//------------------------------// // Climbing Higher // Story: The Olden World // by Czar_Yoshi //------------------------------// Deep inside a metal tunnel where the emergency lights had drained to a fraction of their power reserves, a shadow flickered, and Valey rose from the ground after slipping through the crack of an immobile high-tech door. The Defense Force base had proven almost abandoned, every pegasus still willing to stand their ground massed at the Blueleaf border, but even if it hadn't the conditions for stealth were the best imaginable. The darkness was just light enough that she could make out walls and obstacles with her exceptional night vision, but any normal pony would be unable to see her if she left the shadows and stood within slapping distance of their face. "Okay..." she whispered, ears failing to register any life beside their own. "Think I need a quick break. Whatever that mercenary chick gave me was good stuff, but she was definitely right about it not being a full restore. Urrrgh..." Starlight didn't protest, so she backed into a maintenance alcove and sat down against a wall that smelled faintly of cleaning supplies, getting Starlight off her back but keeping the filly near. Her legs felt like they had been disassembled and put back together with parts that were just a millimeter off, working efficiently but with a not-quite-pain that waited to intensify just below the surface, like the strained mix of looseness and tension felt a second before cramps set in. Her hoof was still undeniably burned; while it took weight, she frequently caught herself limping. But at least she had her hat. Licking her good forehoof and running it over her ears and through her mane, she glanced at Starlight. "You holding up, kiddo?" "No," Starlight muttered back. "I'm probably crippled. Maple got stabbed by that stupid sword, and now you let Gerardo and her leave. When I woke up and it was just you, I thought I hadn't saved her at all. I hate this city, wish I had never come here, don't know who to blame and wish I could blow up another dam right in its stupid face." "Ow. Violent." Valey leaned against the wall, giving her body the rest it furiously hinted it needed. "Yeah, welcome to the Ironridge Smells club. I'm a little wound up, ticked off and put out myself right now. But just a little. It's not like I just defected to your side under the promise that I could have real friends and not do everything myself any more, only to get blown up and then stuck putting aside my own emotional baggage so I could haul your near-corpses around the city, or anything. Honestly, as cool as it is to know there are ponies with problems worse than my own, I was really looking forward to not having to put up with this. Oh well, life isn't fair, old news. I've gotten this far without giving up..." The part of her that dared to dream hoped Starlight would magically turn into a saint, invite her to vent about anything and everything, know exactly what she needed to hear, and offer it free of charge, but of course that didn't happen. What did she need to hear? That there was a way ahead? That all of her trying would get her somewhere worth going? Where did she even want to go? Her mind conveniently blanked on everything Maple and Starlight had said back in the Flame Barracks, leaving her only with the vague and slightly useless assertion that having nice friends was good. Thanks a lot, brain. Frustrated with herself and the world, Valey gave Starlight a poke, hoping for a change of topic. "Hey, Starlight." She glanced aside at the filly. "I'm kinda surprised your saddlebags haven't completely disintegrated or at least fallen off after all the stuff we've been through. Do they still have anything in them? Anything... I dunno... distracting? I need something to fidget with." Starlight shrugged, failing to get the frayed strap off her back. "I don't know. I can't check or move them without magic. They're not empty." "Well, you could just make like an earth pony and use your mouth..." Rolling her eyes, Valey reached over and pulled off the bags, trying to sort through them. Quickly, she found it to be an impossible task without light. She could ask Starlight... except the filly was injured and effectively had no horn. Or eyes. She probably didn't even realize how dark it was. ...At that, Valey paused, a hoof rising to the pendant around her neck. She sniffed, testing the air, but there were no other ponies nearby. She had started using it recently, and since Starlight wouldn't be able to see... With a vibration of magical energy, Valey issued the mental command to activate the pendant. As a design prototype created for experimentation, the magical buffer it used to control the coupling between the wearer and the contents of the moon glass had a variable strength, with no connection on one end and a full coupling on the other - no different from trying to absorb the mark directly, straight from the moon glass. She glanced at Starlight, gulping, feeling the pendant hum against her coat. The pendant was designed with a single goal in mind: allow the wearer to access the power of an obsidian-encased cutie mark without actually absorbing it. Unfortunately, its development had led to a realization: pony bodies were somehow intrinsically attuned to their marks, and even though moon glass could bestow new ones by force upon blank candidates, letting ponies borrow the powers while making the effect temporary proved to be completely infeasible. The version that powered Braen only worked because Shinespark was borrowing her own cutie mark; she and it were naturally meant for each other. Any other pony with any mark but their own, and it would have no effect. Maple could argue that Valey was just as much a pony as anyone else as hard as she wanted, but the fact was, she was the exception to that rule. The connection opened, Valey consciously keeping it as narrow as possible. She felt a familiar warmth, a knot of emotions squeezed to a trickle as if through a tiny gap... and a tingling like helium being pumped through her veins, spreading out through her body, not strong enough to have any effect save for a faint, sickly-green light that glowed from her entire body. Starlight didn't notice at all. In the green glow, Valey's shaking hooves shuffled through Starlight's saddlebags. They were still full of the contents of Maple's cutie mark, dropped after she had broken it during the fight against the mercenaries on the elevator. Selma's stolen card key... useless, since there was no power. One of Howe's sound stones... useless, since she had dropped the other along with her hat and would likely never see it again. A written message of encouragement from somepony named Willow... Valey swallowed, suddenly feeling sick. She was using this particular cutie mark as a flashlight to look for a toy to amuse herself with while the friends she was supposed to be protecting were scattered and apart? What was she thinking? She slammed off the connection, the warmth and fuzziness that covered her nerves and sparked through her body instantly vanishing as the pendant went dull. Her stomach still churned as she packed the removed items back in Starlight's saddlebags and repositioned them on the filly, a bead of sweat trickling down her forehead. Maybe it was the air; the ventilation system had shut off along with the power. "Come on, Starlight," she grunted, wanting to curl up and instead heaving her back on her back. "We've been loafing around too much; it's Sky District time. See if we can find Sparky, or if Ironflanks and Birdo got that ship to work and are up there poking around. Urrgh..."