The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Don't Be A...

The hotel room door swung closed with an angry clunk, cutting Valey off from the view of outside just as quickly as it had opened. Puddles was finally gone, and about time, too.

Ever since Valey had accidentally revealed she was using another pony's body just like Puddles, the conversation had been dead and lifeless, and even Puddles' enthusiasm for hugs had been sapped. Somehow, the windigo had been the bigger mare and left first, and even though Valey's common sense told her leaving Puddles wandering around unsupervised was a recipe for disaster, she badly needed the alone time to sulk.

The bed was all hers, and she sprawled listlessly on it, spread-eagled, thoughts boiling but never forming coherent ideas or even tears. She was still cold, but didn't feel it as much. She needed someone she could trust to talk to, was at her limit, couldn't deal with any more...

Her hat. It was still hanging on the peg by the door, and she slithered out of bed, half-shadow sneaking through the floor because she was too lazy to walk. Down the hat came, and thoughtfully balanced inside was her sound stone, not even touched despite Puddles dragging her halfway across the continent.

She slumped against the wall, cradling the faintly-swirling artifact in her hooves. Amber was someone she could talk with. At least, she was in usual circumstances, when the problems had to do with anything but Valey and her... but Valey's wings still hurt at the bases, just a little, and every time she blinked Puddles was wrapped around her again for a brief second until she looked and saw that no one was there.

Valey whimpered soundlessly to herself, hugged the stone for several minutes, and got up. Being a wuss was no fun, and she needed to snap herself out of it to deal with an escaped windigo and get back to her friends. At the very least, she wasn't thinking straight and needed to talk to someone trustworthy and rational, and any problems with her friends that came out of it, she could deal with later. With a short burst of purpose, Valey stared into the sound stone and prepared to activate it... and remembered that doing that took magic, and the Griffon Empire was notoriously stingy about its power grid.

"Oh, come on!" Valey growled, stomping and surveying the room to find no powered light fixtures whatsoever. The bed, the window... Outside? Valey snapped to the window, peered through the curtains, and grinned. The stallion she had seen earlier playing with his foals was still there, and he was a unicorn. Perfect.

---

With her hat back on her head, Valey snuck underneath the hotel door, figuring she didn't have a key to lock it. The day outside was unfairly pleasant, with a moderate ocean wind that cut patterns through the tall field grass and hot, cloudless sunshine that made her want to flip over and sunbathe. In fact, she wouldn't have been surprised to see Puddles doing just that, but she had better things to focus on.

"Hey!" she greeted, approaching the stallion and his foals in plain view with a wing shading her eyes, the cold uncomfortable but far from debilitating. "Any chance you guys could give me a hoof? I've got a magic crystal thing that needs charging, and it takes like less than a second!"

She got their attention instantly. The father's eyes seemed to widen as he took her in, but both foals bounded up to her with windblown manes and expressions of eager joy.

"Hey, lady!" the faster foal shouted, squeaky voice easily piercing the wind. "Are you a pirate?"

"Coooool..." the second foal cooed, awestruck and wandering to the side to stare at Valey's wings. "These look just like the pictures in our books! Are they real?"

"Uhhh..." Valey stopped, frowning in suspicion as her mark began to tingle.

Flash! A bolt of hardened telekinesis soared past her head, her danger sense allowing her to sidestep out of the way. "Get away from my kids!" the stallion hollered, charging her with his horn glowing as the two surprised foals were telekinetically yanked toward him.

"Yo! Hey!" Valey backflipped, landing defensively with her wings spread. "What gives!?"

The stallion skidded to a stop when the foals were back at his side, gazing around with confusion on their little faces and looking up for reassurance. "What's wrong, Dadda?"

Not taking his eyes off Valey, the forest-green stallion hissed at his foals in a frightened stage whisper. "Kids, what have I told you about strangers who look like her!? They're dangerous!"

Valey narrowed her eyes and started walking forward. "Okay, that's just cold. What's your problem, dude? You just walk up and shoot people who were trying to ask-"

A green telekinetic glow formed around her. Was he fighting? Did he seriously want to pick a fight with her? The foals seemed to think so. "Yay, Dadda fight the pirate!" one cheered, both backing off and sitting down to watch.

Valey gritted her teeth as the forcefield flung her upwards, stopped her in midair, and hurled her like a hammer toward the ground. As if! What did this clown think she was, a civilian?

With a pump of her wings, Valey zipped downward out of the cloud, the stallion spending too much effort pushing her downwards to stop an escape should she fly that way too fast. Whud! She hit the ground running with just enough time to break her momentum and remain upright, swerving and wobbling to dodge two hasty shots of telekinesis that were fired in surprise. The stallion looked angry, then worried, and as Valey approached him at a swift canter, he raised a hoof to strike, horn still glowing.

But... the danger was coming from behind her? Valey frowned, reading the stallion's eyes... and in the same instant, she jumped and spun midair as he disappeared in a teleport. He appeared exactly where she had predicted, sucker punch flying, but Valey was faster.

Pow! With one hoof, she slugged him, making sure not to dislodge any teeth, intercepting his blow with another and wrapping a wing around him as she continued to spin. In one smooth motion, Valey threw him to the ground, flipped over him, and landed triumphantly a short distance away.

"Nyaaah." She stuck out her tongue. "Looks like the pirate wins! Good fight, Dadda. Next time, ask your opponent for consent first, and don't be an aggressive jerk."

"My. Name. Is. Franz!" the defeated unicorn spat. "Only my foals get to call me that!"

"Woooooah." Both foals gazed at Valey from a safe distance, pupils almost as wide as their eyes. "The pirate beat Dadda!"

"Cool!" one foal cheered. "You're really cool, lady!"

The other foal shoved her sibling on the shoulder with two hooves. "But we're not supposed to talk with her, remember?"

"Uhhh... yeah." Valey regarded them, not even looking as she sidestepped a bolt Franz fired while prone. As rude as he'd been, he'd inadvertently given her what she came for: being caught in his telekinesis had charged the sound stone. "Don't trust strangers, and all that, kids. But don't attack them, either, 'cuz they could totally be cool as well. Savvy?"

She took one last moment to nod before deciding she better get out of there, spreading her wings, and kicking off, leaving the three far below on the ground. From the safety of far in the sky, she watched Franz get up, glare at her, and corral his foals back to a hotel room, his outing thoroughly ruined. Valey sighed after them. This was the empire, this wasn't Izvaldi, batponies were viewed from normal at best to criminals and scourges... and for all she knew, Franz's fears could have been totally justified. They were right next to the sea, after all. Maybe she could have been a pirate.

"Hello? Valey?"

"Hey, Amber," Valey sighed, hovering limply with no better place to go. "Bananas, I hate this place."