"Heyyy, Maple! Is that your voice I hear?"
"Hi, Amber!" Maple smiled warmly into the sound stone affixed to the Dream's control panel, standing on the bridge with Shinespark. "You made it back to Ironridge already?"
"Yeah, it's been what, five days?" Maple could practically hear Amber shrug. "I told you, I already put in a ton of work on Gerardo's boat when you were away the first time, so it didn't take too much more to get it running. There's still some rapids in this canyon near Ironridge, so I might have moored it a mile or two away and climbed the rest of the way on my own. It took all day! But Arambai will have those mercenaries fly me back to where I left it, so it's all good. How are things with you?"
Maple gave a been-there-done-that sigh, flicking both ears. "I think I'm over worrying that we made our decision too quickly, though I really do need to take more time to think about things... Things are quiet. Gerardo isn't being too noisy, everyone is keeping themselves sort of busy, and we're making progress. It just stopped raining, and I'm looking ahead and think the horizon is finally changing."
"Sweet! It's raining here, right now. Barely avoided getting drenched on my way up that last cliff. Big surprise, huh? Hey, how's Valey doing?"
"Valey is..." Maple bit her lip. "Apparently the Griffon Empire has some history or prejudice against batponies, but I don't know what. Gerardo mentioned it, and she's taking it hard."
"Wow. And you're going anyway? That's kind of unfortunate." Amber sounded put-out. "When she wakes up, pat her on the back for me. Or gets back from wherever she is."
"She's probably somewhere..." Maple glanced around the room, spinning idly back and forth in the copilot's chair. "Starlight is doing well, I think. She's not sticking to me as closely as she did in Riverfall or Ironridge, and I see her reading or staring out the windows to pass the time, which hopefully means she's more secure. I know I'm hardly the best role model for what to and not to worry about, but I still don't ever think I hear her laugh. Then there's Jamjars, White Chocolate's filly, and I don't at all know what to make of her. She sits in her room all the time, but seems to get along with Starlight and Slipstream, the pegasus..."
"Oh! Speaking of White Chocolate, I forgot to tell you the news!"
Maple's ears folded and her chest briefly clenched. "Did her foal...?"
"Not what you're thinking," Amber chirped. "We got her to a doctor to get checked up, since apparently that's not a thing when you live on your own in the Earth District... and it's not a foal, but foals! She's having twins! ...A fourth set, I think, but still. No idea how the doctor can figure out stuff like that when they're an earth pony, by the way. So anyway, long story short she's not actually as far along as she thought she was and they've probably got two or three months left before the big day, and I guess she didn't notice how long it had been because seriously how would you keep track of days if you lived in a hole day in and day out? Apparently it came as a really big surprise to her, since she thought she'd be able to tell just like that. Just thought you'd like to know, though."
Maple nodded, swallowing and forcing a smile. "Well, that's good. I hope she's doing all right otherwise?"
"Oh, definitely. While I've been working on the boat and we've both been working on the town, we've been trying our best to take care of her, as well. She and Faron still seem happy together, and Willow walks her over to Arambai's old place, which is Dior's now, to mess around in the shop. She's been having a ton of fun with that hand thing. I think her face has fewer lines in it, even! But yeah, mostly good news with her. Her foals are rotating back through her home a lot more often and we're still getting her set up with a pool, so she sees them a lot but doesn't get overwhelmed. I think she's really, really happy in Riverfall. Some nightmares about refugee centers, apparently, still, but she talks with us about those and overall bringing her back with you was definitely the right call."
"I'm glad," Maple breathed, heart warming and chest loosening. "If she can fix her life and get it back on track given the chance, anyone can. I know she thinks I'm inspiring, but honestly..." She paused, hesitated, and went on. "I have a lot of growing to do myself. But when I see you again, however long that may take, I'll be a stronger and better pony too, and we can all laugh about the past together."
"Hee hee..." Amber chuckled. "Sounds like you're already on the way there, no? Losing your house has to hurt a ton, but at least you don't sound devastated?"
"I'm..." Maple frowned. "I'm bearing. It still feels kind of numb no me, like it didn't really happen, or I had already given up everything I lost. Maybe I'm in denial, or something, but it doesn't quite feel like that either. It's more like... I'm tired of being knocked down, or have been hit so many times by so much worse that this just doesn't hurt me any more. I don't know. But I'm still okay."
