//------------------------------//
// Follow You 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

"Well, Starlight?" Maple asked, glancing back at the filly. "Want to see if we can get some sleep? I don't know about you, but I feel better already..."

Starlight finally released her hold on Gerardo's beak, leaving the griffon sputtering. "Okay," she decided. It wasn't like she had anything better to do.

"Meh..." Valey yawned, stretching. "If I wasn't beat up, I'd go for a recon flight to check this place out. New places are spooky. But that's probably off the table, so eh..." She started heading for the railing, preparing to jump off herself. "I need to find someone whose room I can nap in without feeling awkward about making them feel awkward. Maybe I'll just go lurking around the old-fashioned way. See ya."

Maple turned to the stairs belowdeck, standing unsteadily with Starlight at her side. Gerardo loudly chimed in, "I suppose I'll do some scouting of my own, then! Do alert me if anything goes catastrophically wrong!"

"Noted," Starlight yawned.

Suddenly, with an almost-inaudible ruffle of feathers, a dark form descended onto the deck. There was a flash of white as Matryona finished tucking her wings back beneath her cloak. "Hello," she said. "I see you're back from Ironridge."

Maple frowned in confusion. "Have we met?"

Gerardo proudly stepped forward, bowing with a wing to his chest. "This is Matryona," he introduced, "Shinespark's mother. I believe I recall mention of her being sent to Riverfall to lie low while the events with the dam played out."

"Sorry if I've met you and don't remember." Maple shook her head, then nodded in respect.

"Can you tell me the state of things there?" Matryona asked. "I've heard nothing since I left half a week ago, aside from seeing the flood here. Is Sosa...?"

Gerardo hung his head. "Sosa has been obliterated, and the skyport ruined as well in the fighting that ensued. Ambassador Herman was the culprit, and is dead. I know not the state of the Defense Force, but Arambai stayed behind to administer the city's recovery. Shinespark and Dior are both with us, while Gunga, Gigavolt and Grenada all perished."

Matryona's face was unreadable behind the shadow of her hood. "Shinespark and Dior are here, though?"

"Indeed." Gerardo nodded. "Dior, I recently relieved of a shift piloting this craft, and he should be slumbering below. He seems a jolly fellow. Shinespark, regrettably, went below when we first embarked and I haven't seen a hair of her since. She hasn't been taking recent events very well."

"Thank you," Matryona said in her whisperlike voice, turning and gliding to the stairs so smoothly she could have actually been flying.

"She's certainly the quiet type," Gerardo remarked once she was out of sight.

"Or, you might be the loud type," Maple suggested, trying to hide the latent exasperation in her voice.

Gerardo winked. "Well, I have been known to be central to the atmosphere of many a celebration! Regardless, I think I'll be taking my leave as well. Good night, or what remains of it! Ho ho!"

He flapped away, leaving Maple and Starlight alone on the shipdeck. A distant night breeze brushed the treetops far above, but the air around the boat was still, the floor bobbing gently as the ship rocked against the current. Across the riverbank, Riverfall lay, dark and quiet. Maple yawned.

"Bed?" she suggested, feeling like she might be ready after all.

"Bed," Starlight agreed, and together they stumbled towards the stairs.





Valey slithered through the darkness, using her shadow sneaking to travel quickly and seamlessly across town. She had a destination in mind, or rather a target, following the fresh scent of the only mare out that night who happened to be covered in strongly-smelling grease and oil. Amber was fast, though, and she didn't think she was catching up.

It didn't help that the roadways were made of some kind of weird enchanted glass that was filled with rocks. She knew how to parse the strange, altered vision that came with sneaking, but having rocks in the way when swimming along the ground behind the glass made it a hundred times worse. The traction enchantment that was ostensibly so ponies wouldn't slip in the rain didn't seem to know what to do when she was beneath the glass, and behaved erratically, leading to her sometimes swimming freely and other times feeling like she was bathing in syrup. Eventually, she just climbed out and continued on hoof, braving her limp and the lower speed so she wouldn't worry about getting stuck.

