//------------------------------//
// Some Break 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

"All right!" Valey blinked, stretched, and dusted herself off, stepping away from the wall where she had unceremoniously deposited Randall's unconscious body. "Everyone sees, nobody cares. This table is ours."

"You just punched out a drunk stallion," Maple observed, watching Starlight climb onto a stool of her own. "In the middle of a crowded bar."

Valey shrugged. "Eh, he had it coming. You hit on me, I hit you, you know? And it was a soft hit. Meant to stun. Besides, don't tell me you wanted that sleazebag making commentsh like thish about our buttsh while we were having our down time, did you?"

"Well..." Maple looked away. "He did just get abandoned by his friends, right? I don't know, it just seems a little... much."

"Eh. Look at it this way." Valey nudged the stallion's abandoned tankard, causing it to roll off the table and fall to the wooden floor with a clatter. "If I hadn't done that, he'd probably be going back for another one of these right now. I was doing his brain and liver a favor! And it's not like this is a strange place to be passed out, or anything." She raised an eyebrow. "What's with you and being so kind to ponies, anyway? First you were all 'No, don't beat up those foals!' and now there's something wrong with me giving an old stallion a nap?"

Maple grimaced, as if something was caught in her teeth. "Well..." she stalled, then pointed a hoof. "You wanted to help Redshift."

"Huh. I guess I did..." Valey leaned back with a casual smile. "I guess you're rubbing off on me, Ironflanks. So hey, while we're here, feel like some grub?"

"If you mean food..." Maple's nose traced through the air, being told a tale of grease, soot and poor hygiene. "From this place? I think I'll pass. I saved some of these, though." Her hoof reached out, holding a bunch of perfectly ripe bananas.

"Aw, sweet!" Valey seized them, instantly beginning to peel with her teeth. "You're a... mmrf... real lifesaver, Ironflanks... Oh, goodie goodie goodie sweet bananas..."

Maple smirked wryly. "You're never going to stop calling me that, are you?"

"I feel like we've covered this before," Valey mumbled around a bulging mouthful of banana. "My brain?" She tapped her head. "Bad with names. When I don't make them myself. Sorry."

"And you're sure that's not just an excuse?" Maple asked, taking a bite from a mango.

Valey put her forelegs up. "All right! You got me. I secretly have a perfect memory and just do it to bug ponies. Almost as shocking as... ommph... how much I love fruit." She leaned forward, swallowing. "Really, though. While we're asking the hard personal questions, you alright? You looked kind of offended back there by some of those loons' hot air."

"...It's nothing," Maple sighed. "Past problems. We're supposed to be resting, right? Not talking about things that make us unhappy?"

Despite her insistence, Maple had to force her mind off track to prevent it from dwelling... and even then, her train of thought was like a boomerang. Riverfall. Sosa. Randall talking so carelessly and drunkenly about the mares she had grown up alongside... or her parents' generation, as if they were a fixture of a mythical place rather than actual ponies. A gift given by no one, a fleeting pleasure to be taken and then abandoned... just like...

Pacifistic feelings abruptly gone, Maple suddenly, fervently wished she had beaten Valey to the punch of knocking out Randall. Her heart clenched, shutting off all further thought, and she whimpered almost audibly. Hoping to break out of her stupor, she nudged Starlight, who was rock-still. "Hey, you. How are you doing?"

"This isn't very restful," Starlight plainly stated, breaking Maple's mood like a battering ram. "The stools are hard, it smells terrible, and it's so loud that I'd have a headache even without my horn. This place is a shrine to ponies pretending their bad lives don't matter instead of trying to change them for the better and I hate it. Why are we here?"

Maple paused, mouth lowered... and the bubble she had been using to block out the true extent of the room's din abruptly collapsed. They were one table out of many, afforded the scant mercy of a wall to one side yet fully exposed every way else. Behind her, within hooves' reach, a fat gray stallion laughed uproariously, his tail spilling dangerously close to hers. Further in the distance, a sharp crack rang out, and whether it was accompanied by a cry of pain, dismay or even victory was lost to the identical din. Everywhere, ponies were bellowing, guffawing, bawling, hooting and jeering, occasional intelligible strings drifting into her ears that she really wished weren't things she could understand. Through the dimly-lit, constantly shaking forest of heads and manes, nothing stood out save for the musicians on their raised stage and a stallion on a table at the far side of the room, balanced on two legs as he beat his chest and roared.

She squared her jaw. "Starlight's right. Some break this is. I'd rather be laying in a corner of the road than here."

Orange manalight glinted off Valey's slitted eyes, tinged dull brown by the contrast. "Well, excuuuse me," she cackled back. "How was I supposed to know that this place would be jammed an hour after lunch break? I thought it would be nice and empty and we could have half the room to ourselves!"

"I'm sorry," Maple mumbled. "I know you wanted to keep going, and we're slowing you down-"

"If you're about to say but," Valey interrupted, "can it. We just kicked those clods out and stole their table, and if you want to rub it in their faces by leaving right now and throwing it away?" She winked. "Then I guess I'm rubbing off on you, too!" A pause. "But seriously, if you wanna bail, I'm so down. This place is really not loving my ears back, and every time I have to hope I heard something wrong, I get this much closer to wiping the walls with every last pony here. Except you guys, of course."

"As long as we can find another place to get off our hooves," Maple sighed. "I have more food, and water too. We'll not starve for want of whatever this smelly bar has to offer."

The moment the words had left her mouth, the bar pressed back in around her, as if taking offense to being called smelly. Her eyes flickered, unable to settle... and landed on Randall. Had he known where she was from, when he said what he said? Of course not. If he had, would he have changed his words? No, he was drunk. If he hadn't been drunk...?

She shivered, unfocused, aches from walking and bruises from landing coming into sharp relief. If she was heading to Sosa, to find a boat out... how many more ponies would she encounter who felt that way about her home?

"Hey!" A leathery wing poked her twice in the side. "Ironflanks! Wakey wakey!"

It was Valey. "You coming?"

"I, umm..." Maple blinked, focusing. "Yes! Yes I am..."

To her side, Starlight lifted a hoof, signaling for them to hold. "Wait," she announced, staring under the table where Redshift had been deposited. "She's waking up."