The Immortal Dream

by Czar_Yoshi

Three Day-ja Vu

I was, to put it bluntly, fired up.

Less so much about what I was doing, or even what I was planning to do, than what I had done: I had turned my spirits around after being stressed and pressured into a funk. This was what stopped me from being a hero during the Aldebaran incident: I had the tools, skills and circumstance to meet those challenges head-on, and good old exhaustion and panic and lack of self-confidence went and did me dirty. For months, I stewed and imagined a redo, but I never really knew what would happen once I was back in the hot seat and the pressure came down hard.

And now I did. I had passed the trial run. Surprises, abductions, arbitrary hostilities, random boons, settings changing like a slideshow, parsing information from known liars and rules that made no sense had swept me up in a whirlwind, and all on my own, I was back on my hooves and brimming with determination.

That I was determined to make an alliance with Egdelwonk, break back into Lilith's lair and rescue my mortal enemy from prison were beside the point. If planning something that stupid and dangerous was what it took, so be it. If I could feel like this while doing it, the payoff would eclipse the price about as perfectly as anyone could ask for.

For now, though, all I could do was plan, because my body was busy dragging Kitty's loudly-snoring carcass up another set of stairs. The hallway after the Flame District stretched for between a quarter and half a mile, and at the end, I found this. The top was in sight, though. If I turned my bracelet off, I could even see traces of moonlight, though that made me realize I had been ever-so-slightly using it to bolster my physical strength as well.

Oh well. It had been wishful thinking that my surge of strength was all from a better state of mind. Still, I hadn't even noticed if there were green flames this time. I bumped practice with bracelet a little higher on my priorities list. Either my mental blocks around using it were melting, my control of it was growing, or both, and that made it important to practice and learn what I could count on it to safely do.

I reached the top of the staircase, stepped through a rusted metal double-door that had been left wide open, and found myself face to face with a beautiful, moonlit calamity.

A cracked concrete floor sprawled out before me, ancient stripes and painted guidelines tattooing it beneath a cover of grass and vegetation that sprung from the cracks. Mountains of debris covered the field, shoved together to create clear space and walkways, messes of rent sheet metal and twisted steel girders and splintered, rotting wood, twice the height of houses or more. I was at one end of the compound, my doorway set into a wall a few feet off the ground, a battered metal grate platform forming a walkway that looked sturdy enough to hold my weight.

Everything dripped and glistened with fresh moisture, and as I wandered out onto the platform and cast my gaze upward, I could see the last retreating dregs of the rainstorm intermingled with the stars. What looked like a broken ribcage soared high above me. It was too dark to make out the material, but I gathered those spines had been the core roof supports of a massive building that had fallen in, laying waste to everything inside.

I started to wander, sticking to elevated walkways whenever I found them - there were some still left clutching the building's old perimeter, a concrete shell that was largely intact. And, eventually, I found a particular rubble mound that was intact enough to see what it had once been before it was smashed by the ceiling: I was in the old skyport's airship hangar.

Two ships here were jammed together, a smaller, rotund one bisected by the prow of a bigger, metal vessel, both lodged tightly together in death's embrace. What had done that? I heard the Steel Revolution was a military endeavor, but this looked more like a natural disaster. As I squinted further, though, I realized there was a faint light coming from inside the larger vessel.

Someone had made this their home.

I glanced up at Kitty on my back, who since we got outside had shifted from honk-shoo honk-shoo snoring to hoooooonk mi-mi-mi-mi-mi. This was probably a bad place to stop and test the hospitality of strangers unless we reeeally needed it, right? I doubted anyone would live in a wreck like this if they were a noble and upstanding member of society.

She looked perfectly content to snore away, and my second wind hadn't abated yet... and I had my bracelet to fall back on if it did. So I shook my head at that call to adventure and moved on, looking for a way to get out of the skyport.