"Meh. Mweh. Nyeh..." Bored, she tried to kick at an imaginary pebble as she walked, but not only were the streets meticulously clean, the enchantment grabbed her hoof and all the momentum that went into the swing halted, sending a painful jolt into her shoulder. "Ow! Bananas!" Frustrated, she kicked at the ground, stomping, only to get caught again and have her muzzle slammed against the glass. "Dumb road..." She rubbed at her nose, not bothering to get up, wondering if it had been visibly compacted.

"Were you following me?" Amber's amused voice asked from above her.

Valey looked up, seeing the mare standing over her, having appeared from nowhere. She was still wet, this time from tip to tail and smelling of flowery soap rather than mechanical things, with her coat covered in the spiky, fuzzy look of being toweled halfway and then left to dry on its own. Her mane still trailed droplets, most of which landed on Valey's forehead.

"Oh..." Amber slowly noticed, then jumped back, having no trouble whatsoever with the glass. "Sorry!"

"This road is stupid," Valey muttered, ignoring the question.

"See if you still say that when it saves you from falling on your butt while it's raining," Amber replied. "What are you doing here, though?"

Valey glanced at her without lifting her head from the ground. "Here, Riverfall, or here following you?"

Amber shuffled, suddenly awkward. "Well, I meant following me, but I guess if the other is something you need to say..."

"Meh." Valey rolled to her hooves. "Because I'm bored, have nothing better to do, and felt like doing what I wanted. Besides, I figured I'd see what this place looks like, and decided you knew your way around."

"Oh..." Amber deflated in relief. "So it's not about... I mean, I was kind of staring at you earlier, and..."

"Oh yeah you were," Valey agreed, breaking into a grin. "Never seen a bat before?"

Amber flushed, but the question gave her an out. "I hadn't seen a griffon before Gerardo, but I had at least heard of them. Are you...? Can you fly?"

"With these?" Valey stretched her good wing. "When they're not busted up, yeah. You like them?"

Amber stepped back, sensing a loaded question. "When you say 'like'..."

Valey raised an eyebrow. "Anything you don't like about them?"

Amber tilted her head. "Huh?"

"As in..." Valey flashed her teeth. "Oh, that's stupidly hot but it's also the baddest of bad news and I'm sure there's something unspeakably terrible about anything that could possibly look like that?"

"Um... what?" Amber looked confused. "Where are you coming from with this? Is this a cultural thing I'm not aware of? When we were raising our eyebrows and grinning, usually that means-"

"Nahhh." Valey gave a disarming grin. "Just means you've been living in a much tinier world than I'm from. Or maybe bigger; who knows? I guess Riverfall really doesn't have a problem with me. Thanks for being honest, by the way."

"Should we have a problem with you?" Amber frowned in concern.

Valey shrugged. "Ironridge sure did. Dunno if it was warranted in the end, because I saved their rears and that makes up for a bunch of civil pranks in my book. Ironflanks doesn't. Apparently you don't. And really, I prefer it that way."

"Well, is there an important reason they didn't like you?" Amber asked, tentative.

"Not one I can say without sounding super edgy." Valey glanced back in the direction of the boat, then at Amber. "Mostly I just mess with ponies. Leaving banana peels in the road, sending flirty letters to the wives of my subordinates, occasionally haunting ponies... Just enough to keep the population on their hooves. I'm not talking about me, though, I'm talking batponies in general. You don't have a problem with the fangs, the ears, the creepy wings and slitted eyes?"

Amber shook her head, still looking confused. "I don't think so. You still look like a pony to me."

"Okay. Cool. All I needed to know." Grinning, Valey started to step, and almost immediately tripped and caught herself. "Argh, bananas! This road hates me! And I hate this road. Anyway, have fun with wherever you're going. Tomorrow, we should hang out."

Amber grinned back. "Agreed."