//------------------------------//
// Night Sky 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Five mares sat in the main room of Kero's old Skyfreeze villa, bidding each other good night and joking about whether Kero's bed was something they wanted to sleep in, even though they already had slept there the night before. Shinespark hadn't been heard from since the previous evening, and Gerardo had also departed for the night, citing that he was used to roughing it and could more than take care of himself on his own if crowding was an issue, but Starlight, Valey and the Riverfall mares all remained.

"Mmmh..." Maple yawned, fanning at her mouth with a hoof. "Girls, I'm glad this went well. I still need to find out what kind of normal I want to get my life back to in Riverfall, but... if we ever want to do something like this again, I wouldn't mind." She gave a hopeful smile.

"Pretty sure that's a given," Amber said smugly. "We'll be back. It sounds like Ironridge and Riverfall are going to become closer, now that they're kind of both on their own out here. And we'll be the first to have visited! We could actually be kind of important, if we wanted."

"Let's leave that for later," Willow hummed. "I can say I've been to Ironridge. That was my dream, once, and while this was different than I was expecting, I'm glad to have gone. For now, I agree we should see to ourselves and our lives in Riverfall after these very eventful weeks."

Valey shrugged. "I mean, when the scariest things in the city are either dead or on your side, it's hard for stuff to go wrong. Good on Arambai for getting those mercenaries, by the way. Almost makes me wonder if he stole their ship and chased off Kero himself to get them to stay, though the times don't line up."

"Well..." Maple turned toward the bedroom door. "We go home tomorrow morning. Should we go to bed now so we can get up bright and early? We'll need to tell Shinespark and Arambai, and get breakfast before the ship leaves."

"Got you covered." Valey patted her mane, pulling out the sound stone and flashing it. "I rang the dude back in Blueleaf to tell him what you were thinking. He gave the go-ahead for tomorrow at noon."

Amber grinned. "Guess we'll have time for breakfast after all!"

"And lunch," Willow added. "If we're hungry by then."

Valey rolled her eyes. "What is it with ponies and forgetting second breakfast and elevensies? I don't know how you keep your ribs from showing."

As Amber giggled, Maple got to her hooves. "Come on, Starlight. Ready for bed?"

Starlight obediently rose too, and Willow and Amber after her, trotting toward the bedroom door. Valey was already standing.

"...Hey," Valey said, catching Amber at the tail end of the procession.

"Hmm?" Amber turned around.

"How tired are you?" Valey raised an eyebrow.

Amber shrugged. "Not very," she answered, taking two steps back from the door. "Why? Want to talk?"

"Eh, something like that." Valey grinned. "We've kind of been tagging along with everyone else for the most part, and I was thinking we could go hang out somewhere. You know... alone. It's a big city, after all."

"Alone, huh?" Amber grinned back. "Ooh, spooky. You don't want to talk about things, do you?"

"Things? Maaaybe." Valey winked, strolling out into the Skyfreeze hallway. "I guess you'll have to follow me to find out!"





Amber quickly trotted after her, the door hissing closed behind her as she entered the hallway. Its lighting was off, a dim ruby glow from the sunset still shining down the corridor from a window facing the horizon. Valey beckoned with a wing for her to follow, climbing a staircase to the next level.

Wordlessly, Amber lowered her head and galloped in pursuit, taking care not to trip as her muscles were still slightly limp. The entire outward-facing side of the staircase was a glass wall, forming a curved diorama of the shadowed city of Ironridge, and Valey was sitting near the top, staring out over the Earth District.

"Sure looks different at night," she muttered, thumping her tail once against the floor. "Now that the power's off. There's a few lights on in Blueleaf, but before, most of the basin and all of the rim was lit up. Blueleaf, Grand Acorn, Gnarlbough, Copsewood, Mosstower... Bet it would have blown your little small-town minds even more than it does already. About time I get to see someone appreciate this city at all and not feel jealous about it."

Amber stood several paces away, not sure if she was being invited to join. "Everything's all right, right?"

"Huh?" Valey blinked and looked over. "Oh, yeah, it is. Just psyching myself up to ask something. Not there yet. Anyway, what do you think? Check out all those towers and ridges and totally delicious fruit trees and... If you could go anywhere in the whole city right now, just because you could, where would it be?"

"I don't know." Amber shrugged. "Why?"

Valey shrugged back. "Because it's mild out and I'm in the mood for a flight."

"Oh..." Amber felt herself slightly redden, imagining being carried. Not that it would be her first time flying, or even second... She blinked several times. "Well, sure! Where do you recommend?"

"Well, I usually go stalk Dangerous Karma's fruit trees, but it sounds like those might need some time to recover after that sudden frost," Valey said, looking out the window. "Honestly, we could just pick somewhere to land when I get tired."

