The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Two's No Party

The kitchen periodically banged with noise as Valey complained and Meyneth insulted and both did something actually approaching work. Maple watched, spent on protests, and Starlight watched with her, eating the cookies no one else seemed to want. From anger to denial to could-be-worse acceptance, they went back and forth in what almost resembled a dance, the only souls to seem to have an interest in that kitchen. For all Valey's worrying, Jamjars didn't show up either, apparently having better things to do with herself than stalk her companions for cheap laughs.

Their racket echoed around corners and down into air ducts beneath the floorboards, reverberating inside basement-level maintenance rooms and then the tunnels below those. A wallside water pipe in an unlit, cramped corridor carried a clang as Valey's knife struck something metallic, and that was as far as the noise pierced. The pipes and tunnels, however, kept going.

Several stories further, linked by magical light conduits, air ducts and buried hoses of metal that snaked their way through the ground like veins, gears worked their way into the concrete earth, and those gave way to a winch supporting two golden chains. They dangled into the darkness, tinkling as they moved in a nonexistent breeze... and then the switch on the wall was kicked by a little yellow hoof, and they snapped tight and began to rise.

The ears and back of Jamjars' head were silhouetted by her horn, the room's only light source, as she faced the rising imprisonment ring. Soon, it clunked into position.

"Hm! You're back," Puddles chuckled, forelimbs held spread-eagled and an interested grin on her face. "I was placing bets with myself down there on how long it would take one of you to get ticked off or curious enough to come take a swing at me. Go figure it's the quiet one."

"My name is Jamjars," Jamjars coolly replied. "Speaking of quiet, what happened to you? No more laughing like an insecure child?"

"Eh, it's not really my style." Puddles tossed her pink-and-chartreuse mane. "To be more specific, I have no style. That just gets the biggest reaction out of Morena the moron, since she thinks I'm disrespecting her precious baby daughter's little pony body. It also makes for a horrid conversationalist, and truth be told, I like company." She put on a crocodile grin even Jamjars couldn't match, and continued. "So I'm willing to concede a little for that. You, though... What are you doing down here? Did you come alone?" Her eyes widened and narrowed at the same time in greedy glee. "Didn't your mommy teach you not to trust strangers? Aren't you worried I'll prey on your doubts and weaknesses and turn you against your friends?"

Jamjars scoffed, holding her stance perfectly and tossing her own, short mane. "My mother was a coward who lived her life in a hole and did the same thing over and over. I have to do my own work to learn about the world, and that's why I'm here. You know things that I want to know, too."

"Oooooh." Puddles looked intrigued. "I hear a bit of family resentment there. You're a minefield, kid, and the charges are right below your own hooves. Are you sure about this?"

Suspicious, Jamjars narrowed her eyes. "Are you trying to make me leave?"

"Mmmmm..." Puddles hummed to herself in vaguely-sarcastic thought. "Yup. I am. Truth be told, I find lone ponies horribly uninteresting. I could put in all the hard work in the world, and never even get to see the results. You want to talk? Bring your friends next time, and we'll be in business."

Now it was Jamjars' turn to smirk. "You seem to have misread the situation," she gloated. "You're bored. I'm the one who can flip that switch, and I'm the one who gets to choose whether to stay or leave. I have what you want. I'm in the position of power."

Puddles' shark grin returned. "Power? You're talking to me about power? And what I want? Kid, right now you're talking to the most powerful windigo in the world. I'm certainly not locked up because anyone thought I was harmless. Show me your power! Bring what you think you've got!"

"And?" Jamjars gave a satisfied shrug. "You're tied up, and I'm not. If you were so powerful, why don't you escape?" She paced in a circle just to prove she could. "I can certainly walk around more than you."

"Heh heh heh..." Puddles chuckled darkly. "But I already am free. These chains are a temporary inconvenience next to what my species has endured ever since we were awoken from the void and given our prime directive on the day of reckoning two thousand years ago! You see this pony body everyone seems so angry that I have?" She glanced victoriously at her forelimbs, the only part of herself she could see. "With this, I've evolved. I've become a superior life form! I can exist freely outside our old container without suffering the consequences! Isn't that great?"

Jamjars stared at her in confusion, a scowl growing on her face. "What?"

Puddles' two-tone eyes flashed with a crystalline sparkle. "What? Not following along? Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot you were here because I know things you don't." She blew a disdainful puff of air. "Try not to feel left out. It's just windigo politics. Surely nothing you'd be interested in."

Jamjars blinked. "Windigoes have politics?"

