//------------------------------//
// Turnabout Valey 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Starlight shuffled blindly forward, keeping her head up so that her hooves would hit any obstacles before her face did. She stepped near to the floor, testing every inch of the way to ensure she wouldn't trip on a boulder or fall in a hole, relying on her ears and the small sound of Herman's display to guide her. Eventually, she ran up against a body.

"You're back," Dior's voice remarked, sounding slightly surprised. He paused, probably looking around. "Just you? Did Valey leave? It looked like you were unconscious."

Well, at least playing dead had avoided drawing attention to herself. Though that wouldn't count for much, if she succeeded in what she was about to do. "I don't know where she is. Where's Herman?"

Another pause. "...Right next to you?" Dior sounded confused and slightly suspicious.

"Oh." Starlight sat down. "I can't see."

Neither reacted to that. Starlight took a minute to think; how was she even going to go about doing this? Valey was sneaking to charge the sound stone, make contact, and instruct the ponies on the other side to either listen quietly or wait for her to get what she needed. She just had to trust that Arambai could do something about Herman's plan... and that she could get him to tell her about it.

"Hey, Herman?" she asked suddenly. "Why'd you blow up Ironridge?"

Herman grunted, sounding amused. "I blew up Ironridge? What are you talking about?"

"The dam, all the crazies attacking the skyport..." Starlight huffed. "Whatever was just on about an airship crash... you know."

"Oh, those." From the distance of his voice, Herman was looking straight at her. "Selma orchestrated the crash, not me. He positioned the ship, stole it and repurposed it from the use I authorized... even forgot to recall it when the storm grew dangerous. The Spirit? Their motive was given by Shinespark, born of injustices inflicted long before I became ambassador here. Perhaps I enabled them with their valued weapons contract, but much like providing a ship for your escape, that contract was signed with the more noble purpose of keeping them economically afloat. They had no input from me in deciding to misuse it."

"So?" Starlight frowned. "What about the dam, then?"

"You pushed that button, my little pony. Not I."

A memory flashed through Starlight's mind of a trigger beneath her hoof, and two mares brawling over whether it should be pressed. She consciously stopped herself from bristling. "If I didn't, someone else would have. Probably you."

"Can you prove that?" Herman rumbled.

"I..." Starlight flinched. "You said you would. You threatened to. You can say the Ironridge ponies did everything to themselves all you like, but no one will believe you. Besides, Valey says you're really good at planning ahead. So why did you... why did you make us blow up the city?"

"You are correct. They would think like you, and blame me regardless."

Starlight hesitated. Wherever this was going, Herman was completely steering the conversation. She had to change the subject. "I liked pressing that trigger, you know."

"Really?" Herman seemed to perk in interest, Dior giving a slight gasp beside her. "Say more."

"I did," Starlight insisted. "Because I don't like Ironridge. Me and Maple are constantly getting foalnapped, or running around until we get too tired to move, and getting dragged into conspiracies and having no time for ourselves and now we're both hurt and separated, too. I didn't like falling off the cliff afterward, but pressing that button was satisfying."

"Interesting..." Herman was definitely looking at her; she could feel his gaze on her spine. "You are surprisingly ruthless for a filly. I can feel you lying, but lying about enjoying the destruction of centuries of pride and work is no easy thing. Perhaps you could even come to mean it in the future."

Starlight snorted. "You think I'm lying, huh?" She stood up. "Well, guess what. If you want to say you did nothing? Okay. I blew up a dam. You don't want to tell me your reasons? I told you mine, so that makes mine better. And you just said earlier that you're done with Ironridge and are waiting here until someone comes and gets revenge on you in the morning, or something. You're giving up." She stomped a hoof, turning away. "Well, I'm not. So if you want to see whether I'm telling the truth... test me. Give me whatever plans you've given up on. Wait for morning, and see whether I follow through on them. I bet I'll beat you."

"No."

