The Papercolt

Chapter 2

My wings are grateful to have finally been given a break from this long trip into the forest. After passing by the sign guiding me to my next destination, I’ve decided to just walk the rest of the way as the map shows it is just at the end of this path. Above the high branches of the trees, rises a stream of dark smoke to disperse into the sky. That can only mean that the town must be right on the other side, and that my heart will be bouncing around inside my chest. I trot, kicking up clouds of the dry dirt, anxious to view this new town. Clearing the barricade of trees, I am brought to a sight that utterly destroys every thought in my head, and replaces them with a blank space.

The stream of smoke appears to have been puffing from a crooked metal chimney poking up from a rather dingy, tall building. It seems that every little shack that composes this little village is in terrible condition, and even the bigger cottages look as though they’ve been abandoned for years. However, a closer look reveals that ponies are moving about in the windows. The dirt roads are void of life, it seems everypony is hidden in their homes. The air smells like charred wood, and something else I can’t quite distinguish; but whatever it is, my snout wishes it hadn’t taken it in. This place is so quiet that the only noise I can hear is the grinding of the dirt beneath my hooves as I take my first steps into the village. I had been so used to seeing nothing but vibrant colors and movement, that seeing the complete absence of it here is jarring.

This can’t be Shine Village, not with a name like that. I must’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere, but the map says I’ve followed it correctly. I need to reassure myself that this is the right place, so I walk onto the creaky wooden porch of the nearest cottage and stand before the door, reluctant to knock. My hooves now feel glued to the dirty doormat as I glance left and right down the empty road. For some reason I can’t shake the feeling that somepony somewhere is watching me, I just can’t see them. My hoof trembles as I lift it up to the door, and every consecutive knock sends a shiver up my spine. Painstakingly, I wait for someone to answer, and the sounds of heavy hoofsteps inside the cottage approach the door. The knob twists, and the hinges scream. The shadowed inside of the cottage is revealed, and a gray-coated stallion stands in the doorway. He glares down at me, which somehow makes it difficult for me to breathe. “Who are you?” he asks.

“I’m . . . I’m. . .” I stutter.

“You’re who? Speak up please.”

“I-I’m the papercolt.”

“The papercolt? We don’t get the paper around here, you must be lost.”

“Is . . . Is this Shine Village?”

“Well, yes but . . . why do we all of sudden get the paper now?”

“M-My boss said that I-I have to deliver here. H-Here you go sir.” I reach into my bag and grab one of the rolled up newspapers with my teeth, and hold it up to the ominous stallion. He takes it from me, and I shut my eyes out of pure fear of what might happen now.

“Well, thank you. I really appreciate it. . . Um, hello?” I open my eyes just a tad to see what’s going on, and he’s holding his hoof out to me for a hoofshake. Reluctantly, I place my hoof, which is considerably smaller than his, against his where he then shakes my hoof. Noticing how tense I am, the stallion tilts his head in confusion. “Hey, are you alright kid? You look a bit stiff. Can I offer you something to drink? Some water?”

“Oh, uh, no th-that’s okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah . . . thank you though.”

“If you say so. You have a good day, and thanks again.”

“. . . You’re welcome.” The stallion shuts the door, leaving me unsure if I should have been afraid that entire time we spoke. My tense muscles relax, allowing me to move on to the next little shack. I leave a newspaper on every doorstep I find; but as I do, I can see pairs of eyes watching me from the windows, and the dark silhouettes that belong to them. I fix my eyes forward and hang my head down low, trying desperately to pretend I don’t notice them, but I know they’re still watching. Suddenly, one of the doors that I left a newspaper near opens, and a dull, green mare steps out to collect it.

“Thank you!” she shouts, waving to me from down the road. One by one every other door opens, and the ponies pick up their papers where they proceed to thank and wave at me. I stop to turn and wave at each one of them. I can feel my heart calming, and my posture straightening back up. As I continue down the road, stepping up to every door to lay down the newspapers, somepony opens the door just before I can so that they can accept the paper personally. Something that I hadn’t expected to feel from this town, was the warm embrace like I had felt from Ponyville. The anguish from the fear that loomed over me when I first walked into this town, feels like it’s mysteriously vanished.

The next shack I approach, an elderly stallion steps out onto the porch curiously glancing up and down the road. Most of his mane has gone missing, but what remains is a dull silver; and his coat, an olive green. “What’s all the commotion?” he asks, adjusting his glasses.

“Hello sir!” I greet in a joyous tone that I seemed to lack previously.

“Who’s there. . ? Oh! Good afternoon to you, young lad! I haven’t seen you around the neighborhood before, are you visiting?”

