//------------------------------//
// Wrong Therapist 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Shinespark's head whipped around violently at the sound of Valey's voice, her neck craned back as far as it would bend even as she remained flat on her side. Her sapphire eyes were wet and puffy, her face streaked with tears, and Starlight jostled with her movement, still unconscious. "It's you."

Valey put on a fake grin, straightening her posture as she met her gaze. "Yup. Sure is."

"Go away," Shinespark growled. "You tried to press the button on that detonator."

"Yeah. I tried," Valey admitted, sizing up the situation. "To do both of those." Her cutie mark tingled, which was neither surprising nor good. She hadn't expected Shinespark to be glad to see her after everything that had happened, and very much didn't want to get in a fight. "As for the latter, would you rather I succeeded?"

"It doesn't...!" Shinespark's breath caught in her throat, and she choked on a sob. "Sosa is gone!"

Valey stared levelly at the filly laying on her side. "You know, I might be the wrong pony to go to for sympathy on that. It stinks that you lost your home, but all of Ironridge kind of hated my guts. Kinda hard to be attached to that. But hey, can I have Starlight? We'll get out of your mane and leave you to wallow in peace..."

Shinespark snorted. "No."

"Excuse you?" Valey lifted an eyebrow.

"She's all that's left..." Shinespark shuddered. "The o-only one I was able to save! There were d-dozens of Sosans on that bridge, and I couldn't catch any, or f-find any... I searched, and all I g-got was her..."

"Mhmm." Valey licked her lips, taking a single step closer. "Well, I'm here too, and her mom and Birdo are totally chilling outside this cave to boot. And when I say chilling, I mean literally. We kinda want to find our way out of this wasteland, and it would be really swell if we could bring Starlight with us."

"Snnnkkkt...!" Shinespark sniffed, loud and wet. "N-No. No! I was supposed to save everyone! All of Sosa! All my friends, and I failed, a-and all I got was one little filly who isn't even from Sosa! M-My... My dad said when he left that if everything we were trying to do saved even one pony, it would be worth it, a-and... here I am, with just one pony. He was w-wrong. It doesn't feel worth it at all..."

Valey shrugged. "Does that mean you don't want her? 'Cuz I can help with that..."

"No!" Shinespark screeched, voice lost to the winds outside. "I-I said... I told everyone that she might have the key to finishing our airship, and that she was the most important pony in Sosa. I said it! And now she is! Because she's the only one. Because... I should have... I should..."

She curled up, heaving, looking neither at Valey nor the devastation out the window. Valey bit her lip. "Yeah, sounds pretty terrible and all that. You know you evacuated basically every last pony who wasn't ready and willing to give their life for this, right?"

"She's the one I saved..." Shinespark shook. "She was supposed to be our way out, and... she p-pressed the button... This wasn't supposed to happen..."

"Ooh, ouch." Valey took another step forward. "She kinda did, didn't she? Totally stopped Herman from doing this whole total annihilation thing to the rest of the Earth District, too. What a hero. Look, if you're that ticked at her..." She reached her burnt forehoof out, inches from Starlight's unconscious form.

"Don't talk to me about heroes!" Shinespark screamed, rolling over and causing Valey to jump back. "I was supposed to be the hero! All the signs were there! I was like Blazing Rain, with a brand that let me fly and use magic! All the Sosans loved me and trusted me! I was Mobius' returning daughter... Mom was... S-She was on an airship when she foaled me, of all the possible places! An airship! I was supposed to make Sosa soar! I was meant to, and I couldn't! How could I fail to do something that was going to happen...?"

Valey rolled her eyes. "Should'a gotten anyone but me in here, then. I mean, hello, you realize who you're complaining to, right?" She narrowed her eyes. "You got hoofed a bunch of trust and love and admiration you did absolutely nothing to earn, got put on the world's biggest pedestal, took up the most stupidly huge and unrealistic task as a result, and when you shockingly suffer a minor setback, wow, ouch, pity party time?" She raised both eyebrows. "You're the complete opposite of me! I got the villain card by virtue of what I am! I was always going to be reviled whether I was a scumbag or a saint, unlike you, who got hoofed free love and acceptance on a platter every single day of your life no matter what you actually did!" She smirked; she had Shinespark's complete attention. "And hey, now that the world's totally ended and everything is objectively bleak and terrible and there's no possible way forward, look which one of us is on their hooves despite being stupidly beat up and is going around thinking about their friends and the future?"

Shinespark looked ready to murder her, but her cutie mark still put her in only mild danger. "You don't understand," she seethed. "You don't know what it's like to have those expectations on you! All you do all day is stalk me and rob Dangerous Karma and keep up a bad reputation in the Stone District! I had ponies who needed me to succeed for them! I was going to win. It was s-set in stone..."