That was what Puddles was waiting for. "Oooh, you want to know?" She leaned forward, straining against her bonds and smirking. "Now that's funny, because I thought you were the one in a position of power, here... Oh right, you initially said I knew something you desperately wanted to know, didn't you?" She leaned back, putting on an insufferably smug grin. "Looks like the tables have turned, kid. I dare you to lower me back into that pit and leave. Bet you're too curious to bid me farewell now. See, I know I'm unpleasant, and the fact that you came down here anyway means you're the one on a mission and I'm the one calling the shots. This is my dungeon and my game to play."

"Clever," Jamjars remarked, not showing that she had been rattled. "And I probably should leave! You're clearly trying to goad me into staying. But I'm still the one who can reach this switch, and I say I'm not done talking to you."

"Uh-huh." Puddles nodded unenthusiastically. "Because I'd really rather you leave. You're not being nearly as interesting as I'd hoped, and I feel like brooding instead."

Jamjars frowned for a moment, contemplating harder whether she was being goaded. "Last night Wallace said you beat Morena and nearly him, too, in a fight. Wallace is the best fighter in the Griffon Empire. Puddles was probably strong, but not that strong. I want to know how you did it."

Puddles' grin returned. "Really. All the things you could ask someone like me, and you want to know how to beat another mortal in a fight? Your ambitions are pathetically uncultured. Why not get yourself a real goal, like becoming a goddess?"

Jamjars stared.

"Oh, you hadn't even considered that," Puddles boasted, reading Jamjars' face. "I see that look in your eyes. Now you're thinking about the possibilities..." She sighed in contentment, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "Where do you think Garsheeva came from? Think she existed from the dawn of time? It could be possible... not that a chained-up little windigo like me would be any use in getting there. Think bigger, and come back when you've got a goal higher up than your own shrimpy ears."

"Sorry," Jamjars decided. "Not interested."

"That's too bad." Puddles slumped. "Really, it is, because I'm all out of mysterious words and tantalizing tidbits to tease you with I'm not contractually forbidden from uttering."

"Really?" Jamjars blinked, then put her own smirk back on. "Contractually forbidden, are you? What happened to bragging about how free you were?"

"Well, aren't you a sharp one," Puddles hissed. "This one's more of a personal code. Believe it or not, I enjoy having a world to exist in."

Jamjars drew a sharp breath.

"The presence of world-destroying secrets got your attention?" Puddles raised an eyebrow. "Such a pity you have no way to tell if I actually know something or am just making stuff up to get your goat. I'll give you that one; I don't actually know any free and easy ways to destroy the world... unless I do, and have just forgotten about it. Sure hope my memory doesn't get jogged on that one..."

"I don't want to destroy the world, either," Jamjars said. "You're more frustrating to talk with than I had hoped."

"That's the danger of speaking with an eldritch being like me," Puddles apologized, shaking her head sadly. "Especially when I already told you I'm not interested in talking. You should leave before I yank your chain so hard you try and attack me. I've already told you what I want."

"And I've told you what I want," Jamjars demanded, glancing toward the switch on the wall, then glaring at Puddles. "So? What'll it be?"

Puddles sighed. "Then it seems we're at an impasse. Too bad."

"Looks like we are," Jamjars agreed. "I guess I'll just sit here until you get bored and talk to me."

"Will you?" Puddles winked. "I don't need to eat. I've sat here for more than five years."

"And I've sat in the hole where my family lived for more than twice that," Jamjars countered. "Besides, five years is a fraction of your existence, as opposed to nearly half of mine."

"Hah! Hahaha!" Puddles doubled over chuckling. "You think you can out-stubborn me, do you? Want to see a show of true power? This move will blow your mind... Behold."

Then she closed her eyes and did nothing. Her head lolled, her breathing stilled, and before long Puddles was sound asleep.

"...Hey!" Jamjars growled, raising her voice to no avail. "That's cheating!"

Puddles didn't wake up. Jamjars lasted only thirty seconds longer, glancing several times at the lever in impatience before stalking over, flicking it and slamming the door on her way out.

Comments

[RoboRed]

Jamjars pls no

[alamais]

trollololol

[Quinch]

Two's a party but three is a crowd.
My daddy told me that three's not allowed but
Am I sinning if I walk into a room
With the scent of evil doom?
I think I'll listen to my daddy today.

{clearly not Jamjars}

[Venlinelle]

Hmm. This seems to be a pretty unusual windigo, probably due to being in a pony body. I imagine most of them don’t talk quite like that.

Interesting that it specifies two thousand years ago; we know that that’s when Discord was imprisoned in this AU, but we also know that things happen in thousand year cycles, and so it’s entirely possible that something else at the time caused this.

[whizzball1]

Given a prime directive when they were first awoken from the void, huh? That sure is a tantalising secret.

[sploopy slooder]

im ....unsure what jellyjugs was hoping to accomplish there .