Starlight blinked, feeling the fur along her back rise. Outright rejection, so flat? Really? "Wuss."

"You seem to have a high opinion of my planning and readiness," Herman said, unprovoked by her insult. "I imagine Valey told you that. I imagine she would. I make it a priority to psychologically understand the ponies I use as direct tools, and she is the sort of pony who gets easily frustrated by being predicted. She is probably incapable of thinking of me as anything less than omniscient, and also the kind of perfectly irredeemable monster she perceives society as making her out to be. A biased source, in short. How many other sources is your opinion of me based on?"

"Direct experience?" Starlight tilted her head. "You were a jerk on the dam. You stabbed Maple. I wish I could stab you back."

"There that ruthlessness is, again," Herman commented. "I think you mean it, this time. But that is an opinion on my personality. I asked about what you know on my plans."

"Well..." Starlight thought, but suddenly couldn't come up with anything.

Herman gave her time to think. Eventually, he asked, "Would it surprise you to know that ever since you showed up in Ironridge, things have worked out for me in the worst way possible?"

Starlight felt her eyes narrow. "Really."

"Really," Herman repeated. "Vandalism of the skyport. The destruction of Sosa. Even the abduction of Starlight and her friend several days ago, starting with the delivery of those crates. All were things I could work with, but only because my plan for Ironridge has been playing itself out for too long to be derailed by individual events. All of these were optional and not necessarily desirable."

"You made all those happen," Starlight declared, stomping. "They weren't desirable? Yeah, right. They sound pretty great if you want chaos and unhappiness to me. So what did you want, then?"

When Herman next spoke, it sounded like he had moved closer. "Here is a thought experiment. How many ponies are in Ironridge?"

Starlight flicked her ears. "I think someone said a million?"

"About that," Herman told her. "More importantly, there are a lot. Most of them live in the Earth and Stone Districts. Now, how many of those ponies do you think remember the events of the downfall of Sosa twenty years ago?"

"...Probably a lot?" Starlight offered.

"Not as many as you would think. The population has grown quite a lot due to easy travel. Some affected ponies leave. Others die. Twenty years is a long time, and as a foal, you should easily appreciate that. Now, of the ponies who do remember it... how many do you think have failed making new lives for themselves?"

Starlight blinked, envisioning the city as she had seen it during that first sunrise, a blinding metropolis stretching from rim to distant rim of a mountain crater, the streets clogged with hoof carts and merchant stalls and ponies going about their business. It wasn't the face of a fallen city... though she also remembered Blueleaf, with its dark alleys and skittish citizens, and then she thought of White Chocolate and her massive, chronically-growing family that lacked any semblance of a plan for the future. "Not none," she decided.

"Some," Herman agreed. "But, next to the masses, not many. And of those fallen, how many do you think were so incapable of escaping the past that they decided to do something about it? Something like joining the Spirit?"

"...Fifty?" It was a guess at best, judging from what she had seen on the dam and knowing there were more, and assuming that was a high turnout. "At any one time? Maybe a little more, in total?"

"Fifty," Herman repeated. "The Defense Force has similar numbers for active fighters. Together, any battle they might wage would be less than a hundred ponies... One hundred out of a million. One percent of one percent. Ironridge is some ten miles across. If they all stood in a ring around the city, evenly spaced, all together, each pony would be far enough away that they would have to shout to be heard on a windless day by their nearest neighbors. Do you understand how insignificant that should be next to a city of this scale?"

Starlight wasn't sure where this was going, but she had played along so far. "Yes."

"Now." She heard Herman move beside her. "Of the ponies in the upper districts who fear the lower, who see the weapons convoy attacks and the propaganda of the Spirit as the true face of every last one of the hundreds of thousands of innocents living below... and of the ponies of the lower districts who see the upper the same way, as cold or authoritarian or uncaring or simply not knowing what they are talking about... Of all those ponies put together... how many do you think they number?"

