//------------------------------// // On Your Hooves // Story: The Olden World // by Czar_Yoshi //------------------------------// Several hours later, with the rain drumming down on the Immortal Dream's deck in full force and the sky as dark as late evening despite being mid-afternoon, a blustery wind chased Gerardo and Slipstream through the door, and they stumbled onto the staircase landing trailing water and a few crooked feathers. "Woah," Slipstream breathed, taking a moment to catch her breath as she flicked water from her brow with a wingtip. "Running a search operation in a rainstorm is exciting! Now I need a towel and... and... a-a-aCHOO!" Gerardo was considerably less upbeat, a grim frown on his face. "Yes, but we failed in our mission to locate miss Sirena's sister. All in all, I wouldn't call it a roaring success." The door continued to bang above them until Nyala closed it, her heavy bulk good for stability against the wind. "I wonder how everyone here is doing. I hope Sirena's all right. Maybe Melia came here on her own?" Slipstream shook a bucket of water from her ears. "If anyone's here, I can't tell. The rain and river are too loud, and it feels like I'm wearing earmuffs." Gerardo finished rubbing his face against a stack of towels thoughtfully positioned on the landing, passing them off to Slipstream. Still soaked but no longer dripping, he could make do. "We'll search as soon as everyone's dry, then," he decided. "Since that armor lacks fur, I presume-" "No, it's okay," Nyala interrupted from the library. "They're over here; I found them!" The door to Shinespark's room was ajar, and it swung wider as Nyala, Slipstream and Gerardo pushed their way in. Dim but not dark, the roof was lit by a chorus of magenta, teal and sapphire motes from the unicorns' glowing horns, and Sirena broke off saying something to look up. Everyone but Jamjars was there, Maple and Starlight and Sirena and Shinespark and Valey, laying together in a row with Sirena in the center. "Ah..." Gerardo raised a talon, then let it fall, trailing off. Sirena's cutie mark was blocked on either side by Starlight and Shinespark, and it was impossible to see if it was still there. "Any... success, perhaps?" "We haven't looked," Maple answered, beside Starlight at the edge of the stack. "And I don't want to," Sirena finished, looking like she was still getting comfortable with that many ponies in her personal space but also had no intentions of leaving. "I'm still making peace with either outcome. Did you find my sister?" She looked straight at Gerardo, magenta eyes hopeful. Gerardo hung his head. "Alas, we did not, and not for lack of trying. Slipstream and I scoured every area we're familiar with of the central hill, and invited ourselves through Percival's mansion while miss Nyala hung back at the school. The lord himself was there and offered to send out an official search in our stead, which we gratefully accepted as it is raining heavily and unfamiliar terrain. Realistically, though, unless she is deep within the tunnels beneath this place or else in the administration building, we have not seen her." "Where do you go from here?" Nyala asked. "Sorry... I don't really know much about what's happening. I'm new around here. But I can tell you're in trouble." "And do you have any... idea why it happened?" Slipstream added, hesitating and wrinkling her nose as if about to sneeze. Sirena looked down. "I'm trying not to think about why just yet. No matter what happens, we'll probably have to leave Izvaldi. Our careers here are finished, and even if we keep our brands now, staying might cause this again later. And I really can't look at Chauncey right now, either. After all he gave us, it looks like we'll be leaving with less than we started with." Valey grinned into her pillow. "Well, our adventure squad here kinda got thrown together at the last minute and because we were the only ones who could, so it's a pretty open group if you want to hop on board. We seem to get along pretty well." Sirena sighed. "You sure are helping me feel better, and I'm grateful for it, but I think that's too fast a decision. Sorry, but Melia and I need to find our own footing in life that doesn't rely on an organization or publisher or audience to back us up." "And that's fine," Maple insisted. "We'll be here for a while, though, whenever we can help." "If you don't mind me asking..." Nyala knelt down, slightly more attuned to her movements than she had been earlier. Clearly, she had spent the time alone in the school practicing. "What happened with you and Chauncey? I don't really get it." Sirena eyed the bed. "As teenagers, me and Melia grew up in Varsidel and made money singing for taverns and small stage shows. Then, six years ago, the Griffon Empire's emperor and empress were assassinated on a diplomatic visit there. That incident happened in the city we were in at the time. It was bad... We had to run, since there was fighting going on. Then we and Chauncey ran into each other. He was traveling with a group of scientists, on their way back to the Empire from a research mission in Yakyakistan. He offered to smuggle us along in