“Um, well, no. I’m here to deliver your newspaper!”

“The newspaper eh? That’s odd, out of all my years living here not once can I recall this place ‘ever’ getting the newspaper.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, you know, this place tends to go unnoticed. These woods are like a cage that keeps us in place and hidden from the world it seems.”

“Why don’t you leave?”

He chuckles. “You make it sound so easy. I couldn’t leave even if I wanted to. I don’t have a single bit to my name, I just wouldn’t be able to afford it. Besides, I don’t think I could ever bring myself to leave this place. Everypony here is like family to me. Considering I’m just a withering old stallion, living alone in this little cabin of mine, they make me feel like that same bright, young stallion I used to be. I don’t know what I’d be without these kind ponies. You’ll have to excuse me, I must be going on one of my many ramblings again. Although I must say, I’m surprised you haven’t gotten to sleep like many of the other young fillies I ramble to!”

“Oh no, it’s okay. Actually, um . . . how long have you lived here?”

“Wooh, I’d say . . . forty-seven years I’ve lived here.”

“Wow.”

“And I’ll tell you what, when I first moved here, this was a completely different village. It was during a time when this little town truly shined brightest. However, as the years went on . . . things changed, and as I’m sure you’ve seen, they haven’t changed for the better. Ah, but there I go again. I wouldn’t want to bore you with such a long story.”

“N-No! I’d love to hear it!”

“Are you sure you have the time for it? I mean, surely you must be on some sort of schedule.” As much as I wish I could force myself to stay, there are still many newspapers remaining in my bag, and my Dad must be wondering what is taking me so long to return home.

“Oh! Yeah. . .” I sigh. “I forgot, I-I’m sorry.”

“No worries.”

“I mean, I’d like to hear your story, but I need to finish my deliveries, and—”

“Calm down lad, will you be delivering here tomorrow?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Well, we can talk about it then if you’d like. Although I must ask, just why are you so interested anyway?”

“Um, I don’t know, I just. . .”

“Young curiosity eh? I understand. Tomorrow when you stop by, I’ll be sure to tell you all about it.”

“Thank you Mister . . . um. . .”

He extends his hoof to me. “Flare, Mister Flare.”

“Nice to meet you Mister Flare!” I say excitedly as I shake his fragile hoof.

“Likewise.”

“Oh! I almost forgot your paper!” I reach back into my bag and retrieve for him one of the rolled up newspapers.

“Thank you very much, I hope to see you tomorrow.”

“Same to you! Bye Mister Flare!” I waste no time before giving him a quick wave goodbye, and rushing to last remaining cottages. After leaving many more papers on their doorsteps, I have one paper remaining. Approaching the last cottage, I hop up onto the doorstep and drop the rolled up newspaper to the doormat. Just as I trot away from the cottage, I catch a glimpse of something behind the glass window. A little filly’s head is peeking over the windowsill, staring straight at me with her half-hidden eyes. Her swirly mane is of a vanilla white color, and her coat is beige, but is coated in blotches of what looks like gray soot and dirt, much like every other pony in town. Lost in her stare, I freeze in place, unsure of what to do. I raise my hoof, and wave to her, but she just continues to watch me. I can’t quite tell, but I can see something behind those eyes. Whether or not it’s fear, nervousness, or sadness, I guess I’ll never really know. Right now, I need to focus on getting home as quickly as possible.

With the heavy weight of all the newspapers off my back, I stretch out my wings as I walk to the exit of the village. Which reminds me, I suppose I don’t have to follow the path out of here, I can just fly up and back to Cloudsdale. Readying my wings, I take one last glance back at the village. I didn’t expect to see many of the townsponies still standing outside their homes with their eyes glued to me. I don’t know why, but a part of me feels guilty for having to leave. I wave to them all, and they wave me goodbye. Back down the path, I see the little filly from the window peeking out through the doorway to her cottage. She’s waving at me with her little hoof, and so I give her one more wave farewell. In a burst of energy I take off into the air and through the mass of leaves that shield the village from the sun. Flapping my wings violently, I can’t shake this strange feeling in my stomach. Just seeing nearly everypony wave me goodbye, leads me to believe that those ponies mustn’t have had a visitor come by in who knows how long. Mr. Flare said that that village used to truly shine, I wonder what happened to turn everything upside down. After seeing how all those ponies have to live in a place like that, it really makes me think.

