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

"Starlight?" Maple whispered out of the embrace. "Can I show you something?"

"What is it?" Starlight grunted, wrapped between Maple's still-wet forelegs on the stone floor of Arambai's basement.

"It's nothing special," Maple began softly. "Just a trick I learned when I was feeling down... that sometimes helped me feel better. Maybe it will work for you, too?"

"Mkay..."

"Well..." Maple stared off into the walls and rows of boxes and storage that made up most of Arambai's lab. "Whenever I was feeling like there was nothing that could go right with the world, I would get out of bed and take a walk. And while I was walking, I would look at everything I saw, and think to myself about who might be happy that it was there."

"Mhm."

"It didn't always work perfectly," Maple continued patiently. "Sometimes, I would get jealous, or angry that the world was unfair. Still, those emotions are better than despair. They can make you want to change things. And I know how you feel about that, but when things never change, they can also never get better..."

She shifted, scooting to a slightly dryer part of the puddle. "But other times, I didn't feel that. Instead, it made me glad for other ponies, imagining what they had and loved. And on those days... it didn't matter what I was glad for. I was happy, and then, that was enough."

The lights flickered overhead more harshly than usual as Arambai messed with a piece of equipment in the back, causing Starlight to wince and close her eyes.

"No matter what I felt while I was on those walks, imagining who loved what I saw, though, I always ended them the same way. Do you know how that was?" Maple leaned down and nuzzled Starlight, receiving no response.

"Hee... well... whenever I would get back... the last thing I looked at was a mirror."

Starlight grunted, still seeping water from her coat and mane. "I'm cold..."

"Well, we should fix that," Maple said, holding her close. "But after we do, will you go on one of those walks with me? I think it would help... and I'd love to share one with you."

"I can tell you what somepony would love right off the bat," Arambai interrupted, trotting out from between two stacks of boxes. "It's called a towel rack, and there's one right upstairs! Seriously, it's like you brought the entire river down here!"

"Sorry," Maple hastily apologized, cheeks reddening as much as her rain-chilled state would allow. "We can, uh, clean this up on our way out?" She stood up, hefting Starlight and facing the stairs.

"Don't worry about it," Arambai replied with the wave of a foreleg. "Just take care of yourselves, you two. I'll manage this mess by myself."

"Thank you!" Maple waved back as she climbed the stairs, Starlight on her back.





"Well, this isn't how I usually begin these," Maple admitted, rubbing herself vigorously with a white linen, "but being dry is nice, right? Isn't this a good thing?"

Starlight slumped beside her, not moving or toweling herself off.

"What's wrong?" Maple's head craned around to look her in the eyes. "Starlight, I really am trying my best. Won't you at least talk to me?"

"Sorry," Starlight mumbled at the floor. "I'm listening. You can keep talking."

Maple sighed, forcibly unfurrowing her brow and beginning to dry Starlight. "Starlight, I'm already saying practically everything I can think of to try to make conversation. I've given you my inspirational speeches, I've told you about how my life hasn't been perfect just like yours. I'm running out of things to say! And it's not like I can help you with just words when I don't even know you as well as I'd like. You told me about you, and where you came from, but that doesn't help as much as you'd think it does. To get to know you, I need to... well..." She sighed again and drooped. "I need to talk to you, and you need to talk to me. And I bet it goes the other way, too. How well do you know me? You know what I've done and what's happened to me, but that's not the same as who I am..."

"Sorry," Starlight repeated. She didn't have anything else to say.

"Look, if you need time..." Maple sucked in a breath. "I'll give you time. Okay? For right now, let's just finish getting you dried off, and then go on that walk. As long as you're trying. Please try?"

Before Starlight could answer, Arambai bustled up the stairs, the light of inspiration in his eyes. "I've got it!" he crowed as he passed. "I bet there's something in that griffon's cargo that caused the machine to go haywire through proximity! And those readings might have been closer to what I was trying to achieve, too! I've gotta track him down before any variables change!"