The sound stone was silent for a minute. "Wow," Amber eventually said. "That's kind of a scary thought, to me. Losing so much you grow numb to it. But I guess... it's better than feeling terrible, right?" Her voice held a spark of hope at the end.
"I'm not sure," Maple answered. "I think it might be more that I just have a better understanding of what's important to me. That's the ponies in my life like you, Starlight and Willow. Maybe my house got destroyed, but I'm not physically injured and all of you are fine, so it still feels like I dodged a sword. I don't know." She glanced up, to the distant gray horizon. "How is Riverfall, by the way? So many ponies ultimately came to wish me well at Arambai's house, and I made the decision to leave so quickly, and while I don't think I regret it..."
"Probably best to go on not regretting it," Amber said, suddenly serious. "Riverfall is... kind of mixed. There are a lot of ponies who are keeping level heads, especially ones that knew you in person, even if from our foalhood years ago. The thing is, it's not you that worries everyone: it's Starlight. She made some big splashes in Riverfall before, with Gerardo's boat and again when Hemlock found out and told everyone where she was from. And apparently there was an incident where she crystallized a really grouchy mare in the streets? She's also kind of reclusive, so very few mares knew anything about her. Now, you know Riverfall, they love mystery and new things and excitement... but nearly a decade of reminiscing about the good old days, and especially the younger ones aren't all that difficult to spook. Then you had the flood from Ironridge, and Hemlock making that recording was less turning ponies against her as a whole and more giving the suspicious ones justification for their suspicion. As best as I can tell, there's maybe a quarter of the town who are curious about and intrigued by Starlight, half who are indifferent and either in it for the gossip or not at all, and a quarter who don't trust her or are openly scared of her. That's a lot of ponies, and no offense, but Starlight isn't the best at making a positive impression. She's kind of... broody."
Maple hung her head. "Well, at least it doesn't sound like we made an overtly wrong decision. That's enough ponies that something would have happened again, and then another after that, and it would have done nothing but stress us all out. And I know. I wish I could help teach Starlight to enjoy herself when times are going well, like right now."
"Not sure what advice I can give there," Amber apologized. "Extrovert in the house. I get my enjoyment in by talking to all sorts of interesting ponies. But I really doubt she works the same way, and there's like... six others on your ship. Counting you. That's practically no one for her to get to know!" She thought for a moment, and added, "Maybe she'd enjoy talking with Slipstream? I only met her a few times, but she seemed like a cool enough pegasus."
"I've talked with Slipstream a bit," Maple remarked. "She feels slightly out of place, but is looking forward to whatever we're going to do. It's definitely refreshing to have someone to talk to I can get to know by choice. I think I might have spent too long hiding in my house or only with my own friends in Riverfall, myself."
"Heh... yeah... Hey, you should have taken a hoofful of random Riverfall mares with you as well! Then it would always be new and lively, and you'd have plenty of new faces to meet and talk to! Get some smooching going on as well. Mmmmm-wah. Heeheeheee... Gotta have someone for Valey to tease, right?"
Maple noted Shinespark reddening and pointedly staring out the windshield beside her. "I think that sounds like a bad idea," she muttered back. "Besides, Gerardo is the closest thing to a stallion on this boat, and he's a griffon."
"Yeah, maybe. I bet Valey'd see it as a bomb of fun waiting to go off, though. That much tension with no outlet, this close to going kablooie..." She paused. "Eh. Anyway, make sure to tell her to perk up for me. Sad batponies are tragic! And have squishy cheeks. Tell her I said that too."
"Noted." Maple nodded, rolling the edge of her hoof along the control panel and suddenly realizing she was hungry. "Anyway, is there anything else you wanted to talk about? How long are you staying in Ironridge this time, anyway?"
"Oh, I'll be in and out all the time now that I've got this boat working," Amber replied, sounding perfectly confident. "Didn't try and take anyone with me this time, though once the river dies down a little more and I can safely sail it again, I'm going to start wandering the districts, making friends and trying to look for good ponies to invite to Riverfall, I think. Riverfall's been having so many foals since the colts who were left behind grew into stallions that Arambai already had us preparing for explosive population growth, so we've got room to take a bunch more families, at least in the short term. But I think everyone will benefit if we get ponies used to the idea again of coming and going as they please. There's talk of using pegasi to fly between the cities, and I think that's a great idea! They're using unicorn horns for light in buildings and exploring the abandoned mines, and earth ponies are lifting things since there's no power for winches and cranes and stuff and it's actually really cool to see ponies using their own powers and talents as a replacement for all the technology stuff that just broke. Everyone's working together and everything!"
