//------------------------------// // Hope // Story: The Olden World // by Czar_Yoshi //------------------------------// Minutes passed, and the room sat in silence. Starlight eventually looked up. "Are you going to say anything?" "Sorry." Maple swallowed. "Just thinking... You know how Willow was talking to you earlier, and said I looked up to her? That she was my role model, and I tried to do everything like her?" Starlight nodded mutely. She didn't remember the exact words, but recalled something similar. "Well... I did." Maple sighed, and continued, held against Willow's side by a steadying hoof, just in case. "That was true for wanting to leave Riverfall. After that failed, we didn't know what to do with ourselves. Well... I didn't. Willow started a family. I was just a teenager." She shuddered heavily. "Eventually, I grew up," she said, eyes barren. "Things changed. Willow met... her husband. I wanted that too. I tried, and... well..." She broke off, starling hollowly into the distance. Willow let her sit for a minute, and when she didn't continue, nudged her. "Do you want me to take over?" Maple turned and buried her face in Willow's shoulder, answering without words. "Maple met a stallion," Willow said without fanfare, her voice as gentle as it always was. "From Sosa. We all liked him. She got a bigger house. They moved in together. She wanted to have kids, like mine." Her voice clenched briefly, and her lips tightened, showing her teeth. "Apparently, he didn't. We found out it would happen, and were overjoyed. But the day after she told him... he left." Maple shook visibly against her. Amber paced slowly out of a corner, talking. "We were furious. Sosans don't talk much, so we never really know what they're thinking... but to do that? To just leave someone without warning, explanation or even a chance? I hunted for him for weeks, after that. I found him, eventually, clear on the other side of town." Her face darkened. "I got an explanation. It wasn't good enough. I also got one of his teeth." "We told Arambai, too," Willow said softly. "We asked him what we should do. After all, he takes responsibility for most of the Sosans in town. He said he would take care of it. He wasn't pleased." "We never saw that stallion again, after that," Amber added. "Granted, we weren't looking." "Maple was distraught." Willow hugged the dusty mare closer as Starlight watched patiently. "She'd been looking forward to that for so long, only to have her dreams collapse in front of her... right after everything seemed to be going so well. Her new house was right next to mine. I spent many days after that just sitting with her... Her foal's name was going to be Aspen..." "But she miscarried," Amber finished. "I've heard depression can do that to a pony. I was there when it happened. It's... not something you need to know the details about." She shuddered, and added, "Or something I'd be comfortable telling." Willow shook her head in agreement. "Things got even harder after that. At the time, I was pregnant with Yew, my third foal. I never would have tried for her then if I had known all this would happen. She was eventually born perfectly healthy... I could barely even look at Maple after that. Not when I had everything she didn't, purely by chance. Not when I had Faron and three happy, healthy foals..." Maple sucked in a hissing breath, lifting her head. Her eyes were wet with tears. "After we c-couldn't go to Ironridge, these two s-set down lives and did something with themselves. I tried that and f-failed." She shuddered, hugging herself. "Being branded is supposed to give you the p-power to make your dreams come true! So why couldn't I? It still hurts, sometimes... feeling powerless when I should..." A triumphant surge coursed through Starlight. Of course this was about Maple's cutie mark. "See?" she proudly proclaimed, pointing a hoof as connections were made in her mind. "I told you! If you never had gotten a cutie mark, you never would have tried to change who you were just because it told you to, and you wouldn't be sad because you failed now!" She stood, eyes closed and fully validated. Pow! "Eeeep!" Starlight went sprawling, landing awkwardly on her side with a heavy stinging in her cheek. Amber was standing over her, face thunderous. "What is wrong with you?" the yellow mare snarled, teeth bared. "We tell you about the hardest thing we've ever gone through as friends and your first reaction is to interrupt her to try and prove a point that has nothing to do with what we're talking about? Look at her! Look at her!" she snapped, pointing a hoof at Maple's subdued form. "Does she look like she had us tell you that so you could complain about cutie marks?" "Amber," Willow said sharply, eyes flitting between