As Handy, Swift, and Dandy are walking through the abandoned camps in front of Megamart they continue to talk about their plans for the rest of the day. The general gist and consensus of going off to find the missing buck’s caravan didn’t take long, but some of the specifics are still being negotiated as they head off to their first check point.

Especially from Handy’s point of view as he’s not enthused with having to go on, what he considers, a wild goose chase.

“I still have mixed feelings with leaving our stuff with that mare… We don’t know her. What if she decides to sell it while we’re gone, or tries to charge us a ridiculous storage fee, or something else stupid to get it back?” Handy asks with a frown as he keeps looking around.

“Handy,” Swift says with a grin a moment before she bumps him with her hip as they walk along. “If that scrawny unicorn tries some shit like that, I’ll string her up by her horn and use her as my personal pinata…”

Dandy rolls her eyes as she says, “That won’t be necessary… Happy Trails Trading Company is a well established caravan crew, and Happy Trails herself is also a member of the Finders. That’s why they have their own stall there at Megamart. You don’t get somewhere by screwing over your customers and ruining your reputation…”

Handy looks over Swift at Dandy and raises an eyebrow as he asks, “And? What are we gonna do if they do?” He huffs as he says sarcastically, “Boycott them then?”

Dandy looks over at him and narrows her eyes as she says, “That would amount to robbery, and Bottlecap wouldn’t stand for that shit in Megamart. It’d hurt the Finders’ reputation and Happy Trails would find herself in a shit load of trouble if she did. Nopony would be able to trust her again, and the Finders would have to do something to keep from getting dragged in the muck too… But, I’m telling you, Happy Trails isn’t like that, and she’s too grateful to us for going to find Lodestar for her to try something like that anyway. There’s so little to go on there’s no telling how long it’d take before anypony else would even bother to look at the job notice.”

“Happy?” Swift asks as she steps up next to him and continues on walking for a short distance with their sides pressing into each other.

Handy looks between Swift and Dandy as he asks, “Okay… but how about this lack of direction, like you just pointed out.” Swift sighs and hangs her head as Handy continues, “All we have to go on is where he’s supposed to have gone, and where he was coming back through, and when, that doesn’t really say where he is now, does it?”

Dandy smirks as she retorts, “Well, that’s part of our job, isn’t it? To find out where he is now.”

Swift straightens up as she nods. “Yup. One part tracking one part ass kicking.”

Dandy rolls her head before waving a hoof around as she rattles off, “It’s also one part investigation and, if necessary, one part rescue or body recovery… but… yeah.” She shakes her head as she continues trotting along on the barely dry dead or dying grass. “We’re going to start with his planned return trip, but in reverse. Then we just figure out where the last place he had been seen, and look between that one and the one where he hadn’t made it to yet. There’s bound to be something.”

Handy looks over at Dandy as he says, “Well how long are we going to look around for this buck? I’m telling ya, we’ve got things we need to do and places we need to go… namely: back home… We can’t be looking for some buck lost in the wastes, especially if he’s probably already dead and the only reason we’d want to find him is for the information he has.” He looks around at their surroundings as he mutters, “Dead bucks tell no tales…”

Dandy looks between the other two and frowns as she says, “Well, Happy Trails put in an official request with my company. So I’ve gotta give it at least a few days… If I don’t find hide nor hair of them by then, then it’s probably safe to assume they’re dead…”

“Or caught by slavers,” Swift chimes in as she looks back and forth between the two. “That’s been a problem, and if that’s the case we might still be able to get them out of it.”

Dandy shakes her head. “Depends on who got them… if they were working the Red Eye supply chain, they won’t be around very long after getting caught.” She looks between the two before frowning. “They usually have a very efficient transfer line set up to get them to Fillydelphia, so the window to rescue them is pretty damn small… But, on the other hoof, if it’s someone local, maybe Brimstone’s Fall or something, we might have a chance.”

Swift looks at Dandy and raises an eyebrow. “Wait… Isn’t that where that security mare is holed up?” She looks over at Handy. “That’s what those bounty hunters had said before they stampeded out, right? That they were headed to Brimstone’s Fall to get Security?”

Handy rocks his head side to side as he says, “I’m not sure, sounds about right though. Was a bunch of noise so I couldn’t really make all of it out.”

Swift snickers as she gives him a hip bump with her own. “You mean you weren’t even paying attention and were too focused on being grumpy at sitting and waiting on somepony that never showed up…”

Handy looks at her sideways and smirks as he gives her a hip bump in return. “That’s what I just said, ain’t it?”

Dandy grins as she looks between the two. “If Security is there, maybe she went to bust the place up? She hates slavers, it’s what got Usury and Redbeard so pissed off at her. So, if that’s the case, maybe she’s already freed them?” She raises a hoof for emphasis. “If he was sent to Brimstone’s Fall, that is.”

Swift looks over at her and frowns as she says, “From what I understand, it’s not good. Security was hurt pretty bad in the fighting apparently. So there’s no telling.”

Dandy frowns as she looks around. Then she stops in her tracks and looks behind them towards Megamart in the distance as a sudden thought strikes her. “Wait… And Gearing knew about this?” Swift nods. Dandy lets out a sigh as she asks, “Is he really going to catch up with us or did he sneak out and bolt off to try and help Security?”

Swift shakes her head. “No. He’s going to catch up with us once he gets his equipment sorted.”

“How can you be so sure?” Dandy asks as she raises an eyebrow towards Swift.

Swift gives a weak shrug as she continues on and replies, “Because he’s already making plans on what to do if someone did do something to Security. He seemed pretty convinced that him leaving now would solve nothing.” She looks over at Dandy and grins as she says, “He doesn’t like wasting time, so he’s not going to run off on a wild goose chase.”

The answer seems to mollify Dandy as she bobs her head around, and then nods as she continues on with them.

Handy rolls his eyes as he sighs, “You mean, he’s making us do the chasing of said geese while he sits back and plays at the shopping center?”

Swift grins and shrugs as she says, “Well, I’m better at tracking than he is… even Gearing admitted it.”

The group has continued traveling at a steady clip since leaving Megamart. Although, as the light starts to dim even further with the day coming to a close, Dandy starts slowing down. Unlike the other two, she’d already made one long trek that day. And been involved in one pretty serious fight. And, given everything that’s happened, she’s starting to have noticeable repercussions from the extended exertion. Which causes the other two to have to start checking their speed to keep from outpacing her too much.

But, despite the speed reducing discomfort Dandy’s experiencing, it’s Handy that complains about the situation as he stares at a small forest of dead trees. “What are we even doing way out here? There’s nothing even out here except dead grass and mud.”

As they continue through a portion of land that has a small dip in it, and thus held water from the most recent rain storms the longest, they have to be careful with the mud as in some places their hooves sink deeper than others and impede their travel.

Dandy grumbles as she tries to step from one less soggy patch of mud to the next, “There’s supposed to be a family that lives out here. Don’t ask me why. But they’re the last stop Lodestar was going to make before heading to Megamart. It’s the best place to start.”

Swift, hovering a couple feet off the ground and keeping her hooves clean as she circles around the other two, adds, “And the next places are even further way, Handy. That’s why we’re starting here.” She points at her PipBuck. “I’ve got the points marked and we’ll move on as we get information.”

Dandy looks down as she makes it to the other side of the particularly low area, and onto more solid ground, and frowns. “I don’t know about you two, but I’m going to need to stop at some point tonight and get some rest. It’s already been a long day and I don’t fancy running into trouble and being too exhausted to fight back.”

“I’m all for finding a place and holing up for the night, but there’s nothing out here. I’m not too tired to fight, but I can’t hit what I can’t see. And I’m not looking forward to getting in a fight when I can’t even see my own hoof in front of my face, let alone somepony else’s that’s trying to knock my block off…” Handy grumbles sourly.

“Hey, that must be it!” Swift says as she hovers over them and points in the general direction they are going.

The other two spare enough attention to focus on the building in the distance instead of where they are walking. As the other two continue on, Swift flies up even higher to get a better look, then comes back down near them as she says, “I only see a barn and a house… A simple two story. Nothing fancy.”

They head straight towards the house as directed, with Swift staying with the group and keeping an eye out as the others have to spend a lot of the time watching their footing in the muddy patches.

As they are crossing one of the muddy fields around the homestead, Dandy comments, “Watch the plants. They look like they’re trying hard to grow things here. If we stomp on their hard work they’re gonna be pissed, and I wouldn’t blame them.”

Handy frowns as he looks at one sickly plant after another and asks, “Well which ones are weeds and which ones crops? I’m not a farmer!”

Swift chuckles as she hovers above him. “Just avoid all of them, then… The dead grass might be okay to step on though.”

Dandy looks around as she says softly, “It’s amazing that anyone would try to make a go of it out here. Let alone succeed.” She looks at one of the bigger plants that seems to be trying it’s best to stand upright despite the environment around it. “Sort of…”

Swift starts lapping around them in the air as she puts a clean forehoof to her chin and muses, “Maybe that’s the reason they’re out here? I mean… who else would want to come all the way out here? This isn’t something you’d just stumble across… Not likely anyway… There’s nothing for a long way in any direction… so you’d pretty much already have to know where it was… And raiders and thieves aren’t going to go through all of the work to get out here without some guarantee of loot that was worth it…” She looks around at the fields surrounding them, then at the two story farmhouse they are quickly approaching and shakes her head. “And I’m just not seeing anything like that.”

Handy grumbles as he gets to a bit of a hoof path in the field and starts scraping and kicking off some of the caked on mud from his hooves. “I’ve heard of being dirt poor… but this is ridiculous…”

Once out of the muddy fields they vector around to the front door, as Swift flies in the air above and guides them to it. With the day ending, they can just barely see a dim light breaking through the cracks in the boards of the side of the house. A decent enough indicator for them that the house is actually currently occupied.

Dandy trots towards the door as she waves at Handy. “I’ll go and try and talk with them. I don’t think it’d be a good idea for all of us to crowd their door, it’d probably scare them.”

Swift nods as she flies over and hovers around Handy. “That makes sense. I’ll keep watch from back here in case anything happens.”

Dandy frowns as she’s getting closer to the front door. “I hope nothing does…” She stands a distance from the door, just off the stoop, and as she looks at the door her horn glows. A second later the door echoes out with a couple quick phantom raps that come in sync with increased flashes of overglow around Dandy’s horn.

Handy’s eyes go wide as he looks back and forth from the door to Swift. “Okay, that’d be hella useful to have around!”

Swift simply smirks and rolls her eyes at his fascination of basic magic.

Dandy keeps a couple paces away from the door and puts a hoof to her mouth as she calls in towards the door, “Excuse me! Is anypony home? I’m here on behalf of the Happy Trails Trading Company, we just wanna talk!”

The front door cracks open and a pale yellow young mare peeks out at them with her light green eyes wide with fright and confusion. The interior is so dark it’s impossible to see behind her and, indeed, the meager light coming from outside is greater than what is coming from behind the young mare. A circumstance that causes her young face to be one of the few clearly visible things for Dandy’s group. She zips her eyes around the front of her house, going from Dandy, and then shooting over to Handy. A split second later after staring at the unknown blue buck, her eyes are directed further up as she sees Swift flying around above them. And, as Swift and her lock eyes, the young mare simply follows her as Swift lands on the ground near Handy.

She zips her eyes around a bit more before turning her head and yelling loudly, “Mommaaaaa! There’s ‘nother peg’sus out herrrrre!”

The comment draws raised eyebrows from Swift, Handy, and Dandy before Swift and Handy look at each other sideways.

“What in tarnation?” an older mare’s voice responds back from deeper in the house before they hear the hooves of a quickly approaching pony. “They can’t possibly be here ta drop off more can they?”

The door opens wider and an older mare, the same pale yellow as the younger one, steps into the doorway wearing a poorly patched dress with an even more patched apron over her front. Her flaxen yellow mane with its pale yellow highlights seems to barely hold its sloppy bun shape as she looks back and forth between the three at her doorstep. She gently uses a forehoof, and pushes the curious young mare back into the house, and sideways around the doorframe, as she looks at Dandy and asks, “Can ah help ya?”

