//------------------------------//
// Present Ghosts 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Valey crept along a hilltop, slithering through a tall bed of grass as she approached a winding road from the side. Tongue poking slightly from the side of her mouth in concentration, she crawled forward one hoof at a time, tail swishing like a cat.

"Is there anything we're being stealthy for?" Maple frowned, keeping her head and voice low just in case. "I thought this was a peaceful town!"

"'Cuz it's fun," Valey whispered loudly back. "Duh! Also because going over the houses is faster than these roads. Dunno if you've noticed, but zig-zagging isn't really the best for efficient travel..."

"They're also drier," Starlight complained, flicking moisture ineffectively from her coat.

Howe hovered smugly, tail dangling just above the grass. "Yeah, that's a problem being on the ground sometimes leaves you to contend with. Fortunately, the Howenator is high and dry on this evening!"

"Are we almost there, though?" Maple pushed a swath of foliage aside with a foreleg and stepped forward. "Being wet is what we just spent all that effort to avoid, and now we're covering ourselves in dew from tall grass!" She blinked. "Why do they keep the grass here so tall, anyway?"

"Beats me." Valey shrugged. "Earth ponies are weird. Maybe they think it'll appease the grass spirits or something. But... mmm..."

Nibbling the edge of her hoof in thought, she crawled further, cresting another house-roof hill and looking down at the road beneath. "Yeah, it's that door right there. Here we are!"

"That door?" Maple nodded. "Okay. Come on, Starlight. Let's just... not trip climbing down..."

Valey pumped a hoof, quietly cheering from the grass. "Yeah! Go get 'em! And then let's find somewhere cozy with a bed that wouldn't mind super hard if we broke in. I'm getting yawney..."

Howe rubbed his forehooves, flapping low to the ground and drifting towards the door. "Ah, to surrender to the night's dark embrace..."

"Yoink!" Valey grabbed his passing tail and hauled him down into the grass. "Not you, Pancake. You and me get to sit this one out." She motioned down the other side of the hill, leaving Maple's door out of sight.

"Huh?" Maple looked over her shoulder. "You are?"

"Yeah..." Valey shrugged apologetically. "I've got a bit of a bad rap, and Pancake here looks like an evil cultist or insane supervillain, so we're gonna wait here and let you do your business on your own. If you're supposed to be making sure someone is fine, we're not going to interrupt by scaring them. Go on!"

Maple paused at the top of the hill, watching them for a second longer... then disappeared over the crest, Starlight at her side.

After long enough for the sound of grass rustling to fade from their ears, Howe looked at her and grinned. "We're going to follow them, of course? To keep them free from marauding danger?"

Valey raised an eyebrow as far as she could. "You sure have a high opinion of my decency."

Howe winked. "Well, you did just agree to let her take this confidence-booster on her own, as well as to not attempt to traumatize her target! And let's be honest: we do look pretty scary, you and I."

"Actually, you just look ridiculous, so nyaa." Valey stuck out her tongue. "But of course we're going to follow them. Stick with me, and keep quiet..."





Maple and Starlight stepped out of the grass into a gravelly, well-drained road, thoroughly wet but not soaked through. Across from them, a round door that might have been painted dark green was inset into a hillside, a short path of artistically-curved concrete leading up to it.

"Well?" Starlight asked after a period of no motion. "Are you going to knock?"

"I'm... Yes." Maple hesitated, then squared her shoulders... and did nothing. "I'm nervous, honestly. Aren't you?"

She leaned down to Starlight, who briefly folded her ears. "Maybe? Why?"

"It's just..." Maple shuddered. "I've spent so long trying to do this. I mean, only two days, and it's only a favor a friend of a friend asked me to do if it was convenient, but..."

"That's the problem with trying to do things that are possible," Starlight muttered. "You have to figure out what to do next after you succeed."

Maple stared... and smiled. "That's some interesting advice."

Starlight frowned. "Are you going to knock, or not?"

"I am." Maple heaved in a breath, and took a step forward. "I am, I am..."

Slowly, steadily, she crossed the road, gravel crunching underhoof, and the short, winding concrete path to the door. It was taller than she was, just high enough that an average-height earth pony stallion could walk in merely by bending his ears, yet a unicorn would have to duck. She raised her hoof, hesitated, and put it back down... before all of a sudden rapping thrice and taking two steps back, heart pounding and legs tense and immobile.

"Mom!" a little voice squeaked from beyond. "Someone's at the door!"

"Coming!" a mare's voice echoed from further inside the house.

For a moment, all Maple could hear was her own heart, before that thumping mixed with the vibrations of hoofsteps, someone stomping just inside the door. It cracked, creaked, and swung inward with a shower of amber light... and a mare stood there, looking Maple face to face. "Hello?"

Maple didn't reply.

The mare stood taller than her, but not by much, normally proportioned but closer to a stallion in size. A fuzzy midnight bathrobe was wrapped around her back and shoulders, and a long, straight gray mane with an improper part covered half of her face.

"...Mom?" A colt's face stuck itself into the crack between her and the doorframe, scents of a recently-finished dinner wafting out from behind. "Who is it?"

"Hello?" the mare repeated, in a voice that sounded as if it hadn't been anything but motherly for years. "Is there anything you need?"

Still, Maple didn't reply, mouth hanging open with unsaid questions.

The mare frowned, a drop of worry seeping into her silvery face and one visible eye. "Are you alright?"

"I-I..." Maple stammered. It wasn't a perfect resemblance, watching the mare standing in the welcoming light of the door with that coat and that face and a young family waiting behind. But for her, having bid farewell not two days ago to her entire world and two friends closer even than blood, the slightly-different manestyle and twin bulges in the robe where pegasus wings might go faded from perception, and Maple could only see another silvery mare who was countless miles downstream, in Riverfall.

"Sorry." She swallowed, throat bone-dry, and offered a shaky smile. "I was just surprised. You... remind me of somepony I used to know."