Starlight and Maple looked at each other, then at the still-swinging door Arambai had barged out of, his voice trailing off into the distance. It appeared to have stopped raining.

"Well? That's something a lot of ponies are probably happy about, isn't it?" Maple asked with a smile. "Good for us, too! Do you want to walk yourself, this time?"

"My horn hurts, okay?" Starlight looked sharply up at Maple. "My mind won't stop thinking about things or slow down and it's giving me a headache! It keeps coming up with stupid ideas for how I could make everyone here forget I ever did that or treat me the same anyway that would never work, and it won't stop telling me how screwed I am and how I need to run away even though that's impossible and I already decided I'm staying here! Okay!?"

"Oh..." Maple's lips pursed in shock. "I'm sorry! Would it help if I wasn't talking, then?"

"No. Keep talking," Starlight muttered, rubbing her forehead with a hoof. "It distracts me."

"Okay..." Gently, Maple lifted the filly back to her back and pushed her way out the door. It wasn't sunny, but the rain seemed to have stopped, save for a few fat drops still working their way down from the canopy. They splashed against the river of moisture making its way to a drain somewhere along the glass, gemstones twinkling like stars below. Maple breathed, relishing the scents.

"See that house ahead?" she asked, not batting an eye when Starlight didn't respond. "I bet somepony really loves that house. Or maybe some ponies. Don't you?"

Starlight was silent.

"I wonder... what if one day, when this house was newly built, a pony hurt themselves here, falling from the roof. A construction worker, maybe, adding the finishing touches. And because of that, other ponies began to think this house was bad luck, and no one wanted to live here. Wouldn't that be sad?"

She closed her eyes, walking by instinct as she narrated. "But then, one day a little filly about your age didn't know the house's history, and she moved in, taking shelter from the rains after having a fight with her mother. The house was so grateful to her for giving it a chance that it hid her when ponies came looking for her, and provided for her every need. Eventually, didn't need to hide anymore and reconciled with her family. The house had kept her safe while she needed it most."

Maple rounded the building, brushing it with her tail. "In time, she grew up and learned the story of the house, and why it had been empty when she needed it. It still was. But she remembered everything it had done for her and bought the house, and they lived happily ever after."

"Did she really?" Starlight asked from her back, eyes distant.

"Heehee. No." Maple skipped along, putting the house behind her before settling into a gentler gait. "That's just a story I made up to tell myself. Sometimes, you see a thing and you know instantly how it's loved. Other times, you have to guess, so why not have fun guessing? Besides, like you said. Imagining helps take your mind off whatever you don't want to be thinking about."

"Oh." Starlight blinked, staring around.

"I have so many stories like that..." Maple sighed wistfully. "Part of me needed to hear them."

"Only part?" Starlight leaned forward to ask. Maple brightened; the filly was getting engaged.

"Well," she giggled softly, "the other part of me needed them to be told. We told you about our attempt to see the world. It didn't make me depressed when we failed, but I never got over it like Willow or Amber, either. I still dream of places far away, you know. But that's okay." She leaned back and nuzzled Starlight. "As long as I have you here, I think I can rest, knowing that I'm doing something with my life. I'm glad you're here, Starlight." She blinked, and added, "But I do still like telling stories."

No response.

"You see the road?" Maple asked, tapping her hooves as she walked against the glittering surface. "We can't see the sky very much in Riverfall. You have to be at the docks to see it, and it needs to be a clear day. If it's night, though... well, I bet you saw the sky a lot in the mountains." Starlight hummed, so she continued. "Sometimes I like to imagine that the roads are the night sky. They're shiny... glowy... yet behind the stars, it's perfectly black. It's beautiful."