None were forthcoming. After getting to a high enough point to see out over the wall, I realized this destroyed building was in the absolute middle of nowhere, surrounded by rocky crags and post-glacial terrain with no roads in sight. Off to the east, I could make out two stands of destroyed skyport towers, the furthest of which sheltered the town of Dead Herman, and a pointy tower in the distance. Support columns ran from this building toward them, looking like they once supported a raised glass tunnel, but that was long past serviceable now. How did anyone even get here to build this place?

...The same way I did, I realized. If my sense of direction wasn't lying to me, the long tunnel that brought me here was probably a maintenance corridor connecting this building to the rest of the skyport. I had gone the wrong way.

I turned around to start retracing my steps, bracing myself internally for however many more miles with Kitty on my back, and found myself face to face with a pony.

One who was even more dressed-up than I was.

"Hello," she said in a soft voice, a thick, form-fitting dress hugging her slender frame like a ghostly cowl. A brooch with a glowing pastel-green gem held it closed in the front, and a heavy hood with ear shapes sewn into it hid most of her face and mane. She carried herself low and kept her head to the ground, and in the moonlight, I could only see the bare outlines of her eyes and muzzle.

"Err..." I took a step back. "Hi?"

"I haven't seen you around here before," she said, her voice tinged by a strange, ethereal quality. "Where are you from? And why is someone sleeping on your back?"

I hadn't expected this, and wasn't prepared to respond. More police? Sure. Hobos angry I was trespassing on their land? That sounded about right. But a curious waif?

Well, whatever. There were no rules on what I could expect from Ironridge, after all.

"I'm from down there," I said, pointing out at the rim of the Ironridge crater, a sheet of light rising up from its depths and obscuring the stars to the south as the city went about its nightly business. "Which is where I'm trying to get back to, except I'm lost. And someone's sleeping on my back because they're tired, and I wasn't about to leave them behind." Although if I did leave Kitty behind, she'd very likely be fine...

"You want to go down to the city?" The mare tilted her head at me, still keeping her gaze low and making it hard to see beneath her hood. "It's a dangerous place, but a wonderful one, too. Do you like watching ponies?"

I blinked. "Err, yeah. Why?"

"I do," she explained. "I think they're fascinating. You're fascinating, too. Usually, only my family come up here. Were you looking for me?"

I hesitated. "I don't think so. I'm lost, remember? I'm just looking for the way back down. You know where it is?"

"That's a shame." The slender mare sounded disappointed, yet as serene as ever. "Someday, I would like for one of the ponies I watch to remember me. With my parents' approval, I go down into the city to sell flowers from time to time. I try to remember the ponies I meet like that, but I can't remember them all. I assume they are the same. Have you ever forgotten about someone?"

Yes. On purpose. "Maybe, but I'm pretty exhausted," I said, pointing at Kitty. "And she is too. If you know a way down, could you please help us?"

"Of course." The mare nodded, and gracefully turned. "Please follow me."

She was a lot faster than I anticipated, yet somehow carried herself as if she was on a stately stroll even as I panted to keep up. We left the wall and moved down into the junk heaps, which she navigated with effortless ease, moving past one and then another...

And then we reached a pair of guards.

Before they could act, I sized them up. Unicorn mare and pegasus stallion, both with long dark fur, early thirties, wearing light sets of hardened leather armor. Heavily armed, each with at least three blades. Probably Yakyakistani. And they had seen us.

"Milady!" the stallion said, greeting the waif. "Who is that behind you?"

"Who goes there?" the mare echoed.

"Look," I said, taking a step back. "I'm a little lost right now. I don't want trouble, and if you show me the way out I will eagerly take it. Peace?"

My escort straightened up, apparently not as reluctant to show them her face as she was to show me. "Hello," she said. "I met these ponies on the eastern wall. They are from the city. They wanted my help in getting home."

The stallion looked me up and down. "You some kinda spy?"

"Or tourist?" the guardmare asked. "Can't tell if you look a little too ragtag or a little too fancy."

"Name's Halcyon," I said, "and like I said, I'm lost. Not a tourist, not a spy. No idea where this even is."

The guardmare raised an eyebrow. "Not a place it's easy to come by mistake."