Dandy gives her a wide smile as she waves towards Handy and Swift. “We’re here on behalf of the Happy Trails Trading Company. I’m sorry to bother you, but we’re looking for a caravan led by a buck named Lodestar… Have you seen them around recently?”

The matronly mare nods as she gives them a warm smile. “Oh, yes. Ah know’em. He’s a friend of mah husband. Here, let me call’em, he’s probably still workin’ somewhere.” She steps out onto the door stoop and takes in a deep breath, making her chest expand to bulbous levels. And, with that bottled gush of air, yells out with a clear call so loud that Dandy stumbles around and takes a step back from the force of it. “Eeeeeex-UBER-aaaaaaance! We’s got comp’nay! Get on out here, ya hear?!”

Handy’s eyes go wide and he looks over at Swift as he nods towards the yellow mare, “I wonder what her rates are for calling Canterlot. Maybe you should have a chat with her to get some tips so the kids can hear ya.”

Swift looks at him sideways before leaning towards him and grinning. “Oh, they can hear us just fine… They just choose to only listen to me sometimes.” After snickering at his suddenly sullen disposition she gives him a quick kiss on the cheek.

One of the double doors of the barn, that’s already partially ajar, opens up more as the door is pushed out from the inside. A tawny brown pony walks out in a pair of dark blue overalls and a maroon shirt that has the foreleg sleeves carefully folded up just past the knee. He pulls out a kerchief from his coveralls pocket, and wipes a bit of rusty flakes and grime off his muzzle as he looks the newcomers over for a moment.

After wiping the rusty flakes from his lips he carefully stows the kerchief as he asks with a level of careful annunciation that one wouldn’t normally associate with farm ponies, “Good evening, my name’s Exuberance, how may we be of assistance?”

The yellow mare on the stoop nods towards them as she looks at the buck in the coveralls. “They’re here ‘bout Lodestar.”

The bucks green eyes go wide for a moment before he nods. He brushes his lime green mane back with a hoof, unintentionally transplanting a bit of grime from the work he’d been recently doing from his hoof onto it, as he says, “Is that so?”

Dandy nods as she looks between them. “Yes, sir. I was hoping you’d have a minute or two to talk about it.”

The buck gives her a firm nod as he says, “Absolutely. Maybe we can help each other with an exchange of information. Please, come inside my humble abode and we can discuss the matter further.” He turns his head towards the barn and calls out, “Sweets! I believe we have accomplished all we can for the day. Please come inside and bring the lamp with you.”

“Sure thing, pa!” a buck’s voice drawls from inside of the barn.

The yellow mare looks over at Dandy and Swift and smiles warmly as she steps to the side and motions towards the doorway. “Are ya’ll hungry? We got plenty ‘o vittles and ah was just ‘bout to get started makin’ supper.”

Handy’s eyes light up and the smile on his face just starts growing wider, earning him a few quick side glances from Swift.

Dandy returns the mare’s warm smile and dips her head in gratitude. “Thank you, ma’am, but I don’t want to intrude. I’d rather just talk about Lodestar if that’s okay with all of you.”

The yellow mare nods as she waves a hoof dismissively. “Oh that’s fine. It’s fine. If’n ya don’t mind though, ah’ll have to talk to you whiles cookin’, got a rambunctious lot in here an’ they ain’t too keen on waitin’ long.” She gives Dandy an even wider smile. “And if’n ya change yer mind, jus’ let me know and ah’ll serve ya up faster’n ya can shake a stick at it.”

While the conversation is going on, Swift quickly starts tapping on her PipBuck as she keeps giving sideways glances to Handy.

A walnut brown buck comes out of the barn with a pitchfork held in one hoof but leaned back and over his right shoulder with the prongs in the air. A still lit lantern hangs and bobbles around by its handle from the pitchfork’s prongs as he walks. He gently kicks backwards with one hindhoof, closing the barn door behind himself, before he trots over to join the others.

As the young stallion walks up to him, Exuberance motions towards his younger counterpart and says, “This is my eldest son, Sweets… and it’ll be no trouble at all. In truth, we’ve recently had a large bounty delivered to us and for once we might have some trouble consuming it before it turns. So there’s no need to feel shy about the offer.” He motions towards the door as he says, “Now, let’s get inside so we can talk about my dear friend. If we stand out too long, Hoofington will take it as a challenge and deliver a frightful downpour upon us.” He looks toward the stoop and smiles widely as he says, “Honeysuckle, my dearest, would you kindly get the lights.”

The yellow mare nods as she turns around and starts back into the house as she says, “Sounds like a mighty good idea… Parsnip, help me get all the lights on in here so ah can see what Imma doin’.”

“Yes, momma,” the young yellow mare’s voice calls out from near the doorframe before she scurries off and, one by one, other lights begin illuminating the inside of the modest two story dwelling.

As they start heading towards the front door, with Exuberance in the lead, Handy’s PipBuck alerts him to a message. He gives it a glance and instantly lets out a sigh.

[Handy, look at them. They don’t have much. I think they’re just trying to be polite. We have our own food, don’t go taking any of theirs. Make up something. Say we just ate or something. Anything. They look like the hardworking type so let them have their food AND their pride.]

Handy looks over at Sweets as he’s walking by. The hand-me-down farm clothes Sweets are wearing have been patched so many times it’s hard to tell where they’d originally gotten them from and what it looked like. Handy’s eyes trail over and bounce around between Sweets and Exuberance as he starts paying attention, and that’s when he starts noticing the frays and the worn fabric. Not to mention the dirt stains that seemed to have taken up permanent residence among the threads of both of the pony’s clothes. Even as well as Exuberance is trying to dress, his clothes are showing their age and overuse. And Handy starts wondering how many sets of clothes they have, and if, in fact, this is the only set of clothes they have to their name.

He lets out a sigh, as the thought of a fresh home cooked meal goes up in a puff of mental smoke before he looks over at Swift, exchanges eye contact, and gives her a quick nod of agreement.

The kiss she gives him in her excitement of him going along with it practically makes up for the potential loss, within the first few seconds, as he thoroughly, and involuntarily, ends up with his haunches on the ground as he sits on the ground, heedless of anything else around them as he’s temporarily lost to the smooch induced foggy headed bliss.

“You’re Sweets?” Dandy asks as he walks by and heads towards the door.

He pauses and looks over his shoulder at her as he gives her a crooked smile and tilts his head. “Mah right name’s Sweet Potato… but everypony jus’ calls me Sweets.” She gives him a wide grin and a nod of acknowledgement, causing him to turn and head into the house.

“Sweets huh?” Dandy asks as she watches him walk into the house. She leans sideways and her eyes trail down and over, expertly and minutely examining Sweet’s posterior as he’s going inside. “Ooooh yeah you certainly look sweet alright…” she mumbles as she leers. After her smile morphs into a goofy grin, and she’s leaning so far sideways she’s getting perilously close to falling over, she lets out a sharp squeal before she sits down, puts both forehooves over her head, and looks next to her. “Ow! Why’d you hit me in the head, Swift?!”

Swift bops her on the head again with her PipBuck laden hoof as she scowls at her. “Because we’re here for a bit of information, and that’s it. We need leads, not tails… Don’t go doing anything that’ll piss’em off and make’em not wanna talk to us anymore… Like trying to shack up with the family!”

Dandy rubs her head a bit more before she grins at her and gently bops herself on top of the head with a bare forehoof. “No… you’re right… But… you gotta admit, he’s got a cute butt though.”

Swift waves it away with a hoof as she starts into the house and says, “Eh… I’ve seen better.”

Dandy’s eyes trail down to Swift’s rear as she’s walking by, and her focus is glued to the toned muscles covered in sky blue fur, bopping along with each step, as she mutters, “Yeah… me too… me too…”

Handy’s face suddenly blocks her view as he leans over and arcs his neck so he’s looking her right in the face with his head in the middle of the line of sight between Swift and Dandy. Dandy shakes her head and recoils a bit before she gives him a sheepish grin and shrugs.

Handy looks back and forth from Swift, to Dandy, then snickers a bit before he mouths towards Dandy, ‘Me too.’

They share a giggle as they bring up the rear and enter the house as Dandy uses her telekinesis to scrape off the mud from her hooves and flicking it away before actually entering.

With the failing light of day, and despite the best efforts of the small lights scattered around the interior of the home, the humble two story house is pretty dimly lit. As Handy and Dandy join Swift, they take in the surroundings of the household.

Which provides them with a view that seems to confirm Swift’s previously mentioned concerns to Handy.

The interior is rather bare, with not nearly the amount of furniture or belongings that a house this size would normally be associated with having. And what is here, is either old beyond reason, most likely dating to even well before the war, or has been cobbled together from random supplies that have been piecemealed from various sources. There are a few freestanding cabinets that have stood the test of time, though even they are showing their age with centuries of wear. The cabinets of the old farmhouse’s kitchen are in even worse shape as half the doors are crooked or hang ajar, and one has even fallen off completely. Though it’s absence only helps to demonstrate how little there is for the doors to hide.

But then there are the couple shelves next to the combined living room and dining room area. Those shelves are absolutely packed, and actually draw a startled gasp from both Handy and Dandy. Upon those shelves, in complete juxtaposition of the abject poverty of the rest of the house, is a proverbial mountain of food. A near bumper crop in volume. There’s enough there that both of them are pretty sure these farmers could start a produce stand and be in business for at least a week with just what’s there.

The shuffling of hooves draws their attention as Honeysuckle waves a hoof in their direction and calls out sweetly, “Mind the door, ifn you’d be so kind. We’s try ta keep the pesky bugs out as much as we can.” She frowns and looks over at Dandy as she says, “The pesky varmints are a right nuisance!”

Handy politely shuts the door behind himself before turning back around to look over at Exuberance. But, his eyes trail around as he sees a few other faces sneaking around just beyond the lights reach and poking out just enough to look in at the new arrivals. But they remain on the fringes with no sign of being interested in getting any closer on their own.

As Sweets is setting the lantern down on a stool made of roughly hewn tree pieces, Swift asks, “What’s with the pitch fork? In the middle of a harvest?”

Sweets shakes his head and smiles. “Oh nah, not today anyhow.” He holds it up and twirls it around his right foreleg a bit, and then proceeds to do a few tricks where he does the same thing with it seemingly magnetically attached to his muzzle as he twirls it around by the center of the handle. He flicks it in the air, and catches it, before shouldering it and grinning at her again. “It’s jus’ gotta lotta use. Normal day? Jus’ turn’ the soil… On a good day, it’s good fer turn’ up some grub from the ground and gettn’ them stubborn taters ‘n carrots up… on bad days it’s good for chasing off varmints…” He bobs his head around as he adds, “Bloatsprites, roaches, thems sort of pests.”

Swift nods as she looks around at the homes interior. “Makes sense, and you’d have some extra food on the table that way too.”

“Heaven’s no!” Honeysuckle cries out as she takes a step back and puts a hoof to her chest. She looks Swift over before sticking her nose high in the air. “Ah dun mean no offense… but this here’s a strictly vegetarian household.” She shakes her head before giving an adorably prim nod of her head. “No meat what-so-ever.”

Swift smirks before waving it away with a hoof. “None taken. I just know some that’d find that a welcome extra source of food… But I suppose that isn’t such a concern for those living on a farm.”

“Ya’d be surprised,” Sweets quips as he rolls his eyes up and over towards the ceiling, simultaneously avoiding the dagger-eyed stare from Honeysuckle.

Exuberance nods a few times as he looks around. “Well, there shall be plenty of time for talking, exchanging stories, and getting to know each other shortly… before that…” He raises a hoof in the air, along with his snoot, for emphasis. “I believe proper introductions are in order…” He moves towards Sweets, who stands nearby casually leaning on his pitchfork, and says, “You’ve already met my eldest son; he’s the strapping young stallion with the farming implement in his hooves.” Sweets rolls his eyes as he smirks, but then looks at them and respectfully dips his head in their direction.

Exuberance walks over next to Honeysuckle, and leans sideways towards her, causing her to do the same and them to lean against each other. “And the gorgeous young filly with the mane of gold is my wife, Honeysuckle.” He gives a wide grin at them, but his eyes are turned sideways towards Honeysuckle’s, who giggles before turning and giving him a kiss on the cheek. He looks over and behind Honeysuckle as he says, “And the doppelganger of my wife, with the green mane, is my daughter Parsnip.”

