//------------------------------//
// Indulging Worse Ideas 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

"Something smells wrong?" Starlight raised an eyebrow, though she could feel the fur on her back bristling. If Valey was spooked, that probably wasn't a good idea. "You mean you feel danger?"

"Okay, hold up." Valey sniffed again, sitting down and giving her and Jamjars a look that meant stay put and listen. "First off, I don't sense any danger. I smell it. Second, it's weak. Weak enough I didn't notice it down on the field or while we were getting dinner, or while I was distracted with monk paralysis, and even now I can only tell it's there because I'm specifically looking for it. It's also not all around me. I think it's coming from somewhere, and might be able to track it. The important part is, I remember Wallace saying something about how nice the air smelled earlier, and Morena was on about the weather too." She narrowed her eyes. "In my old line of work, that means there's something we can't tell you, but here's how to find out for yourself if you really wanna know."

Jamjars grinned. "So you want more sneaking? Leave it to me. What are we looking for?"

Valey frowned. "I... dunno. It's less of a scent, even, then a harshness or something, almost like I smell it with my throat. I feel like I've smelled it before, but can't put a hoof on where. Neither of you smell anything, do you?"

"Hmmm..." Starlight sniffed, taking several deep breaths and feeling with her throat, like Valey instructed. "I don't think so?"

"Well, I can't sleep with this around, and I'm really tired," Valey complained, "so right now I've got zero inhibitions against finding whatever stinks and beating it to a pulp so I can get some rest. Kinda don't feel like doing it alone, though. Think, uhh... hmm. You're both in; who else should we wake to go with us...?"

As if on cue, Maple's door swung open and the mare stumbled out, rubbing her eyes with a hoof. "What's going on out here?" she mumbled, standing in the middle of the door. "My bed was by the window and I heard talking..."

"Ironflanks! Excellent." Valey licked her lips. "Short version, I smell something, it's giving me the creeps, and we're going hunting. In?"

"Are you sure?" Starlight frowned. "If you say something's wrong, I believe you, but you and Jamjars don't get along and I'm not sure how much help me and Maple would be."

"Say that again?" Maple asked, still half asleep.

Twenty minutes of repeated explanation and quiet debate later, Maple was fully awake and thoroughly worried. "And you've smelled it before, but don't remember where or what it is?"

"Maybe." Valey flicked her tail and turned toward the bridge. "Look, I'm just as tired as you are, but am definitely not getting to sleep until I figure this out. I don't like having something pointed at my head I can't see. So last call; I'm leaving. Are you in or not?"

"In," Maple instantly said, backed by Jamjars and then, reluctantly, Starlight. Valey nodded in approval.

"Cool." The batpony nodded, heading across to the docking tower. "Pretty sure we're going to have to walk this one since there's one of me and three of you, so let's go."





"The hospital?" Starlight blinked, seeing the building they were standing in front of. "Here?"

"I know what I smell." Valey shrugged, peering at the front door. "So, I could probably ferry us under the door one at a time if-"

Jamjars pushed the door, and it slid open cleanly and smoothly. "It's a hospital," she proclaimed, giving Valey a strange look. "Someone could get sick at night. They're still open."

Looking faintly annoyed, Valey followed Jamjars into the main lobby, and Starlight and Maple brought up the rear. "Hi," Jamjars announced, snapping the receptionist out of a light snooze and earning a look from a worried-looking stallion waiting in one of the lobby chairs. "We're here to visit a friend. We already know the way, so don't worry about us."

The receptionist looked vaguely surprised, but not enough to elicit a response. With a slow nod, she went back to sleep.

Valey exhaled in relief. "Cool. Let's see..." She raised her head, sniffing again now that they were in the lobby. "Which way is it...?"

"Hey," the nervous stallion in the corner greeted, getting up and trotting across and looking like he would take any excuse to start pacing. "You all got someone here too? What are they in for?"

"Uhh..." Valey looked unhappily at him, and Starlight could see why: he had the frayed appearance of someone who would talk their ears off due to his own nerves. Hopefully they wouldn't get stuck here for long. "Sorry, but that's a little private."

"Oh. I get you." The stallion rubbed his neck and didn't make eye contact, mane slightly unkempt. "For me, it's the wife. Family matters." He glanced between Starlight and Jamjars. "You know the drill..."

Maple instantly winced. "If this is going where it sounds like it's going, I actually hope I don't..."

Starlight froze. Some ponies just had to talk about things that would put her mother on edge... Scowling, she made it to Maple's side, choosing a hallway at random and quickly pushing her toward it.

"Heh heh..." Valey watched them go, awkwardly interrupting the stallion as he lamented having to leave the concert early and ensure their sitter could stay the whole night. "Yeah, sounds rough, buddy. Best wishes and all that, but we really gotta bail."

