The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Fallen

There was grass beneath Starlight Glimmer's hooves.

Her head was spinning; she didn't feel up to opening her eyes... or even getting up. Beneath her, blades wet with morning dew brushed against the pinkish fur of her belly, slightly chilly and soothing against her newly-acquired host of aches. She could breathe, however... and was reasonably sure she hadn't passed out.

Her ears flicked, a mountain breeze tracing its way through them. She heard a distant rush - possibly water, or trees, or any number of things. Thankfully, she also felt the weight of two saddlebags pressing against her sides. Trying to survive without her provisions wasn't something she cared to think about.

At last, she opened her eyes. She was lying on the crest of a large hill, freshly strewn with loose gray stones dislodged in her tumble. Groaning, she looked upwards. A sheer, loose cliff face loomed high above, and several meters up she could see a dark patch marking the mouth of the cave from which she had recently fallen. Starlight eventually ignored it, looking only forwards.

The hill itself was surprisingly forgiving, just shallow enough in gradient that thick, rich grass clung to it all the way down. Beyond, in every way she turned, mountains far taller than the one from which she had fallen blotted out the horizon, close enough that they forced her to tilt her neck to see the peaks yet still impossibly far away.

In the valleys littering their bases, forests sprawled in a dark green blanket, reaching as far as halfway up some of the more imposing slopes. Starlight didn't need the shade of their canopies to tell her the area in which she'd emerged was rich in rains; the musky scent of freshly ionized air tickled her nose even though there was hardly a cloud in the sky.

She held still, sniffing harder. The mountain range behind her was said to be impassable - no roads braved its surface, no passes had been documented, no ponies kept more than grannies' tales of the lands that lay beyond. For several weeks - judging by the number of times she'd slept, at least - Starlight had walked and lived the caves that traced through the heights of those mountains, in search of a way to prove the ponies wrong. And finally, she'd done it. She was outside.

Slowly, she felt a heat against her back. The sun was high enough in the sky to pierce the mountain behind her, it seemed. Apparently, that meant she was facing west. Starlight didn't care. She simply lay there, allowing the warmth to soothe the caverns' lightless chill that had infested her very core. She let the dew soak into her coat, feeling a spike of pleasure at the almost palpable sensation of stony dust working its way free. She inhaled deeply, allowing the clean mountain air to cleanse and refresh her lungs... and promptly fell asleep, there in the grass.

---

Starlight came to with a start. The sun was reaching the horizon - admittedly, still quite high up. She ran her mind over her extremities, something she chided herself for not doing earlier, and was relieved to find nothing painful or broken. So, she got to her hooves and stretched.

Then she shrugged off and opened her saddlebags, taking stock of their contents. Having lain in the grass alongside her, the bags were damp... as was she. Starlight grumbled and brushed her chest fur with a hoof before turning back to the bags.

She had some food left - probably enough for another week, if she conserved at her present pace. Hungrily, she stole a glance at the trees in the shadowed valley below; anything they might grow was certainly better than stale bread and holey cheese.

Her water canteens were a different story. All but one were empty, and that was after refilling them at a pool deep within the caves some time earlier. It wasn't as good as mountain water was proverbially said to be. But perhaps that would change now that she had made it to the surface; already, she could count over two dozen streaks of glacial meltwater racing down steep inclines to the forested valley beneath her. Her eyes drifted upward, catching the glare of the setting sun refracting off freshly-fractured snowbanks that fed the glacial runoff. Peaks linked with peaks in a wall of amber-tinged majesty that nearly made Starlight's eyes water.

The only items remaining were a thin, lightweight blanket, a folded paper map of Equestria - not that she'd need that - and a small black box, sealed closed inside a waterproof case. That appeared to be undamaged. Good.