The pale yellow young mare with the light green mane that’d originally opened the door steps out from behind Exuberance and Honeysuckle and gives Swift’s group a courteous dip of her head as she says quietly, “Hello…”

Swift’s eyes jump around the shy young mare’s form, and quickly takes in the dress she’s wearing. While it wasn’t noticeable before, and indeed Swift doesn’t even know if she was even wearing it when she opened the door given how she’d stayed hidden, the dress looks rather unique. For the most part it’s the same tan color throughout. But over the entire surface of it is a collection of flowers along its entire surface. However, these aren’t embroidered in. Nor are they part of the weave, nor a result of some spell. Each individual flower is made up of fabric that has been cut up and sewn onto the surface. In a couple instances Swift can just barely make out where the flower is covering up a patch job where a hole had developed in it from one thing or another. A few of the flowers are even made out of fabric that had patterns in it already. A rather creative solution to the problem of not having much in the way of supplies.

Though the realization just reinforces her desire not to make their already rough situation any worse.

“Parsnip, honey, where’d yer lil’ brothers get off to?” Honeysuckle asks as she looks back at her daughter.

Parsnip looks up at her and points a hoof back by the stairs up to the second floor. “They’s hidin’ and tryn’a be all sneaky like so they can see who’s all here.”

“I’s ain’t sneakin’!” calls out a younger buck’s voice from near one of the old cabinets.

Honeysuckle snickers before she looks over at their guests. “Please don’t mind them none. We’s jus’ don’t get much comp’nay way out here.” She looks back over her shoulder where she’s pretty sure they’re hiding as she smiles and says, “They’s jus’ curious, that’s all. Don’t mean ta be rude.”

Exuberance nods a few times as he turns his head and looks back towards the dining room. “Quite right. Come along now… Cass… Cinnamon Roll. Come over and say hello.” He snickers as he shakes his head. “I assure you, they don’t bite.”

A young straw yellow buck with an olive green mane walks down the rest of the way from the stairs, as he’d moved there earlier to get closer to them, and steps into the light. He uses his forehoof and tips the oversized ratty straw hat upon his head as he says with a grin, “Howdy… Name’s Cassava, but ya’ll can call me ‘Cass’.”

Parsnip narrows her eyes at him as she says with a sigh, “Cass, yer even younger’n me, quit tryin’a be all impressive by actn’ older’n you are. It ain’t workin’!” She looks over at Swift’s group’s general direction as she limply waves a hoof at her brother, “He does this… all the time!”

“Ah do not!” Cass snaps at Parsnip. But, after she zips her attention back to him, he directs his attention elsewhere as he says, “Yer jus’ jealous of mah maturidy…”

“It’s mah-chur-it-tee… tumbleweed fer brains,” Parsnip says with a roll of her eyes as she slowly enunciates out each syllable.

Cass looks over at her, and then around the room, as he crosses his forelegs and leans sideways against a wall as he relaxes against it. “Tha’s what ah said, idnit?”

A young cinnamon pelted buck with a messy cream colored mane walks up next to Honeysuckle, opposite of Exuberance, and quietly observes the strangers. He’d barely stood still for a second before Honeysuckle’s foreleg whips over, grabs him, and draws him closer as she gushes, “There’s mah Cini-Mini!” She leans over and starts oppressively nuzzling his cheek with her own as she says, “He’s the youngest of the Roots clan and jus’ so adorable ah wanna eat’em up!”

The young buck starts struggling as his dark brown eyes bug out. “Maaaaa! Yer ‘baressin’ me! It’s bad ‘nuff ya named me ‘Cinnamon Roll’! Do ya really gotta do this too?! Awww shucks, come’on mah, yer makin’ me look bad in front of comp’nay!”

She pulls him in tighter, making his struggles even more futile as her foreleg muscles show that they are used to hard work, and squeezes him even harder. “Tuff luck, buckaroo! ‘cuz you’ll always be mah adorable lil colt!”

“Awww… Maaaa…” He struggles a bit more before he lets out a sigh. “Pa, help! Ma’s tryin’a snuggle me to death again!”

Exuberance tries to hide his smile behind a forehoof as he looks in the other direction and says flatly, “Sorry, son, but you’re alone on this one…”

Honeysuckle giggles as she gives Cinnamon Roll an extra squeezy snuggle before giving him a kiss on the cheek and letting him go. “MmmHMMM, yer never gonna escape my lovin’!” She grows a mischievous grin across her muzzle as she turns her head enough to look sideways at Exuberance as she says, “Jus’ ask yer, pa….”

Exuberance’s eyes jump wide open for a moment as his cheeks reveal just the faintest hint of a blush, before he covers his mouth with a hoof, coughs, and then says softly, “Quite…”

Honeysuckle giggles and gives him a kiss on the cheek before looking at Swift’s group. “Well, that’s everypony in our lil herd. Who might ya’ll be?”

Swift raises a hoof and waves at them as a whole as she says, “My name’s Swift, nice to meet you all.”

Handy raises a hoof and waves weakly as he says, “I’m Handy.”

A split second later Dandy adds, “And I’m Dandy.”

The farm family stares at the pair for a moment, and the youngest buck, free from his mother’s oppressive show of affection, snickers a moment before he asks, “So… ya’ll are Handy Dandy?”

Swift, Dandy, and Handy’s eyes all pop open wider for a moment, as it suddenly dawns on them.

Dandy and Handy look at each other, and then look at the farm ponies and say, in perfect unison, “No relation.”

This causes a chorus of snickers from the family before Parsnip asks, “Ya’ll practice that bit a lot, huh?”

Swift snickers and looks back at the pair as she grins and replies, “Actually… it’s the first time it’s come up…”

Exuberance smiles widely and gives a quick shake of his head before he says, “Well, now that introductions are over… You’d said you were wishing to discuss Lodestar?” He looks between them before he asks, “Did he send word?”

“Oh boy…” Dandy says with a groan as she slaps a hoof over her eyes.

Exuberance and Handy both look at her with a raised eyebrow, and Exuberance asks, “Pardon?”

Dandy jerks the hoof from her face towards him and waves it all away as she says with a frown, “If you’re asking that… that pretty much means he hasn’t been here yet either, and that even you’ve noticed he’s outside of his schedule.”

Exuberance’s eyes go wide, as he looks them all over. “Whatever do you mean? Has something happened to Lodestar?”

Dandy shrugs as she says, “That… is actually why we’re here. To find the answer to that question and, hopefully, find him.” She looks around at the others before raising a hoof slowly, “Lodestar and his whole convoy is missing. He’s days past due for checking in.”

Sweets stands up straight, looks between them, and then says to his father, “That’s… not like Uncle Lodestar…” He looks over at Dandy and nods with a strong bob of his head. “He’s a very punctual pony, and don’t take too kindly to his schedule gettin’ throwed off.”

Exuberance’s face darkens as he lets out a sigh. “My son’s correct. That is entirely out of character for him.” He looks at them, then around at his family, before looking at Dandy and asking, “Would you be so kind as to stay and fill me in on what all you know of the situation? Maybe, together, we can pool our knowledge and try to find out what has happened to him and his caravan. Possibly even hurry aid to him in case he needs it.”

Handy looks out one of the shuttered windows and lets out a low groan. “Well, I suppose. But we’ve come out all this way, and if you don’t know where he’s at, we really should get back on the trail to the next stop point. The longer we stay here the further we’re going to have to travel in the dark and I’m not looking forward to having to camp out in the open.” He looks over at Exuberance and frowns as he says, “I mean, there’s nothing around for a good long way except mud and dead trees. And those aren’t going to provide any shelter.”

Exuberance looks them over and shakes his head as he says, “We can’t offer much in the way of accommodations, but the barn is more than sufficient for the purposes of having a roof over your head while you rest. My boys are proof of that. They sneak off to nap out there all the time when they’re actively trying to avoid chores.”

“Hey! Ah do too!” Parsnip says with a scowl as she looks at her father. Everyone looks at her and she glances over at Swift as she says sheepishly, “Well… Ah do…” She waves a hoof dismissively as she says with a smile, “Up in the loft is all cozy like when ya have the hatch doors open. ‘Specially in the summah. Breeze come through, and ya can’t help but fall asleep on the straw.” She grins wider as she says, “Even the rainy weather is nice up in there. Hear’n’ it hit the tin roof is down right relax’n’!”

Sweets nods as he looks over at Handy with a wide grin. “She ain’t lyin’.”

Exuberance motions towards the table in the combined dining room and living room area as he says, “We’d be more than willing to offer you a place for the night and a meal in exchange for your time.” He chuckles a bit as he says, “There’s plenty currently, so there’s no need to feel like it’s an inconvenience for us.”

Dandy looks around at the humble farmhouse’s interior as she says, “Whether we decide to stay all night or not, I really need to sit down and get off my hooves for a bit at least. I’ve been walking all day and my hooves are killing me.”

“Well, that would be one ‘yes’,” Exuberance says with a wide smile as he looks over between Handy and Swift.

“Sounds like a plan, we can at least rest a bit and figure out what we’re going to do after that,” Swift comments as she looks back at Handy. Exuberance dips his head with a wider smile before looking over at Handy expectantly.

“Sure. Why not. I could use the break too after crawling through those mud pits to get here,” Handy says with a sigh as he capitulates to the break in travel. Although he still keeps reservations about having to travel in the open, in the middle of the night, with nowhere with shelter to stop along the way. But, for now, he decides he’ll keep that to himself.

Honeysuckle turns and starts heading toward the dining area as she says, “Ah’ll get supper ready, we can talk as we’re working.” As she’s heading away she adds, “Cini Mini, Parsnip, lend me a hoof would ya?”

“Awww, Maaaa, not in front of comp-nay… pleaasseee?” moans the young cinnamon buck as he dutifully trots after her.

“Yes, momma,” Parsnip replies as she hurries over to help with getting the meal ready.

Dandy starts following them over towards the table as she asks, “I’ll help too, if that’s okay? It’s not like I’ll really need to move much to do so.”

“On account of that bump on yer noggin?” the young buck asks as he looks back at her. “That thing really let you do magic ‘n’ stuff?”

Honeysuckle’s eyes go wide as she zips her focus over to look at him and hisses, “Cini Mini! That’s rude!” She looks over at Dandy and says apologetically, “Sorry, he’s jus’ not really seen any unicorns, on account of not gettin’ many folks out this way.”

Dandy giggles as she waves it away and stands near the dining room table. “It’s okay, really. Although I guess being out this far has its advantages. Not seeing many folks would mean the bad sort don’t bother you as often.”

Exuberance nods as he starts bringing bits of wood over from a stack near the wall and starts arranging it in the fireplace along the wall of the dining room. “An astute observation. It’s truly a miracle of fate and luck that Honeysuckle’s family settled in this particular area of Hoofington so long ago.” He starts slowly arranging the bits of wood in preparation for starting a fire as he adds, “It was so remote, it stood the test of the constant war, without damage, and wasn’t close enough to any of the direct hits to get destroyed when the war ended.” He uses a nearby lit lantern and a bit of kindling to get the fire started, and it doesn’t take long for it to begin slowly burning in the fireplace that, judging by the dark metal set into the stone work that becomes visible with the flame under it, functions as the home’s cooking location.

Handy looks back and forth before he asks, “Wait… Are you saying your family’s been here that long?!”

Honeysuckle pokes her head around one of the cabinets long enough to grin at him and bob her head as she replies, “That’s a fact!” She practically beams with pride as she says, “Mah family’s been tendin’ ta this here land fer centuries!” She reaches over and taps on the wall as she says, “Mah family raised this here house back when Luna was still on the moon. And it’s been getting’ passed down through the generations with it gettin’ taken over by the eldest daughter.” She gives a crooked smile as she says, “Ah hear tell we had more buildin’s… Ah big guest house where hired hooves would stay, and a second barn, couple silos… but those had to get taken down for parts to fix the homestead or traded away as buildin’ materials durin’ some bad times.” She stomps a hoof and nods as she says, “But the Roots’ family’s always been here, and we ain’t gonna give up any time soon.”