Starlight gulped. "A lot?"

"Every. Last. Soul. In. Ironridge."

Starlight folded her ears.

"And they are the ones who matter," Herman said. "My plans for Ironridge? Nothing more than preserving the status quo. I did not need either party to win up on the dam. One could have been victorious. They could have made peace and walked away. The only way that button was going to get pressed was if a pony pressed it, because that has always and exactly been my policy: I enable the fighters to fight. I give them tools to do terrible things to each other, present myself as a target for their leaders to plan and plot against, and then stand back and let them do their deeds. I cannot predict where the chaos of their fights will take them, or who will win. But they are not the ones who matter. Everything has always been about the audience: the million other ponies who watch, fear, hear the news and hope with all their hearts that things could be better."

"...So you just like fighting. Huh." Starlight hung her head. "Fighting for the sake of fighting. Ponies watching fighting... Is that it? Why quit now?"

"Fighting for the sake of fighting sounds pointless," Herman countered... or so she thought. "The citizens find it pointless, too. Some of them lap up the drama like milk. Others prepare vehemently to defend their side in an argument, out of fear of losing, because they think they know what the other side looks like and they think the other side is lost. But the point is for them to get tired of it. Tired of the stress, of the strain... ready to make amends and try to work together to build a cooperative future. And then the fighting goes on, and they become beyond ready. They grow impatient, willing to settle for anything, even an imperfect solution, so long as it means they no longer have to worry about the battle growing and suddenly involving them. To stop it, they will do anything."

Starlight felt her heart rise into her throat. "Anything like...?"

"Like bowing down and pleading for Yakyakistan to annex them, since their own governments are incapable of action."

It took all of Starlight's self control to bite her tongue, preventing a spur-of-the-moment reaction. There had to be more things to it than that, and she had to stay in character to figure it out. "Really?" she eventually managed to say. "Your big bad plan is to take over the world? Boooring."

Herman probably smiled. "If only it were that simple. How much do you know of the yak war forty years ago?"

"The Blazing Rain one?" Starlight folded her ears. "Not much."

"One concern when it was fought was yak expansionism to the north and west," Herman rumbled, explaining. "Yakyakistan was turning itself into an empire, much like the vast Griffon Empire to the east. This was a time before airships, when administration of such a large and mountainous land was already difficult at best. Instead, Yakyakistan tried to hold its citizens, traditional and absorbed, together through faith: expanding the power and influence of the Bishops of the Nine Virtues, and the church that followed them. The sparks that started the war came over concerns from within the government that the church was growing too powerful. Eventually, when the war concluded and the surviving powers met to forge a plan for the future, one of the decisive mandates they wrote into law was that Yakyakistan could never again annex territories and try to form an empire."

The sound of his hooves scraping against marble echoed against the distant wind as he continued. "As I said, this was an age before airships. Travel and administration of lands separated by difficult terrain is much more possible than in times passed... yet Yakyakistan refuses to reconsider this law out of fear and remembrance of the war. Foolishly, they limit themselves in an age of new expansions just like Ironridge limited itself in the shuttering of its airship program twenty years ago. I have seen what happened to Ironridge. I will not have my own nation suffer the same fate, fading into sadness and obscurity as the world leaves it behind! And that is why I have crafted Ironridge into the most piteous case imaginable... If Yakyakistan cannot be brought to undo this law out of the ambition to face the future, then they shall do so through the necessity of kindness!"

"Woah." Starlight took a step back. "That's..."

"Ambitious? Manipulative? Some other negative adjective of choice?" Herman was right in front of her. "Perhaps. And now you see why this is game over for me: regardless of the true perpetrator behind destroying Sosa and damaging the skyport, Yakyakistan will have to publicly disown me as a part of gaining the trust of the citizens. Every creature needs someone to blame, and every creature needs a hero. For years, I have enabled Ironridge to tear itself apart, because it was necessary to save my own nation from a similar fate of obsolescence and irrelevance. Ironridge itself, I care not about, but the leaders of Yakyakistan are compassionate. The benefits of their rule may well outstrip the violence I enabled, as well! So if, in the end, I am helping both nations..."