"Look," I deadpanned. "Would you believe me if I said I got arrested, jailbroken by some shady goon, then escaped from them and ran through the Flame District to get here?"

The guards gave each other a look.

"Stranger things have happened," the stallion said. "Doesn't make it likely. What were they after you for? Are you with those pro-sarosian terrorists in the Earth District?"

"What?" I took a step back and blinked. "No. I was just minding my own business, when suddenly-"

"And what's with the kid?" the guardmare asked, pointing at Kitty.

"Excuse me," the cloaked mare gently cut in. "I invited her to come this way. Why are you so suspicious?"

Both of the guards looked slightly awkward. "Listen, Milady..." The mare hesitated. "Ponies don't just show up at Fort Starlight with unconscious kids on their backs because they're out enjoying the weather."

Starlight, huh...?

The stallion hesitated, then looked to me. "Kid, look. Are you legitimately in trouble?"

I met his stare. "I've legitimately had a real bad time recently. I'm not in so much trouble that I can't get myself home if you'd show me the way out of here, but if you're legit offering to help, I'll take what I can get."

Both of the guards scrutinized me. "Alright, where are you from?" the mare eventually asked.

"Depends how you mean." I shrugged, realizing this was probably a non-government fort and it may or may not position me against them if I claimed to be a denizen of the Ice District. "I'm kind of new to Ironridge, but before that I was from Icereach. The science colony, out west?"

The two guards looked at each other again, and with a nod, the stallion ran off. "Wait here," the mare instructed. "And have a seat, this could take a minute."

I set Kitty down and waited, and didn't try to make conversation. I probably should have, and probably could have, but if there was a chance things were going my way, I would wait and see how that panned out first.

The cloaked mare waited too.

Eventually, my waiting paid off with the sound of heavy, approaching hoofsteps. Familiar hoofsteps... Was that a yak approaching?

Indeed it was. Around the corner emerged a massive, hairy behemoth, his horns wide and imposing and his pear-shaped face covered in old scars and burn marks, a huge eyepatch over one huge eye. But despite the disfigurations, I recognized him immediately.

"...Nicov?"

"Science pony Halcyon!" Nicov brightened when he saw me, lumbering forward and grabbing me in a crushing hug. "Nicov notice fancy new coat! Halcyon moving up in world?"

"Yeah, sorta," I wheezed, struggling to breathe. "Nice face, big guy. What happened?"

Nicov put me down and shrugged. "This from Nicov jumping on bomb in Halcyon house. Just heal this way. Honorable war wounds." He flexed. "Halcyon chasing dream and come to Ironridge?"

"Yeah," I explained, all my anxiety melting away in the face of my old and powerful friend's presence. "Long time no see, by the way. Didn't they send you off here on vacation, because you were wounded? It's kinda coming back to me."

Nicov patted my back with thunderous force, but two years of experience let me weather it like a champ. "Official vacation," he explained. "Unofficial envoy and investigation yak. Nicov do sniffing around for crimes and things. Very complicated. Science pony would understand well."

"So..." The guard mare had lowered her weapons. "You two know each other, then?"

Nicov tossed me on his back, so that I was riding atop his thick, shaggy neck. "Science pony Halcyon very good friend. Nicov vouch for her with heart and stomach!" He pounded his chest with a single mighty thump.

"Wow," the cloaked mare whispered.

"I guess that settles it." The mare shrugged and waved us through. "Welcome on in."

"Hey, err..." I tapped Nicov on the shoulder before he could carry me on through, and pointed at the loudly-snoring Kitty. "She's with me."

Nicov hoisted her too, and then we were on our way.

---

Over the course of a few small steps, a whole new world opened up before my eyes.

On the outside, the debris piles were as dank and ruined as ever. But here, in the center, was a circular enclave, a wall of ruined junk that wrapped around to form the barrier of a central camp. And on the inside, it was substantially cleaner: airship hulls split cleanly and reinforced with ad-hoc sheet metal to form open-fronted rooms, sometimes closed off by curtains or other times left fully visible, like a foal's dollhouse that split open along a line to give easy access to all the rooms.