Handy looks over at Exuberance as he asks, “And how’d you wind up way out here?” He grins as he asks, “Mail order hubby?”

Honeysuckle giggles as Exuberance gives a slight chuckle of his own. He looks over at his wife, and the smile grows warm and tender before he says softly, “No… I’d just had some… fundamental disagreements with my family over how things were done, and left to find my own way in the world… I’d met Lodestar along the way, tagged along with his caravans when he and Happy Trails were just getting started… And through them I was introduced to the Roots family at a swap meet…” He shrugs as he looks back over at Handy, with the same glowing smile on his face, before he adds, “First time I saw her I knew… I believe the old trope is… ‘Fell in love with the farmer’s daughter’?”

Honeysuckle giggles and grows a faint blush to her cheeks before she says sheepishly, “Ya know, fancy pants, ya already got me. We’s got four youngins already, ya ain’t gotta keep up with that sweet talkin’ courtin’ nonsense...”

Parsnip sets some supplies on the table as she stares at her mother’s growing sheepishness and gently swaying tail. She leans towards Dandy and partially groans, “Pleasssse… stop them… Ah don’t wanna ‘nother lil brother!”

Dandy snickers before she looks over at Honeysuckle and calls out, “Honeysuckle, ma’am, how do ya want these vegetables cut up?”

Honeysuckle blinks a few times, then her ears perk up as she’s brought out of some world of thought all of her own. “Oh! Yes, dinner… here, Ah’ll show ya.” She trots over and smiles as she says, “Thank ya kindly, for the help.” She picks up a large knife and twirls it on her hoof, with an ease that even impresses Dandy, as she says, “Cini Mini, fill this here bowl with some apples and put some soup vittles in the other bowl… Let’s see how much ya remember!”

While they are getting started, Exuberance and Sweets start collecting dishes from the surrounding cabinetry and Cass brings in a dripping wet bucket from outside and starts dolling out water using a metal ladle into the various cups and mugs that get set out.

Cinnamon Roll rolls his eyes, but starts tossing one vegetable after another over towards the table from his position near the shelves. As they get close, Parsnip taps them into the appropriate bowl with timely pops of her shoulder or back, causing the produce to bounce off of her and land squarely in the dish where they are gathering their supplies. As they are performing this apparently regular routine, that seems blasé to them but impressive to the outsiders, Dandy scoops up a paring knife with her levitation magic and asks, “Do you want the apples peeled or how are you wanting to prepare them?”

Honeysuckle starts chopping, slicing, and dicing the various produce, pausing only long enough to say, “Ah’m thinkn’ of stuffed apples tonight… so if’n ya could hollow’em out and puts the insides in that little bowl next to ya, it’d be much appreciated.”

Dandy nods and starts whipping out one apple at a time with her levitation. The knife jabs into the top, zips around in a circle, then the inside gets pulled out by the stem and set aside. After getting through a couple apples Cinamon Roll comments, “Okay, that’s jus’ cheatn’! Looky here, she’s nearly done, and she ain’t even moved.”

Exuberance gives Cinamon Roll a narrow eyed stare, and the young buck promptly drops the accusation and inquisition as he busies himself with looking for one dried herb or another from their larder. Exuberance pushes a pair of water filled cups towards Swift and Handy as he says, “It’s not as pure as I would like, but it’s far superior to the regular dirty water others seem to think is passing.” He motions outside with a hoof as he says, “The barn’s tin roof is excellent for collecting rainwater, so we always have fresh water in our barrels.”

“A bit too much rain, usually,” Cass says glumly as he sips from his own cup.

Handy and Swift pickup their respective glasses and take a quick sip from them. And instantly their PipBucks let them know the water is certainly not pure. But, given the small tick, and the unnoticeable increase in their own radiation levels, they realize it’s definitely a negligible amount. And Handy starts wondering if what little is in there, is more a matter of leftover fallout being washed off of the roof, or from some other secondary contamination. But, regardless, that first sip scratches an itch in his throat that he didn’t realize he’d had until it was being soothed by the cool water. He starts regularly sipping from it and accidentally quickly drains the not so small glass he was provided with.

This earns him a grin from Exuberance and a chuckle from Cass as he uses the metal ladle in the bucket to refill Handy’s cup for him. “Not bad at all, ain’t it?”

Honeysuckle lets out a sigh and watches as Dandy quickly finishes the apples, and proceeds to start cutting up the other vegetables in the same manner Honeysuckle has been doing. “Thank ya kindly for the help, this’ll go even faster!” She pauses and raises an eyebrow as she asks, “Ya sure ya’ll don’t want anythin’ ta eat?”

Swift waves it away and doesn’t even look at her as she says, “I know I’m good. I might have to take a rain check though, with how good that’s starting to look. But I ate already. Earlier.” She looks sideways at Handy and raises an eyebrow as he sits in silence.

Handy pipes up, “Oh, no. Sorry. Thanks. I’m good. Just some water for me is all.” He motions between Swift and himself with a hoof as he says, “We already ate.”

Dandy looks over at Handy and Swift, exchanging eye contact with Swift for a moment before letting out a sigh and shaking her head as, on some level, she’s glad she isn’t the only one. “Thanks… but no… No thank you.”

Honeysuckle frowns and narrows her eyes as she asks, “Why? Ya eat too?”

Dandy looks around quickly, letting her eyes dart over to the absurdly stuffed larder, before looking back at Honeysuckle and giving a sheepish grin as she waves a hoof. “Oh… it’s not that… it’s just…” She looks around quickly before giving her a smile. “I’m just… not feeling well. A bit queasy… you know?” She shrugs. “I’m sure the food’s amazing but I don’t think it’d be a good idea for me to eat now. Maybe it’s just my hooves, but I’m just feeling kinda blegh… You know?” She gives her a sheepish smile as she says, “Just got a lot going on at the moment with my aching hooves and feeling all nauseous.”

The comment draws raised eyebrows from both Honeysuckle and Exuberance. They look at each other sideways before Honeysuckle leans over the table and asks, “Honey… you pregnant?”

Handy’s eyes go wide and he spits and snorts out the water that was in his muzzle from his recent greedy chug from his mug, out into and around the cup with such force that the mist from it scatters out around him for several feet.

Dandy’s cheeks grow a pink tinge as she stares wide eyed at Honeysuckle. “T-that’s… I mean…”

Swift, unable to contain herself given the obvious opportunity, calls out nonchalantly, “Well, Dandy, that’s what you get for shaking up with Gearing.” Dandy’s head jerks over to stare at Swift, with her mouth hanging open and the blush traveling and growing out from her cheeks by the second. Swift giggles as she says, “That’s what happens when you decide to fool around with a buck like that…” She stretches out her neck towards Dandy as she grins devilishly. “I bet he didn’t stop until he made sure the job was good and done… Didn’t he?”

“B-but… it’s… that can’t…” Dandy stutters and stammers as she slowly turns red down her neck.

Swift gives her a mischievous grin as she says, “You really gonna sit there and lie and say you didn’t?” She narrows her eye as she says, “I already know you did, even if Gearing was being too much of a gentlestallion to kiss and tell.”

“B-but…”

Exuberance pulls out his kerchief from his pocket with a smirk on his face. He wipes the errant moisture, from the cloud Handy made, that’d fall down onto him off his cheek before he looks at Handy and says with a mischievous grin of his own, “You know, my father had the exact same reaction when I informed him that I was getting married, had a foal on the way, and I was renouncing my position and never coming back.” As he’s stuffing his kerchief back into his pocket he grins and comments, “One of the best decisions and moments of my life, I am still certain of it.”

“Oh, honey, ya shoulda said so sooner!” Honeysuckles squeals as her eyes go wide with a sudden extra shine in them. “I know all about how that is! No wonder ya wanted off yer hooves.” She zips away in a yellow blur, a few decorative pens coming out of her mane’s bun and falling to the ground from her sudden movement. A moment later she comes charging back into the room, with a stool and a couple pillows sitting on the seat top. She crams the seat under Dandy from behind, taking her off her feet* entirely and leaving her seated on the stool before she even realizes what’s going on. As she’s grabbing a metal basin from the lower shelf of one of the cabinets she calls out excitedly, “Parsnip, go on ‘round back and get me some of those herbs I kept telling ya ta leave alone. Jus’ a couple sprigs worth, but makes sure they’s got some of them fresh leaves on’em, ya hear?”

Parsnip jumps to action, snagging the lantern that Sweets had brought in with him as she’s bolting out the door with it as she replies, “Yes, momma!”

Honeysuckle comes back over and manually lifts Dandy’s hooves and places them so she’s lightly hanging them into the pan. Then she zips over to the fireplace where she sets a pot of water to boil, by hanging it by its wire handle from the fireplace’s swinging cooking crane. She fills a kettle with water, and sets it on a cast iron grill grate right next to the burning logs before zipping over to a cabinet and withdrawing an ancient looking ceramic teapot. As soon as the teapot is safely on the table, she turns into another golden blur as she zips around the larder and starts knocking down tins from the tall cabinets. She goes from one tin to the next, grabbing out bits of plant matter that has been dried to the point of being nearly unidentifiable and sticking them in a small bowl she carries with her before closing the container and flipping it back up onto its original spot. The next moment, after flicking the last tin up in the air, she’s back at the teapot, carefully loading it with the mixture of leafy material as she says, “This here old family recipe is jus’ what ya need, my dear!”

During the entire time, Swift, Dandy, and Handy watch in bafflement as their eyes dart back and forth while trying to keep up with the ridiculous speed of the darting mare as she zooms around the interior of the farmhouse.

Dandy raises her hoof towards her as the flush across her face reddens and spreads further, “T-thanks… b-b-but-”

“Hooves in the basin,” Honeysuckle snips and pushes Dandy’s hoof back down as Parsnip runs back inside with a collection of plant stems and leaves. Honeysuckle grabs the stems, strips the leaves off, and folds them carefully in half before giving them a light nip with her front teeth to partially crush them. She tosses the leaves into the basin, with a few other ingredients that she pulls out of her apron, before she happily trots over to the fireplace. She checks the water in the hanging pot, and after a few more moments of eyeballing it, she grabs it off the hook and quickly starts dumping it into the basin that Dandy’s hooves are in.

Dandy lets out a quiet shriek with an involuntary intake of air, as the water dumped on and around her hooves is exceedingly warm. Hot to the point of being more than she would be willing to touch if she had known in advance. But, not so hot to actually scald her. The temperature manages to sit perfectly on the fence at that strange threshold where the body thinks it’s being burnt, and the hide would indeed turn red, but it quickly adjusts and actually doesn’t feel too bad after getting past the initial shock.

Obviously expecting the reaction in advance, Honeysuckle already has her forehooves on Dandy’s legs, keeping Dandy’s hooves in the water, until she’s no longer struggling and gets past the initial shock. After Dandy’s legs have relaxed, from her getting used to the temperature, Honeysuckle goes about the task of brewing the pot of tea she’s been preparing.

As Dandy’s watching, the water around the crushed fresh leaves distorts a bit as the oils are drawn out and the dried material Honeysuckle had procured from her apron rehydrates and starts quickly expanding in the water. Slowly little streams of color seep out from the ingredients. Blues. Greens. Even some deep reds. All of them make little streamers that trail off and toward the surface of the water, but are carried at an angle as the water is still spinning in the basin from the initial pour, but not very much. It gives her the strange impression of a chromatic kelp forest popping into existence and growing right in front of her eyes as the colored streamers sway with the water.

Honeysuckle sets a tea cup down on the table next to Dandy as she says, “Here ya go, dear… The firs’ couple sips aren’t all that great, but it’ll get better the more ya drink, and it’ll help with makin’ ya feel better, I guarantee it,” and replaces the teapot that she’d just poured from without Dandy even noticing.

Dandy steadily turns pinkish down to her hooves as she nervously chuckles and floats the cup over to herself. She sits looking into it, watching a few of the pieces of leaves spin around in the cup of their own accord among the greenish gold colored liquid. She’s so flustered her magic wavers a bit, shaking the cup in midair from her unsteady concentration before she takes a sip from the cup.

The tea doesn’t even make it to the back of her throat before her eyes zip open to their max and she cringes from the sharp biting taste. She wasn’t ready for that, despite the previous warning, but manages to choke it down without spilling any.

