//------------------------------//
// Untangle 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Maple, Starlight and Amber's bath-turned-waterfight was interrupted by a thunderous clearing of a throat. The three ceased their battle, looking upwards at the purple mare who was half-smirking back at them. "Sorry, ladies," Sycamore growled with a hint of regret in her voice. "But some real, paying customers just arrived, and I need to at least pretend to be running a respectable establishment." She pointed a large hoof over her shoulder at a pair of mares slinking towards a far-corner pool and nuzzling furtively.

Amber waggled her eyebrows. "I'd say whatever they're planning is a lot less respectable than good old splashing and dunking!"

Snorting, Sycamore shot a sideways glance at Maple. "Could you slap her for me, hon? There are fillies present."

As Maple obliged and Amber yelped, Starlight's face scrunched in thought. "What?"

"Never you mind that. Now what else was...?" Sycamore held her chin in thought. "Ah! I should turn the ventilation on. It's getting steamy in here. Be right back..."

As she wandered off, Maple nudged Starlight. "So? How do baths in Riverfall compare to where you're from?"

"That was it?" Starlight's eyes widened. "But we were just messing around!"

"That's what they all say," Amber interrupted, backstroking past. "But Riverfall likes its water way more than the rest of the world. Just because 'bath' and 'boring' start with the same letter doesn't mean you need to make them one and the same!"

"Hmm... well..." Maple gave a soft tug on Starlight's mane, which was still a gnarled clump. "It'll take a little more to fix this. And maybe not all outings I've had here have been this energetic. But I bet you do smell much better!"

"What did I even smell like?" Starlight muttered under her breath. "I laid in a box and didn't do anything else since the last time I got wet..."

They were interrupted by a low hissing noise from above, followed by Sycamore's returning hoofsteps. As she walked, the air cleared around her, making it almost seem like she was approaching twice as fast as she really was. With a sigh, she flopped down on the edge of the pool, patiently watching the three inside.

"Well?" she prompted when no one spoke. "I'm dying to hear about your new filly, Maple. Aren't you dying to tell me?"

"I basically told you everything there is to know," Amber drawled, floating past again. "We camped the river and found her floating past in a crate, and Willow told Maple to take her home!"

"Oh, really?" Sycamore leaned in closer. "And how does a little filly come to be floating north along a tributary from the mountains? That's a long way to walk to get here from Sosa..."

Starlight squirmed slightly at the question. Mercifully, Maple noticed and interceded. "She actually asked if we could not talk about that for right now. I hope you don't mind?"

"Of course." Sycamore backed off respectfully. "Not meaning to pry."

A moment of silence followed, during which Maple suggested, "Should we get dried off? Then you can get to work on Starlight's mane?"

"Heh. Won't that be a treat." Sycamore rolled her eyes and extended a forelimb in case any of the bathers needed a lift getting out. Maple took it graciously, while Starlight scrambled her own way onto the ledge and Amber stayed carelessly floating in the pool.





"Right, then..." In a section of the building that ringed the pool compound, next to a window looking out over the bathing area, Sycamore set Starlight, wrapped in a towel, onto a stone table. She stuck her tongue out, squinting as she ran a hoof over the filly's mane. "Let's see how we can save this, shall we?"

"O-Okay," Starlight grunted, shivering. She couldn't tell if she was actually cold or if it was merely a reaction caused by all her memories of being unable to get dry, but it was certainly unpleasant and not a welcome way to end what had been an otherwise funner-than-expected experience. Fun... she needed to remember to be careful with that. It would never do to get a cutie mark in bathing.

Sycamore had just begun pulling apart her mane, searching for a way to make a part when an ear-splitting boom echoed in through the window, causing Starlight to jump. She didn't cry out, but every muscle in her body tensed in preparation to run.

"Hold still, you." Sycamore pressed a strong forelimb over her, pinning her in place. "I'm not done yet. No reason to end early over a little thunderstorm."

"Thunderstorm?" Starlight lifted an ear. "But it's not raining out there." She pointed a hoof toward the open window, beyond which Amber continued to soak in peace.

Sycamore stuck her head out and looked upwards. "I really think it's raining, kiddo. Have a look, but then get back here so I can do your mane."

Released, Starlight looked outward and upward herself... and blinked several times. Rain was indeed beating down, but it stopped as if striking an invisible surface, turning to a rippling sheet and sliding off. There was some kind of dome or barrier protecting the building she somehow hadn't noticed before.

"Like it?" Sycamore asked, tapping the table Starlight was supposed to be waiting on. "That shield is Arambai's doing. Same goes for the plumbing, the water heater, the ventilation... everything that makes this place run, really. That stallion is a wizard, both literally and metaphorically."

"Who's that?" Starlight glanced up at Maple.

