//------------------------------//
// To Dusk 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Elise was waiting in the same parlor where Starlight and Maple had sat a week ago, taking a break from their Earth District adventures and waiting for Valey to return. The power was off, an effort to conserve energy the occupants were likely quite used to, and the dull red-and-gold architecture stood out even more, lit by sunbeams streaking through the windows.

"Greetings, my little ponies," she welcomed warmly, horn providing more illumination through several balls of colored magical fire that danced near the ceiling of the room. "And griffon. I had wondered if we would meet again."

Valey pushed up her shades and saluted with a hoof, wings twitching against the inside of her sweater. "Heya, momhorse. Remember me?"

"I remember most of you." Elise nodded. "Though there are some I'm unfamiliar with?"

"Gerardo Guillaume," Gerardo greeted back, extending a talon far too far away for Elise to shake it. "Griffon adventurer extraordinaire. I believe our paths crossed a few times on that morning after the last day, though we both had other things to set our minds on."

"And these are Amber and Willow," Maple said, pointing her hooves and introducing her Riverfall friends. "From my hometown. It's nice to see you again, too."

Elise smiled. "I suppose my siblings and daughter will have some words for you of their own. Particularly you, Valey?"

Valey blinked. "Me? Hubbawuzzah?"

"You," Elise giggled. "There's a rumor going around Shinespark was defeated no contest by Herman at the skyport, and you turned the tables and won, even entering the fight injured. She's not sure whether to hate you for besting her hero, or adopt you as her new one. Many ponies refuse to believe it, but you did save Ironridge from certain doom."

"Eh, it might make my resume." Valey scratched the back of her neck, grinning cheekily.

Elise shook her head, face perfectly serious. "I don't know about that. I hear city-saving is going out of style these days. You might have to settle for a boring career as an unemployed layabout."

"This is the mayor's wife?" Amber's eyes widened as Valey stuck out her tongue and countered with a joke of her own. "No offense, but she's not as stately as she looks."

"Being stately is a chore sometimes." Elise shrugged. "I lost a large portion of my foalhood to politics and intrigue, of a very similar kind to what happened to you over the past few days. Now that I can afford to, I see no reason not to take the edge off with a sense of humor from time to time. I've earned it. So have you, and everyone else who lives in these trying times. So what may I help you with today?"

"We just wanted to visit," Willow said, smiling apologetically as if she expected Elise to have a bigger favor in mind. "Amber and I have never seen the world outside of our hometown of Riverfall, and Maple's last adventure wasn't very enjoyable. But I spent my young adult years listening to stories from Sosan sailors who had seen the world, and Maple suggested that you enjoyed telling stories."

Elise brightened. "It isn't often ponies ask that. And it's a request I'm always willing to grant. What would you like to hear about? Last time, I told about Ironridge twenty years ago, how the city first fell and how my family came to be. Now that the city's future finally has a chance to get brighter, I could tell that again, in greater detail? I could also talk about the years I spent traveling abroad, during my exile from Ironridge. Nothing has happened since I got back that is worth telling, but I still count my life as being exceptionally eventful."

Willow glanced up at the sun, visible through a curved window set into the arcing roof. "We have all day," she offered, shrugging eagerly. "I haven't heard the story of a foreigner's life in a very long time. Start at the beginning?"

"Well." Elise crossed her dainty forelegs, reclining on an ornate couch. "Fernand, refreshments? It all started twenty-two years ago, when my mother took me to the Steel District to meet my father for the first time..."





Elise talked long into the afternoon, retelling the story of how she had met Arambai, pulled together her lost siblings and nearly changed the fate of Sosan politics at far greater length than the hour or so she gave it while they were waiting for Valey. Starlight zoned in and out, and by the end, she wasn't sure if she remembered any details she hadn't heard the time before. Something about Grenada, maybe? That was a name she knew, even if the mare was dead and buried by the windigoes' blizzard. Eventually, it ended, Elise sipping from a glass and using the water to soothe her throat.

"Well! I've been talking longer than I expected," she finished airily, getting up and trotting to open the doors to the foyer. "Can I invite you to stay for dinner? Redshift has been spending a lot of time in the lower levels with the refugees, but she usually comes home later than this. My husband is at Skyfreeze, and I imagine the twins are playing in their room, so there should be plenty for all!"

"Dinner dinner dinner..." Valey trotted happily after her, mouth open and tongue lolling. Suddenly, she pulled up. "Wuh-oh. Butt tingling..."

Elise gave her a strange look, before a door to their left suddenly burst open. Pow! Two rust-colored unicorn fillies barreled through, charging straight into Valey while caterwauling a battle cry.

"Gyaaaaarr!" one of the twins bellowed, kicking a hoof straight for Valey's side. "Repel the Yakyakistan commander! Save Ironridge from the yaks!"

"Copper Cable, reporting for duty: target acquired," the other said, hanging back and crouching, preparing to fire a rugged work boot with her telekinesis.

