Chapter 2- Familial Troubles
"Why of all the... This is your sister Applejack, remember? The loyalest of friends and the most dependable of ponies?"

After waking up from Celestia knows what drug that was, I found myself blindfolded and bound by ropes. If I had to guess, I'd say that wherever I was, I was close to the sea. I could hear the waves lapping against the shoreline, smell the salt in the air, and feel the sand on my underside. I cleared my throat, hoping somepony was close enough to notice. Unfortunately for whoever decided to tie me up, I was a unicorn, and unicorns had magic.

After undoing the blindfold and the ropes around my hooves, I started looking around. To my surprise, I found myself just outside of a village on an island that looked like it had been entirely untouched by the war.I could not, however, find any of my supplies, including my PipBuck. I guessed they'd been taken in case I turned out hostile, or because they planned to kill me. In the village, I could see the dancing light from a fire. However, given the lack of screaming, I had to assume it was a campfire or bonfire. Rather than blindly trotting in, I got as low to the ground as I could and snuck my way in. I didn't want to come off as hostile, but at the same time, how was I supposed to know whether this was my mom's village or just some random one I was put into?

As I got closer to the middle of town, I could hear singing and celebrations going on. I could also faintly hear hoofsteps coming in my direction. While looking around for some sort of cover, I saw an open window to somepony's hut and jumped in.

Unfortunately, the hut was occupied. However, the mare inside didn't scream or even say anything. The mare inside just sort of looked at me for a bit.

"Uh, hi. I'm Silver, nice to meet you." I said, reaching out a hoof.

The light green mare blinked a couple of times, "Um, nice to meet you too. My name's Algae Bloom. Any reason you're sneaking through ponies' homes?" She said, apparently confused.

"I'm sorta new in town. Not sure if everypony is friendly or not. " though this encounter made me feel more at ease about that. "I'm looking for somepony named Lily, do you know where I could find her?"

"Oh her? Yeah, she's at the Medical building, it gets a little busier than usual during the Festival of the Fish" festival of what?

"Festival of what?"

"The fish! It's our primary food source, and since this is the time of year when they migrate back to the island, it only fits that we celebrate their return!" I still wasn't sure what a fish was, but I had to guess it was some kind of meat. While I'm not opposed to eating meat, I don't think I could handle it as my go-to for food.

"Right, well, is there any chance you could show me around?" I asked.

"Well, my foal is sick in bed right now. But it's super close by. Actually, if you take a left out of my front door, as opposed to the window, it'll be a straight shot. And don't worry, we're all friendly here!" And there goes my paranoia alarm again. In my experience, anypony who needs to clarify that they're friendly usually isn't. But, if mom really lived here, I couldn't see any reason they'd be unfriendly. Algae opened her door and I sauntered out.

Of course, once she closed it again, I went back to sneaking. Before realizing I had E.F.S. And that showed me whether or not anypony was outwardly hostile. Not exactly sure if it meant they were friendly, but it'd sure as shit tell me if they had murderous intent.

Being much closer now, I could more clearly hear the singing and musical accompaniment.

"Somewhere beyond the sea"

Not a bad tune honestly, but I had to focus on finding my mother. Or my brother Lead Lining, who I could see about two meters away and directly in front of me. Because of course he was, it was a little harder to tell it was him on account of the armor he was wearing now. It was all metal plates woven together like dragon scales. It looked like it was shimmering in the light of the bonfire, which was fucking massive up close. He was on the outer rim of the party. But as I approached him, he lit up more in the facial area. Seeing me alive was enough to make him happy.

"Hey bro, good to see you up and about." he said before giving me the most uncomfortable hug I'd ever gotten. "I bet you're looking for mom." Not like that was the whole reason I'd come here. Wait, could I even call it that if I was knocked out and dragged here?

"Yeah, where is she? I'm dying to meet her finally."

"She's over at the medical building, bet you didn't guess our mom's a doctor." Well, he wasn't wrong, but I didn't really guess anything about her. I was still sort of paranoid about the whole situation. He lead the way to the medical tent, which was surprisingly the most substantial structure that I could see as I followed a little ways behind. Just in case.

All around us, ponies were dancing and singing and celebrating. I had to guess that any harvest festival would be that way, given that in the old world, the most prominent holidays were based around changing seasons. And since this was the season for fish around here, and that was their number one food source, it just sort of made sense that they'd all be celebrating. The whole thing still creeped me out a little. I guess it was just the fact I'd never seen so many ponies happy before.

Back at Northpass, everything was always business first. The only celebrations I'd ever seen were limited to the bar, and that wasn't so much a celebration as just ponies getting drunk and not passing out. I guess it was more or less a personal issue that I continually struggled with. But honestly, the idea that this was a place free from the effects of the war left a good feeling with me. I couldn't accurately describe it, but I felt like things could be okay. If there was no war, that meant that there was enough to go around, and if there was enough to go around, then that meant there'd be no fighting. I mean, how fucking awesome would that be? Because without struggle, it would mean that we could reestablish legitimate government and-

Wait, was I already getting worked up about being a part of this? They hadn't even said I could. I was just assuming that I could be a part of this, albeit strange, but beautiful society. I assumed that I could insert myself in a culture I had no right to be a part of.

It was then that I realized I hadn't been paying attention to Lead at all. "Sorry, what were you saying?" I asked, now feeling like a dumbass.

"Oh, actually I hadn't said anything. Why? Were you zoning out there?" he chuckled. "It's all good little bro. I know this has gotta be overwhelming." I wouldn't exactly call it that, but it was, just... amazing. No, in truth, overwhelming worked, but in the best possible sense of the word. Then I turned to face forward, and there she was. My mother. Now a greyed mare, helping hurt, sick and elderly ponies keep on their hooves. She looked just like I had imagined the stories of Mage Meadowbrook. My heart skipped a beat, my father the slaver, my mother the healer. How in the hell did this happen?

I slowly trotted up to her, now feeling quite a bit more at ease. This was definitely my mother, now freed from any life threatening bondage. She was happy to be helping these ponies, even if it was a hard job, both physically and emotionally, she was happy to do it. She was busy though, mixing herbs and clearly hoofmade potions together and feeding them to the sick and hurting ponies here, not that there were many, just that she was doing it quickly so she could check on everypony else. From the looks of it, she was the only healer here. Or at least the only one willing to work through this festival thing.

"Ma! You've got a visitor!" my older brother yelled. She turned to look at me, her eyes meeting mine.

"Silver? Is that really you?" she had a bit of an accent that I couldn't place, but that I'd heard before from tribal slaves. I nodded my head dumbly, unable to actually say anything.

She hurried over to me and threw her hooves around my neck, not in a violent choking way, but in a hug. Granted, most ponies would probably expect their own mother to hug them, but being raised as a slaver, I couldn't say I had expected it. I threw one hoof over her in return, trying to return the gesture while maintaining my balance.

I wasn't sure I could call this home, but it was a damn good start.

Author's Note

Again a huge thank you to Kkat and Somber, who I couldn't have written this without. Sorry this chapter was so slow, but it's the second of many. I will keep trying to bring a new chapter every week. Stay tuned for next week's chapter.

Edit: I'd written this knowing I was going to be late on the upload, unfortunately, I had a seizure and had to be hospitalized. I'm okay now but for six weeks I couldn't write due to the possibility that I had epilepsy. Now knowing I don't have it, I will continue to try to make my weekly schedule as I had previously said. Apologies to all that were waiting for this and never got it until now.