"Really?" Amber stepped closer. "Just flying for the sake of it, huh?"

"Do you see any other pegasi or airships up there to keep us company?" Valey pointed a hoof. "Looks nice and lonely. Perfect for hogging all to ourselves. The broken transport tube is just a few more floors up. What do you say?"

Amber grinned and pumped a hoof, nearly overbalancing and having to catch herself with an undignified yelp. "I say aye," she replied, dusting herself off. "Sure. Sounds like a great way to end our trip!"

"Cool." Valey shrugged at her saddlebags, which looked light and not very filled. "I brought a scarf, just in case. Just one, though. We might have to engage in brutal combat over whoever gets it..." Her face darkened in a spooky expression. "Or even share!"

"Oh, whatever shall we do!?" Amber threw up her forelimbs in mock despair, then followed Valey toward the next staircase.





Valey spread her wings, standing at the precipice of the shattered tunnel, a chill mountain wind blowing about her. Amber rested on her back with her forelimbs locked around Valey's neck, the batpony beneath her taking much of the edge out of the cold... and judging from Valey's lack of shivers beneath her, she was returning the favor.

Then they jumped. A brief rush of air tore Amber's mane upwards before Valey's wings caught, gravity and momentum slammed their bodies together, and they started to rise, soaring out with the rocky once-glacier below them and the open airspace above the Ironridge crater ahead.

Amber held back a shout. She knew that at the speed they were moving, the wind would take her breath away the moment she opened her mouth, so she grinned instead, baring her teeth against the atmosphere and the sight of the world below. They wheeled once, pulled up, and slowed, steadily drifting out into the miles and miles of sky that once belonged to airships and were now theirs alone.

"It's a good night for this," Valey remarked above the wind, lowering her speed so they could talk. "Not too windy, not to cloudy, not too cold... Hey, how much do you want me to talk? Just enjoying the view?"

There was a lot of view to enjoy. They were above the mountaintops that ringed Ironridge, and the full reality of the chain that began Yakyakistan to the west was finally visible for the first time in Amber's journey. To the north were endless stretches of badland, along with the watery remnants of forests and factories that had once comprised Sosa. And to the south...

No matter how high they flew, the southern border mountains separating the world from Equestria were higher still. A mountain range stacked atop a mountain range, they would make the Ironridge mountains look like pebbles even set side by side on the ground. Only the fact that they were miles away prevented them from being visible from the Earth District, and in the northern reaches of what had once been Sosa, they were probably visible still. Amber shuddered, remembering Maple's story of how fast Ironridge weather could change, with storms of unnatural might crashing like floods of their own down from those cliffs...

"Too cold?" Valey asked, beating her wings and sensing the shiver. "We can go lower, if you like. Apparently the wind barrier's gone, so we can safely reach the Earth District now."

Amber shook her head. "Nah, I'm good. You're warm. So, what did you want to talk about? If anything, of course."

"First off, I just felt like doing something nice." Valey shrugged midair, trying and unable to twist her head around to look Amber in the eye. "You might've been too busy shopping or having fun to notice, but I was listening in on as much gossip as possible today. My name's going around a ton, apparently. Sounds like nobody knows whether I was responsible for causing or fixing the problem, just that I was involved. Lots of theories, but it's what everyone wants to talk about. I mean, you saw those kids at Elise's place. Am I a hero, or am I not? Way I see it, doesn't really matter, 'cuz Ironridge is saved and whether I did it or not, I don't want to live here. Too many bad memories in this place. Not actually a lot of places I have good memories of, but that's why I gotta make some while I can. You know?"

"Reminds me of what we talked about with your past," Amber said. "About Icereach, and everything that happened there. I've been thinking about it."

"Have you? Cool. Me too." Valey didn't even try to look at her this time. "Which is sorta what I wanted to ask about. See... that moon glass Kero left? We don't really know what its deal is. We're pretty sure it's not super duper mega evil, and there's a good chance he actually expected someone to get it while he was still alive, but the thing is... meh. I talked about my pendant, right?" She folded her ears hopefully. "How it lets me do what we tried to do all those years ago and safely use two cutie marks at once while still keeping control of my body? I'm not... not really cool with using it. I nearly freaked out making sure I'd be able to use it to help out in the skyport when everything was exploding. But if I was... I could do things like look inside that oh-so-important rock and see what's there, for instance."

Amber swallowed and took a wild guess. "You want me to help you tell Maple and Willow about who you were?"

She felt Valey swallow back. "Yeah. Something like that. I dunno... they say being at peace with yourself will set you free, and all that, but this isn't about mental mind games and stuff. If I could use this freely and not care who knew about what I'm doing or why I can do it, and could be okay with that, I'd legitimately get stronger. And I've told you what having friends who are okay with everything means to me, right? At the same time, if the wrong pony knew about this, it would be ridiculously easy to use against me. And I've got enemies. You've got enemies too, if I read that Hemlock clown right. This is basically a beehive, here, and poking it could go so wrong, and that's not even thinking about what if Maple wasn't cool with it... but it could also make me happier and better able to take care of you guys. But I'm already great at that and happier than I've ever been before. So I dunno what to do."