Suddenly, Starlight squealed. A giant hoof lifted her, before she was slammed on her back against a wall. She barely had time to start sliding down when there was a titanic crunch right next to her head, a cold, thin bar pressing tightly across her body and pinning her in place. She couldn't move.





"Okay, Yakbreath," Valey growled, rising from a pool of shadow where she had been watching, the active sound stone hidden beneath a folded wing. "That's not cool. She was having a nice conversation with you. Let the filly go."

Herman stood with his back to her and glanced over his shoulder. Starlight was pinned to the wall in front of him, trapped by the haft of his gigantic magic axe, which had its head buried far too tightly in the stone for her struggles to budge. "What?" he asked, looking back at Valey. "She openly bragged about destroying the dam and Sosa, and requested my aid in doing worse. A confession of criminal activity is a confession, and it was entirely voluntary. What does the law say about that, Dior?"

Dior was getting to his hooves, rubbing at a laceration on his throat. Starlight hadn't been able to see it, and Valey silently berated the filly for not noticing his silence, but Herman had been keeping the Chancellor at axepoint throughout the duration of their talk: no interfering. "Let her go," Dior said. "Herman, as the Chancellor of Skyfreeze and your direct superior, I officially pardon this filly and order you to release her."

"No," Herman replied, standing between Dior and Starlight. "You hold no authority over Yakyakistan or me."

"Herman..." Valey stalked forward. "Is this some kind of 'I just told you my plan, so now I'm taking hostages to make sure you can't go and tell anyone else' kind of thing?"

Herman shook his head. "No," he repeated. "I simply decided to play my role until the end."

"Oh? You don't care if I bail and spill your plan to all of Ironridge, then?" Valey's teeth bared in a grin.

Herman looked lazily at her. "And you expect the entire city to become self-sufficient friends based on your word alone in a matter of minutes?"

Valey's eyes narrowed. "Who said anything about my word?"

Then, from the sound stone she suddenly thrust forward, came a voice: "Long time no meet, Herman. I hope you're not planning to harm a hair on Starlight's head, because right now, I'm this close to losing my bartering mood."

"Who is this?" Herman frowned. "Arambai? A wireless sound communication device? Clever."

"Nah, just something I borrowed from a very terrified former captain of yours. Regardless, something tells me you've got at least one of my friends up there in a bad spot. Feeling up to negotiations? Or am I going to have to teleport up there and turn you into a rug the old-fashioned way?"

"Let me go!" Starlight thrashed against the axe hilt pinning her chest to the wall. "Rrrgh! I didn't even do anything except let you brag about your evil plans!"

"I have no need for negotiations," Herman purred back into the stone, turning up towards Starlight. "You chastised me earlier for giving up, foal," he rumbled. "And complained to me about the injustices Ironridge has done you as a city. I can sympathize with that. Spending years preparing a city that does not wish to be conquered for conquest by a nation that does not wish to conquer... it has been a very thankless job. Now that the end is nigh, I could sit and wait like I was planning... but I think I will steal a page from you, instead. Abducting the favorite filly of the Sosan leadership?" He glanced between the sound stone, Dior, and Shinespark's half-conscious form. "In that line, I think I will also take a page from you, Valey... and try to enjoy my misdeeds."

"You do that!" Arambai growled, the pounding of hooves echoing through the sound stone. "But the Defense Force are over! So's the Spirit. And once I get up there and tan your woolly hide, Ironridge won't need Yakyakistan!"

