//------------------------------//
// Prejudice And Plunder 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

For nearly an hour, Gerardo and Shinespark talked and Meltdown questioned, her bladed armor tinkling with the sound of moving metal every time she breathed. Starlight sat silently, watching the sun grow lower in the sky and not saying a word. If she could have her way, they'd be clear on the other side of the city having nothing to do with this mare, but as it was she couldn't even voice her concerns that everyone was being too forward about sensitive information with a mare they knew nothing about without Meltdown hearing every word of that, too. If only Valey was there. Her cutie mark could tell in a pinch whether they were about to be backstabbed...

The same western sun that pelted Starlight's side shone over all of Stormhoof, lighting up the gleaming castle and the walls around it like a beacon on the sea. It lit the coast, too, an endless wall of docks, cranes, homes, businesses and warehouses stretching from the mountains up the north-running edge of the mainland. Their seaward sides turned a deep yellow, the pre-sunset colors of late afternoon and early evening just beginning to deepen the blue in the sky, the waves catching the light with increasing frequency and dazzling the surface of the water. A blimp floated in the distance overhead, suited for nothing more than tourist rides and towing a banner advertising preening lotion, and one or two taller buildings peered above the rest, trying to catch their inhabitants a view of the sea. This was the view that greeted a small merchant ship, its wooden hull sporting a fresh wound where it had been scarred by a harpoon, as it drifted into a land-based docking terminal.

"Bananas, I'm hungryyyyy..." Valey moaned, clutching herself and rocking from side to side impatiently, sitting on a recessed cover near the boat's stern. The edge of her mind told her Starlight was somewhere on the white island; she'd worry about that later. She had a purse full of pirate gold and a dead sound stone, a night in a cave and a full day of flying worth of cramps, and badly, badly needed food.

She didn't wait for the ship to properly dock before bailing, flapping her wings and leaping to another ship that was already tied up. One wing barely unfurled, and she missed the landing, crashing and rolling to a stop against a wall on the ship's side, groaning and holding her side. "Owowoww cramp! Owww..."

Glancing unhappily at the wing, Valey sighed and stood up, her legs like logs and spine feeling like it didn't quite bend straight. That was the wing she had injured in the Flame District and against Herman, and apparently it wasn't ready to be put through that just yet. An actual night's sleep in someplace warm and it would be fine, she decided. At least she didn't need to fly to get food.

Valey hopped down to the pier, the boat she had crashed on blocking sight of the merchant ship with the two sphinxes. A dilapidated padlocked gate was all that bothered to guard the dock; its purpose completely boggled her, since a unicorn could pick the lock and even an earth pony could jump right over. A quick shadow sneak later, taking care not to slip through the cracks between the boards and dunk herself in the water, and she was through, standing at the entrance to the Griffon Empire.

"Food food food..." Valey followed her nose, a single cross street taking her from the abandoned dockside to a busy pedestrian thoroughfare. Buildings two and three stories high rose on either side, predominantly brown and made from wood beams, corrugated metal, brick and something that looked like plaster, hoof bridges constantly spanning between them alongside occasional clotheslines leaving shirts and lingerie out to dry. Ponies and griffons walked back and forth without any sort of street rules, and though she saw a lot of stares, the level of hostility her cutie mark picked up would only be concerning if she tried to sleep on the side of the road.

She tried to go with the flow, walking in the shadow of a second story that was larger than its first. It was almost like Blueleaf, only with the mazelike architecture replaced with an actual street grid allowing the sun to shine, fewer signs of poverty and no completely roofed areas or buildings abandoned and left in disrepair. In fact, almost everything looked used; while the denizens here weren't the wealthiest of wealthy, waterfront space was probably valuable. All around her were cracks that had been repaired, braces that had been shorn up, and Valey was suddenly left with an impression less of a city made for the disenfranchised and more one made with technology centuries old that had never adapted its aesthetic to modern times. Or maybe Ironridge's idea of the future was just too full of steel and glass.