A central support pillar propped up a roof, made from interleaved sheets of metal that were all slightly slanted to keep out rain. The interior had no level floors beyond the ground, no way to count stories, but between ship decks and split ship hulls and layers of debris someone had put a serviceable floor on, it was almost as vertical as it was wide.

And it hummed with activity.

Pegasi, griffons and even a few batponies flew this way and that, inhabiting the highest reaches of the camp. Unicorns, earth ponies and a yak or two marched about on the floors, keeping up a sense of industrious, ordered chaos. Someone who knew about managing small spaces had clearly designed this; I saw shop stalls clustered together, and signs of skilled carpentry and even metalworking in the braces that held the place together and transformed it from a trash heap to something livable.

Was this a society who had been given nothing, and made everything out of what they had? Or was it a military operation who had very effectively camouflaged themselves from above?

I almost wondered if it was both.

"Nicov," I whispered, patting his neck for attention, "what is this?"

"Is Fort Starlight!" Nicov rumbled with pride. "Run by old friends of Elise. Strongest independent power in Ironridge. Very secret, so shhh."

"Yeah, yeah. My lips are sealed." There was no way Cold Karma didn't know about this, not if Egdelwonk was able to teleport between every trash can in existence. And, honestly, the exterior aesthetic fit him perfectly. But odds were they had some measure of diplomacy going on to at least stay neutral, and it might have been a secret from the general public, so I wouldn't be the one to spill the beans.

"Come," Nicov said, lumbering toward a side of the compound that looked more residential. "Put slumber pony to bed. Then Nicov introduce you to big boss. Make sure all know Halcyon is friend!"

I watched in amazement as Nicov spoke to an older stallion who seemed to be a proprietor, and soon Kitty was left behind, snoring her little heart out on a very comfy looking bed. I almost wanted to join her, my body suddenly reminding me that I actually had been emotionally kicked around today and hiked a long distance with a heavy load and maybe now that my rush of determination had worn off and I was in a safe haven, it was time to collapse and let myself be tired. But I had a warm, hairy yak to ride on, so going somewhere else didn't bother me too much.

On the way out, Kitty, still snoring, cracked one eye open and shot me a look that said I'm doing this on purpose and you still owe me cake.

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered at her, not caring whether it was loud enough for her to hear.

---

Nicov brought me as far as the back center of the camp, where a narrow spiral staircase rose up to the highest point along the outer wall. "Boss office," he instructed, nodding up at it. "Science pony go alone. Nicov too heavy for stairs. Will stay here if Halcyon need support."

"Okay..." I jumped to the ground and started climbing, looking back down at him after one revolution.

He gave me a one-eyed wink. "Boss pony act ruder than rudest yak, but actually friendly and noble. Halcyon will be fine!"

I swallowed. Introducing me to the boss so everyone knew I was a friend was one thing. Sending me up unannounced to meet with the boss on my lonesome? A rude boss, at that? This didn't match up.

But Nicov was my friend. I trusted him. And so, I kept climbing.

At the top was an airship that had been split in half lengthwise, the stairs matching up with the broken edge of its hull. I stepped onto the wood - surprisingly sturdy, as if it had all been torn out and replaced without sacrificing the bisected-ship aesthetic. The place looked like it had been a pirate ship, decorated with dark reds and occasional splotches of rich, gaudy color. In front of me was an ornate wood-and-iron door, short and almost as wide as it was tall.

I knocked. It swung open of its own accord.

The room beyond had been the stern of the ship, I guessed, an array of frosted glass windows at the back letting in just enough moonlight to see by. There was a desk, a high-backed chair, a lot of pictures lining the walls... Most of them of mares I didn't recognize, but one griffon that in better lighting might have been a much-younger Gerardo. Or maybe Gerardo was the only griffon I had ever met up close before. Also, it was pretty dark in here.

With a creak, the door shut itself behind me.

I felt a chill ride up my spine. The room was empty save for me, the desk all cleared of work. I paced around to check behind the chair, but nothing.