“Jus’ give it a sec before takin’ another sip. It’ll get ta tastin’ better ‘n’ have ya feelin’ better soon, or ah’m not a Roots,” Honeysuckle says with a firm nod of her head.

A moment later, Dandy takes another sip, and, actually does find it’s almost palatable. Instead of that sharp cringe-worthy taste she was subjected to before, now it’s more of a bitter tea that’s possibly been brewed too strongly. She goes through a few cycles of this, under the watchful eye of Honeysuckle as she continues to prepare the rest of dinner. And, as advertised, the drink actually becomes tolerable and she can start sipping from it regularly. Though Dandy can’t help but wonder if the brew is altering her senses to make itself seem less offensive, or if it’s one of those acquired taste situations like cheap beer.

Which basically amounts to Stockholm syndrome for taste buds.

But, despite working on dinner, Honeysuckle refills the teacup for Dandy as it’s getting low. “Keep on sippin’ and drinkin’ from it fer as long as ya care to. If’n ya can handle the whole pot, it’ll do ya some good.” She smiles at Dandy as she’s using a stone pestle and mortar to break up some strange looking grains to add to her mixing bowl. “That should help with the nausea ‘n’ start relaxin’ ya. But, don’t force yerself ta eat yet if’n yer still not feelin’ it. The tea’s good, but yer tummy might still have a mind ta bounce it back out.” She nods over towards Cinnamon Roll as she says with a smirk, “That one spent ‘most the time he was in my belly trying ta buck out every lil thing I ate.”

“Awww… Maaa… Yer embaressin’ me!” Cinnamon Roll groans as he tries to hide his face behind an apron hanging from the corner of a cabinet.

Honeysuckle grins at him as she says, “Hey, fair’s fair… Yer the reason ah went from having jus’ one pot of each plant, ta needin’ an entire flower bed ta grow the plants fer mah tea mixin’s.”

“Mmhmm,” Parsnip says with a grin.

“Yup,” Cass adds without even looking.

“Took forever to get enough wood from the forest that wasn’t already rottin’ away,” Sweets muses as he rubs his chin with a forehoof.

“I believe finding the right location, that got just the right amount of light, but that we could protect well enough that pests wouldn’t destroy it and the rain wouldn’t simply beat them down to death, was the most trying aspect of it. Especially given the size requirements,” Exuberance adds with a smile.

Sweets chuckles as he looks over at his youngest brother, “Ain’t that the truth.”

Dandy nervously chuckles as she sips from her cup, and gets lost in her own thoughts.

Swift giggles as she shakes her head before looking at Exuberance. “Well, given the situation, would you mind telling us what you know? And after Dandy gets situated she can chime in with whatever bits she knows about everything.”

Exuberance chuckles as he nods. “That sounds like an excellent idea.” He taps on his chin for a moment before he waves the same hoof around in a circle. “Well, as I’d previously mentioned, I had joined the Happy Trails Caravan Company for a while as I was trying to find myself, figuratively of course… After I denounced my family, and The Society as a whole, I kept with Lodestar’s crew until my wife’s siblings left to try their luck down near Appleoosa. At that point it was just Honeysuckle, her father, and a very young Sweet Potato.” He nods towards his son and gets a sheepish smile in return before saying, “And when that happened, my priorities shifted from simply trying to make caps to bring home, to needing to actually help to take care of the farm itself. I knew they wouldn’t be able to do it all on their own.”

“Yeah, and he right impressed my daddy when he did too,” Honeysuckle chimes in. “He’d always be backbitin’ Exuberance. Talkin’ how Exuberance was nothin’ but a lazy fancy pants, like the rest of them Society types, and he’d take off at the firs’ sign of trouble or things started getting tough.” She grins and sways side to side as she partially closes her eyes and looks at Exuberance. “But that all stopped when my fancy pants came home, and traded in his travelin’ coat fer a plow harness.”

Exuberance chuckles as he looks over at Handy. “Yeah… He even passed on the family revolver to me.” He walks over to a cabinet, and pulls out a bundle of cloth. He unwraps it and holds it up for display as it’s carefully balanced on a forehoof. “It’s not even functional, I’m sure. But… It was a symbolic act, and I understood it even then. He was officially letting me know, in his own way, that he trusted me to protect his daughter and our home.” He brings it back and holds it to his chest as he smiles. “This hunk of rust is more valuable to me than anything my old family ever gave to me. Without exception.”

Swift, Handy, and Dandy look at it as he holds it aloft upon its cloth wrapping like a prized family heirloom. Because, it is. Though, just by looking at it any scavenger wouldn’t even bother wasting their carrying capacity with the thing. It’s so old and rusted that his suspicions of it not working don’t require a second, professional, opinion. The wood on the mouthgrip has become so split and worn, that it’s fragmented and fallen away, exposing most of the rusted metal frame underneath. Handy, while being far from the most knowledgeable pony when it comes to firearms, is still positive that the entire thing has probably seized up from rust. And, at this point, the only thing that could really be done with it is melt it down and use it for scrap metal. There would be no fixing it.

Not unless one would count replacing each and every component on it to the point that you now have an entirely new gun with no original pieces remaining.

Handy looks up from the family treasure to Exuberance and asks, “Okay, you’ve mentioned ‘The Society’ a couple times and-” He stops as he looks around at the various stares he gets. “Sorry, not from around here… so, I guess that’s a dumb question to most ponies?”

Exuberance lets out a sigh before he says, “The Society is an elitist group that set up a farm at a resort called the Elysium Country Club where they force other’s to do all of the actual work while they laze about.”

Swift’s focus jumps to him from Dandy, all mirth of her prank and its effects gone, as she asks, “You’re family’s a bunch of slavers?!”

“Hey!” comes a unified cry from all of the present members of Exuberance’s family. Except Exuberance himself.

Swift’s eyes jump around a bit from face to face before she smiles sheepishly and waves a hoof dismissively. “I don’t mean you, I mean his parents.”

Exuberance lets out a long sigh as he looks over at the other members of his family. “She speaks the truth though, I won’t diminish my own integrity by trying to deny my heritage. Nor am I blind to the fact that I had personally benefited from it…” This mollifies his family, but causes the youngest to sullenly look away. Exuberance looks over at Swift and says, “As for if they are slavers… that, would entirely depend on who you are asking…” He quickly stows the rusted revolver back where it was kept before he raises his right hoof and says, “If you ask them, they’ll tell you ‘no’. That they are simply providing food, housing, and security in exchange for work. That the ponies that work for them would die without them. That it’s mutually beneficial and amicable for all parties. That they are doing a good thing by taking care of the unwashed masses. That the ponies want to be there. That the ones that toil in the fields are lucky to be there…” He looks around at his own family as they stare back at him. After a moment he directs his attention to Swift and pointedly narrows his eyes as he sneers. “But, should you actually ask those ponies toiling in the fields, with a bomb around their neck? They would most certainly say ‘yes’.” He grabs his cup and swirls the water as he gazes into it. “As would any other sensible pony that didn’t have an invested interest to say otherwise…”

Noticing the extreme discomfort of Exuberance, and the sour change in atmosphere, Swift decides to interject to change the topic and simultaneously get back on track for their real goal of the conversation. “So where’s Lodestar come in with all of this, if you don’t work with him anymore?”

Exuberance blinks a few times before looking at her. He regards her for a few moments, then a smile crosses his muzzle as he seems to catch on to what she is kindly offering him. “We’d become pretty good friends while on the road. And stayed as such when I left. None of them begrudged me for leaving to take care of family obligations.” He rubs a hoof through the back of his mane as he looks at the table and lets out a sigh. “He knew the situation pretty well, he’d been acquaintances with the Roots before I’d met any of them. So he would adjust his route every now and then to see if there was any trading he could help us facilitate.” He pulls out his kerchief and wipes his muzzle again before he looks at Swift. “He generally lets me know when he plans on coming back by. In fact, his most recent trip here he scheduled with us has been one we’ve been counting down the days until he got here. And when he didn’t show up… Well things started looking pretty bleak if I’m being entirely honest about it.”

“How so?” Handy asks as he looks over at him while he continues to try and wipe his own spittle off of himself.

“Had more than a bit too much rain. It made a few of the crops just up and rot in the mud,” Sweets says with a sigh as he looks over at Handy.

“An’ a few others root rotted, fer the same reason ah reckon,” Cass adds as he hides his face under his straw hat.

Honeysuckle lets out a pained sigh as she pauses cooking long enough to look over the food she’s working on. She nods and resumes as she says, “It sure did start some rough times…”

Exuberance nods as he looks from one member of his family that speaks to the next before looking back at Swift. “We were actually counting on Lodestar to get here so we could swap some of our extra scrap and salvage for something to help get us by until more of the crops are ready.” He waves a hoof dismissively as he says, “We’d gotten to the point that any idea of trading surplus food was abandoned. We’d needed whatever we had for ourselves, and then some. So we were debating on what to do as we’d already started rationing what we did have.”

“But then those nice pegasus folks done zoomed in and saved the day!” Cinnamon Roll squeals as he bounces about excitedly, every now and then pointing a hoof over towards Swift.

Exuberance nods as he says, “That they did, son, that they did.”

Dandy looks over at him as she raises an eyebrow. “The Enclave? Why’d they stop here?”

Exuberance gives a sheepish smile as he says, “Well… the gentlestallion I’d talked to was looking for a port in the storm, so to speak…” He looks around between Swift, Handy, and Dandy, and, noticing the lack of understanding continues, “The Enclave is looking for a place where they can partner with somepony to help grow more crops and a point of access to transfer supplies.” He waves a hoof around as he says, “We still need to hammer out the details, but he said our place was perfect for what he had in mind. It’s remote enough that they don’t have to worry much about anyone sneaking up on it as they can keep an eye on it easily from the air. Furthermore, there’s possibility of setting up another salvage hub here, like they have at the Skyport, for the same reasons. The pegasi are in need of raw materials, and we were told if we cooperated with them, they’d be willing to have a dedicated team to help manage our local weather in exchange for a portion of the crops we produce.” He points a hoof over towards the shelves crammed with food as he says, “They were so eager to please they even brought all of this food to try and win us over.” He grows a warm smile across his muzzle as he says, “Finally some luck is starting to shine on us. And I was going to talk with Lodestar to negotiate exclusive rights for him and the Happy Trails Trading Company to set up a salvage trade booth here. They have helped us out so much over the years to keep us going that it only seems fitting to help bring them in at the ground level for something that’s going to be so lucrative.” He chuckles and waves a hoof. “Assuming everything goes according to plan, that is.”

“When was the last time you’d seen Lodestar?” Swift asks as she looks around at the family.

“Two weeks ago, yesterday. And, to answer your next question, he had planned to stop by here on his way to Megamart the day before yesterday. Yesterday morning at the worst of it.”

Handy raises an eyebrow as he asks, “That means he’s really only been missing like a day tops…” He looks over at Swift as he asks, “Isn’t that a bit soon to be sending out search parties?”

“Like ah done said… Uncle Lodestar always been a very punctual pony… Even when ah was a youngin’ and Pa was out with him on the trail, he’d be able to tell me when they’d be back, and, regardless of the distance, he was right. Ah think the furthest off he’d been is fifteen minutes… and that was fifteen minutes early,” Sweets says as he looks over at Handy.

“The longer you wait, the less likely you’re looking for a pony and more trying to recover remains,” Dandy adds with a sigh as she looks at her cup. She looks over at Handy and frowns as she says, “With the slave trade, if they’re caught, or they get ambushed, you wait too long and there’s no point to even bothering after so long. Especially around the Hoof.”

Exuberance nods as he looks over at Handy and juts his chin towards Sweets. “My eldest is correct. Lodestar has an uncanny ability to judge how long it will take to get somewhere and the best way to do it. Finding shortcuts, safe traversable paths, even through areas he’s never been in before. Finding a way to get where he needs to get to, when he needs to get there, is kind of his own special talent.”

As Honeysuckle is ushering her children to the table, and starts dishing out servings from what she’d cooked, Dandy stares at her hooves as she says, “I guess our next stop is Stockyard then. See if they’ve seen him, and if not go from there.”

“Stockyard?” Exuberance asks. After catching eye contact with Dandy he asks, “He was going straight from Stockyard to here?”