"Arambai? He's the inventor I was telling you about earlier," Maple replied, sitting nearby and rubbing herself with another towel. "The one who made my window blinds. He also is making the glass roads, and lots of other things in town."

"He's amazing," Sycamore added, rolling her eyes. "Single, too. I'm sure the only reason he stays that way is because it keeps half the town daydreaming whenever they're around him."

"Or it could be because he's old enough to have grandfoals," Maple chided. "Or because he doesn't want to pick favorites."

"So what's so great about him?" Starlight squirmed as part of her mane was tugged, finally coming loose from the rest. "Is it because he's the only stallion in this place?"

Maple blushed heavily. Sycamore might have as well; her coat coloration made it difficult to tell.

"What's with that, anyway?" Starlight tilted her head, forcing the mare working on it to bend with her. "Why aren't there any stallions here?"

"Didn't I tell you?" Maple shifted where she sat, looking out at the rain sliding down the dome shield outside. "It's because, as long as we can remember, all the colts would eventually grow up to the point where they got bored with this town and leave. They all hopped on ships headed west, to test their fortunes in Ironridge and beyond. Same with the unicorn fillies that are inevitably born whenever Sosan stallions come back here to settle down."

"All of them?" Starlight frowned. "Wouldn't there be some who stayed?"

"That's not how herd mentality works, kiddo," Sycamore rumbled, gently teasing apart a knot. "If enough ponies do it, it becomes the normal thing to do. Besides, who doesn't want to be told their expectation in life is to be set free after spending ten or fifteen years cooped up in this town?"

Starlight's frown grew deeper. "So I'm going to be abnormal if I don't leave and run away again, huh? Is that it?" Her leg twitched, and she re-adjusted her seating, looking forlornly at Maple. "I thought you wanted me to stay here..."

"Well..." Sycamore cleared her throat. "That's how it used to work, at least."

When Maple saw Starlight's confused expression, she leaned in to clarify. "I won't be making you go anywhere you don't want to, Starlight. Don't worry." She gave her a short, wet one-legged hug.

"But why doesn't it work that way anymore?" Starlight asked as her mane was yanked to the side, snagging briefly on her horn. She gritted her teeth.

Sycamore sighed, then hesitated. "We... don't really talk about that."

"What?" Starlight exclaimed, brow furrowing. "Why not?"

"Because it's a sore subject for every pony old enough to remember it," Maple murmured in her ear. Before Starlight could protest again, she added, "I'll tell you later if you want to know. But she was nice enough not to ask where you were from, remember?"

Starlight pouted, but that was the end of that. "So what's so awesome about the inventor?"

"Well, for one, it's how much he's done for this town," Sycamore replied with a smirk. "He's the spitting image of selflessness. Makes all this wonderful gear for us, and never asks a thing in return except the right to his own privacy and secrets."

"Which I'm sure he has a lot of," Maple added. "He turned up one day, nearly ten years ago, as if out of nowhere. None of us know a thing about his past, or about how he learned to make so many things. Or why he's so nice to us all the time."

"He got off a boat from Ironridge, obviously," Sycamore cackled. "That or one to it. I'm convinced the whole forlorn, mysterious thing is just an act to give all the unattached mares something to pine over. Fits with every other thing he's done for this town. They'd all go insane without it."

"He sounds shifty to me," Starlight muttered darkly. "I don't trust him."

"The one thing we know for sure is that he cares about Riverfall," Maple soothed. "You'll be able to ask him yourself, if you want. I'm sure we'll run into him within the next few days."

Sycamore nodded. "Trusting him is one of the things every pony in this village agrees upon. We'd make him leader in a heartbeat if he ever asked. Some have even tried to volunteer him for the job. He just shrugs and goes about his business."

"Do you have a leader already?" Starlight batted at the clips holding finished sections of her mane out of the way as Sycamore continued her work.

"Nah. Well... sort of." The purple mare paused, using her teeth to work out a particularly stubborn snag. "There's another stallion, Hemlock. He's basically the opposite of Arambai. Born and raised here in Riverfall. Went off to get his adventures, but eventually came right back. He invented this machine to help hoist boats up the falls, and acts like we should all worship him for it. But everyone knows that ninety percent of the time, he's got nothing important to say, so we just let him do his own thing and only pretend to listen."

Maple nodded sagely. "Those two are the closest to leaders you're going to get."

Sycamore glanced out the window. "Oh, lookie there. The rain's stopped. I should probably get a move on this and finish her up so you two can get on before it returns, shouldn't I?"

Starlight shivered in agreement, not liking the idea of taking a hike through the rain. Especially not on that glass surface. Magic or not, she wasn't sure she was willing to give it her full trust so soon. With no dissent, Sycamore doubled down on her efforts, finishing up Starlight's mane and moving on to her tail as the day continued to tick by.