"Could you tell more of us, but still keep it a secret?" Amber suggested. "Not have it be public knowledge, or anything, but enough for all your friends to know and understand what you're doing?"

"Yeah, maybe." Valey looked down. "The other thing is that, to be honest, I barely even know you. Now, I totally said I'd like to get to know you, and I mean it, but that probably doesn't involve putting deep, edgy concerns about the meaning of my existence and blah blah blah over stuff like hanging out. And I feel maybe just a little bad for dumping all this on you just because you're the first pony who said they'd listen."

Amber shrugged. "So let's do that, then. If you're coming to Riverfall with us, there'll be plenty of time to figure out bigger things later. I am getting cold, though, so maybe we could go lower if we just want to chat?"

"Cold, huh?" Amber didn't need to see Valey's face to know she was grinning. "Well, I've got a remedy for that...!"

Suddenly, Valey was gone beneath her. Amber nearly shrieked, but before she could begin to fall, Valey was back... only somehow different. It took her an entire second to realize the batpony was now upside-down.

"Uhhh..." Amber felt her cheeks warm, their legs locked together and bellies touching and muzzles inches apart.

Valey smirked. "That better? It's pretty cozy this way, if you ask me."

"Well, I'm certainly not feeling cold any more," Amber managed, Valey's face taking up her entire field of vision. "But I can't imagine having a conversation like this, either."

"Fair. That's fair." Valey nodded, her giant green eyes shining in the moonlight. "I suppose that means I shouldn't wrap my wings around you and just let us fall for a minute before pulling up?"

Amber nearly choked on her giggle. "No!" she sputtered. "Maybe I'll think that's romantic some day, and actually, probably, I will. Let us down gently! Or not, since I really don't think I'm cold any more."

"Easy glide to the surface, then." Valey turned her head to the side so that Amber could look at something other than her, and soon their left cheeks and ears were touching as Amber let her neck grow limp. "Just figured I'd ask. What with how much you Riverfall mares like cuddling, and all. And remember, I'm pretty terrible at this 'being a reasonable, socially-acceptable pony' thing."

"That's fine," Amber murmured. "I'm not the greatest at it myself. Some ponies back in Riverfall complain about me acting eighteen when I'm in my twenties. They're just jealous I'm popular, though."

She felt Valey's forelegs shift in their grip on her. "Popular, huh? Yeah, not really my area of experience. Cool for you, though. How's that feel? Do you, like, have ponies waving to you on random streets, or stuff?"

"I run into ponies I know everywhere. It's less, like... I'll walk into a random shop and see someone, and be like, 'Hey, I know you!' and they'll be all 'Hey, I know you too!' and we'll laugh about whatever happened last week and talk about what we're buying and say bye."

"That actually sounds kinda boring, to be honest. Almost like an obligation. I like being able to come and go without getting anyone's attention. Makes being sneaky pay off."

"Oh, believe me, I know a lot about sneaking, too. And it's partly for that reason! Nothing tells a friend you care about coming to their party by entering through the back window when they're not looking and then walking up and greeting them while they're greeting guests."

"Hey, what do Riverfall parties look like? Here, they're like... I dunno, 'cuz I don't go to them, but there was once this dude in the Defense Force who brought his little colt in and all the others decided to be big softies and coo at him a bunch. School must've been canceled, or something. I only rained on their parade a little by stealing some refreshments one brought out, but I also didn't crash it because goons who are chilling in their base are goons who aren't antagonizing the Earth District."

"Well, good for you for getting in on the snacks? In Riverfall, one mare will decide to host one, and tell all her friends a day in advance to come to her house, and depending on what kind of party it is she'll make all the food herself, or ask a friend to make it, or her friends will all make it without being asked, but there's always free food. That's not saying much in Riverfall because the city doesn't really have a currency system like in Ironridge. We know how money works, though! It just stopped being useful once the boats left. I wonder if that will change now, when the cities re-open contact, or if Ironridge will go the same way and stop using money too. Anyway, parties can also vary in whether it's just close friends, or friends of friends, and whether there's music and dancing or costumes or just stately older ponies with their tiny glasses of fruity drinks who talk and do nothing interesting. You shouldn't have to guess to know which ones I prefer. And a party where I can invite my friends, well..."

"Heh. Sounds like it could easily get out of hoof."