Had Nicov brought me when the boss was away? It didn't seem impossible, though I would have expected the door to be locked...

I took a step backwards, without looking where I was going, and felt something organic under my hoof.

"Yaah!" I jumped in surprise, spinning around to look... but there was nothing there.

"Okay..." I took a few steps away from the spot where I had felt the thing, glancing warily around, my heart pounding. "Who's there?"

No response.

"Listen, I-"

I took another step, and stepped on something again. This time, I didn't jump quite as hard, but it did the opposite of calming my nerves.

"Stop it," I whispered, climbing up on the desk. "Whatever's going on, I will fight you."

The room snickered.

"Where-!?" I watched the floor like a hawk.

"You know," the desk said from beside me, "I'm starting to think you've got a thing for stepping on my face."

My neck whipped around. There was a face on the desk. "What the-"

The face erupted, an entire pony bursting out from the desk, so close to me that I was knocked backwards. "Nyaaaaagh boolaboolaboolaboola heh heh heh hah harrr!"

I couldn't help it. I screamed, falling off the desk. All of my shock reflexes activated at once, and my muscles were too stiff to manage the landing.

And then the lights turned on, illuminating me like a spotlight as I lay in a messy heap.

"Hah! Gottem! Wow, you scare good." Now there was a pony on the desk, fangs and slitted eyes, staring down at me. She whipped out a camera, pointed it at me, and snapped. "For later. Wouldn't want you to miss out on the look on your own face just now. Can you believe batponies fall for the old shadow sneak just as easily as everyone else? Because lemme tell you, Socks, it's not just you."

Utterly overwhelmed, I wanted to withdraw into my coat like a shell and hide away. I felt my cheeks burn with shame, and I curled up. Whatever was going on... I just didn't care anymore. I curled up.

The pony on the desk frowned at me, a lock of emerald green dangling from beneath a classy, lopsided beret. "Wow, uh, you actually don't look so good. Here, I've got a thing to help with that."

She ducked behind her desk, and I heard a drawer open. Then she walked back out carrying a whole watermelon.

"Here," she instructed, reaching down and prying my forelegs open just enough to slip the melon into my grasp. "Eat up, it's delicious. That'll get you out of your funk."

I stared at her blankly.

She stared back, and eventually arched an eyebrow. "Alright, fine. I've heard stepping on my face can be a transcendent experience, but if you really wanna tell me how cool it was, fire away."

I had nothing. I quit. I gave up. There was no possible way I could understand-

Something beneath my mask decided that if I was abdicating, anything was free game. So I stood up, abandoned the melon, and punched her in the face as hard as I could.

She didn't even flinch until I hit her, at which she promptly went flying into the wall. The impact caused several paintings to rattle.

For a moment, I panted, realizing I had just punched out a pony I was maybe supposed to be aligned with as my senses un-jammed and I regained control of myself. And then she sat up and grinned.

"Hey, not bad, Socks! You're pretty buff!" She stuck out a hoof.

"Socks?" I didn't take it. "My name's Halcyon. Please tell me you're not supposed to be in charge around here."

The other batpony yawned. "That's nice, Socks, but I'm horrible with names I don't make up myself. So unless you wanna show me you're not using those boots to cover up any saucy sleepware, it's gonna stick. You've probably got until I say it two more times before it sticks around forever."

I stared blankly at her. "You what?"

"Nope?" She tilted her head at me, then shrugged. "Fine by me, Socks. Anyway, yeah, I'm the boss around here. Name's Valey. Admiral Valey, though I tried promoting myself to commodore a while back, and then someone told me admirals outrank commodores, and I never bothered to figure out if they were messing with me so the title's not as important as it once was."

I narrowed my eyes. "Wait a minute, you're Valey?"

She tipped her beret and gave a green-eyed wink. "Was my reputation a cool host? Hope you didn't get mistaken for me too often."