Exuberance’s family, receiving approval from Honeysuckle, go ahead and start eating as they sit and watch the conversation taking place but are otherwise quiet. Even going so far as to try and eat as quietly as they can so they don’t miss anything that’s being said.

Dandy nods as she says, “Yeah, that’s what Happy Trails said, why?”

Exuberance looks over at Swift and points at her foreleg. “In that case, I know the route he normally takes. If you would be so kind as to allow me to show you on your PipBuck, you’ll see what I mean.” He looks over at Dandy as he grins. “Whenever he comes here from Stockyard, he doesn’t take a straight path. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but that’s what he says is best. And it’s never steered us wrong before.”

Exuberance walks over and looks at the PipBuck’s screen as Swift brings up the function and offers him a look. Exuberance uses a forehoof and carefully traces the path after zooming in and adjusting the map to the correct area around them.

“You seem to know a fair bit about PipBucks,” Handy comments as he watches Exuberance operating Swift’s.

Exuberance nods without looking up. “A few members of the Society had them as adornments… then there were other stable ponies that had left their stables and gone out and about. Finders Keepers, the buck that was the genesis of The Finders, is an ex-stable pony and, as far as I’m aware, still walks around with his own PipBuck.”

Swift looks at it and starts setting up a marker on the map. Then she grabs out a piece of paper from her saddle bag, and quickly draws out the relative path he’d shown her along with whatever grid points and landmarks she can make out on the PipBuck’s map with a deftly applied mouth scrawl.

Exuberance sighs as he looks back and forth between Swift and Handy. “You are free to do as you wish, of course, but if you would care to at least listen to the advice of somepony who’s traveled with him, and on that path explicitly…” He shakes his head. “Traveling along that way overnight is not the best idea if you’re trying to find somepony. If they have holed up somewhere along the way, you’re not going to easily find him in the dark. And if you simply run around yelling for them you are going to attract a lot of unwanted attention once you get closer to Stockyard.” He waves a hoof as he quickly rattles off, “Raiders, bandits, slavers, ghouls, hostile wild life, you name it. If any of that hears you coming, you’ll likely stumble into an ambush in the middle of the night. There are a lot of unsavory sorts through there.”

Dandy nods as she says with a groan, “Yeah, he’s not kidding… me and Gearing just did a contract to take out a building full of raiders out near Stockyard this morning. There were so many of them it was ridiculous… I’ve seen entire settlements with fewer ponies staying there…”

Exuberance tilts his head as he looks at her, and then he smirks as he points a hoof towards the basin where she currently has her hooves soaking in the medicated bath. “Are you referring to that Gearing?”

Dandy’s eyes go wide open as the flush instantly returns from the tip of her ears to down her neck as Swift childishly snickers off to the side.

“I’ll assume that is a ‘yes’,” Exuberance adds with a grin. He looks around at the others and says with a sigh, “It’s too bad he’s not here then. If you two were that capable at fighting, I’m sure he’d be invaluable in helping make the trip safer for everypony overall.”

“He’s on his way, he just had to get some more equipment sorted before he catches up with us,” Dandy says softly as she casts her gaze down and tries to will the flustering feeling away.

“Hey, he’s not the only good fighter… Me and Handy have taken out plenty of drugged out gangers, raiders, and other road trash that thinks it’s a good idea to attack my family,” Swift comments as she waves her powerhoof laden foreleg.

Dandy slowly takes another sip of the tea she’s been nursing before she says, “Yeah, and I’m not exactly helpless either. Even alone… Besides I’m pretty sure having one Reaper in the group is enough to handle pretty much anything we come across… Having two would just be overkill…” She looks up at Exuberance as she adds, “So not all that worried about it. But, you’re right, discretion is the better part of valor.”

Cass coughs and sputters on his vegetable stew, causing Honeysuckle to reach over and start hitting him on the back as he keeps coughing because a stray bit went down the wrong tube. The rest stare at them open mouthed and shocked into silence before Cass blurts out in a raspy half-choked voice, “Ya’lls Reapers?!”

Swift gives the young buck a smug grin before trailing her focus, and grin, at Exuberance. “Well, that’s what Big Daddy said, anyway… yeah.”

The others look over at Handy and he quickly waves it off and doesn’t even look at them as he says, “Don’t look at me. I didn’t take part in that cage fight nonsense.”

“So…” Honeysuckle says softly before looking over at Dandy.

Dandy gives her a sheepish smile back as she says, “Yeah… That Gearing.” Before she lifts a hoof out of the basin long enough to point down at it a couple times before returning to soak it. “Which is why I’m not worried about him catching up with us; he can definitely take care of himself.” Her eyes go a bit wider as she nods and thinks back to the gang fight the day before. “I’ve seen what he can do… The aftermath of it anyway…”

Cass leans over the table and grins as he asks, “Oh? Like what?”

Dandy looks over at him and asks with a raised eyebrow, “You ponies ever heard of a psychopath named Cookie?”

“Uh… let’s not talk about that… please,” Honeysuckle says with a frown as she looks at Dandy.

Dandy looks at her, then around at the wide eyed look of Parsnip and the other younger members of the family. Dandy waves it away nonchalantly with a forehoof before she says, “Oh, I won’t get into any details-”

“Miss Dandy,” Honeysuckle starts.

“He’s dead,” Dandy says quickly as she looks at Honeysuckle.

Honeysuckle’s eyes go wide before she looks around at the others. “What? Who?”

“Cookie… Hell, his whole gang… We took them out yesterday afternoon… Gearing killed Cookie himself, gave him a taste of his own medicine and made him eat his own flamer.”

Swift rolls her eyes as she sighs. “That’s probably why he hung back. Got the bounty payout and decided to upgrade his toys since he was already at Megamart…”

Dandy grins at her as she nods. “Considering the payout for that whole ordeal, yeah… It was substantial.”

Exuberance looks between them quickly as he raises a forehoof to get their attention. “Excuse me… but… Am I understanding this correctly?” They all turn to look at him and he asks softly, “Did Happy Trails really send two Reapers to track down and find Lodestar?” He looks between them again before he sits down right where he was standing. “Just what kind of trouble do they think he’s gotten himself into?!”

Dandy looks over at him and smirks, “Actually… I doubt Happy Trails realizes what she asked, and who she asked…” To the quizzical look she gets from Exuberance, she turns her head pointedly at Handy and awaits the response. To which Exuberance quickly starts looking back and forth as he’s waiting for someone, anyone, to fill him in.

Handy chuckles as he waves a hoof. “Actually… We’re just looking for some equipment, and apparently everypony has pointed us towards Lodestar as the one that’d know where to get it at.” He shrugs. “We’ve been waiting on him to get back, at Megamart, but he’s still not made it there. So Happy Trails wanted someone to go find him, and we figured…” He shrugs and smirks. “Why not? I mean, it’s not like we’re doing anything anyway, at least this way we can be proactive.”

“I reaaaalllyyy need some exercise too,” Swift says with a groan as she starts stretching out in various directions.

Dandy nods as she looks back over towards Exuberance. “But Happy Trails put in an official request with my company, so that’s why I’m here.”

Exuberance slowly shakes his head as he starts to smirk. “He’s got two Reapers coming to help him…” He shakes his head and grins. “Celestia help anypony unfortunate enough to stand opposed to you. I do not foresee that ending well for them.”

Swift grins as she slowly taps her powerhoof on the floor. “If everything up till now is any indicator… Celestia takes a break whenever we trot through and somepony’s dumb enough to make me get serious.”

Handy lets out a sigh as he says, “You know you shouldn’t be all proud and bragging about all of that, right? That’s not normal…”

Swift looks over at him and tilts her head as she gives him a crooked smirk. “You’re just jealous because my Wild Ones number was higher.” She gives a pointed swish and snap of her tail as she keeps her focus on him.

Handy narrows his eyes, and then smirks as he looks away. “You just got lucky that time, that’s all… Not my fault I picked the path that the Freight Cars already mostly cleared out…”

Swift starts rotating her shoulders and flexing her foreleg muscles as she asks, “Oh yeah?” She hops over and looks him face to face as she’s almost touching her forehead to his as she asks, “Want another round then? How about if anything’s happened to Lodestar we track down whoever did it and see who can crack the most skulls?”

“You’re on!” Handy says with a grin as he leans in, and pushes his forehead against hers.

“I’m gonna wipe the floor with ya!” Swift says with a wider grin as she pushes against his head more, causing the fur on their foreheads to mash into each other.

“In your dreams!” Handy retorts.

“You wanna go?! We’ll go!”

“Right now!?”

Exuberance smiles crookedly as he says, “Umm… please… if you two are going to fight… I… Respectfully… Very respectfully, request that you please step outside to do so and that you try to minimize the property damage.”

Parsnip props her head up with a forehoof that she has resting on the dining room table as she says with a smirk, “Awww why don’t you jus’ kiss’er already?”

Dandy looks over at Exuberance as she smirks, “Yeeaaaah, I don’t think you’re thinking of the same kind of pounding that they are…” Exuberance’s head zips over to look at her, earning a string of giggles from the peanut gallery around the dining room table, before Dandy looks over at Swift and Handy and says, “Hey… if you two are going to be doing any of that… There’s children present, have some dignity, go use the barn!”

Exuberance and Honeysuckle both slap a hoof over their face, but Honeysuckle quickly starts quietly giggling before she starts dishing out baked apples that have been stuffed with some kind of grain mixture for dessert to her children.

Handy looks over at them absolutely appalled, with his mouth hanging open. And the flush on his cheeks only spreads further as Swift says with a grin, “Sounds like as good of an idea as any.” Then she leans in and gives him a long tender kiss, right on his rapidly brightening cheek. Which just draws another round of giggles from all of the table’s current population. Dandy included.

As the children help to clear the table and clean the used dishes, Honeysuckle asks, “How’s yer hooves feelin’ now?”

Dandy looks down at them and lifts them as she smiles sheepishly. “They feel… weird… but in a good way…” She looks over at Honeysuckle and tilts her head as she says, “It’s going to sound weird, I know, but my hooves have that cooling tingling sensation like you get when you chew on some kind of mint.”

Honeysuckle grins as she nods. “That means it’s workin’. It’s probably been long ‘nuff fer it ta last a while, but, if’n ya want, ya can just sit right there as long as ya like.” She looks Dandy over before she looks her in the eye and smiles. “How’s the tummy treatin’ ya now? Feel like eatin’ yet?”

Dandy flushes a bit as she looks at the uneaten prepared food and the piles of fresh food on the shelves around them. She slowly shakes her head as she says, “No, no thank you.”

Exuberance looks at her, and then over at Handy and Swift as he says, “Well, have you given my offer some more consideration? Will you stay and accept our hospitality, such as it is?”

Handy nods as he looks over at Swift, “I’m up for staying if you are. We can just head out before sunrise and it shouldn’t hold us back much at all since the dark itself will slow the search even if we left right now. What do you think?”

Swift nods as she looks between him and Dandy. “Sounds like a good idea, actually. We’ll cover ground faster in the daylight.”

Exuberance grins. “Great!” He looks over at the table, and then back at them again before asking, yet again, “You sure you don’t want to try some of my lovely wife’s cooking? I tell you it’s positively to die for. It’s amazing what she can do.” Swift and Handy both, simultaneously, shake her heads and wave it off with a respective hoof. Exuberance nods as he heads over towards the table. “Then, if you don’t mind, I think I will partake. And if you are up for it, we can talk more and swap stories before turning in for the evening.”

As Swift and Handy move over to stand near Dandy, Cinnamon Roll leans over and whispers in his mother’s ear as he gives her a sheepish grin.

Honeysuckle grins, grabs him with a forehoof, and pulls him into another hug as she abrasively nuzzles his cheek with her own. “Of course mah lil Cini Mini.” She gets up and fetches a few of the dishes she used earlier as Cinnamon Roll excitedly runs over to the larder and starts relaying apples onto the dining table. Honeysuckle looks over at Dandy and asks, “Dandy, since yer so good at it ‘n’ all, would ya mind hollowin’ out some more apples? Ah’m gonna make ‘nother batch of stuffed apples.”

