"I'm regretting this already," Maple grumbled, head low to the ground as she slunk along a dusky Gnarlbough road.
"What?" Howe covered his chest with a wing, face a picture of innocence.
Maple glared back at him. "You're staring at my butt and it's starting to get really obvious. Knock it off."
"Hey, now..." Disappointedly, Howe clicked his tongue. "First off, you never told me where we're going, so I have to follow your lead. Second, Valey is no longer around, and third, there's something I really want in there!" He blinked. "In your brand. My orb. That's what I meant."
"Look," Maple snapped, sighing aggressively. "I'm tired. My hooves hurt, my legs hurt, my back hurts, my neck and chest and ears and throat and tail hurt and I feel like a giant bag of cramps and bruises, and I can also punch very hard. All I want is to find a safe place to lay down and sleep for several days, and you're not helping. Understand?"
Starlight softly coughed. "Make him go look for one."
"What's that you say?" Howe perked up. "A chance to be of service? I will do my best!" He raised an eyebrow. "Err... How many beds are we questing for?"
"One for me and Starlight," Maple managed. "I don't care what you get as long as it's cheap and doesn't involve sharing."
"As you wish, my ladies!" Howe saluted, taking off just as noisily as could be expected and winging away.
Maple glared after him until he was gone, before sagging against the dry side of a hill. "Whoo..."
"Tired?" Starlight asked, waddling up on stubby legs beside her.
"That's an understatement," Maple groaned. "I don't get it. I always felt fine in Riverfall, and could easily run across town and back to keep up with Amber. I'd get winded, sure, but... ugh. I had no idea I was this out of shape..."
She lifted a foreleg and felt it with the other, squeezing sore muscles. "And we haven't even done that much today. We slept in, walked a long way downhill, rested on fluffy couches, took a long cart ride... but I feel so much worse than I did in the morning. Blegh..."
Starlight frowned in concern. "You don't think you're sick, or anything? Like... there's some disease that's out in the world, but you never got immune to because Riverfall is so isolated?"
"I hope not..." Maple shivered, drooping. "If I am, I guess it's good that we're done with everything. We'll just have to hope Shinespark finds us and takes care of us, because it probably means I'll get worse..." She swallowed. "And they wouldn't let me go back home until it was cured, in case I was contagious. I hope I don't give anything to you..."
"Well..." Starlight bit her lip. "If my home and here have no contact, there are probably a lot of diseases I'd have never been near, either. Though there are shots that ponies get when they're born that are supposed to protect you from the worst ones..."
"Then we'll just have to hope for the best," Maple sighed, leaning against the hillside. "How have you been feeling?"
"My horn hurts," Starlight said. "I have a headache. No different from usual. I don't have a fever." She reached up and touched Maple's forehead. "...I don't think you do, either. And we've been near each other or touching a lot. Where do you think you might have got it?"
Maple's brow furrowed. "Let's see... We were around a lot of ponies when we found the Spirit of Sosa, but never close to any, except the few on the trade cart. But then we passed so many in the Stone District... It's hard to tell when I really started feeling bad, because when you carry a heavy crate up a tall mountain, it's normal to be tired. In the museum, I was only a little sore, I guess, and sitting down to lunch did make me feel better. So did when we took that break at the hotel... remember?"
"What about in the Defense Force base?" Starlight asked, tilting her head.
"The Defense Force..." Maple squeezed her eyes shut in thought. "I got carried in there in Selma's magic. Do you think telekinesis can transmit diseases? He did touch me physically, though not much, if actual contact is important... And then we got out, and rode in the elevator with that one guard before being alone until Valey found us. Right? That guard wasn't acting suspicious, was he? I can't remember..."
Starlight frowned... then gasped. "The crates!" she exclaimed, eyes widening. "When we were digging around in them, and you took that crystal ball... Howe said it was bad, or dangerous..." She looked at Maple's cutie mark, coat standing on end. "You don't think using your mark to store something full of dark magic would hurt you, would it?"
"...You're right," Maple whispered, eyes shrinking to pinpricks. "I can't believe I didn't think of that before. Especially when we had just learned my cutie mark can store magic..."
"We still need to figure out how that works," Starlight pointed out. "It could be useful, or important. The more we know how to do, the better."
"Right... but..." Maple closed her eyes. "If that so-called windigo heart is what's making me feel like garbage, there's only one way to find out..."
Softly, a glass ball with a teal core dropped to the grass between her hooves, rolling slightly and coming to rest. Instantly, Maple's eyes flew open, dilating. "Oh! Oh my..."
"Maple!?" Starlight bristled, instantly looking up at her.
"I feel... wow..." Maple lifted and examined her forelegs. "I think that was it, Starlight. I can't believe how much better I feel. I feel like... I just got several years younger, or let go of some ballast that weighed almost as much as I do!"
She stood up, feeling a huge grin forming on her features. "Wow! I can't believe this! It's like I had forgotten that this was what normal was, or something! And I'm still carrying another of those iron ingots like the one I dropped on Selma, too! I must have never noticed the benefit I got from dropping the last one, because I almost immediately picked up that dumb orb... Starlight, I feel great!"
"That's good..." Starlight frowned. "But now we have to do something with this."
Maple followed her hoof to the orb, sitting with the vague illusion of sinister light in the grass a hoofstep away. "Oh. Yes, we... we do..."
"But what were we going to do with it in the first place?" Starlight asked, looking up from it. "All we wanted was to keep it from the yaks, right? But it looks like it really is dangerous, so we have to put it somewhere safe, and you can't really carry it any more..."
"And Howe wants it, but it might not be a good idea to give it to him," Maple finished. "I... told him I kept it in my cutie mark. Do you think I shouldn't have done that? Should we hide it somewhere, and hope he doesn't ask to see it, or if he does tell him no?"
Starlight nodded. "Yeah. What if we gave it to White Chocolate? We could go back and ask her to take it in exchange for us taking her moon glass. She probably wouldn't know what it was, and it looked like she had space to hide something in her room. This is too big to go in my saddlebags without looking obvious, but not that large..."
"I think that might be our best bet," Maple replied, scanning the skies for Howe. "Starlight?" She sat down and motioned to her back. "Want to ride?"
"Sure." Starlight resolutely grinned, picking up the orb and climbing on.