//------------------------------//
// Manestyle Appreciation Day 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

As Valey sat silently nursing a bowl of curry, the conversation at the rest of the table fell off as well, leaving Starlight to finish hers in an awkward silence. She flicked her ears; she had only mostly been paying attention to the conversation, but had caught enough mentions of ponies that didn't like her to know she didn't want to know more. Trouble could very well leave her and her friends alone, please and thank you.

Eventually, Gerardo got up, announcing that he was going to take the night shift piloting so Shinespark could get some rest. Maple gave him a bowl of curry to take to Slipstream, then busied herself cleaning in the kitchen as Shinespark helped bus dishes and the other ponies went their own ways. Actually... Starlight blinked. The only others present were Valey and Jamjars, the former still slumped listlessly in her chair. Feeling like she was poking a bomb purely because she had nothing better to do, Starlight sighed, squeezed her eyes shut, and decided to follow her fellow filly.

Jamjars swiveled her ears as they climbed to the cabin level, letting Starlight know she knew she was there, but didn't say anything. Eventually, she reached the first door on the right after Shinespark's room, decorated with a big Do Not Disturb sign, slid it open, and stepped inside, leaving it wide and inviting.

"You decided to hang out with me," Jamjars remarked the moment Starlight poked her head around the door, already sprawled regally on a bed big enough for a grown couple. "How do you like that? I was afraid I'd have to spend this entire ride alone after sticking my neck out for your house in Riverfall. Come on in!"

Wondering just what she was thinking, Starlight obliged, and Jamjars telekinetically closed the door behind her. "You're not going to do anything weird, right?" Starlight asked, tentative.

"To you? Nah. Just girl talk." Jamjars shrugged with a flourish, tossing her bushy mane... and reminding Starlight it was now a wig.

"Thanks," Starlight told her. "For trying to protect Maple's house. I just wanted to say that."

"Well, you're welcome!" Jamjars beamed, then glanced at a wall-mounted mirror next to her bed. "You better mean it. That hurt. A lot. And I did it for my own reasons. But I did it for you, too, because we are friends."

"...Thanks?" Starlight asked, slightly more uncertain. There had been a conversation about getting to know more ponies her own age somewhere, she recalled, but while Jamjars could definitely keep up with her, she still wasn't sure this was the best idea.

Jamjars nodded, floating her wig off and taking a comb and several spray bottles to her short-hacked mane. It looked like she had actually done serious work on it; the hairs were straightened instead of bushy or curly, and the inch and a half Valey had left her with had been further cropped, giving the filly an extremely short, polygonal swirl that could hold its shape no matter how much wind or water it was exposed to, yet lie perfectly flat under the wig. Starlight was almost impressed; being nearly bald had to have been worse than a death sentence for her, yet she still managed to make it look good.

"So what do you want to talk about?" Jamjars asked, passing the conversation to her with an air that let Starlight know she was doing it purely out of the goodness of her heart.

"I don't know." Starlight shrugged. "You, uhh... haven't decorated this room as much as I thought you would."

"I've been focusing on decorating myself, first," Jamjars explained, snipping at a single too-long strand of hair. "But it's not like I have a lot to decorate with. All I brought with me on that cart were a few mane supplies, and I never had much more than that to begin with."

Starlight could relate, there. "All I have are what fits in my saddlebags."

"But I do have this." Jamjars stepped away from the mirror and opened a drawer, pulling out a rolled-up paper tube. "Help me figure out where it should go. On the wall next to my bed so it's as close as possible, or further away so I can see it while I'm resting..."

"You still have that?" Starlight pointed a hoof, realizing it was the exact same poster Jamjars had stolen from the Spirit of Sosa a long time ago. Two mares lay on their backs on a plush bed, cheeks touching, eyes closed and mouths open, with their limbs spread and tails intertwined as if they were singing together at the sky.

Jamjars shrugged, rooting through the other drawers. "I need some tape. And of course I do; it's hot. My family is gone, so I have nothing to hide. Be honest, are you jealous of it?"

Squinting, Starlight sized the poster up again, deciding against her better judgement to give Jamjars the benefit of the doubt. The mares had different coat colors, one magenta and one lime green, but they were perfectly the same size and made such an effort to mirror each other she was fairly sure they were twins. Each had a two-tone mane with a solid split, the former half black and half white, and the latter half white and half gray. Both of their manes were tied into ribbons... the actual hair, not added accessories, and their horns were alight with auras that matched each other in color. They were fairly young, about Shinespark's age, and appeared to be having a good time, but the poster didn't do anything special for her at all. "Not really," she replied.

"Really? Not even a little?" Jamjars looked disappointed. "That's too bad. I guess you really are too young to have your first crush. It's no good for anything other than being a poster, anyway. The text says it's several years old."

Starlight blinked. "It does?"

"Didn't you read?" Jamjars poked a hoof at a miniscule line beneath the mares' names. "It's a promotional poster for some concert in a place called Varsidel six years ago. That means these two are probably old and gross now, so imagining is all you can do anyway."