I make my first stop at the postal office to report to my boss that I’ve finished my delivery, and he allows me to return home after thanking me for accepting the extra route. I land before the front door to my home, and as soon as I step inside I am immediately greeted by my Dad. “There you are! What was taking you so long? I’ve been waiting here all this time for you to come back, and you still haven’t shown up!”

“My boss gave me a new place to deliver to, so it took me a little longer to get home. I’m sorry.”

“Okay, well I wish I had known that earlier. I was starting to get worried you know. Hey, I’ve got dinner pretty much ready, come and get your plate.” Excitedly, I drop my mailbag to the floor and pull off my flying goggles to put them inside the bag. I race to the dinner table, where I watch my Dad pull out a tray of hay-grass casserole from the oven. My snout is overjoyed by the sweet scent of the spiced grasses as I watch him lay the steaming tray onto the table. “Be careful, it’s very hot.” Using his big cooking spoon, he scoops me up a portion of the casserole, and lays it on my plate. After he gets his own plate of food, we take a moment to let it cool. “So, he added a new town to your route? What is it?”

“Shine Village.”

“That’s weird, I’ve never heard of that place. Where is it?”

“It’s way in the Everfree forest.”

“All the way in there?! You didn’t get lost or anything did you?”

“No, my boss gave me a map.”

“Can I see it?” I hop out of my chair and retrieve the map from my mailbag. Upon returning to the dinner table, I give him the map where he scans over it. “It’s ‘that’ far away? Wow, that’s crazy.”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“That’s far! It’s like halfway across the world this place! Weren’t you scared?”

“No, Dad, I wasn’t scared.”

“I would’ve been scared. I would’ve been crying!” I can’t help but smile and chuckle at my Dad’s sarcasm. He jokes around like this on a regular basis, and sometimes it’s even hard for me to tell when he’s supposed to be taken seriously. “So you’re a big shot now huh? He’s giving you new places to go, and you’re just getting the job done. You really weren’t scared? Not even a little?”

“No, I was fine.”

“How were the ponies there? Were they friendly?”

“Yeah, they were nice.”

“Good.” Halfway into our plates, it seems we’ve run out of things to talk about. I’ve been enjoying the soft, warm grass bite by bite. My Dad isn’t really a chef, but he sure cooks like one. When I watch him, he always talks about all the different factors he puts into his cooking. From the temperature of the flame, to the many different ingredients he puts into his food, and it really shows. He says I should learn how to cook, but to honest, I’m not too sure if I should trust myself around the oven. I’m always afraid I’ll burn or ruin something. My Dad’s let me help him occasionally in the kitchen. Whether it was to keep track of the time, or to mix and stir the certain ingredients in a pot. “Hey, did you hear about the weather?” he asks.

“Hm? What about it?”

“They said we’re going to have a big storm on the way.”

“What? Why?”

“Well, they said it’s because they’ve been putting it off for so long. The plants and rivers, they all need to be sustained. I mean, we haven’t had a storm in such a long time you know. The plants must be dying for water.” While my Dad might not be a certified chef, his real job carries much more responsibility. He works for the Weather Factory, in a separate district that keeps track of the rain, hail, or snow that falls from the clouds. They schedule when and where certain storms are needed to happen. He’s worked there for so long, he’s become some kind of ‘Region Manager’ he tells me. “Now, I don’t know if they’ll have you work that day, because I think the other pegasi said it would be held on a weekday. If they do, I just might have you call off.”

“Maybe I can do it.”

“No, I’m not letting you go out and fly in a storm.”

“Dad, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“It’ll be too dangerous. It’s going to be a heavy storm we have planned, and I don’t want you caught in the middle of it. So when I’m at work, I want you here at home where I know you’re safe.” There’s no way I can convince him I’m capable. When his word is final, he means it. I hope this storm doesn’t happen this week, I want to make sure I can be there at Shine Village for Mister Flare’s story as soon as possible. He said he’s quite the rambler, so I don’t know if that means his story will be longer than I think. It just might have to be split up into separate days considering my Dad’s tight time schedule he has me on, but maybe he’ll give me more time now that he knows I have a new route.

The night takes over the sky, and my mouth is refreshed by the mint of my toothpaste. “Goodnight, love you,” says my Dad from my bedroom doorway.

“Love you too Dad.” He gently closes the door, filling the room with silence. I settle onto the soft cushion of my bed, and drag my blanket up to my chest. The one great thing about going to bed, is the view from my window at night. The way the moon hangs and glows, as well as the millions of twinkling stars that overcrowd the sky. Usually, staring out at this hypnotizing sight leads my thoughts to just run crazily and do as they please, but this time is different. All I can think about is Shine Village and its inhabitants, especially that shy little filly.