Dandy’s horn glows and she quickly gets to work with the paring knife as she replies, “Sure thing!”

Over the next couple of hours they spend their time enjoying each other’s company as they swap stories and, those that care to, eating more along the way. With the Roots family mainly sharing anecdotes of silly things the children had done growing up, and small tidbits of knowledge that they did know about the hoof. Swift, Handy, and Dandy, for their part, all share various bits of news and experiences they’ve had from their own travels, and more details from outside of the Hoof. The Roots family sit politely and attentively, as they are enthralled by all of the bits of news. Their practical isolation becomes apparent as they are painfully interested in even the smallest of details that can be spared. Dandy ends up being the focus of quite a few questions as her career as a bounty hunter and hired hoof drew many flights of fancy from the younger Roots family members’ imaginations.

Eventually Sweets is the first to excuse himself to go to bed as he nods for the rest to follow and says, “Need to get an early start, and unless ya’ll wanna be dragging hooves all day, best get ta gettin’ some sleep now.”

His siblings start following him upstairs and Cinnamon Roll says quietly to Cass with a happy groan, “It’s so nice goin’ ta bed full… it kinda hurts, but a good kinda hurt.”

“Yeah,” Cass agrees, then replies quietly, “Better than tryn’ ta sleep with the growls…”

As they watch, Cass, Cinnamon Roll, Sweets, and Parsnip, all disappear into the first door of the upstairs, that overlooks the dining room area, and close it behind themselves.

Dandy’s eyes trail from side to side looking at the upper level as she listens carefully. But, from the hooffalls, she can tell they’re all sharing the same bedroom accommodations as none of them split off to some other unseen area behind the door. She can’t help but wonder if they have their own bed, or bunk beds. Or if they even have a bed to sleep in given how little they seem to have here.

A slight sniffle draws her attention, where she looks over and sees Honeysuckle with her head low, trying to hide her face with a hoof as she very slowly adjusts plates with her other forehoof and intentionally prolongs the time it takes her to stack the remaining dishes.

Dandy leans towards her and asks quietly, “What’s wrong? You okay, Honeysuckle?”

Honeysuckle pauses, and swallows hard before saying, “Ah’m alright.”

Exuberance walks around the table and sits next to her, putting his foreleg around her and holding her to him before he says, “As I’d mentioned… We’ve been facing some rather difficult times lately.”

“Ah don’t like the idea of mah babies goin’ to bed hungry, not one bit… Sure we got more’n plenty now, but ah feel like such a failure as a mother… Like ah shoulda just kicked off my foolish pride ‘n’ let the wasteland have the farm, and go elsewhere… What’s the point of keepin’ mah family’s farm, if’n it costs me mah children?” Honeysuckle says with a choke as she buries her face in the side of Exuberance’s neck.

Exuberance rocks her and rubs her shoulder as he says, “Now now, it won’t come to that… We just have to tighten our belts during the lean times.” He looks over at Handy and says, “That dead forest nearby has quite a bit of salvage in it still. Mostly skywagons that dropped right out of the air and crashed there.” He shrugs. “The kids like playing out there anyway, so we make a game of finding things and bringing it back when we’re not otherwise busy with the farm.” He nods out towards the barn. “We store any salvage or scrap metal in the barn and trade it to Lodestar if he’s coming through... and if he’s not going to be coming through anytime soon, but we really need to trade, a couple of us hoof it over to Stockyard or Megamart. It’s not a lot but it helps to supplement our needs.” He lets out a sigh as he rests his chin on the top of Honeysuckle’s head as he says, “We just got hit with a string of bad luck all at once, including what’s happened to Lodestar.” He gives a faint smile, “I suppose the lesson to take away from this is the folly of taking ponies and conveniences for granted…”

Honeysuckle snickers, but it’s a near sobbing sad laugh before she says, “Thank Celestia fer the pegasi… Nevah thought ah’d say somethin’ like that. But they’d really been an answered prayer.”

“Yeah… but still…” Exuberance says as he looks over at the shelves of food.

Honeysuckle pulls back and looks up at him. “What?”

Exuberance looks at her, then over at Swift. “I’m grateful for the timing and all, make no mistake, but I know Elysium produce when I see it.” He shakes his head. “There’s no way they got that kind of fresh produce from other farms around here… And I know what produce from cloud seed farms look like too.” He shakes his head. “No. They bought that from the Society, and brought it out here to us.” He closes his eyes and sighs. “I’m not naive, I can see how desperate they must be for this trade to go through, with their efforts to impress and bribe us, but I just don’t like the thought of benefiting from slave labor… again.”

Honeysuckle looks over at the food, and then at him as she gives it careful consideration. After a few moments, she gently caresses his cheek with a forehoof as she directs him to look her in the eye. “Darlin’, ah know how it feels to have to swallow yer pride… But… this is a big opportunity… Not jus’ fer now… but fer later too.” She smiles at him as she says, “Remember how ya useta rant and rave like a mad hare ‘bout yer folks while beatin’ the tar outta the soil? About how if’n ya could you’d prove that good farms didn’t need slave labor? Well… With the pegasi fixin’ the weather to keep things right, we can do exactly that.” She taps him on his chest and grins. “Then ya can take yer success, and shove one giant ‘Ah told ya so!’ note right up their tailpipe!” She tilts her head and smiles. “Who knows… we do well enough, we might even put them and their horrid slavin’ ways outta business!”

Exuberance chuckles as he says, “Delusions of grandeur, I assure you… but… still.” He caresses her cheek in kind for a few seconds and then gives her a soft kiss. “It certainly is a pleasant thought.”

“Darn tootn’!”

“I must say, I’ve never heard anyone from the Society talk like that before,” Dandy comments as she looks over at Swift. “All of the ones I’ve run into have seemed to be holier than thou, self-important entitled jackasses…” She looks over at Exuberance and cringes a bit as she gives him a sheepish smile and replies, “Sorry.”

Exuberance laughs before shaking his head. “No offense taken. They seem that way, because they are that way…” He looks over at Handy and frowns as he says, “They never spared an opportunity to let me know how much of a disappointment I was to them. Especially when I expressed interest in, Celestia forbid, manual labor and working with the soil!” He rolls his eyes. “It’s why I left on my little adventure, to find out what the world was really like.”

“And?” Handy asks with a raised eyebrow.

“And… it sucked. And was as bad, or worse, than everything I’d been told thus far… but there were many other things that were better,” Exuberance replies.

“So they kicked you out?” Swift asks as she looks around. “Because you decided to settle down with someone from the outside?”

Exuberance grins as he says, “Like everything involving the Society… it depends on who you ask.” He gives Honeysuckle an extra squeeze with his forehoof before he says, “If you ask them, especially my parents… they’ll tell you I was excommunicated for trying to incite rebellion or undermining them or for gross dereliction of duty… The latter point being exceedingly humorous to me because, as far as I could ever tell, they never really did anything except laze about, and plot against each other to try and gain some kind of phantasmal lead in power.

Swift grins as she asks, “So if that’s what they say… what really happened?”

Exuberance nods at her before replying, “Astute observation… Well… The excommunication aspect of it was rather a surprise to me…” He grins at her. “Considering I found out about it months after I denounced the whole group as nothing more than better-than-average spoken bandit slavers…” He frowns as he says, “I went back to visit, and update them, and let my parents know a grandfoal would be joining us soon. I wasn’t looking for any kind of support, money, or even to bring them with me to join the Society. I just wanted to keep in touch and offer an olive branch for the sake of my own children getting to know their heritage.” He lets out a disgruntled snarl as he sneers. “Instead… they demanded I come back. And abandon Honeysuckle. They were even openly plotting to send someone to either kill her or make her lose the foal while I was standing right there. Because apparently having an heir like that would be an unacceptable scandal for them.” He shakes his head. “I just lost it.”

“Well good for you for standing up to them. Overbearing worthless parents are the absolute worst!” Swift says with a snort and roll of her eyes.

“Well, maybe. But I nearly got myself killed in my anger. It was not my most shining moment, I admit.” Exuberance says as he directs his gaze towards the table.

“Nonsense! Ah think it was one of yer best!” Honeysuckle says as she nuzzles Exuberance’s neck. After seeing the confused looks from Swift and Handy she smiles widely as she says, “Mah fancy pants kicked his daddy’s keester all over the place… From what ah hear tell, his pa still walks ‘round with a limp from the ass whoopn’ Exuberance gave him.”

Exuberance’s frown turns into a crooked smile that he can’t seem to keep off his muzzle. “Quite…” He looks up at Swift and adds, “Unlike father, I had earned some hard won experience and knowledge while traveling with the caravans. Luckily since no weapons were involved, and it was a family dispute, security didn’t get involved and the others merely stood back and watched. I’m certain they found the display quite entertaining.” He lets his gaze drift over towards Dandy before he lets out a sigh.

She returns his gaze for a moment before asking, “What is it?”

“Do you have any other information? On Lodestar, I mean. If you would be so kind, would you give me your honest opinion on his chances?”

Everyone looks over at Dandy as she looks into her cup. As she gives it some careful consideration, she pours herself the last of the tea from the old teapot into her cup using her telekinesis to do everything so she doesn’t have to move.

“It’s okay to eat the leaves too. If’n ya want and feelin’ up to it anyhow,” Honeysuckle offers from her cozy potion against Exuberance.

Dandy nods with a smile, as she sees several bits of plant material do indeed come out with the last of the liquid. After taking a careful sip from her hovering cup she finally directs her attention towards Exuberance. “In a phrase… ‘Not Good’.” The answer instantly chisels a crestfallen expression across Exuberance’s features. Dandy shrugs before she says, “I’m not saying he’s definitely dead… or has been snagged by slavers, but I am certain something has happened. What that something is, I don’t have a clue. What I do know is that he made it out of the Hoofington bowl, completed everything he was doing down there, and was heading back. The last time he checked in he sent word via somepony’s radio that he was going to cross over into the Hoof… So we’re not even sure if he even made it back to Hoofington, or if something happened during his crossing… So we’re back tracking his planned route in reverse back to the mountain range… Which leaves a lot of possibilities of having some kind of accident and getting stranded. Or maybe they’ve had to hole up somewhere because they got boxed in by ghouls, raiders, whatever… There’s just no telling. But, at this point, he really needs help if he’s still alive. The whole caravan, probably.”

“Or at least a swift kick in the rear for not checking in if he’s just late,” Swift replies as she rolls her eyes.

Exuberance looks over at her and quickly shakes his head. “That’s not Lodestars style. Even if he does decide to deviate from plans, because things change or something comes up, he’d always send some kind of update along. And even that is very rare; he hates to break his schedule once he’s set it with someone. It’s his own personal pet peeve, and he promised he’d be here. So I’m inclined to think something’s wrong as well.”

Dandy nods and looks over at Swift, “And so is Happy Trails… That’s why she’s sending out a search party. She wouldn’t waste the caps on some fool errand. She’s concerned, and with good reason. Hell, you two saw her. How fidgety she’s been getting the last couple days, right?”

Handy nods as he looks at Swift. “She’s got a point. It got to the point that I was starting to wonder if she was another drug fiend or something.”

Exuberance nods as he slowly pulls away from Honeysuckle and stands up fully. “Well, thank you for the information. If you’ll follow me I’ll show you to the barn so you can get some sleep. I’m sure you’re going to want to get an early start.”

Handy and Swift nod as they are turning to head towards the door to follow Exuberance out. Before going out the door Exuberance grabs the lantern that Sweets had been carrying, and Parsnip had used, carrying it aloft with one forehoof as he leads the way out into the night.

“Ya feelin’ any better now?” Honeysuckle asks as she looks at Dandy.

Dandy flushes and nods sheepishly as she removes her hooves from the basin and stands up. After getting back onto her hooves, and off the cushioned stool, Dandy’s horn glows as she scoops the basin up with her magical field. “Yes. Much. Thank you. Where can I dump this for you?”

Honeysuckle grins at her and nods in approval a few times before she points towards the side of the house. “Jus’ go on ahead and dump it outside, on the ground along one of the sides of the house. Jus’ not out front, already have ‘nuff trouble with the mud tryin’ to make it inside. Ah swear sometimes it feels like it’s grown its own mind and jus’ crawls in on it’s own with how much I’m having to clear out so often.”

