//------------------------------// // Very Helpful // Story: The Olden World // by Czar_Yoshi //------------------------------// The trio blinked, processing the newly-arrived pegasus. Eventually, Maple asked, "Who are you?" "I concur," Gerardo added. "You look vaguely familiar, but I've been doing quite a lot of new-pony-meeting today and my memory is slightly overtaxed at the moment. Do we know you?" "Aww." The pegasus drooped. "Come on, you don't remember old Howe? We totally had each other's backs down there this morning, with the gate and the guys with the fruit and that one scary lady! Remember?" He looked up beseechingly, which didn't mesh with his goatee or manestyle at all. "I was asleep," Maple immediately announced, as if it excused her from all further dealings with Howe. Starlight could see why; his sense of fashion was appalling and there was something about his demeanor that put her on edge. "Ah. Yes, that does seem to ring a bell," Gerardo admitted. "Pardon me, but my friends and I are currently very busy and have somewhere we need to be, which namely is not here. Is there something you need?" "A friendly face," Howe said with a slightly cheerier shrug. "Seriously, you get thrown out of one establishment..." "Then you will have to take what you can get, I'm afraid." Gerardo neatly shook his head, bouncing the crate on his back for emphasis. "The hour for being social with strangers is long over, and as I said it would not be prudent for us to dawdle. And I hate to be rude, but you..." He raised an eyebrow at Howe's red and black mane. Howe looked up and frowned. "Hey, don't knock the 'do, bro. Do you know how hard it is to find a stylist who will put up with specs like these? I'll have you know, my clients can be very demanding!" "If you please..." Gerardo narrowed his eyes. "My patience has been tried enough already by this day. Maple, Starlight, we are leaving. Howe, much as I hate to be impolite, please do not follow us. You will find yourself having much better chances with impromptu social calls in the daytime, and when your targets are not busy doing things they are paid to do." "Having a rousing discussion, are we?" Selma's voice sounded from further up the road, and everyone turned to see him marching down toward the group. "I'm interested to hear what you've decided." "We're leaving," Gerardo announced, standing with his crate in the middle of the road. "We have no quarrel with-" "Woah woah hold on a sec!" Howe's eyes widened, and he jumped around so that he was facing both Gerardo and Selma. "You guys were trying to get through another checkpoint? They made you give up, didn't they?" He stomped a hoof. "Well, this cannot continue! Watch out, guard guy, because my friends busted me through a checkpoint earlier, and now it's time for Howe to return the favor! Hiyaaa!" He did a midair fighting dance, punching and kicking at nothing. "What kind of fruit have you got this time, eh? Eh? 'Cause it's gonna take more than melons and mangoes to stop this pegasus, oh you better believe aaack! Hey, leggo!" Selma had seized him in his ice-blue aura, completely immobilizing him and holding him in the air. He squinted, inspecting his catch with the same kind of eye used by insect collectors. "This is a very suspicious pegasus, wouldn't you agree?" he mused, directing his gaze at Gerardo. "We are unaffiliated," Gerardo quickly assured. "Yes, quite. Because complete strangers simply stop to talk to each other at the ends of unpopulated roads," Selma countered, his smile betraying his intentions. Sparing Howe a final glance, he fired the pegasus like a javelin off into the distance of the Stone District, and turned entirely to Gerardo. "Tell me, what were you conspiring?" "We," Gerardo said forcefully, "intend to leave. It is clear that staying would be unproductive for everyone, and we bid you no ill will. Would you stop us from even that?" Selma put a hoof to his chin, the two pegasus guards fluttering up behind him. "Have you forgotten the role of my Defense Force? It is to protect the upper districts against all threats, including the titular Stone District. And when I not only have reason to suspect you lot of being up to no good, but you won't even take the simple step of proving those crates to be harmless..." Gerardo tensed, taking a step backwards. Maple pulled closer to him, Starlight tucked between her forelegs. "What are your intentions?" Gerardo hissed. "Ironic, that it would be you asking me that," Selma said, shaking his head. Then he looked up, gaze boring into the griffon's skull. "Open the crates, or surrender them to my custody." "I told you," Gerardo insisted, "we cannot-" "Fine." Selma shrugged. "Guards? Arrest them." "What!?" Maple gasped, moving tighter against Gerardo. "But why? We're trying to leave!" "Clearly," Selma began as if reading a court verdict, "you have something to hide. I am not merely the lord of this fortress, but the protector of all the Stone District. Whatever danger you think you can get away with is only as suitable for my city as it is for my sight. Arrest them." Gerardo reached for his sheath as the pegasi approached... and found it empty. Growling, he deposited his crate roughly to the ground and tore the sheath from his belt, desperate for any kind of weapon. "Maple," he hissed, "Starlight. I shall handle this. Run." Maple started to back away... when Selma stomped a hoof, causing the two pegasi to soar overhead and block the road with their spears. She cringed, looking back to Gerardo. Selma raised an eyebrow, expression growing