"Imagining what?" Starlight felt her brow furrow. "That they like you, or are your marefriends? It sounds pointless to me." She gave the pair one more look, then shrugged. "Ponies can like each other, but why would you like someone who's never heard of you, or doesn't even exist?"

Jamjars stuck her tongue out. "It's called a crush, and because imagining is fun. Also because you have nothing better to do when the only ponies you ever see are your mother and your siblings. Some day, you won't be able to stop thinking about other ponies that way, and you'll understand then. Let me know when it happens so we can talk about how hot they are together."

Starlight glanced again at the poster. "They look kind of like siblings to me..."

"It's only gross when it's your own siblings," Jamjars countered. "Otherwise it's hot. See? They're hot, and they look like siblings. Case in point. And besides, I want them for me. Not each other."

Starlight had never had a sibling or found another pony attractive and couldn't argue, but Jamjars' logic still smelled like a fish. "Can we talk about something else?" she complained. "This is really, really weird."

"Yeah," Jamjars agreed. "Like I said, you'll get this when you're older. So what kind of magic can you do?"

"Magic?" Starlight blinked from the sudden topic change, even though she had requested it. She had definitely burned out her horn again, whatever had happened with Hemlock, as it still twinged instead of naturally refilling its reserves like before. Hopefully it just meant it would slowly recover, and she hadn't lost the tree's blessing forever... Magic that didn't give her a headache was useful to have. She slowly licked her lips, hoping Jamjars wouldn't pounce if she said she wasn't omnipotent and hoping she wouldn't ask her to prove it if she said she was. "I can teleport, lift things, make crystals and feel things through walls," she decided. "But I hurt my horn going after Hemlock and need to let it recover right now."

"For more than a day?" Jamjars looked intrigued. "You should get that looked at. Sounds serious. But that's nice." She glanced regretfully at the wig on her bed. "I can still camouflage myself, but it doesn't work on my mane now that it's separated from me. Never worked on clothes either. So I have to be able to take it off to go stealthy." She shrugged. "But that's okay, because being smaller is better for sneaking anyway. I bet Valey doesn't like knowing she did me a favor."

Starlight glanced uneasily away. "She's not very happy right now..."

"Stinks to be her," Jamjars agreed. "She is weird, though. Don't you think? Always acting random and annoying. And she belches a lot."

"I figured you'd get along," Starlight meekly offered. "Since you both hate having ponies breathing down your necks and telling you what to do. And like mares, apparently."

Jamjars stuck out her tongue. "Ew, no. She's way older than me."

Starlight wanted to say something about the ages of the mares in the poster, but decided it wasn't worth pressing the point. "Still," she protested, pointing a hoof.

"Yeah, I know." Jamjars turned back to her bed, telekinesis still focused idly on her mane. "Maybe we could get along. If she didn't get in my way. And she probably thinks I get in hers."

"You could make an effort to?" Starlight suggested. She herself had needed to be told to give other ponies a chance, starting with Maple in Riverfall, and now here she was in Jamjars' room...

"You think I'm not already?" Jamjars raised an eyebrow, poking a yellow hoof into Starlight's chest. "Don't forget how I feel about you, remember. I'm jealous of you. You have everything I never got to. Strong magic, no family holding you back, the ability to run away... If I was a stupid bully, I'd try to stomp you into the ground because I hate feeling beneath you. Fortunately for both of us, I'm smart enough to know that's not the way, so we can still be friends. But I am making an effort." She paused, seeming to actually consider what Starlight had said... "And you're right. I should do more, as well. But we'll see."

Slightly disconcerted by Jamjar's frank admissions of how easily she could be a horrible pony, and the implications she actively considered that, Starlight shuddered. "Well..." She swallowed. "You did run away. With us, just now. And left your family behind. And I think being invisible is pretty strong."

"Camoflage," Jamjars corrected. "Not as good as invisibility. But yeah, I did."

The room was silent for several minutes.

"Well, if you don't want to talk about my poster," Jamjars announced, "you might want to go find your mom or someone else. Because this is the first time I've gotten to put it up, and you're going to feel really awkward if I zone out and start daydreaming right next to you."

Starlight glanced uncertainly at the door. "Does that mean I should leave?"

Jamjars utterly ignored her, focusing on the poster. "You know what would be hot?" she asked. "If all my family in Gnarlbough had to be out for the day, and Mom hired them as a sitter. No... just the green one. No, both. No, the green one! And she would ask if I was hungry, and I'd ask for a grilled cheese sandwich, and she'd go 'Okay!' and be sooo happy to make me one..." She sat up on her hind legs, clutching her forehooves to her chest. "And then she turns the oven on to cook with, and standing in front of it is hot, so she gets sweaty, and her mane falls apart! And she's like, 'Oh no, my mane! Can you please fix my lovely ribbon for me so I don't have to stop making you this sandwich?' So I get to stand beside her and hold her mane together in my telekinesis, but I don't have my bobby pins to stop it from falling apart, but I can't go get them without abandoning her! So..."

Starlight backed away in concern from Jamjars' delirious expression. She was almost positive the filly was messing with her on purpose, but definitely agreed this wasn't something she wanted to stay for. Instantly, she vacated the room.