his convoy, and had enough official ties to get through the Empire's blockade. So, he gave us almost everything... but when we met him, we still had our music and each other." Nyala looked shocked. "Your emperor and empress were assassinated? That's terrible!" Sirena's jaw twisted in surprise and confusion. "...That's the part you're surprised by?" Nyala squeaked, and took a step backwards. "It's fine," Valey quickly interjected. "She's, uh, not completely up-to-date on the state of the world right now. Memory stuff. No offense intended." "I see what you mean about Chauncey," Maple replied, pushing the subject back on track. "And you said he did a lot to build your audience, too." "He sure did." Sirena sighed. "He spent way too many resources building a system that could record our magic, not just our voices. He wanted our music to be available for everyone." Nyala nodded. "I heard something playing on a speaker somewhere in the school while I was waiting. It was quiet, but was that you?" "It's never anything else." Sirena shook her head. "At least Izvaldi will have all of our albums to listen to after we're gone." "...You're talking like you're going to be dead," Shinespark growled, sounding distressed. "How old are you? Twenty-three? Twenty-four? I've lost an empire too, and it wasn't even some advisor's fault. As long as you remember what you were performing for in the first place, you have decades to pick yourselves up and try again, if it's important enough to be worth it." Sirena halted. "You have?" "My home city got turned into a crater by a flood." Shinespark gritted her teeth. "After I had dedicated my life since I was a filly to saving it, and believe me, it needed saving. There's a lot more, but does that sound relatable?" Sirena blinked, then sadly exhaled. "Yet another reason I don't think the life of an adventurer is for me. But you're still up and going. Sounds like there's a trick to it?" Shinespark nodded. "Take time to grieve. Remember what you still have. For both of us, that's time and friends... and I had a message from my mother that helped things as well. She was also a performer. You might like her. Remember what you're going for. I don't know about you, but I still think Sosa can be brought back and rebuilt... All its people are still there. And then, get up and keep going." Sirena glanced back at her flanks, still blocked from view by Shinespark and Starlight. "There's an easy way for me to do that, isn't there?" Maple nodded her head with an encouraging smile. "I..." Sirena clenched her eyes, then stood up. "Is it there?" Everyone else looked. The mark was still there, still cracked and broken but not quite to the point of shattering. "It's still there," Shinespark assured. "Can't tell if it looks better, but I don't think it looks worse." "Mine took a long time to look better," Maple added resolutely. Sirena choked, then started laughing, crying through closed eyelids and causing her black liner to run. "Heh... heeheehee..." "Congratulations," Shinespark assured her, and Gerardo, Slipstream and Nyala emphatically nodded in agreement. "I'm so glad you're all right," Nyala murmured. "But now that you know it's staying... what do you think caused this? I'm sure you wouldn't want it to happen again." Maple looked at the ceiling in thought. "That's a very good question. Mine only broke when I used it to handle concentrations of harmony magic that must have been dangerously high. I recall hearing someone important from Yakyakistan saying Equestria's ruler herself forbade them from studying applications like this because it was too dangerous." "Equestria? You mean the Plains of Harmony?" Sirena looked up, starting to compose herself but still shaking slightly. "What exactly were you doing?" Maple frowned. "Far under Ironridge, there was a crystal palace with a tree and an enchanted flame. Some scientists from Yakyakistan had stored a large amount of the flame's harmonic energy in a windigo heart, which apparently exist. I tried using my cutie mark to draw that energy out and use it to attack some mercenaries that were fighting us." Sirena shook her head. "I definitely haven't been doing anything with harmony magic, then. The most I've done is met Puddles a long time ago..." She paused. "You met her, right?" "Yes you have," Starlight protested, pointing a hoof to counter. "Your singing is definitely harmonic somehow. It felt like it at your concert!" "You're right," Maple murmured. "The feeling it gave me did remind me a little of being down there by that tree... but that can't be it. If that's what your cutie mark is supposed to do, it wouldn't break, and if it did break, it would be gradual rather than all at once. Wouldn't it?" "...I have no idea," Sirena admitted, shrugging, already more upbeat than she had been. "I know harmony is a word Chauncey has thrown around in his research and equipment. I make music, not science." She paused, then giggled. "By the way, it's cute how you call them cutie marks. I like it!" "I'm going to talk with him," Shinespark decided. "Not now, but I'd like to see this equipment of his. And even if it's not interesting, it'll be a good