Dandy chuckles and follows the others through the doorway, hovering the basin in front of herself as she does.

Honeysuckle waves from the doorway. “Jus’ put it on the stoop when yer done, if’n ya would, and mah husband will bring it in.” She waves more energetically as she says, “Night ya’ll sleep well!”

The others wave back at her as she’s closing the door.

Handy looks around as he says, “You know, you don’t find this sort of civility in most areas of the wasteland.”

Exuberance smiles as he opens up one of the barn’s doors for them to enter. “Why, thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment. And, yes, it’s true. But the Roots family has stuck to their guns this whole time. I suppose it’s part of the charm that I was attracted to when I first met Honeysuckle.” He leads the way in and starts walking towards a large twisted mass in the far middle of the barn as the others follow him, and his light. By the time he is setting the lantern on the unknown rusted wreck, Dandy has completed her task and joined them in the barn, providing herself a light with the small faintly glowing orb in front of herself as she slowly takes in the barn from her position.

The barn, though two stories and as big as some houses, doesn’t have as much internal structure as other barns that Dandy had seen. The first floor is almost entirely open, except for a few thick vertical wood beams at regular intervals, along the sides of the path from one set of double doors to the other, that are currently being used to hold the second floor loft. Although it’s noticeable, even to Dandy and in this light, that the barn originally had segmented bays or enclosed areas. The tell tale signs of old hardware being removed is clear to see. But, in doing so, it has opened up the floor plan considerably and it seems most of the barn has been converted over to a workshop of some kind. Next to the rusted thing near Exuberance is a pile of boxes, both metal and wood, and a workbench of sorts made out of what appear to be crates, or pieces of pallet. Across the bench’s surface is a collection of tools, but none of them look exceptionally valuable as they are all pretty old and beat up. But, to their credit, and the credit of Exuberance and the rest of the Roots family, they seem to have been taken care of to the best of the family’s ability. As they aren’t simply rusted scrap, and appear still useable.

Exuberance taps on the rusted object that he’s set the lamp on as he says, “This is one of the things that the kids and I dragged back here.” He points over to the side. “Anything useable, component wise, we’ve been stripping out and setting aside. But, honestly, most of it isn’t much more than scrap metal.” He points to his muzzle as he smirks. “Which is why I appeared to have been dining on a meal with such a high iron content when you arrived.” He taps on the object a few more times as he says, “Sometimes we get lucky and find a box or two that still has useable contents inside… Even better if it happens to be some kind of food shipment… since that’s what we’d mainly be trading for anyway. Aside from the odd repair material or tool replacement if we can’t fix it ourselves that is.” He shrugs. “Skips the middle steps and all of the markups that way.”

Handy looks the twisted hunk of rust over as he asks, “Was this some kind of farm equipment at one point or something else?”

Exuberance chuckles as he shakes his head. “No. It’s just part of a sky wagon. I know, it’s hard to tell with how rusted it is and crashing to the ground from the moon probably didn’t help it any.” He shrugs. “We figured it was safer to drag it here to work on it instead of staying out in the dead woods and try to take it apart out in the open.” He taps on the rusted frame a couple times as he turns to leave. “I’ll take my leave now.” He points up with a hoof as he looks at Handy. “There’s still straw up in the loft. Don’t worry about any pests like mites. If there were any, the kids would have let us know by now by complaining about getting all itchy.” He walks over to the door and starts closing it behind him, but pauses just long enough to stick his head back in and adding somberly, “Thank you for helping to find Lodestar… We get up rather early around here, but if you decide to leave early, we won’t take it personally if you do so without letting us know. All I ask is you do what you can to help Lodestar.”

Dandy grins at him as she says, “Hey, no problem. It’s what I’m getting paid for anyway.”

“It’s the only reason I’m out this way,” Swift adds.

“I need something from him, so, yeah, that’s the plan,” Handy comments.

Exuberance smiles at them, gives a respectful dip of his head, and then closes the door and heads back inside the house.

“So, early start tomorrow?” Handy asks as he looks over at Swift.

Swift looks at her PipBuck, pulling up the map and judging the relative distance before nodding. “I’ll set an alarm. We’ll make sure to be away from here before the sun comes up, so no one sees the direction we’re coming from and trails us back to the farm. These Roots seem like good ponies, and I don’t want any of the trouble we’re going to be diving into to slink back this way if we can avoid it.”

Dandy walks over behind the fragment of the rusted sky wagon, with her magical orb of light floating not far in front of herself. She continues looking around then calls out as she finds a set of stairs in the back corner. “Found the way up.”

Swift grabs the lantern Exuberance left for them in a forehoof, then starts hovering. She carefully flies over the rusted piece and under the floor joists for the 2^nd floor as she joins Dandy, with Handy following close behind after walking around the rusty obstruction in the middle of the barn. Swift zips past Dandy and starts flying around in the loft area as she looks it over while the others climb up the old wooden stairs.

Despite what one would think, the barn has held up very well over the centuries. In fact, there are only a couple spots that show signs of a leak of any sort and any time. But even those have been properly patched and sealed up. A fact that helps contribute to the dry nature of the inside of the barn. Although, however full the loft area might have been in the past, it’s practically barren now. It’s similar to the inside of the farmhouse in that regard. There are only a few crates stacked up and a couple scattered boxes to be seen. Some of which have been stacked in a purposeful line and give the impression of a wall next to a pile of straw like material. In a couple areas of the loft’s floor there’s still scattered straw here and there. Loose bits that have been pulled or dragged away from the two mounds of straw that are currently up here. But, beyond that, the majority of the loft area is wide open and empty.

As Dandy is looking around, Swift hovers over and asks with a scandalous tone, “So… feeling a bit nauseous, huh?”

Dandy’s eyes go wide as she looks up at Swift and her jaw drops. “T-that… I was just… I only said that cuz I didn’t want to eat their food!”

“Mmhmm.” Swift smirks as she flies around Dandy in a circle. “Sure you did… I saw the way you practically turned green when you looked at those stuffed apples, and they looked delicious to me…”

“It’s not my fault! I just said it so they wouldn’t feel bad, you see how bad they have it out here. They need all the food they can get, so I lied,” Dandy blurts out. Then she starts looking sheepish as she says, “But then I really did start feeling nauseous…”

Swift shrugs mid air as she says, “Welcome to getting prego kiddo.”

Dandy’s eyes go wide as she waves a hoof at her. “N- No! That can’t be! I can’t be pregnant! It’s… It’s too soon to tell anyway, right? Right?!”

Handy looks around as he smirks, “Um… from what I understand… there’s some that have known the same day… so… there’s no such thing as ‘too soon’.”

Dandy’s jaw drops even further as her hoof pointed at Swift slowly sags, “B-but… But… It just can’t be… I mean… He said he’s sterile! He- he said he can’t get me pregnant! That’s not possible!” She shakes her head quickly, “I don’t see how it’d even be possible that Gearing got me pregnant!”

“You and Gearing?!” Handy slaps a hoof over his eyes as he says, “Oh boy…”

The startled reply simply reinforces to Swift how little Handy was actually paying to the conversations inside of the farmhouse.

Swift hovers over in front of Dandy, forehooves folded over her chest, as she grins and tilts her head. “Oh reee-aaaallly? Some buck tells you he can’t get you pregnant, and you actually believed him?!” She starts laughing as she’s hovering around Dandy in a circle. “You buy everything a buck sells you when getting you in the sack is on the table?” She stops and grins at her as she says, “You can’t possibly be that naive!” She starts laughing again as she says in sarcastic tones, “‘Oh, don’t worry, I can’t get you pregnant because I’m sterile’ is like the oldest trick in the book! That’s right up there with ‘Can’t get pregnant because it’s our first time’!”

Dandy stands there shaking as her eyes steadily grow bigger and her pupils shrink to pinpricks as she thinks the entire scenario over.

As Swift is relishing in Dandy’s brain practically melting out of her ears, she checks a message sent to her by Handy.

[What in the actual FUCK?! Her and GEARING? How’d he get her pregnant? That can’t be possible! You can’t get knocked up by something like that, can you?]

Swift lets out a snort and quickly replies.

[No. No way he did. Not possible. But don’t ruin my fun… I’m gonna teach her a lesson she won’t forget about who she decides to go around shacking up with… Lets see how long I can keep her going!]

Handy lets out a groan and looks at Swift as he narrows his eyes and sends his reply back.

[You realize Sable is going to kill her when she finds out.]

[You know, I’m actually curious about that. Gearing seemed entirely serious when he’d said he wasn’t unfaithful to her. And didn’t seem concerned at all about Sable knowing about it when I talked to him. I know she’s the jealous type, but maybe they have some kind of agreement we don’t know about?]

[So… what do we do about it?]

[It’s their relationship, let them sort it out… I’ll tease her to the end of Equus about it, but not around Sable. I don’t want to be the first one to bring it up, not my place. Besides, she’s a businessmare, they might never meet if she’s too busy chasing after the next contract.]

[You mean when she’s not chasing after the next tail that gets in front of her?]

[Hey, that’s pretty good, I’ll have to use that!]

Swift hovers around Dandy a few more times before she says with a giggle, “Equus to Daaaaandyyy, you okay down there?” She grins as she asks, “Or you too busy plotting your next romp? I mean, you can’t get pregnant again if you’re already pregnant, so it should be fine to give in to your tail chasing ways.”

Dandy’s light orb explodes in a shower of sparks as her magic finally gives out at the sudden jolt.

They stare at her in silence, and partial darkness, as Swift hovers around in a circle holding the solitary form of light.

“Uh… Dandy… you okay?” Swift asks with a sheepish smile.

“You know what, fuck it…” Dandy finally replies. “Fine... If I am, I am, and out of everypony else, that time was the one time that was good enough that I’ll say it was actually worth it… I just …” She turns and starts walking slowly towards the second largest pile of straw in the dark. “I gotta make sure and…” She lets out a groan as she hangs her head, “Figure out what to do…” She walks over to the pile of straw, faintly illuminating it by enveloping bits of it with the overglow of her levitation magic and using that as a beacon as she comes in for a ragdoll of a landing. She throws herself onto the mound, limbs outstretched in a Nightmare Moon may care fashion, and flops onto it with a soft wumph. She grabs some of the straw with her forefooves blindly and pulls it to her head, partially burying her face in it as she lets out a series of groans and grunts. After a few moments she finally goes limp in the musky smelling pile of straw and lets out a sigh. A split second later she growls into the straw without pulling her face up to make her voice clearer, “But if I am, I’m going to shoot the shit out of Gearing next time I see him!” She flails around in the straw a bit, throwing pieces in various directions as she has a near foal-like tantrum and screeches, “Right in that goddess damned golden bubble butt of his!” She rolls over onto her back and starts infantilely flailing all of her legs around as she yells, “Oh, Sweet Celestia, I’m not ready to be a mother yet. I’ll be a horrible mom! I just know it!”

She rolls over onto her side and curls up into a practical ball as she groans, “I can’t believe he knocked me up… that asshole…”

Handy and Swift share a smirking look before they walk over and climb onto the largest pile of straw available. After Swift turns off the light, the two cuddle with each other as they cozy into the surprisingly comfortable straw pile. After laying there for a few moments, Swift nudges Handy a couple times to get his attention. When he lifts his head to look at her she tilts her own head and calls out, “Night mommy!”

“That’s just mean,” Handy says quietly after a quick snort of amusement.

As soon as Swift has uttered the phrase, Dandy starts groaning, grumbling, and screeching. And Swift and Handy can hear her throwing another tantrum in the straw pile. “I hate you! I hate you all! Screw you guys!” Dandy’s voice gets muffled as she tunnels into the pile of straw until she’s completely enveloped by it. “You suck!” Her muffled voice comes from the pile of straw.

Swift and Handy can’t help but snicker and, after they’ve quieted down enough, Dandy’s grumbling voice greets them. “Hate you so much right now…”

---

Footnote: ‘credential matrix’, sync failure. Retrying. . . please stand by. . .. .

Secondary components reinitializing, please stand by. . .

Error . . .

‘credential matrix’, sync failure. Retrying. . . please stand by. . .. .

Error . . .

Fragmentation errors in ‘credential matrix’ detected . . .

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