Huffing, Valey shook her head, her stomach not letting her forget her purpose for long. Food, scents of food, ponies carrying food... There! A dark door with a swinging wooden sign depicting a frothing mug beckoned. A tavern was fine. Smiling, Valey trotted inside, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the dark.

"We don't serve your kind here," a deep voice growled in her ear.

"Buh!?" Valey jumped back, her cutie mark suddenly informing her there was someone capable of smashing her like a fly. A bouncer who looked more like a bear than a stallion was glaring at her from inside the door... probably. His dark shades made it hard to tell.

Valey snorted, flicked her mane and turned tail to leave. "Fine! I don't patronize shades-in-dark-nightclub places, anyway."

She would have liked to think being hungry would make the sting of being thrown out get to her less, but in truth, it did the opposite. As Valey went back to wandering the seaside streets, a salty breeze pushing in over her nose and making it hard to smell anything inland, she started to pout and then fume. If this was how the Empire was going to treat her, she'd... what? Leave? Leave her friends? She sighed, emotions a volatile, flickering mess she knew she'd have to deal with the moment she got some food.

...And call Amber. She couldn't forget to do that.

Another doorway eventually beckoned, and she quickly checked to make sure it, too, wasn't a false hope guarded by a giant bouncer. It was definitely a tavern, the smells drifting out telling her something had been fried in batter and served with lemon. Some kind of sweet and savory sauce... and no danger. She sniffed one more time, and was sold.

The tavern's interior was lit by grimy windows, though at least that meant no candle smoke. Dark wood covered by iron lattices made it look like the inside of a treasure chest or ship, and most of the ponies and griffons sitting inside nursed tall wooden glasses and showed obvious signs of hard work and heavy physical wear. Someone had carefully scrubbed the floor, though it was pitted and scarred from years of table and chair legs being dragged across without protection.

"Heya." She folded her forelimbs on the barkeep's desk, putting on a flirtatious smirk at the sight of a mare bent over a crate of glasses.

"Hi, what can..." The mare straightened up, looking in her late teens with bittersweet coloration and a mane in two side buns. Her expression fell when she saw Valey. "Oh. It's one of you. Hi, what can I get for you?"

Valey gave a more honest grin, dropping all pretense... along with several gold coins on the counter. She had no idea how much they were worth, but that ought to cover food if gold was a standard currency. "Food. I dunno the menu. What that guy's having smells nice." She pointed to a hairy stallion two seats down, his mane up in a bandanna and beard stained with juices, and he grunted and looked away.

The bartender mare saw the coins and instantly disappeared, flashing a smile of her own that made Valey slightly wary. "Okie dokie! One sec."

Valey held still for several agonizing minutes as she left through a swinging door, voices and the sound of sizzling grease echoing through as it closed. The mare returned, poured drinks, polished glasses, took another order and yelled something up a flight of stairs... and just when she thought her stomach would implode, finally returned with a black platter of ring-shaped somethings covered in puffy golden batter. She licked her lips. Good smell, good choices, good food, good... Her cutie mark was tingling. She paused, fangs wide, inches from shoveling the meal into her mouth.

"Is everything all right?" the bartender asked with incredible sweetness, swaying from side to side with a friskiness that emphasized her flanks.

"Uhhh..." Valey sniffed again, caution outweighing her hunger. She backed away and checked again, but her cutie mark only tingled when she was about to bite in. "Hey, this stuff isn't laced with anything, is it?"

The bartender backed up with a horrified gasp, avoiding bumping into anything with practiced ease. "Laced!? Oh, it shouldn't be. I can assure you that all our food is cleared by health inspection boards and everything!"

Valey frowned. "Yeah, uh, call me paranoid. Any chance you want to eat one of these for me first, just in case?"

The bartender shook her head, starting to look worried. "Oh, no. We stand by our products. That... that shouldn't be necessary, and I've already eaten dinner..."

Valey raised an eyebrow, lifting a ring and spinning it on the tip of her more limber wing.

