//------------------------------//
// Concerning Gray Fillies 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

An hour later, Felicity and her sisters had taken their leave, Valey and Shinespark as fixed as they could get them. Felicity made it clear there was more she wanted to discuss, but then was hardly the time, not when Shinespark couldn't speak and everyone's minds were on Gerardo's sword in the first place.

"...Well," Gerardo said, sitting in a circle in the library with the sword propped in the middle, Shinespark carefully arranged in a chair and Maple, Amber, Slipstream and Valey sitting or standing around it as well. "It feels as though there's something to be said, yet I can't imagine what it is."

"I've got something." Valey raised a still-tender hoof, giving Gerardo a look. "That thing? No more using it. Not for anything. Bananas, it never works out for us. Got Ironflanks stabbed in the Water District, got Sparky stabbed now, and on the pirate ship it killed a ton of dudes and nearly got us into massive trouble with Meltdown and Gazelle. I have no idea if you can magic a weapon to betray whoever wields it, but at best, that thing does equal damage to us and whoever we're using it on. And next time, it might hit someone who can't just sleep it off, like me."

"Agreed." Amber nodded firmly. "But we can't throw it away, either. If it gets used against us when we've got it, you think it won't if it's in someone else's hooves to start with? We tie it up, lock it down, seal it away, but above all don't let it out of our sight for one minute! It stays here on the ship. We just don't take it anywhere dangerous."

Maple nodded as well. "Worst comes to worst, I can carry it in my cutie mark. I've done it a few times before, and for some reason even though carrying things like windigo hearts hurts me, that sword is fine. I think it only affects things when it cuts them..."

Gerardo folded his wings. "Very well, then. Seems like a sensible opinion in light of everything we've learned. I do wish I could say more about where it came from, though. A nonliving object somehow imbued with enough negative emotion to form a devastating weapon... Hah. And here I thought this was a gentler, more merciful way of dispatching foes. When I got it, I merely thought it would be something unique and interesting; a weapon I could pretend was a heroic blade of legend. I wasn't expecting something actually special..."

"Yeah, about that..." Valey frowned. "While everyone's here, I need to debrief you guys really quick on what we found under Gyre. You said apparently the Night Mother was trying to get our attention on some spot because there was something she wanted us to take care of, right?"

Everyone nodded, and she sighed. "Yeah. Kinda weird that we're talking about emotionally cursed objects already, or whatever, because that's what's down there. There's this... thing, called Stanza, and what I got from Puddles is that it's a dusk statue someone built into a giant emotional sink for all the prisoners who are supposed to be executed by Garsheeva. This thing was foul. Just being in those tunnels messed my head up bad."

"Stanza?" Maple frowned. "I've heard that somewhere before. But I can't remember where..."

Gerardo's headcrest drooped. "I can. Young Jamjars mentioned it during out stay in Izvaldi. Apparently she eavesdropped on Chauncey talking to himself about that name. She said he didn't sounds pleased with something they had done."

Maple groaned. "That does ring a bell... So Izvaldi is involved in this? What does Izvaldi want with something beneath Gyre? And Chauncey is a batpony, and I thought Gyre hated batponies?"

"Yeah, you know what I think?" Valey suddenly stood up. "I think I didn't just leave that place behind to be reminding myself of it quite so soon. I've had a long day or two, am still pretty rattled, and think I need a good night's sleep to get my head back on straight. Or, uhh..." She folded her ears, looking at the tinges of dawn starting to illuminate the eastern windows. "Or a good day's sleep. Wake me in time for my fight? Whatever."

"It will be my pleasure!" Gerardo beamed. "Although, to be honest, I think staying up in vigil for you has left all of us a little tired..."

"Nyeh." Valey loped over to Shinespark. "Yo, Sparky, you wanna retire too? Actually, mind if I crash with you again? Figured you might like some company."

Shinespark looked down for a moment, then to the right. Then her eyes widened and went back to the left.

"Buh?" Valey tilted her head.

"No, she doesn't mind, probably," Maple murmured. "Yes, you do want company?"

Shinespark's eyes went right.

"Cool," Valey mumbled, shuffling toward the hallway. "Might need some help moving her, then..."

Gerardo and Slipstream moved to oblige, and soon it was just Maple and Amber left in the room. Maple sighed. "Starlight?"