I shook my head and sighed. This was a name that always seemed to come up at random intervals, and rarely in a flattering context... probably. "I've heard a lot about a lot of ponies," I decided to say. "Hard to keep 'em all straight. So what's the big idea, scaring me like that?"

Valey shrugged. "Well, technically I owed that to your mom, but I'd kind of appreciate it if I never had to meet her again, so stinks to be you. Also I do that to everyone. Also anyone I don't do that to has this weird tendency to trust me too much and think I'm a cuddly kitten. And I let you punch me in return, gave you that sweet melon, and am not even charging for letting you step on my face, so I'd say you come out ahead here." She gave me a look that challenged me to say otherwise.

So I did. "You're insane."

"Eh." Valey yawned. "It's a common sentiment. Probably founded, too. I never was quite myself again after that one time someone devoured my soul. Took a nasty endoscopy and a whole lot of duct tape to fix that one, lemme tell you..."

My shock and confusion was starting to be replaced by morbid fascination and a similar sense of the utterly surreal. "Really insane."

"Capable of being not insane when it matters, though," Valey said, flopping into her chair. "You want me to get to the point so you can go enjoy your melon? Or are you enjoying the distraction from rude ol' Ironridge?"

"Distraction?" I squinted at her.

Valey gestured at the window. "I had a goon tailing you in Blueleaf. Been watching you for a while now, actually. You know, like, in case you wandered into gang territory and needed a way out, or something. Which you totally did, by the way, so you're welcome. Point is, I know, like... at least twenty percent of what you've been doing today. So you wanna joke around some more and keep pretending that doesn't exist, or get on with business so you can either crash here or go cuddle back up with stinking Jamjars?"

I took a step back. "As if. First off, don't stalk me, and second, if you really knew that much about me, why didn't your gate guards know who I was?"

Valey pointed a wing at me. "I just said I had a history with your mom, didn't I? Also, Birdo kind of asked me to keep an eye out for you. Can't help but know who you are! Also, I run an organization with a whole bunch of ponies who can't all be bothered to all know exactly the same intel."

"If you're really looking out for me, you mind showing me the exit?" I looked at her skeptically, wondering if this mare was really old enough to have a history with Mother. She couldn't be past her mid-twenties... "I met some mare in a cloak who said she was leading me out of here, and brought me to your fort instead."

"Yeah, we've got a teleporter. Good for close-range stuff." Valey stretched, adjusting her posture. "But first, I've got three important questions for you. And these actually are important, so listen up. First: what do you think of Ironridge?"

"Ironridge?" My ears flicked. "You want me to be honest?"

Valey nodded. "Lay it on thick."

"It's pretty dumb," I admitted, still not over my nerves from being jump-scared, but with at least a decent idea that this mare wasn't maliciously insane. Just rudely insane. "Nothing makes sense because there are secret reasons for everything and everyone who's anyone makes their own rules. But it's also really cool because it's big and new. I don't like it and I don't want to stay here forever, but if I left right now, today, I don't think I'd regret having come."

Realizing what I had just said, I quickly added, "You could probably change that in about five seconds with the wrong move, right now."

"Cool, cool. Also completely understandable. It's kind of a dump. Even I can't make sense of everything that happens here, and I'm juiced up on more context and forbidden knowledge than you can fit in Herman's armpit." Valey nodded again. "You sort of answered the second question already, but what do you want to do about the stuff you don't like?"

I shrugged. "Keep looking somewhere else. I didn't get up and leave my home to settle down in another place forever. I wanna travel and see the world."

"Neutral answer, then," Valey said. "You don't wanna be a goodie four-shoes and try to fix the problems, but you also aren't frothing at the mouth for revenge. Just wanna move on and roll the dice again."

I tilted my head. "It's kind of my only option, don't you think? How am I gonna do either of the others?"

Valey opened her desk, pulled out a banana, peeled it and started munching. "Beats me," she said with her mouth full. "Maybe you can, and maybe you can't. But at the very least, anyone can try anything. Say you thought you could do anything. Would that change your answer?"