"Well, I know my limits. And my cutie mark is for boat building, which sort of carries over into woodwork, so I'm pretty good at judging a house's limits, too. We've never broken one at a party I've been at while I was there, though I did have to tell ponies to tone it down once, and there was a story I heard where someone apparently got the railing torn off a balcony. No one was hurt, though. Speaking of carpentry, I need to remember to fix Maple's door. I wonder if there's a way to do that before she gets back and is reminded of it..."

"Well, I could fly you ahead of the airship, though I think it moves pretty fast. Not sure how much faster I'd go with a passenger, if at all. Maybe I could distract her?"

"Maybe. But I don't think it's important. So when you're living in Ironridge, what do you do besides pranking ponies and messing things up for fun?"

"Honestly, that's about it. Being public enemy number one is really, really boring sometimes. I, uhh... let me think. Okay, this is probably totally inappropriate since we're totally interested in each other, or something, but I did just say I was socially inept, so here goes: spying and stalking. You know the Stone District has an indoor swimming pool? It's actually pretty cool. Started as a natural cave, then someone polished it up really, really good. It's closed now since there's no power or water supply to regulate everything and light the place, but they had a shower room and oh boy hiding in the shadows in that shower room..."

"Valey!"

"Hah hah! What? I told you-"

"Oh, nothing. I mean, I hope it was enjoyable?"

"Yeah. That's... Meh. Just reminded myself of something I don't really want to talk about."

"Well, don't worry. I won't ask. Tell me about this shower room!"

"Wow, you sound interested... But it's like this. You know what I said I was, right? And how old I technically am? So, like, developmentally... I have no clue how old that actually makes me. Maybe I'm just a really, really big baby. A poorly-adjusted foal. So sometimes I'm like... how do I know if I actually like ponies, like ponies, or if I just think making others flustered is funny and act like this because I've figured out it gets me what I want? What if I'm-"

"Hey, Valey?"

"Buh?"

"Look me in the eyes real quick. Straight at my eyes. Don't look away."

"Okay. Looks pretty cute to me. And wow, your breath smells like peaches. But what-"

"Eeeheehee! Nose boop!"

"Aaargh! Bananas! What was that for!?"

"Hee! See how hard you're blushing?"

"I can certainly feel it, thank you very much."

"Hey, you're the one who started the close-contact flirting. See how you like it. But the point is, would you feel that way if I was a stallion?"

"What? Ew, bananas no. That would be gross."

"Then I can promise you you really do like mares. And hopefully me, too."

"...Cool. Thanks."

"Anyway, about those showers-"

"Nose boop nose boop nose boop see how you like it! Bwaaah ha ha ha ha!"

"Eeeek! Valey, I get it! That tickles! Stop it!"

"Heh heh... Serves you right for doing that without warning. Now it's your turn to pay me back. But what's that about showers?"

"Oh, I just wanted to tell you not to worry. I don't know what your idea of relationships are like, but you gotta remember, Riverfall kind of... well, again, I don't know if this is normal everywhere or just a Riverfall thing. Wow, I'm getting really self-conscious all of a sudden! But you remember how everyone reacted when we were reading that will and talking about that stallion with seventy foals, or whatever, right?"

"Yeah. Getting paid to do that is weird."

"It is. But the point is, me and Maple and Willow weren't really surprised at all because that's how things happen in Riverfall. It's a necessity, since there are so few stallions. And before, when stallions came, it was on boats, and there was never any time to stay and get to know mares beyond a one-night fling. Willow could tell you a lot more about that than I could, since I was a filly at the time, but relationships were all about things that were new, mysterious and exciting. Now, I like mares, and part of the reason for that is because in Riverfall, that's really your only hope for getting to romantically know someone over a long period... There were also the Sosans, but after what Maple found out about them and how they got there, I'm pretty sure they don't count. That's not to say I've ever been in a relationship like that, or actually gotten serious with anypony before beyond a few quick googly eyes. Definitely not talking about the kinds of things we have, or even cuddled this much. But the point is, just because I'd like to get to know you and maybe see if it leads to something long-term doesn't mean I need to believe you aren't horny or have eyes only for me. Like, I see you pushing Shinespark's buttons, and that's really cute! So don't worry about it. And maybe tell me more about these showers..."

"Heh heh... Cool. Yeah, don't tell anyone, but I might have actually been just a little worried about it. Glad you get it, though, or at least don't mind. So anyway! Funny story. This one time, I was lurking around, and almost ready to go home, when suddenly, the sister of a dude who had just gotten assigned to Selma walks in. Yeah, I check his dudes' bios too. And usually, I stick to messing with my own mooks, but this particular one had actually just flown in from Varsidel. Trying to get off the combat lines, apparently, and put his skills to use elsewhere. I almost felt sorry for him, but at the same time, that's like a whole entire unsuspecting chump who doesn't know who I am! And that was an opportunity I couldn't let go to waste..."