"I'm still here," an obscured voice said from a corner of the room, and a shadowed hole in space stepped forward, completely unnoticeable by anyone who didn't already know it was there.

"Sorry we got distracted by Felicity and the sword," Maple murmured, holding out a hoof. "Come here? I'm so glad to have you back..."

"I'm so glad to be back." Starlight needed no urging, dropping her cloak and running into Maple's embrace like it was the most precious thing in the world. "You're warm. I need you..."

Amber settled into the chair beside them, watching Starlight with interest. "So, you're... gray now?" She folded and unfolded her ears. "And your eyes look like Valey's."

"I had to use the Nightmare Module to escape," Starlight mumbled. "I never lost it after the pirate ship. Remember when I touched it? It was saved in me somehow... There was also moon glass where I was being held. It did something to me, but I don't know exactly what. But it's not bad. I'm still me. I can live like this. It makes me more powerful, sometimes, too."

"That's not the first time you've said that," Maple whispered, rubbing her mane and ears. "I'm not sure how you wouldn't draw attention as a unicorn filly with batpony eyes, even if others got past you being gray. But are you sure?"

"Sure about what?" Starlight looked up, a tint of fear in her eyes that Maple would let go. "It lets me use this Nightmare Module, which makes me avoid attention and sometimes not be affected by magic fields. It also stops my horn from working, but my horn was broken anyway. Using the Nightmare Module is... really easy."

Maple bit her lip. "But touching moon glass does terrible things to batponies, Starlight. And you saw what happened to that pirate mare who used the Nightmare Module, remember? And I remember it hurting you a lot when you accidentally touched it long ago in Gnarlbough, and I remember you being scared and shaken when you got back to normal after the pirate ship, too. Are you sure you're alright?"

"Well..." Starlight hesitated, nuzzling back into her chest for a few minutes and refusing to answer. "I'm scared that I am," she eventually whispered. "I was thinking about it all while you were talking. I can... see things, while I'm like this. Look at ponies and see that they're bright or dim, but all of them have some kind of light that makes them precious. You're really bright. It's like I can see something in you I couldn't before. And we knew there was something wrong with my horn, which I use when I'm normal, right?" She sniffed. "And being hugged by you..." Starlight looked up, and her eyes were glassy with budding tears. "I don't think it used to feel this special. But I don't understand! Moon glass and Nightmare Modules do do bad things to batponies, so why, for me, do they...?"

Amber leaned in and ruffled her mane. "No idea. Maybe they're changing your memories so you think this is better than what you had? Maybe it's something else. But even if you do stay gray, we'll still be here for you, you hear?"

Maple thought for a moment. "Can you... cancel it and go back to normal, like you did last time? Just to see what happens? I can't believe you would really be better like this, but if you somehow are, we do have an entire crate full of moon glass in the cargo hold. We took it from Kero's villa in Skyfreeze, remember?"

Starlight frowned. "First off, that's not empty, and only empty moon glass does this to me. Remember when I teleported inside that box full of moon glass parts to follow you when you were foalnapped in Ironridge? I was fine then." She looked away. "And when I canceled it last time, I burned out my horn for nearly a month. If I can't have my horn either way, being like this gives me more magic and fewer headaches."

Maple sighed and leaned back, still holding her. "Then I don't have any idea of what to do."

"I'm scared," Starlight repeated, nestling into her. "It really does seem better this way! Like this is better for me and I should just stay that way! But either that means it's just convincing me this is better and I'm under some weird influence... and I hate being forced to like something that isn't me. You know how I feel about that. But this also really could be better, even though I know it's bad..."

"You know what?" Amber suddenly stood, a smile growing on her face. "You two get back to my room. I've got something I bet would actually clear things up."





Starlight rode on Maple's back for the short walk to their cabin, staying there and observing as Amber pulled an armored suitcase out from under the bed. It clicked open and rose like a clamshell, and immediately four points of light hit Starlight like a physical blast. She recoiled from the intensity, shielding her eyes with a foreleg... yet at the same time, that brightness was wonderful, like it was destined to fill a yawning void that comprised her being. It hurt her, yet she needed it, and she had to grip Maple's mane to stop herself from jumping off and trying to hoard that suitcase as hard as she could.

"Oh! The windigo hearts?" Maple tilted her head. "You think those... Hmm?"