Shinespark opened her mouth, leaning over. "Sorry to interrupt, but that's great to hear. Are you involved at all with the recovery? Can you tell us about what's going on?"
"Now that Sosa is above water again, they're going through and looking for scrap metal or parts that were big and bulky enough to still be usable. A lot of stuff got pulverized or completely washed away, but there's some places further west where things survived. Still, the city apparently has a metal shortage now, which is weird to think about because they used to produce it from the mines! Anyway, all the ponies who can are working to clear out and tame land to the north of the city so they can build new, temporary power generators and maybe temporary housing, and everyone who can't is still working to house refugees. They're trying not to let the camps in the warehouses become a permanent thing, since apparently a lot of really bad stuff happens when you leave that many ponies together for a long period of time..."
"I can imagine." Shinespark shuddered.
"Yeah," Amber agreed. "There haven't been any disease outbreaks, somehow, even though it's been nearly two weeks and the climate is a little cooler than it used to be. They're diverting power for heating, actually, and that's inefficient because the warehouses weren't designed to be heated and it takes specialty hardware and everything. Then there's ponies who get bored or depressed or desperate, and entertain themselves in ways that are dangerous or really shouldn't be done in public. I haven't gone in there yet myself, but apparently a pony died three days ago falling from a light fixture, and they sure weren't up there to fix it."
Maple let out a sigh of resignation. "It's better than them being in their homes for the flood, though, right?"
"Right," Shinespark agreed, voice hard and regretful.
"There are some medical emergencies too, but mostly unforeseen stuff, and they have doctors on hoof," Amber went on. "All the high-risk ponies were the first ones to be moved out and into somewhere better. First the ones that were already sick, then the very old, anyone young enough to wander off... That didn't go perfectly either, but it's done now. There's still one filly whose parents nobody can find, though the officials' best guess is that they were Spirit ponies using pseudonyms. One old stallion who had an asthma attack and had to be treated on the spot. A unicorn with some sort of mental illness that made him hallucinate and think the other refugees were attacking him, and he had to be subdued, but not before breaking a mare's rib. Another mare who had migraines caused by sensory issues, and being around so many chaotic ponies nearly sent her into a coma before they got someone. Then there was a volunteer who broke his leg when moving a stack of heavy fruit boxes that collapsed, and two mothers actually had what White Chocolate was worried about happen to them and went into-"
"Stop!" Maple and Shinespark cut her off at the same time, both grimacing. Shinespark held a hoof out, as if she could see it, eyes scrunched shut. "Stop. Please... I'm still... I've felt for a lot of ponies, and now that I let them down and have to focus on myself, hearing about so many stories is... hard."
Amber was silent.
"It's okay," Maple assured her, reforming her smile. "It's just... We're the ones who made that decision, Amber. Hearing about everything bad to come of it kind of hurts."
"Sorry," Amber said meekly. "I might have asked for information about how the refugees were handled and been a little too curious for our own good. Already thinking ahead to how I might be able to help, and trying to have empathy and... yeah. Want to call this quits for now? I'll be back in a few days, at the latest. Dunno if Arambai will let me take this stone to Riverfall, but you could talk to... Huh? What's that?" Her voice grew distant and muffled, and then she returned. "Oh, I'll be back tonight, actually! Apparently the griffon ambassador wants to talk to you. Her name's Glisette. Cool catbird. She says her job is frustrating and she was hoping to have some proper neighbors to unwind with. Kind of wishing I had asked for that Skyfreeze villa myself, now... but she's available then, and I'll probably still be here too! So... despite all I said about the refugees, that was all in the first few days, and stuff is going smoothly now! I'll keep you posted and so will Arambai, so stay happy and adventure in the name of Riverfall!"
Maple and Shinespark said their farewells, and the sound stone's connection died.
For several moments, Maple stared at it in a wistful, contemplative state. Eventually, Shinespark spoke: "You're pretty lucky to have friends that will go out and do that much for you and their hometown, you know."
"I'm lucky in so many ways..." Maple kept looking at the stone. "Amber and Willow are wonderful ponies and friends."