Herman smiled. "Will you have the time? I was not planning on Ironridge catching Yakyakistani attention out of the blue to ask for aid. Yakyakistan has been interested in this city for a very long time... ever since the war. A government secret relating to this geographic location. I have never been primed on what it is, but they find it enthralling enough to keep up a presence in this city. It was the sole reason for diplomatic ties between our nations before airships, even. And in Yakyakistan, there have been two schools of thought surrounding it... an A plan and a B plan. The A plan is desirable and involves an indefinite presence in the city. The B plan was crafted in response to the deterioration of stability, and involves Yakyakistan making one great use of whatever it is they found here and then leaving. One year ago, the B plan was activated in secret, a set of packages shipped by land and sea and private contractor to enter Ironridge in the most roundabout way possible. Three days ago, they arrived here. All the plan required then was for a qualified government official to visit and make preparations... which already happened... and one final delivery to arrive, which arrived at sunset while we were on the dam."

Starlight kicked uselessly. "Yeah, well, wouldn't that mean you yaks leave?"

"Under normal circumstances." Herman grinned harder. "Unfortunately for that plan, Valey made a visit to the project location, undoubtedly as an act of sabotage aimed at me. Yakyakistan will likely find themselves in this for a longer amount of time as a result. But first, they will have to deal with the reality of conflict in Ironridge. Their easy out is gone. I had hoped otherwise, as fighting would have been enough, but much of the Ironridge economy is also gone, and the city will likely destabilize further. Thousands of refugees are in crisis; their homes are gone. City-wide power outages. A government that has done nothing to stop this. And while I know not what was delivered in a streak of light over the mountains at sunset... An experimental, ultrafast technology known as rocketry... I can see the details of its security classification. A classification that mandates it be protected by a group of yak warriors. The only thing stopping them from helping right here and right now is the No Invasions, No Occupations law... and an official with both knowledge of the project and its importance, and the ability to lift the law, is already here. Warriors are already in Ironridge. The law may already be lifted. Do whatever you think you can, Arambai. I have already won."

He laughed a deep-throated laugh, then winked at Valey. "Hmmm! Perhaps I should learn from you more often. That felt far better than sitting here and watching the results on a screen."

"Laugh it up while you can, rug," Arambai fired back. "I know how to handle a yak in combat. If soldiers are what you brought, soldiers I can take down."

"Even if you could, would you?" Herman countered. "Repelling peacekeepers and aid from your own devastated nation? You cannot-"

CRAAAASH!

With a deafening splintering and rending of metal, a gigantic plate of debris from a destroyed something in the skyport struck the melted, weakened section of the roof where Shinespark's magic blast had impacted, shattering it and tearing a gash in the ceiling. The already-cold temperature began to drop as outside winds forced themselves in, raising hairs all along Valey's spine. Her body groaned as if she had just ran a marathon, even though she had spent the last half hour sitting and doing nothing.

"As much fun as you're having, if we stay here, we'll die!" Dior shouted, trying to move Shinespark's injured form without disturbing her broken leg. "We have to get out of here!"

"I am already dead," Herman assured them with a nod. "Although, now that this is getting interesting... surrender is falling further and further off my list."

"So we're bailing? Cool." Running past him, Valey dashed up to the axe and started trying to tug it free. It refused to budge, though, held in place both by the grip of the stone and its strange self-levitation. "Nngh... come on... stupid thing..."

"No," Herman said, once again choosing the path of obstinance. "Dior and Shinespark can leave if they like. You, I want here."

Valey eyed him flatly. "Seriously, I'd love to take you up on your offer earlier to let us go..."

Herman shook his head. "I am starting to feel cheated out of my duel with Shinespark. She let her anger get the better of her, and was defeated too easily. You, fight me instead."

"Oh bananas no." Valey backed away, eyes widening. "Nope nope noooo not doing that."

"A pity." Herman looked back up at Starlight. "You see, I no longer feel like going without a fight. But I have already done enough damage to Yakyakistan through allowing the destruction of their future economic assets without attacking warriors they need to bring peace to the city. Arambai might happily do me harm, but we are not well acquainted. He left this city for seven years, and I would also prefer to fall at the hooves of someone who has been fighting me all this time. Shinespark failed. You are what is left. Fight me."

