"I'm sorry to hear about your friend," Maple murmured, hugging Starlight close. The filly so far had succeeded in keeping her eyes dry, and wanted to keep it that way... though if she was going to trust Maple, she wasn't entirely sure why.
"Uh huh."
"But... still..." Maple hesitated. "You went across a mountain range that's legendary for being impassable all because of one friend leaving?"
"No. I told you, that's just what started it," Starlight grumbled. "It was because of the cutie marks. He caught a stack of books! What's so special about that?" She punched a pillow. "It's like you can accidentally do one stupid thing and your life completely changes for it. 'Oh, you're a mage, you should go off to mage school!' It's not fair. Why should anypony get treated that differently just because of some decision they made or thing they did when they were young?"
"So you weren't worried about never getting one, then," Maple said, folding her hooves. "You were worried that you would get one, weren't you?"
"Yeah. Some bit of magic should never be that important. But apparently, not having one makes ponies treat you just as differently as whatever you get." Starlight hung her head glumly. "I wear a fake one around most of the time. It washed off in the river, though, and I haven't put it on. It looks like an equals sign."
"It sounds pretty," Maple offered. "Maybe if you ever get one, that's what it will look like."
Starlight frowned.
Maple saw it and re-hugged her. "Well, I don't think you'll have to worry about that. I don't know how things are in 'Equestria' that you can get one for shelving books, but they're very rare here."
That caused a memory from the previous evening to surface in Starlight's mind. Latching on to it and changing the subject, she asked, "What's Sosa?"
"Sosa?" Maple's brow furrowed. "You don't... oh. Right, you don't know anything about what the world looks like here, do you?" Her eyes brightened as she spoke, up from the melancholic solidarity of moments earlier. "I suppose you'd like to hear about that?"
Starlight nodded for her to go on.
"Well, then. Where's the best place to start..." Maple glanced upward, wracking her brain. "So the mountains run from east to west, forever. You can't go around them. It might sound silly, but ponies have tried. Though you'd be better asking ones who have been outside this village than me..."
"Mhmm," Starlight politely pressed.
"And along the base of the mountains," Maple continued, "runs a great river called the Yule. This town, Riverfall, is built on its southern bank, and the river continues until it reaches an ocean far to the east. The stream you floated in on is one of its tributaries, coming down from the mountains."
"The Yule? I've heard of that," Starlight said smugly. When Maple's eyebrows rose in surprise, she immediately shook her head. "Never mind!"
"Okay..." Pausing, Maple re-grabbed her train of thought. "So if you follow the mountains far enough west, they start to curve north. They're low enough there that you can climb them, but you still can't go south. If you keep going west through the mountains, you reach Yakyakistan. That's where the yaks live."
Starlight nodded. That much had been made apparent by the name.
"But before that, right where the mountains curve, is where the Yule's headwaters are," Maple said, tone growing tense and excited. "And there's a city there that supposedly is built straight into the mountains, from the snowy heights to the forest below. It's called Ironridge, and it's very big."
Starlight continued to nod.
"And Ironridge sits in a very unique place that lets it make a lot of things. Fruit, steel, mining..." Her eyes practically swam as she spoke. "And there are no roads that reach it. The only way in or out is by boat, along the Yule... and that's where this town comes in. Halfway along the river is a waterfall big enough to be impassable. Sailors and traders had to climb out and carry their boats uphill to cross it, and eventually they stopped and made a town here. And that's where we are now!" She blinked cheerfully. "Riverfall. Your new home."
"Huh." Starlight had paid attention, but had little to comment. "So what's Sosa?"
"Oh! Right." Maple's ears rose in embarrassment. "Sosa is in Ironridge. I think? It's a part of it, like a city in a city... it's where all the unicorns live. That's why we thought you were from there."
"Oh." Starlight had nothing more to say.
Maple sighed loudly. "Well, that's what I know. I've never been there. Most of the ponies in Riverfall are here because they intend to stay. I once followed the river south to the base of the mountains with some friends, to see what it would look like. But that's as far as I've ever been."
"So they just like it so much they never want to leave?" Starlight asked dubiously.
"You could say that," Maple said with a twitch of the corner of her mouth. "But more often, it's because they disliked somewhere else, and Riverfall was where they had to leave to. Ponies ambitious enough to be elsewhere in the world never settle at a backwater service town like this, and all the adventurous colts leave as soon as they're able. Of course..." Suddenly crestfallen, she finished with, "For certain types of ponies, there's so much to like you'd definitely never want to leave."
"Huh?" Starlight's ears twitched at the other pony's sudden mood swing.
"Oh, don't mind me." Maple smiled dully. "Just reminiscing about what could have been."
Starlight stuck her tongue out. "You sound like a granny."
Maple snorted heavily, breaking into choking laughter. "Me? A granny? Hah! Ha ha ha... Ohh..." She calmed enough to roll over, stretched, and laid a foreleg over Starlight, having broken away earlier. "I'm glad you're staying here. You're a funny filly, Starlight."
Starlight's eyes crossed. "It wasn't that funny..."
"Ohhh..." Maple groaned, and stretched again. "It's probably almost morning, isn't it?"
"Yeah. Probably." Starlight nodded in agreement.
"I'll go get breakfast started, then," Maple grumbled, beginning to scoot herself from the bed. "There's a mirror and a brush over there, if you think it will help, but we really need to get you a real bath. Not a sandy river dunking with no towels."
She trotted to the wall and pressed her hoof down repeatedly on a small, metal pedal on the floor. A string attached to it moved up and down like a pump, turning a previously-unseen mechanism that caused her window coverings to roll up.
Starlight looked keenly on with interest. "Where'd you get that?"
"Oh, you like these?" Maple smiled over her shoulder as she continued around the room, raising the other blinds. "There's an old inventor who came here from Sosa around a decade ago. He's constantly making us toys like these. Everypony loves him." She finished her work and trotted to the door, cracking it open. "I'll be sure to take you to meet him. I bet you'll get along wonderfully."
Maple left the room, leaving Starlight sitting behind on the bed. Gray light from the windows washed in around her, waking her eyes with monochrome and a streak of orange. Through the farthest window to the right, she could see a burning haziness just above the horizon... sunrise.
Maybe this would be a good day. Maybe she'd get to meet more ponies and find out that Riverfall really was as good as Maple and Willow made it sound. Hopefully, she wouldn't accidentally earn her cutie mark. Either way, Maple was cooking something, and it already smelled good. She took a deep breath of the blossoming aroma and decided that, good day or not, it couldn't hurt to look good... so she bent over and began licking her chest and sides, grooming the dawn away.