I thought about that for a minute. "I dunno," I eventually said. "I know it would be the right thing to do, and all. But if I'm gonna risk my neck, I'd rather do it for stuff I care about a lot. I'm not a wandering hero for hire. But I wouldn't try to make it worse, either."

"Huh." Valey nodded along. "Third question. What makes someone a person?"

I blinked. I had no idea.

"Complicated, huh?" Valey watched my reaction keenly. "Is it the cute, fuzzy body? The ability to speak? The place you come from? Something no one can see?"

Helplessly, I shrugged. This wasn't exactly a question I had wrestled with, but it was fairly close to one I thought about a lot, and that was what I was, emptiness and mask and all.

Valey raised an eyebrow. "If you ran into someone in a gray area. Like, some unnatural stuff about them, maybe minor, maybe serious. How generous would you be with drawing the line?"

"I'd be pretty generous," I said without hesitation, remembering how often I talked to machines. "Like, probably more than most."

Valey grinned. "Cool. I like you. For now, consider yourself welcome in Fort Starlight." She narrowed her eyes. "But just a heads-up, that doesn't extend to the little curmudgeon you brought along with you. She and I have an understanding, and she's currently pretending to take five because she doesn't want to violate our treaty, but she's not on our team and neither is Jamjars. So, uh, if you ever happen to be back in the area? Try to ditch them first. Snazzy?"

I nodded, feeling like I wasn't too likely to come back here any time soon.

The moment I thought that, though, I remembered Nicov, and reconsidered. But this Valey reeked of an agenda about as much as the Cold Karma bosses, and I didn't really need more feuding sides to deal with. Especially one one opposed to the side that was currently giving me free room and board...

"Yeah. Snazzy." I turned to leave, ready for a rest and some relative safety.

"Hey!" Valey barked on my way out. "Don't forget your apology melon!"

I shook my head and left anyway, much more interested in the company of Nicov than some suspicious fruit. Although, on second thought, I was really hungry...

When I turned around, Valey was already hefting the melon, a sneaky grin on her face.

"I swear, if you throw that thing at me..." I warned, a strange sense alerting me as to what was about to happen. "Eh, just give it here. Gently. And you better watch yourself when you're alone, because I can shadow swim too."

Valey just winked. "Yeah, yeah. Challenge the master. But hey, maybe you'll learn a thing or two?"

I took the melon and left, hoping but not hopeful that that was the end of that.

Comments

[Boopers]

VALEY!!!! Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to meet that cutie cute again! I had my sneaking suspicion about that last week with the place we ended up in at the end of the chapter.
And I just love the way the two of them met. And how that mask thing was involved in that...
I do wonder what that new green amulet of Valey's is. Something tells me this is going to be important later.
Also, massive spoiler: Hallie is not a tourist after all!

a strange sense alerting me as to what was about to happen

OH BOY

[KMCA]

11177574
OH BOY!

[Boopers]

Happy 1 Year of TID, Czar!!!

[Numinos]

Oh, hey Valley, long time no see : )

[Zapdroid]

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGLLHSSUKBYYV

[PropsValroa]

Yes!! I was waiting for this!

[Alchemik]

Oh hey! I got a question answered! Uneasy truce, smells like mutual dislike with some respect behind it! Cool.

[RoboRed]

VALEY!!!
I had a feeling it was her from all that sudden darkness and mischief. Glad to have these two finally meet, though it's too bad Halcyon didn't have the best experience out of it.

She ducked behind her desk, and I heard a drawer open. Then she walked back out carrying a whole watermelon.

Honestly, I was expecting bananas.

[blankity-blank]

Oh hey, Valey is back!

[Venlinelle]

Well, she took her time!
The second Halcyon stepped into that office it was clear who that was.

Kind of a shame they didn’t get off on a better hoof. Then again, Valey didn’t exactly make a great impression on Maple or Starlight, and they practically ended up married. So I’m sure it’ll be okay.

[sploopy slooder]

id have though valey would love kitty. jamjars really pissed her off, huh? also she gave socks a nickname but didnt even flirt with her, it would have been so delightfully awkward.