eager. "Assaulting an officer? Interesting. I wouldn't have expected that from someone cowardly enough that their first reaction to trouble is to flee. Do you realize that being suspected of committing crimes and actually committing them are two different things? Jumping to such a last resort isn't painting any better a picture for you, Gerardo Guillaume. Although, this does give me an idea..." "Nngh..." Cringing, Gerardo hesitated, lowering the sheath slightly. "Don't be so hasty to back away, now," Selma added, grinning like a shark. "It's only illegal because I say it is. I don't make these laws, but I do decide which ones to uphold. Arm yourself." Horn flaring, he yanked a wingblade free from one guard's armor and levitated it in front of Gerardo. The griffon stared at it, squinting. "What are you...?" It butted him dully in the chest. "Take it," Selma announced. "Guards, move the crates over by the entrance. You two..." The glow of his horn brightened, and Maple and Starlight were seized, floating out to a better vantage point and hovering in the air. "...get to be the audience," he continued. "Cheer, or don't." Gerardo continued to stare as the blade poked him again. "What in the world are you doing?" "Proposing a trade," Selma answered, standing alone and unarmed in the center of the clearing. "Those crates of yours are mine, but if you make this entertaining enough, I'll forget about anything else you may have done... and just might decide you're not enough of a threat to be worth holding. Fight for your freedom, swine! Amuse me!" His eyes glinted dangerously. Not waiting to see if he had anything more to say, Gerardo lunged, grabbing the blade as he passed, preemptively throwing himself to the side in preparation for an attack. Right where he would have landed, the ground boiled blue, and a storm of gravelly pebbles surged upwards like bullets. Selma nodded in approval. "Good! Don't waste your time waiting for monologues, and always anticipate-" He didn't have time to finish, as Gerardo had made it close enough to close the remaining distance with one charge. The griffon pounced... and abruptly screeched to a halt when Maple was flung in front of him, acting as a shield. That moment's hesitation proved to be a mistake, as a small boulder levitated and hurled itself from the roadside, impacting Gerardo's side and sending him crashing painfully to the ground. "A rookie mistake," Selma lectured, moving Maple above him and out of the way. "When a friend on the battlefield is between you and your opponent, you go through them. A liability is-" CLANGGGG! "Ow!" He staggered, and his aura fizzled out, his horn having been impacted by a sizable iron ingot from above. Maple landed roughly, struggling to her hooves. "Unngh!" she panted, readying to jump away... Flash! Once again, everything was immobilized by Selma's telekinesis. "Where did that come from!?" he snarled, glancing in every direction. "Raaaugh!" A violent aura of blue seized Gerardo, flinging him up into the air... and piledriving him back into the ground with enough force to render him barely conscious. Starlight was flung against him, his feathery coat largely cushioning the blow. Maple wasn't so fortunate, being dragged immediately before Selma's snarling face. "You were the only thing up there!" he hissed. "You dropped that!" "I-I don't-" she protested weakly, before a telekinetic clamp locked her mouth closed. "You two," Selma snapped at the pegasus guards, "bring the crates! Leave the idiot and the filly, they're useless! But this one is... is..." He glared up at Maple, floating along in his aura. "I don't know, my head hurts! Lock her in a storage room and figure something out tomorrow. I need to lie down..." Staggering briefly, he lead the march into the fortress tunnel, Maple and both crates in tow. From Gerardo's side, Starlight stared at the departing ponies in disbelief. Her head was swimming from the impact, but not enough to stop the tears. Maple was being taken away. The world isn't fair, but you have the power to change it. Her horn lit. Nobody was looking at her, and if they had been, they probably would have assumed it was meaningless. And they would have been right... because she was just a filly with a possibly-defective horn and no training. There was nothing she could do... but she had to do something. A telekinetic field expanded, stretched so thin it was invisible, reaching all the way to the retreating ponies. It was one of the few spells she knew, and maybe, just maybe, it would find something she could use. She wiggled it back and forth, feeling for drag, closing her eyes and concentrating as hard as she could on the shapes of the four ponies and two crates. There had to be something... ...She could feel the contents of the crates, and the revelation almost shocked her eyes open. It wasn't so much that what was inside was unusual; on the contrary, it felt rigid and metallic, likely parts for some sort of device. But in one of the crates, under a section of curved plating that didn't seem as broken up as it could have been, there was a crevice... a pocket of air where a very cramped filly might fit. There was nothing she could do there, but there might be later, if she followed. Taking a deep breath, she let her magic surge, uncaring of the consequences of letting loose her full power. Her mind flooded, focusing all of her overwhelming emotion on the desire to be anywhere but where she was right then... and instead, to be inside that crate, following her new mother. In a teal burst, Starlight disappeared.