"Meh. Says you." Valey shrugged. "I had six whole districts expecting me to be a scoundrel day in and day out, and I could bust up as many real criminals or hand out as much candy to foals as I liked; it wouldn't change any of that. What you are isn't set in stone? Ooh, scary. I-"

She stopped, suddenly recalling a very recent conversation about exactly the same thing and with her on exactly the other end. Fear, loss of identity, suddenly being unable to do what she had defined herself by for as long as she could remember... and she wilted. But before she could say anything, Shinespark whispered, "I was jealous of you, you know. You could do whatever you wanted and never once had to worry about letting down others' expectations."

"Ah, bananas." Valey sat back, hitting the ground with a thud, then laying down just like Shinespark. The rock was cold, but she didn't feel like standing that far above her any more. "Okay. Yeah. Letting down the stuff you care about because you can't meet your expectations for yourself kinda does stink... a lot. Sorry." She paused. "For the record, having expectations you can't rise above is no fun either."

"I know."

Valey blinked... opened her mouth... and folded her forelegs. "Well, if it helps, I was never relying on you to save me, or anything, so I'm not all that torn up that you failed."

"Thanks," Shinespark snorted insincerely.

"No, seriously." Valey yawned. "I can, like, insult you a bunch, if that helps take off some of the pressure of being perfect. Wuss. That help?"

Shinespark just shook, not meeting Valey's eyes.

"...Look. I don't like you. You've had everything I ever wished I could, completely for free," Valey said, standing over her. "Popularity, yeah, but best of all a chance to do something worthwhile with yourself. Up until today, I've only ever been able to be what I was made as, and I convinced myself to like it because there wasn't an alternative. Today, I got a break, and you can bet I'm chasing it with every drop of strength I have and then some. The fact that I'm actually sticking around and trying to help you instead of covering my own rear and just getting what I want is proof of that. Maybe you didn't need that chance, because you were born with everything in the first place, but surprise: you get it anyway. You can give up and wallow here and let everyone down if you like, or you could get back up and follow whatever your contingency was and still have a chance to protect your Sosans from a big nasty war. And it's only a chance, not a guarantee. But hey, beats giving up, right? If there's one thing worse than losing a fight, it's losing forever."

"You can see the destruction," Shinespark whispered. "You call that not lost forever?"

Valey shrugged. "...Yeah, but still, though. You're not blown to pieces, are you? You evacuated all those towns; the ponies are all fine. What are you doing here when you can still keep going?"

One more time, Shinespark shuddered... and was still. Eventually, she opened her mouth. "I don't know how I can. I've... I've tried, and my best wasn't good enough."

"Easy," Valey lectured. "You pick up your hooves, get up, and keep going. I mean, come on, you had contingency plans for this, didn't you? You knew getting flooded was a possibility. So just do what you figured you'd do if this happened. I mean, at the very least, don't you have that big pile of Spirit ponies in Blueleaf to do something with? Actually, forget that, your dad is so obsessed with you won't he go ballistic and do something really dumb and suicidal if he thinks you're dead?"

"Can you feel nothing at all?" Shinespark slumped. "Of course I had plans. I always had plans. But they weren't what mattered. In Sosa, and the Earth District, I knew so many ponies... Everyone was hurting. They would come to me for help, or I would go to them, one at a time. I listened to their stories and their hurts, and helped them if I could, but there were so many I couldn't... and more I could, but only with resources that could instead help someone else. How would you live with that, helping so many ponies with their burdens? The way I did it was by looking at Sosa as a whole, and saying, 'If I can heal this entire city, I'll save everyone in it.' It made it manageable. It let me live with my decisions of who to help and what to do because I had a rule to follow and a greater good to reach. So I still have plans? So what? So what if there's still a way forward? Sosa is gone. Now they're just ponies, and there's never been a real way to help all of them at once. Maybe my plans could help most, or some, or enough... but I didn't take myself into account. I didn't realize I wouldn't be able to follow through on them once I lost the goal that let me live with myself for making these kinds of decisions, which could only save some of the ponies. The Spirit that followed me to the dam are already dead. Gunga was among them. Gigavolt too, I think. I don't remember. It's too much..."

Shinespark rolled over, facing back away from her, Starlight falling off onto the stone.

"...Huh." Valey stepped forward, scooped up the filly, and got her on her back without any trouble or protest. Starlight was uncomfortably and unnaturally warm, enough that Valey almost shuddered from the contact. She definitely needed to be looked at by a medical pony who knew what they were doing... if any specialized in exploded disabled filly horns. She doubted any did.

Either way, she had what she came for, standing up with stiff legs and a few jolts of pain. Standing over Shinespark, she nearly turned to leave... and found she couldn't. She gritted her teeth. "Ugh. I don't know if I'll ever get used to having a conscience..."