"Think about it." Amber shrugged. "When you were telling the whole Ironridge story after you got back to Riverfall, you talked about how this stuff is from the crystal tree and you saw it burning away moon glass, right? And last time, Starlight turned herself back to normal with really intense magic, or something... and there's also some really intense magic involved when she hooks herself up to the harmony extractor, which is the same stuff as this. I'm just saying, there might be a connection."

Maple stepped closer, and Starlight felt her fur raise. "There might be," Maple whispered. "But how do we get it out?"

"Use your cutie mark?" Amber shrugged. "Remember Fire, the Yakyakistan mare who was taking care of this for us? She said she didn't recharge these to as extreme of an amount as they tried to use to force the windigoes into a dormant state, so they should be much weaker than the one that you hurt yourself using in the tunnels. Not that they had you to test on, but you could try it?"

Maple traced a hoof along the edge of one glowing sphere. "Starlight? Are you okay with us trying this?"

Starlight specifically wouldn't be okay with them not trying. "Yes, please," she requested, unable to look away.

"Well..." Maple swallowed, set her on the bed, and then lifted a swirling windigo heart, bright flames glowing from its sealed core. "Let's see if I can manage to not take all this at once, I suppose. Here goes..."

The heart disappeared, and suddenly it was Maple who was glowing instead. Where she had been bright before, now she was blinding, energy rising from her coat like misty fire, the empty heart dropping to the floor and rolling away. Starlight couldn't resist, flinging herself against her in as crushing a hug as she could deliver. Maple was precious. Maple was perfect. She had to have her.

"Ohhh my," Maple breathed, shivering hard from the energy. "This is intense... I... I didn't think I'd feel this again for a while..."

"You holding together, Maple?" Amber's worried voice came from nearby.

"I-I am." Maple swallowed. "It's a lot, but not too much. Now, Starlight, I... don't know exactly how to do this, but let me try..."

She wrapped Starlight in a hug in return, smothering her in her fur and forelegs and brightness, the light burning at Starlight's eyes even though they were squeezed closed. It felt like fire was dancing across her coat, and the brighter it got, the colder she realized she was inside. The pressure intensified, the light built, her body strained to stand up to it until it entered and broke across her like a wave, swirling over loneliness and misery in a wash of pink...

Warning: Nightmare Module emulation mode unstable due to harmonic overexposure. A driver update may be required. Shutting down...

Starlight's vision flickered, her eyes weren't closed anymore, and like drops of water washing away a film of chalk dust, she realized she could see colors again. Maple was tan. Amber was yellow. She was... half lilac and half gray, a wavering line where the colors changed receding down her until it was all the way gone. Her flank was still bare, her horn sparked welcomingly, and all of a sudden Starlight was assaulted by a wall of emotions and sensible truths she hadn't felt in the slightest while she had been grey.

Did Maple love her? Of course she did. This was special, and it always had been, but it wasn't some revolutionary new discovery that changed her worldview. She held the hug, and she needed the hug, but if she had to, she could break the hug, because Maple would be there tomorrow and the day after that because Maple cared about her and she cared back. Having friends and being loved was special, but it was also real, a reality she lived with. Not something mythical that would disappear the moment she blinked.

Shivering as a lingering memory of pain and longing left her, Starlight relaxed, growing content in Maple's embrace.

"Starlight?" Maple leaned over her to look at her face, her own eyes having reverted to their pink color from the last time she used the tree's magic. "How are you feeling?"

"Good." Starlight nuzzled her. "I don't understand what the moon glass does to me, but I feel like I remember or understand more now than I did then. And I can see in colors again. I forgot what colors were while I was like that."

"You sure look back to normal," Amber encouraged, patting her on the head. "How about you, Maple? You're, uh, glowing a little, there..."

Maple reddened slightly. "I'm glowing? Ohhh, I am... I think this is more harmony I have left than what I was left with after attacking the mercenaries on the lift. Maybe I should take a turn powering the ship to see if I can reduce this a little. Of try to find a way to put it back in the heart... Though it does feel sort of nice. Like something's whispering good things about me I just barely can't hear."

Amber chuckled. "Maybe save that for tomorrow? I'm pretty tired..."

"I'm tired too..." Starlight yawned, the need to sleep hitting her much more forcefully now that she was back to normal. Stanza, moon glass, everything... She'd think about it when she woke up. "Nini..."