She cleared her throat, shaking off an errant drop of rain. "Anyway, I tell myself that before Arambai came here, he was a powerful mage... and he made a pact with a sky spirit, who knew what we were missing and wanted to give us the sky to have, always. So the spirit sent him here, and told him he could never leave until we had the sky... but if he succeeded, he'd be rewarded. Arambai then took a slice of the sky and sealed it in glass, and now we have this, for all of us to look at whenever we please."

"Huh." Starlight continued to ride without fidgeting, giving no indication that she was impressed... or bored. She had withdrawn back into her head, and wasn't coming out.

"I know, it's a silly story," Maple admitted, pressing on past the boundary of the glass. "But doesn't it help? To be able to escape somewhere else for a while, without having to actually leave?" She hung her head as she walked. "I know it helped me, at least. Let's see, though... ah!" She pointed a hoof across from her. "See there, on that patio? Someone's left a stuffed toy. It doesn't take a story to imagine how that could have been loved..."

Maple continued glancing around, looking for things. "There, that house has a wind chime by the door. The wind never blows here outside of the docks due to all the trees, so somepony must have put that there for a very special reason. And look at the cups in the window of that house! They look lovely, but the set is incomplete, so they must be in use. I bet somepony appreciates those..."

They wandered further through town, Maple's hooves squelching in the mud. "Look over there," she offered. "See that cart parked next to that house? It looks like it's been repaired, and skillfully, too. Somepony must have really loved that cart to take such good care of it..."

On her back, Starlight's eyes drooped. "I'm not tired," the filly pre-emptively explained. "Magic just makes you yawn. It's... nngh..."

"Taxing. I know." Maple softly shushed her, not using a hoof as hers were caked in mud. She continued to scan the area, eyes settling on a passing mare. "Oh!" In a low voice, she exclaimed, "See that mare? I think she's going to have a foal. I know just how much joy can come with that. When you're not... you know..."

Blinking, she shook herself from her rising stupor. "And look, she walked right past us! That's good, right?" She looked back at Starlight. "Looks like you aren't famous enough that every pony in town knows, yet!"

"Mmph." Starlight sagged. "She probably had better things to do than get smashed in a crowd and rained on for hours, like staying inside and minding her own business."

"Perhaps," Maple hesitantly agreed. "Now that I think about it, though, we haven't been stopped once, and you're in plain sight. Where are all the ponies from the docks?"

"Nngh." Starlight shrugged noncommittally. "I don't care."

"It's weird, though..." Maple glanced around, eyes darting back and forth as they entered a street lined with ponies standing around and chatting. Snippets of conversation flew around, the words 'griffon' and 'boat' registering several times in Maple's ears... though all she picked up were a few friendly waves. More than half of the ponies ignored them entirely. "It's like they don't even see you! What happened?"

"Don't know, don't care," Starlight muttered. "I'm hungry."

"Relax," Maple said, rounding another turn. "We're almost home. Tonight, I was thinking of making biscuits with vegetables and mushroom gravy. I think you'll really enjoy it. In fact..."

More houses passed by as Maple talked about dinner, and eventually hers came into sight. Sighing tiredly, she announced, "Next time, I think you get to walk. Anyway, we're home!"

"Okay." Starlight slumped to the ground. "Just not right now..."

"Hold on," Maple murmured, pulling her back. "Aren't you forgetting the final step?"

Starlight's head was turned toward a shining mirror sitting on the porch. She stared back at herself, recently drenched and still half-wet, with shadows under her eyes and a few black singes along the edge of her mane from Arambai's machine. Her ponytail had come undone, and her purple eyes were dull.

"The other ponies might not be able to see you, or maybe act like they don't," Maple hummed, stepping up behind her and placing her chin on Starlight's head, "for better or for worse. But I do, and I love what I see. No matter what you do, whenever you look in a mirror, you can see yourself and think of me. Okay?" She waited a moment, sighed contentedly, and then stepped back, raising a hoof to push open the door.

It swung open of its own accord, and a beaked face blinked out. "Oh, hello!" Gerardo Guillaume announced cheerily. "It seems these directions were correct, after all!"