Starlight looked forward again with renewed interest, mentally planning her route in her head. The sun was setting; she knew that to be west. And since the mountain range she had just crossed ran from east to west... she squinted at the rivers, sparkling in the sunlight. Those would ultimately be making their way north. Following them would take her out of the mountains, and at least give her a plentiful supply of water and vegetation.

Vegetation... her stomach growled, and she glared back at her bags. Then she nosed the grass on the ground, rolled her eyes, and took a bite. It wasn't like anyone was watching.

For something that was considered anywhere from a sign of abject poverty to a public nuisance in Equestria - and even worse in predominantly desert areas - eating grass felt and tasted surprisingly good. It might have been the mountain air, or the fact that this particular patch of grass likely hadn't been trodden in thousands of years, or even the monotony of her diet the last few weeks, but the crunch of greenness against her teeth and slender, leafy bitterness on her tongue and throat made Starlight shiver in delight. She tossed her head back, munching and swallowing. It was like eating spaghetti and a salad at the same time.

She leaned back down, taking a second bite and a third... and eventually lay back down entirely, contentedly munching away. As she filled her cheeks with greens, she reflected with additional satisfaction upon how naturally she was doing something that was entirely unnatural in Equestria.

Eventually, Starlight rolled onto her back, delightfully remembering what it felt like to be full... when she was plunged abruptly into shadow. She glared up at the western mountains; the sun had sank behind them entirely. Shivering involuntarily, she glanced forlornly up at the still-lit peaks to her right and back. She'd just slept the whole day, and as tired as she was, she didn't presently feel like fixing an inverted sleep schedule.

So, she hitched up her saddlebags and climbed to her weary limbs and began trotting north.

Comments

[Hap]

A pleasant chapter. Kind of scary, seeing as she's still just a filly.

Also... weeks in a cave? Even for a unicorn with the ability to create light, that sounds exhausting. And carrying weeks worth of bread and cheese in a saddlebag seems like an awful lot of weight for a kid. And that's not even counting how lucky she is that she didn't get lost or fall in a pit or something.

[Walpurgisnacht]

She will go far with her determination

[FloydienSlip]

I'm making an exception this one time and actually reading something off my Read Later shelf.

So far, I think I made the right call.

[The 24th Pegasus]

Interesting start... let's see where it goes.

[Bookeater_otaku]

Hummm. So far it as a lother of potential aND it's of to a good start. I will follow.

But I find Starlight a little bit under prepared with her gear. Like no cloak or warm cloth to cross the mountains? No compass or multi-purpose knife (what's the equivalent of Swiss in Equestria?)? I suppose magic can compensate for such things. I guess being a filly, she wasn't as prepared as she could.

[Umbra Animo]

8428220
We have no idea where the journey started or how long

[Swan Song]

boop

[Czar_Yoshi]

8681436 Oh boy!

[VcSaJen]

Enjoy your parasites found in natural grass

[geb]

Maybe I could read this.

[Czar_Yoshi]

8782916 You go, bro!

[AppleTank]

First gear in, clutch out ... ignition.

[Texus]

First chapter is nice enough but i feel like i still can't judge it with this alone.

[PropMaster]

I realized, on checking this story, that I hadn't actually started it, even though I thought I had. I am an idiot.

An interesting start, if slow. Let's find out what this is all about, hm?

[The Whiskey Spirit]

I have come to make due on my word and read this. So far it's looking pretty decent.

[Charles Farrow]

These are some really vivid and delicious environmental descriptions. I think this is gonna be quite a pleasant read. I look forward to seeing how you write dialogue.

[lazyreader19]

How dare you make me hungry for grass!

[GMBlackjack]

And Staright Glimmer walks west...

Let us check out one of the newest fics on the great longfic list. I have read Austraeoh (but none of its sequels) and so I have some idea of what to expect here. Starlight Glimmer is going west to find out what lies beyond. Will she find cutie marks? Will she find ponies at all? Will we find ancient machines in the earth? Only time will tell.