excuse to talk to him in general." Valey nodded. "And don't forget Amber can get our resident expert in dark magic on the line if we need him. Dorable, y'know?" "You mentioned Puddles?" Shinespark asked, glancing at Sirena. "Morena's daughter, that I've heard about? In the... hospital? I want to meet her, too, and find out what a creature like that knows about harmony magic." "Wow," Nyala whispered from nearby. "The moment anyone needs it, you all just jump right into action for them. I wish I could help. This is the kind of magic understanding of could help me, too, isn't it?" "Eh." Valey hoof-bumped her gleaming shoulder. "Chronic heroism and bleeding hearts. I guess it's why we're the ones who bailed out Ironridge out of the however-many-thousand ponies that are there, isn't it? And yeah, we're in this for you, too." Gerardo grinned gamely. "I can't say with absolute certainty I haven't lost track of the plan, but there clearly is one, so count me in!" Slipstream shot a concerned look at Sirena, still threatening to sneeze. "What are... we going to do with her, though? If something's hurting her and you don't know what it is, how can you guard against that? And you all think it's magic, but it sounds to me like there's been a lot of stress and pressure about her job. I think that crowd pushed things over the edge, and she started to give up. I don't have one, so I maybe shouldn't be talking, but I think you all are coming up with magical explanations for problems that don't need them and what you should be worried about most is how there's a lot of ponies and griffons out there who would form another mob as soon as they know where she is!" Valey paled. "Oh bananas, you're right. You, uhhh... might need to hide out in this ship for a while? How many dudes saw us bail here?" Shinespark shook her head. "The fog was still clearing, and we took a back route. Regardless, if anyone attacks my ship, that will be war and more than one of us on this boat is a trained combat veteran." "We'll make you a disguise," Maple assured. "And only talk to Chauncey and Percival about where you are if you tell us to. We'll figure something out, okay?" "Whooo..." Sirena exhaled, grimacing at the wall. "And you're all complete strangers I just met days ago, offering all that for me. Chronic heroism, indeed. Wallace has nothing on you guys." Rain beat down against the hillside, flattening grass and streaming off a concrete walkway that trailed around behind the hospital building. Nevertheless, griffons and pegasi in heavy rain jackets occasionally darted through the heavy winds, following up a search effort that had been sparked hours ago. The walkway was empty save for a lone occupant, a short figure in ornate pontifex's robes that somehow repelled water. Chauncey stood above a puddle on the sidewalk, scowling at the reflection that his own rain shadow barely allowed to form. Splash! A tiny magical device hit the water, a broken ear clip at its side, still playing a faint jingle of the Firefly Sisters' music. Chauncey glowered, staring down at the thing as it lay facedown in the puddle. "Stanza," he hissed, furious. "I am not pleased." The ear clip continued to play, and Chauncey continued to growl. "Creations are supposed to obey the functions they're created for, yet all you've done is alienate my favorite sisters from me, and I suspect you've caused a riot in my town. Do you know how unhappy it makes me to see signs of civil unrest?" Rain thundered around him, though the device continued to play and somehow reach his ears. Chauncey's frown tightened even further. "I'm through with you," he whispered, voice low and dangerous. "I don't need your song, and the world would clearly be better off without it in the first place! I'll next be in the area during the second tournament round, so if you don't fancy having all your plugs pulled and being banished to the deepest, darkest cavern in Izvaldi, change your tune!" Crunch! His robe moved over the fallen device, and when it pulled back, the music had stopped, the smooth casing that held it cracked and crushed. "Hmmph," Chauncey snorted, looking away. "Now look at what you've made me go and do. Oh well. The next one will be all originals and none of you." The rain pounded, and a pegasus rode a gust overhead. Chauncey stepped past, abandoning the crushed device to the elements and returning to his wandering. A few more minutes passed once he had stepped out of sight... and then the bottom of a large downspout detached and turned yellow, its coloration shifting back to that of a violently-shivering Jamjars. "Achoo!" she managed, convulsing, frantically wiping her nose and thankful she had maintained camouflage and composure for that long. Her little ears were flattened by the rain, but they had heard every last word, and she beelined for the device, scooping it in her telekinesis and hiding it inside an armpit. It was large enough to make walking difficult, but that was fine. Suspicious and, though she wouldn't admit it to anyone, the slightest bit scared, Jamjars sneezed again and left, making her way through the shadows to the commerce building and the Immortal Dream.