her friend and Starlight's stricken face. "That's enough." "No it isn't." Amber sucked in a sharp breath, addressing Starlight once more. "Where is your compassion? Where's your... your empathy!? Weren't you just telling us about how you lost your friend earlier? How'd you like it if one of us had responded to that by going, 'Hah! I was right about something earlier that's presently completely irrelevant!?' You should know how she feels! Where are your emotions?" "Amber." A silvery hoof appeared on her shoulder, and like a siphon the rage was drained out of Amber's face. Her eyes, ears and muzzle fell, along with eventually her neck and tail. "I'm... sorry," she said, turning to walk away. "That might have been uncalled for." "Stay." Willow patted the floor next to her, Maple already walking over. "We aren't done yet. Are you okay, Starlight?" Starlight stared at her, drawn back and too frozen to move. "Starlight." Willow's hoof stretched out, offering itself to the filly. "What you went through must have been terrible, to drive you out over the mountains. But what I hope you can understand..." Her eyes softened, and she beckoned again. "Is that hardship is a fact of life. There are no ponies who have lived a perfect, ideal life, Starlight. Some of us are like you and Maple, and have been hurt directly by circumstances beyond our control. There's nothing to blame for it. There is only rebuilding and moving on." She looked over to Amber, who had finally collapsed against her, on the opposite side as Maple. With both of her friends leaning on her shoulders, Willow continued, "Others are like me and Amber. Our lives may have been free of misfortune... or at least had little enough that we move past it naturally, without scars that won't heal. Yet because we know other ponies... because we have friends whom we love, and care about very deeply... their hurts become our own. You cannot avoid pain and hardship, without also living a life without joy... which would only bring pain in another way. You can only endure and survive... and, if you're strong enough, make a positive difference for others, as well. Would you like to know what happened to us next?" Mutely, Starlight nodded. "We survived," Willow said, "and we healed. It wasn't easy. Amber helped Maple find a new place; this one. It was hard, being farther from me... but it was the right decision. Her old house had too many dead memories and dreams... After that, we continued to support each other. Maple learned to smile again, and then to laugh, and eventually to truly mean it. The memories still hurt and will never go away, but eventually..." She sighed, and smiled. "We moved on. Our wounds healed, and we became stronger for it... as friends and as ponies. Sometimes, we still sit and remember it like this... but our lives are happy, now." Sniffling, Maple dared to speak again. "Starlight? Do you know what took the longest to heal?" Starlight shook her head. "You can probably guess," Maple said with tears in her smile. "It was for me to hope again. It's easy to expect the world to get worse. It's possible to recover, and be happy with what you have... but expecting the world to get better, all on its own? After the last two plans I had made for my life fell through, it took a miracle for me to start believing that was possible again..." She reached forward, breaking from Willow and touching Starlight's face where Amber had slapped it. "A miracle like a filly floating down in a box from nowhere, for me to look after." As Starlight's pupils dilated in realization, Maple sniffed and added, "So if I'm a little overbearing, that's why. Sorry about that." "And that's why I asked you to be nice to her," Willow added softly, speaking to Starlight. "But it turns out you two are even more similar than I thought." "So... please?" Maple held out a tender hoof towards Starlight, offering to help her up. "I'm ready for things to be good around here, for a change. I want to love you and care for you and give you everything you need to be happy as I watch you grow up... and after everything you've been through yourself, you deserve it. Please? Our world is getting better, and you can be a part of it. I'll never make you become anything you don't want to, and I'll always be your friend. Always." "Always?" Starlight sniffed, breaking her silence. "You promise?" Maple smiled down at her. "I promise." Willow and Amber faded into the background as Starlight slowly got up and moved into Maple's embrace. "I'm sorry," Starlight mumbled, unsure whether the tears beginning to sting her eyes were in remorse for what she had said earlier... or from somewhere deeper. "Whatever it's for," Maple answered, hugging her tightly, "I forgive you." They stayed that way for a long time.