Shinespark exhaled. "That's what I always try to be."
"But...?" Maple raised an eyebrow.
"I don't know. You sound so at ease talking to each other." Shinespark made a minute adjustment to a single lever, and Maple couldn't notice a change in the ship's performance. "You admire each other. I admired my friends in Ironridge, too, and there's no question they admired me, but..." She shook her head. "You sound honest with each other. Like you've seen each other at your best and worst and are completely okay with it. My entire life has been a secret out of necessity, so I've never really been able to have that. Everyone sees a best I actively strive to project, but even ponies who know I failed like my parents... the only ones who've actually seen me at my worst were those who were there that cursed night on the dam and in the skyport, when I made the wrong decisions and cost so many lives, so much work and almost so much more. I'm... envious, I suppose."
Maple offered a hoof, though Shinespark didn't take the embrace. "Well, I was there on the dam. We can be your friends."
Shinespark folded her ears, hanging her head in respectful denial. "I appreciate it, but it's still not the same. You've watched me fail, but you haven't seen me at my best. You don't know who I am or what I'm capable of..." A shadow passed through her voice, and she briefly stammered. "What I know I'm capable of, at least. And you and Amber have known each other since you were fillies. We just met. Still, I appreciate it."
"Since before we could talk, actually," Maple murmured. "Well... I think. I'm two years her senior, so I might have been making noises when she was born. But we were raised in the same parenting pool, and are just as close as biological sisters. Closer, even, because we chose to stick together as friends through thick and thin, even though we didn't have to. Willow is also like a sister to us, though she's a little of a mother as well. She was old enough to look after us when we were very little, and it's always given her pride to take care of her friends."
"Sounds wonderful." Shinespark leaned back and closed her eyes. "You probably heard from Elise, Arambai or my mother, but I was raised more or less out of the public eye, to prevent my life from coming under pressure due to who my biological father was and what the city was like at the time. I definitely know what you mean about family being determined by who you stick with and who you care about more than who you're related to by blood, though. Mobius may have sired me, but he means nothing to me more than any other colleague or stranger as a person."
"Speaking of wonderful things..." Maple hesitated, trying to figure out how best to breach a difficult topic of conversation. "You seem to be doing well after Ironridge. And abruptly, too. I remember how shaken up you were, and..." She swallowed. "As someone who's been there, losing your entire world is never, ever that easy."
"...It's not," Shinespark agreed after a lengthy period of silence. "And it's still something I'm dealing with at night. The first few days, I just had to stop and metabolize everything, and deal with the fact that I had made the wrong calls at the dam, failed to save the friend I cared about most in the Spirit, and then taken an unnecessary injury and fainted from the pain while the fate of the city was being decided by strangers and ponies it had never done anything for, ever." She glanced unhappily at her cast. "That took a lot of dealing with. But I've also spent my entire life chasing a goal that anyone would tell you is impossible for so few ponies. It was just a matter of time until I got back on my hooves."
Maple bowed her head in agreement, softly humming.
"I would have gotten back up eventually," Shinespark went on. "All I needed was a plan I could throw myself at again, wholeheartedly, and enough time to make sure I was solid and sound. Hearing my mother's message..." She glanced to the ship's terminal. "I've listened to it a few times since then. It was her blessing, and while I could have gone on without it, it helped a lot. So yes, I'm doing fine. I have too much riding on me not to be, and the weight of everyone in Ironridge's futures is no different a load than I was carrying before. If anything, it's easier now, because all I have to do is fly this ship and chase that horizon instead of worrying about secrets and lies and planning and manipulation. It's a step closer to a normal life, almost."
"Normal," Maple murmured, nodding.
"Yes, I know there's no such thing..." Shinespark softly sighed. "One of these days, while Gerardo or Slipstream is flying, I want to get out Braen and turn her back on. Her soul is back here now, where it always belonged..." She touched a hoof to the image on her flank. "But her body is still sitting in the cargo bay where I left it, and I think it would be good to do that."
"Hmm." Maple got up, feeling her stomach rumble again. "Well, I think I'm going to get started on lunch. I'll bring you something when it's ready?"
Shinespark nodded, looking up from the windshield. "Thanks. That would be nice. Good talk, Maple."
"Good talk," Maple hummed back, meeting her with a smile of her own. "I'm glad to know we're all generally feeling up after everything that's happened."