Faster than either could react, Valey ducked into the shadows, letting the kicking filly fly straight over her head. She stood up, hooked her around the barrel with a foreleg as she passed, and before either could react, grabbed the boot mid-trajectory, forced it open as wide as it could go, and stuck her captive assailant hornfirst inside.

"Ew, this smells nasty!" the filly protested, flailing. "Ribbon Cable, down! Copper, help! I repeat, help!"

The sound of little hoofsteps echoed in the hallway as Copper Cable abandoned her sibling to her fate.

Everyone stepped back, staring at Valey. "What?" Valey shrugged innocently. "She had it coming."

Elise paced over, plucking Ribbon from the boot and setting her upright. "Sorry, honey," she consoled, patting the filly on the head. "But you really did have it coming. I hope you used a clean boot for that."

"It wasn't!" Ribbon yelled, spitting and rubbing her mane frantically with her forehooves. "Copper used one of the nasty ones that smelly guy Redshift brought back last night left here, even when I told her not to! Now I probably have a disease! Copper, I'll get you for this! I hope it's contagious!"

Elise frowned at the hoof she had used to pat Ribbon, unscrupulously rubbing it off against an upholstered curtain as that filly fled too.

"Welp?" Valey glanced around. "I guess they won't be joining us for dinner after all. Hey, do you think I should have stuck a bow on her instead? Ironflanks, you should carry some bows on you for emergencies like that. Oh! Or I could put gum in her fur! No, that's too mean. Draw a mustache on her flank and call it a cutie mark? Hmm, actually, I could..."





Valey belched thunderously, rearing back and patting her stomach. "Oh, bananas, that stuff was good. I wonder what it was."

Maple raised an eyebrow at her, still finishing up her own plate. "You eat things without checking first what they are?"

"It's a pastry filled with gravy and vegetables," Amber said, serving herself another helping and laying into it eagerly. "Who needs names? It's good!"

"Much obliged." Fernand bowed, standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

"You made this?" Maple glanced over to him. "Would you mind sharing the recipe? I'd love to make this myself on cold days or when I'm feeling down, but not quite in the mood for soup."

"I'd be more than happy to." Fernand smiled pleasantly, not taking a seat despite Elise preparing an extra one. "You enjoy preparing food as well?"

Gerardo raised a talon, looking up from his own eating. "Whether she enjoys it or not, I can attest both of you are quite good at it. Though, as a matter of personal preference, have you experimented with adding mushrooms? They're quite a staple in the Griffon Empire, and gravy-based foods like this are also fairly common there. I am, in case no one had noticed, somewhat of a connoisseur."

Amber grinned. "Don't worry, Gerardo, you don't talk about food too much."

"That is relieving to hear," Gerardo assured, leaning down for more.

Willow was the one to break the silence that followed. "Everyone? I'd like to say thank you, if I may take a moment."

No one stopped her, several nodding for her to go on, so she did. "I very much enjoyed listening to you," she said, making eye contact with Elise. "It brought back a lot of memories, and even if you weren't talking about the happiest of times, it made me happy to hear again how many experiences are had by ponies other than me. Thank you for listening with me, Maple, even though hearing some of the things made you uncomfortable. And thank you, everyone, for indulging me and spending so much of our day here, when we could be seeing the city."

"Hey." Amber crossed her chest with a forehoof. "I got to mess around in the clothing stores, try some fancy clothes on, and get myself a cutesy dress, and one for each of you. I got my one wish. Only fair that you get yours."

Maple hummed. "My only wish was that this trip would go smoothly. And so far, it has. I know there's very little control each of you have over what happens in the city, but I still want to say it. Thank you to Gerardo, at least, for being more considerate and making an effort not to stress me out."

"Well, I do make an effort," Gerardo replied, grinning modestly. "My own wish was for high adventure, and I got that in far greater quantities than I was expecting last time around, so I'm along for the ride, as it were."

Valey shrugged. "Hey, don't mind me. I'm sure I'll get a chance to try out that thing with sneaking a chili into someone's water cooler eventually. I wonder if it actually works."

"What I want to say," Willow continued, "is that this trip is already a success. We've had one full day here, not counting our trip to the caves. We've all done what we wanted most. Would anyone like to make this our last stop, return to Riverfall tomorrow morning, and finish everything on a high note?"

"I don't know..." Maple looked worriedly at her plate. "I'd love to say the entire trip went well when we're done, but if you two are still having fun, I don't want to feel like we're ending it early for my sake. Seeing as I'm the one who's most worried about things turning bad, and was the one who had a bad experience earlier..."

Amber reached over, settling a hoof on her shoulder. "Hey. Don't worry about it. First off, we're friends, and friends do things for each other. Second, I'm going to get Gerardo's boat finished up any day now, and we'll be able to come back again whenever we want once the river returns to normal. And third, you being here or not has no effect on whether bad things happen. No. Effect." She stared into Maple's eyes. "Got it?"

Maple smiled. "Got it."

"You made us your last stop, then?" Fernand glanced over his shoulder, returning to the kitchen. "Well, I suppose I should send you off with desert, as well?"

"Urrrp! Bring it on!" Valey flung her forelimbs wide. "Who doesn't have room for fourths?"