far from Equestria as you could possibly get.

Trooper Willoughby had taken up march in the rear of the caravan, though this was likely not by choice. Kangaroos weren’t exactly the best at moving at this pace. They hopped, and when they did, it was at a much faster pace than this. Big Macintosh had seen the kangaroos hop around Ponyville several times. Big Macintosh was sure that Willoughby could probably make it to Manehattan on his own in a few days, assuming he knew the way, which he likely didn’t. Big Macintosh allowed himself to fall behind to speak to the kangaroo about the world outside.

“Some snow huh?” Big Macintosh said, he’d noticed that a light dusting of snow began to fall. The pegasi dumped snow every so often to keep the stuff on the ground fresh, and in about an hour, their tracks would be gone. “It’s too bad that we’re going to miss the Winter Wrap Up this year. I been hearing rumours that it’s going to be tough this year.”

Trooper Willoughby looked at Big Macintosh oddly. “Sorry? ‘Winter Wrap Up?’”

“Ya know when we change the seasons, plough away all the snow, get the fields planted? Do they not do that where ya’ll are from?” Big Macintosh asked.

“It doesn’t snow in South Island,” Willoughby said plainly.

Big Macintosh was surprised by this. “Ever?”

“Nope, well, it does in the mountains. But not right now, it’s the middle of summer,” Willoughby said. “We’re on the other side of the equator; your winter is our summer.”
Well, that did answer one question. Big Macintosh now had some idea of where South Island was, kind of obvious considering its name.

“Where abouts in South Island are ya’ll from?” Big Macintosh asked, realising instantly that he was not likely to have heard of it.

“Townshend, Kingsland.”

Eeyup, not a clue.

“I thought you said that you were from South Island?” Big Macintosh asked.

“I am. Kingsland is a state in the Commonwealth of South Island. There’s also Western South Island, Southern South Island, Victor, and New South Welara... You have no idea what I’m talking about.”

“Eeyup.”

Big Macintosh ceased his line of questioning shortly after that, and took a place farther up in the caravan. He did learn one thing so far, the world outside Equestria was big, and confusing.

Very big.

Comments

Well, that explains what went wrong with the Winter Wrap-up; good to know that at least somepony has the sense to realize that things aren't as they seem.

SO MANY AUSTRALIA REFERENCES

[Csquared08]

The fact that you're from Australia wouldn't have anything to do with all these references to Australia, would they?