"Screw off!" Valey shouted, shoving and scraping at the axe, unable to shadow sneak on the lit surface. "I've just gotten busted up twenty billion times, and nothing is getting between me and getting my friends to safety! I'm done with this, done with you, and done with Ironridge, you hear me!? Now... Nnngh... Move this stupid axe!"

The glow holding the axe haft intensified. "Very well," Herman said. "Then fight for your friends. When Arambai arrives in this room, if the three of us are all still alive, I will tighten the handle and crush her to death before he can finish me. Fight me."

Valey froze... and dropped to the ground, crouching, staring at Herman. "Don't you dare."

"I dare."

Blinking, Valey looked about... at the hole in the ceiling, at the tunnel to the boarding room, at Dior unsuccessfully trying to move Shinespark without earning whimpers of pain. "Hey, uhh... Herman?" she asked, a thought crossing her mind. "You feel like yourself, right? As in... no weird emotions or impulses you wouldn't normally be having? Because normally you're cold, calculating, and really offensive, and you basically just turned into a mustache twirler since we've been talking."

Herman frowned back at her. "What does that have to do with anything? Fight me."

Valey looked harder for anything she might use. "Uhhhhh..."

"Is that still on?" Herman asked, pointing to the sound stone Valey had dropped beneath the spot where Starlight hung.

"Yeah, but-"

"Citizens of Ironridge!" Herman bellowed. "Valey of the Defense Force is not a real pony! I acquired her as an unnecessary by-product of experiments to combine-"

Powww!

"Shut up!" Valey screeched, having hurled the sound stone so hard at Herman's jaw that there was a crack... and not from the rock. She darted forward and kicked it, sending it skidding away under the balcony railing, dropping to the floor below. Dior was staring at her, and even Shinespark had managed to open her eyes. She didn't want to look back at Starlight. Her entire coat was standing straight on edge, making it look like she was covered in black spikes rather than fur.

"You have a death wish?" Valey rasped, the pendant around her neck starting to crackle with energy. "You want to goad me in to killing you? Because you're doing a pretty good job of it! I'm not usually in the business of murdering folks. If this were some kind of last stand thing, where I was trying to survive until Arambai got here? I could see myself doing that... but this...?"

She paused... then deflated. "Nah. Don't wanna." For a second, she was somber, until a grin broke out on her face. "Thought you got my goat, didn't you?"

Herman's eyes flashed. Valey's ears went backwards, listening for the axe's magical shimmering she knew was about to come... but this time, her eyes were on Herman, with a very specific thing in mind. There! Through a hole torn in the shoulder of his uniform, something was emitting a matching glow!

Faster than she had ever moved before, Valey lunged for the glowing spot, propelled by the activation of her pendant. Her teeth closed down on a metal band... but it hadn't been intended for the width of Herman's foreleg, and was partially fixed on with elastic. She hung on, twisting, biting fiercely... and tore the thing away, hearing the loud clatter of an axe against the floor behind her.

"Yeah!" She cheered, a devilish smirk setting itself back on her face as green energy danced and burned across her coat, focusing on the pendant and leaving in waves off her mane and tail. Starlight fell free, and Dior was instantly running to get her. "You like that, fatty?" She held up the band, grinning at Herman's stupefied face. "You wanna fight me? Okay. I'll fight you. But we're doing it on my terms. If you want to hurt my friends, you get past me first... and the moment Arambai gets here, you're toast."

"Give. That. Back," Herman ground, rounding on her and matching her cheeky expression with pure fury. "I observed your fighting style for years. I know everything about your motions. I will destroy you."

"Nyaa." Valey stuck out her tongue as her pendant glowed brighter. "You know about Valey, sure. But this failed Yakyakistani science experiment has a few more tricks than just that."