"Well, you already paid, and no refunds," the bartender huffed. "There's your food. Take it or leave it."

"Eh... don't feel like it." Valey stood up, aware that some of the other patrons were starting to look at her with disgruntled unease, like they suspected she might start a brawl. "I paid for food, and I'd like some food you'll prove is safe to eat. Please."

"Uhhhhh..." The bartender took one more look at the platter, then backed to the kitchen door, stuck her head through, and called for backup. "Hey, Bruce? That customer's being a problem!"

A rhythmic shaking rocked the floor, and a stallion burst out who was even bigger than the bouncer at the last place Valey had tried. He glared at Valey and lumbered over, not needing to be told who she was.

"I Bruce," he told her bluntly in a yak accent accompanied by plenty of spittle. "Am head chef at Stormy Crow Tavern. You have problem with way I cook, sarosian?"

Valey puffed up, deciding she had ran from one too many encounters that day and was in danger of being pushed around. "Yeah, I do, big guy. This stuff's laced."

"Is perfect health food," Bruce growled, making dangerously close eye contact. "Sarosian eat and enjoy Bruce's cooking or Bruce will be offended."

Noting the bartender standing with an eager expression on her face, Valey stuck out her tongue. "No. You eat it first."

"Raaaaaaugh-" BAFF!

Bruce tried to punch her, swinging a hoof the size of a dinner plate, but Valey was far too ready. She backflipped away, kicking her stool at him and uppercutting his chin with a hind hoof as he rose, and though her muscles complained mightily, the power of adrenaline was enough to nail the landing. Bruce collapsed in a single hit, knocked out by the well-placed kick, and Valey hopped back an extra time to avoid his girth as he fell.

"Hah!" she crowed, eyeballing the bartender. "That's what happens when you try to stronghoof me. New food, please. Now."

She uncertainly rubbed a foreleg, staring at the floor. "Well, you just knocked out our chef... If I refund you and give you my boxed dinner, will you go away and not start a brawl?"

Valey shrugged. "Probably. Lemme see the dinner."

A lunchbox was placed on the counter, and Valey sniffed it, detecting a day-old sandwich and no hint of danger. "Deal," she said, swiping it and her coins and not questioning why a mare who worked in a restaurant would bring her own meals as she turned to leave.

"Hey. Pssssst." A tug on her saddlebags caught her attention right as she reached the door.

"Buh?" Valey turned, perfect escape interrupted, to see the seediest stallion of her life looking intensely at her. He wore a trench coat, had a bloodshot eye with a bad tick, one of his ears was torn and his belly sagged as if he had once been fat and lost weight too rapidly. "Wow, dude, you need some hygene," she informed him. "If you want a date, the answer's no."

He shook his head, a muscle twitch making the action jerky. "You're g-good," he stammered. "A much better f-f-fighter than I am."

"Yeah...?" Valey warily evaluated him, though he wasn't threatening in the slightest.

"Here," he rasped, slipping something bright and golden from beneath his coat and tucking it behind Valey's saddlebag with an action so fast she could barely register it. "You'll make better use of this than I will."

"HEY!" the bartender roared, standing up with every bit of indignation Valey had felt earlier as the stallion bolted out the door. "How dare you bring one of those in my-"

Her words were cut off as Valey's cutie mark erupted with danger. It wasn't from the golden something the stallion had given her, though: it was every single other pony in the room, sans the barkeeper and unconscious Bruce. The surge was intense enough to put her in accelerated reaction time, and she got to watch the ponies' eyes widening in greed at the sight of whatever it was. She didn't know what the stallion had given her, but apparently, they wanted it.

As far as she was concerned, that was a good enough reason for her to want it too.

"Yeah, sorry," she bragged with a wink, waiting for the first pony to surge from their seat, "but now I'm really curious what this is. Later, loons."

Ponies collided where she was standing just as she ducked into the shadows, swimming outside and leaving behind the makings of an epic brawl.