Early on, I have about the same impression I got when I read the first chapter of Austraeoh. (well, first few, this chapter is a few thousand instead of a few hundred words). Cool descriptions, and... not much else to go off of. The style of writing encourages me to dig further into it, at the very least, since it is good.

Let's see what else you've got...

Oh, as for why I'm reading this? Well... I figured it was time to see what the competition was up to. I've been sitting right under The Olden World on the longfics page for quite some time now. And you just. Keep. Updating. So consider this a formal crossing of swords: en garde!

-GM, master of songs.

[Rupple]

I was dared to read this.
Back when I tried to read Austraeoh, it didn't grip me at all, so I quickly dropped it. A couple chapters of this, and I'm somehow hooked. In fact, I created a Fimfic account for this because for once in my long Fimfic life I wanted to be able to comment. Hopefully this doesn't bite me back, as getting hooked and going through so many chapters only for the story to stop being updated would be traumatic to say the least. So I hope whatever evil spirit of writing you've let yourself be possessed by in exchange for the mythical power of daily updates won't just disappear on us.
I'm thinking part of why it's interesting for me so far is because it's a filly Starlight venturing into Terra Incognito. Wouldn't be nearly as interesting if it was somepony else. Like Rainbow Dash. Looking forward to see where it's gonna go.

[ABadger]

Chapter One...

I hope this lives up to the hype.

[BleuBlooms]

9958216
I totally agree. Well rainbow dash Implode colons story is vivid and evocative. The glaring flaw for ME mind. Is its not thrilling, exciting or really as interesting as A FILLY going off into the unknown.

Plus the way dash is written...its just.
I know shes supposed to being a jock and all. But, shes not exactly likeable at least for me in that story.

[dystopia8]

Today I found myself with a strangely specific desire to read a starlight fic that I could binge read. Amazingly, there are shockingly few non one shot starlight fics. This one seems to have a decent length though.

I have absolutely no clue what this story is going to be like or about, even after reading chapter one, but I greatly look forward to finding out.

[Boopers]

I come from a thousand chapters in the future and I want to embark on this wild amazing journey once again. (Technically, I already started with that and I'm a few chapters in already)

The scenery at the beginning is just as beautiful as I remember.

[Alchemik]

I really like this beginning. It's been a long time since I read Austraeoh, but I'm getting the same feeling of exploration and wonder that was so common in it. The inspiration is clear. Your scenery is just beautiful as well. Really looking forward to seeing where this goes.

[Merula]

You know what?

Fuck it, time to read this. Austraeoh grabbed my attention and even after nearly 6 years has not let go, time for this to do the same!

[bronyheat]

Enchanted Carousel and Ofolrodi are still both far from completion and I just happen to stumble into an Austraeoh-inspired epic?
Give me your fuzzy-horse prose; inject it into my eyeballs!

[Haysit T Ganaram]

Once again I'm waiting for austraeoh chapters. .
Saw this.

.....

I am ready to get hurt again let the journey begin.

[Venlinelle]

This looks like it's going to be a long trip- I hope it's one that I can stay on, rather than one that I lose interest in.
I haven't read a fic like this before; it looks like it'll feature Starlight and almost nothing else from canon, but that's just a guess from the vibes and the tags. If so, it'll be up to chance whether it ends up being my thing.

My first impression is that you have excellent prose, and, for that matter, very slow prose. The fact that there's such excellent imagery dedicated to Starlight eating grass indicates that I should probably pay closer attention than I usually do.

Well. Northward and onward we go!

[Osoch]

Seeing how Austraeoh will probably never be finished, I'm preparing myself to start this journey for the first time.
Which is great! This is finished, and not only that, but there seems to be a sequel actively in the works, so I think now is as good a time as any

[Walrusesarecute]

ok, I’m gonna start my journey here real quick. Can’t wait to start reading, I have no idea what this is going to be about, very vague, very long. Yet I am in the mood for a long story, I hope it will sate my hunger for stories for a while.