Jamjars looked ready to add something snippy, but Valey grabbed her and dragged her away, and soon they were all out of sight around a turn in the corridor.

"Sorry," Maple murmured, tension draining. "It's a whole entire hospital! All the different reasons a patient could be here, and we run into the one thing that makes me freeze up..." She shook her head. "Or we weren't at all thinking about the same thing and I'm just jumpy. We're here for something else. It doesn't matter. We're here for something else..."

"Yeah, you should get that looked at. Kind of a problematic overreaction." Valey nodded in concern, glanced at the ceiling, then the door to a nearby elevator shaft. "Anyway, my nose says down, so down we go. Gimmie a sec..."

She slipped into the shadows of the blue-lit nighttime corridor, and after several minutes was back. "Okay," she explained, "elevator takes a password to go to any floor but the upper ones. Not really surprising; Ironridge had password-protected elevators too. Good thing is, these look like a similar model, so they shouldn't be too hard for me to manually override. There's a small chance that'll leave a trail if I do anything mechanical, though, so-"

"So use the password," Jamjars replied, holding out a ledger with a roll of her eyes.

"Where did you get that?" Valey asked, suspicious.

Jamjars shrugged. "I stole it from the sleeping receptionist. It was hanging under her desk."

Valey grabbed the ledger, scanning through. "Patient admission data, money, blah blah blahhh... Ooh, sticky note." She flipped to a page and grinned. "Elevator security level one: password LOYALTY. Huh. That's a weird password. I wonder if they like yaks."

"I wonder who left that note laying around," Starlight grumbled.

"Someone lazy?" Jamjars asked. "If they've got muggers in hospitals, they really need to be more careful."

Valey scratched her head. "The note looks like it was written by someone kinda angry. Has a tiny little scrawl saying if someone forgets one more time they'll change it to their name instead. Maybe it's just not that important?"

"Let's see if it will get us to where we want to go," Maple murmured. "Any idea how far down it is?"

"Nah," Valey announced, opening the door and stepping in. "But we'll find out."





The elevator went down, slowly reading names in a mare's prerecorded voice as it descended. "General surgery," the elevator said, a light dinging on its ornately-crafted carriage. "Intensive care unit. Constant care suites. General administrative. Contagious disease quarantine facility. Long-term psychiatric ward and-"

"There!" Valey punched the stop button, and the elevator jerked, backed up slightly, and came to a slow halt, doors sliding open.

"Long-term psychiatric ward and asylum," the elevator announced, a long, dimly-lit corridor lined with doors on either side stretching out before them.

"...Yep," Valey decided, gritting her teeth at the sterile tiles and walls before them. "Getting closer. Let's see where the trail goes from here."

The long hallway was absent of the usual periodic waiting rooms, and stretched far further than anything that could fit in the aboveground building. Unless they had gotten turned around, Starlight figured they must be moving toward the center of the plaza, but then they snaked right, then left again and she lost track. The path was absent of doctors and patients, and she wasn't sure if the modest lighting was to conserve on power for the night or if it was always dim down there.

"Here," Valey finally announced, pushing on a windowless iron door on the side of the hall. It clunked once and swung open, opening into a square room made of large, dark stone bricks that descended further beneath the ground, a stairway wrapping down around the edges. She wrinkled her nose and frowned.

"This sure looks pleasant," Maple murmured, seeing the change in architecture. "We are still in the hospital, right?"

"Wherever we are, we're close." Valey grimaced, spread her wings, and dove over the railing, flapping to the ground below.

Starlight, Maple and Jamjars hurried down the stairs after her, another door at the bottom leading back the direction they had came. Valey pulled this one open too, and all four of them stepped through.

"Wallace thought you'd show up," a voice rumbled from behind her.

Starlight jumped. This room was bright and cheerful, decorated like a foal's nursery, with only the door they had entered by and another set into the far side. A smattering of toys were piled neatly into the corners, along with several rolled-up posters and a cute little bookshelf beside a well-made bed. In a chair that was far too small, positioned against the wall they had entered through, Morena sat, watching them with an unreadable expression.

"You...?" Valey's fur prickled, and she turned with wide eyes.

Morena shrugged. "We made sure to leave the way clear and the elevator password written down in case you decided to show up. I had a talk with Wallace while you were out catching that thief, and we decided at the rate you were asking us questions, this was going to become unavoidable sooner or later... and if we kept dodging it, you'd get suspicious. But, it's also something that has to be seen before it can be explained."

Valey breathed, watching her carefully, but Morena just nodded at the last door. "In there. It's nothing dangerous, but you'll still want to keep your wits about you, and don't go in alone. Hopefully you're prepared for a long talk after."