Bending down, she touched both of Shinespark's shoulders with her hooves, leaning in for the barest of hugs. It lasted a second at most, with almost no contact, and when Valey stood up, she twitched as if something was stuck to her coat. "There," she muttered. "Something tells me someone really wanted that. But seriously, if a prickly cactus like me can legit give you a little empathy, I kinda think you can get up and get going to help all the friends you still have left."

Shinespark said nothing.

Valey stood over her for several seconds. Once, she sniffed. Then she resumed shaking. She didn't speak, just shook, curled up and facing towards the window. Valey's eyes traced her... and eventually fell over her rump. Instead of its usual smooth orange blankness, it bore an outline of a wingless pony posed like a soaring pegasus, backed and bordered by stars. It had been a long time since she had seen her like that.

"Huh." Valey licked her lips, making a point of staring. "You actually used that remote self-destruct thing built into Braen to get your butt back. I was wondering what you were thinking, punching me in the face so you could jump off a cliff. And how you survived."

Shinespark's chest heaved. "I thought I could r-reach them in time... I thought I could catch them, o-or stop them from falling, or do anything. I couldn't. I searched everywhere, and the only thing I f-found was her..." She swallowed, choked on it, and coughed. "I don't want it. It's not mine. I failed it. I couldn't stop even one yak, or save my home, or even one of the friends who fought with me. Take it away again. Please... find another windigo heart and d-do what you did last time..."

"Don't you have bigger things to worry about?" Valey stared at her. "If Braen's magical soul control core thingamajig is gone, she's just going to be an empty suit of armor," Valey mentioned, leaning against a wall. "I bet she'll just sit there, or maybe even collapse. All the Sosans will probably think she had a heart attack. And they'll be worried about her, and try to get the armor open to help her, and of course it won't stop them and they'll find it's empty and then they'll think whoever was in there teleported away like a coward and that was why it collapsed..." She raised an eyebrow. "What's a pile of extremists to do in a situation like that? Think they might bail? Or would they fly into an unstoppable rage and go off the deep end in Braen's name?"

Shinespark shuddered.

Valey shrugged, turning for the mouth of the cave with Starlight on her back. "Whatever. I've said my piece. If you're not interested in helping the ponies you just saved with that evacuation, feel free to wallow in here until the end of time. But whether you feel like a hero or not, they sure could use one, and I'm a bit too preoccupied with keeping my own friends safe to go about saving nations. Besides, being the good guy is new terrain for me. Baby steps, you know?"

Still, Shinespark lay there, shaking, unwilling or unable to get up and follow.

"...One more thing," Valey said, Shinespark nearly out of sight. "The yaks have a creepy altar they dug up far beneath the Flame District. It produces this stuff that I'm ninety percent sure is the same stuff that airship of yours runs off of. Maple sucked up a bunch in her cutie mark and it nearly blew her to bits, but it turns out she's still got some left that she's carrying around. Once we get out of this valley, we're heading to Gnarlbough, and unless your ship's completely junked, we're stealing it and using what she's got to fly it out of here. You won't miss it if you're going to stay here until you croak, anyway. If you want to stop us or use it for anything more noble, you'll just have to get up off your rear and do it."





Valey stood at the mouth of the cave, the river rushing by inches from her hooves with murderous precision. The wind was cut off by the rock wall on the opposite bank, but she could hear it blowing above, and wasn't looking forward to climbing back into the open. Her more immediate problem, at least, was crossing back in the first place.

She didn't want to fly with Starlight. Not only did she have nowhere higher to launch herself from, but she had nearly fallen the first time and with an unconscious filly it would be thrice as hard. Why did her allies have to keep getting knocked out? Not that she hadn't, herself, of course.

"Birdo!" She raised her raspy voice. "Hey, Birdo! If you're not an iceberg any more, I've got Starlight and we could totally use a ride!"

The wind stole her words, carrying them off into the sky.

"Birdo!" Valey yelled louder... when suddenly, the iron vice of a telekinetic field closed around her, lifting all four hooves off the ground. She squawked as she floated out over the river, then immediately ceased to struggle, since being dropped would be far worse than going wherever her captor wanted her to go. Besides, the aura was sapphire. It wasn't hard to guess who it was.

Starlight on her back, she was deposited on the far riverbank. She looked across to the mouth of the cave, and Shinespark looked back, haggard and glum with her ears and mane limp and the spark she was named for missing from her eyes, but on her hooves nonetheless. Then, she surrounded herself with her own aura and flew.

It was graceless, like a one-stringed marionette, but nevertheless swift and effective. As quickly as she had started, Shinespark landed, her aura vanishing, standing and staring neither at Valey nor away from her.

"...Hey." Valey nudged her shoulder with her own. "Looks like I goaded someone into joining the party?"

"You're a terrible therapist," Shinespark mumbled, looking away.

Valey shrugged. "Yeah, maybe you should have thought about that when you decked me while I was trying to not get stuck down here. But now, whomp whomp, this is what we're both stuck with. Now let's go find the others."