//------------------------------//
// Just Stop Looking 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

"...And it just straight-up asked me, 'Hey, you wanna do this?' All in my head. Said something about permanent physical changes, or something. I don't remember, I was too busy trying not to be scared senseless. Like, don't mess with my mind, please. Bananas, I don't even know how to begin processing this. It's so stressful, Amber..."

Valey slumped on a hotel cabin rooftop, not feeling like soaring around the chilly sky. It had taken a frustrating amount of searching, but she'd finally been able to find a power source for the sound stone: a tourist gift shop that sold batteries. Expensive ones. She didn't have her money or saddlebags, but for all her past fruit-swiping she felt bad enough about herself already and couldn't bring herself to add to that. Three to four hours of passing herself off as a traveling acrobat later...

"There's not something I can magically say that will make you feel better, is there?"

"...You could maybe try?" Valey chanced a hopeful smile.

Amber hesitated. "Well... if moon glass is no good, which you already knew, and you think batponies were made by some spooky mare in the moon, which you already knew, isn't all this just repeating stuff you knew before? There's nothing about any of that that says you're not able to decide for yourself whether to be good or bad."

"It's not fair, though." Valey slumped flatly against the rooftop. "Nyala's stuck in a-"

"A body that lets her see and hear and talk, just like you, Valey," Amber interrupted. "Maybe her body is something that was built for another purpose. Maybe yours is. Maybe mine is! Who knows where all other life forms came from, other than that we've been around thousands of years? And who cares? Valey, if you want my full and blunt opinion, this is a good thing, because it doesn't tell you anything about what you get to do with your life, doesn't tell you anything you hadn't considered, and also gives you a potentially-powerful last resort weapon that you can use and now that windigo doesn't have anymore."

Valey rolled the dark crystal around in her other hoof. It wasn't inert; she could feel something there, like a dusk statue in broad daylight... but it was leaving her alone unless she explicitly called it out.

"I wish I could be there to see you in person, to talk to you about this, because I'm worried there's something else going on. You're getting down about... well, hearing that bad things happen in the world! But you knew that! And I think something else is bothering you that's just showing up through this, and I want to know what it is. Is anything else wrong? Please tell me..."

"Bananas, I dunno." Valey sat up. "This is the second time this trip I've been forcibly separated from my friends. First time, I thought they ditched me, now, there's a nonzero chance they think I ditched them. Now I'm at some getaway resort with an insane windigo, and I honestly can't tell if she's so stupid she didn't realize she'd make herself sick or deliberately wanted me to have this nightmare thingamajig without looking like she was giving it to me. I finally take a single step toward getting my sister back when I think everything's stable, and then the place explodes in my face. I've been given tons of reasons to be paranoid, but have no idea what's going on in Izvaldi or even an idea of whether or not I should care, and that just makes me more on edge because in Ironridge the way I got by was by knowing everything! It was practically my catchphrase! Oh, and now? I finally get the answers to some questions I've been asking for a really long time, like about where I came from and what I am and all that garbage, and it's just kinda confirmation on what I already knew. Garbage. I don't know if I'm even sad about it at all, being this fuzzy batpony that doubles as some moon mare's activation system for running whatever these things are. Maybe I'm just underwhelmed, because I spent so long wondering and now that I do find out, it's for no work whatsoever and kinda just... not even a surprise. You know?"

Amber was silent.

"Oh." Valey sighed and lay back down. "And you want the big one? Don't forget the part where everyone hated me in Ironridge, and now everyone hates me in the empire too. Just because batpony. Except, you know, the one place that's totally run by a weird creepy batpony who's totally not up to anything. Bananas. Maybe we really were used for something bad in the past, and there's like some societal memory, or something..."

"Stop," Amber commanded. "Stop and answer just this, Valey. You think batponies were made to use these... Nightmare Modules? Or the other way around?" She hesitated. "If you do... and you think maybe something happened because of that long ago... you'll go investigate, and when you somehow find something that matches your expectations, you'll feel just like you do now. Maybe bad things just have happened. You can ask Maple about that one, once you see her again. She knows about bad things too. So... do you really want to wonder about that?"

"I wanna be proven wrong!" Valey whined. "Bananas, I dunno why I keep thinking myself into situations like this, but I wanna find something that says everything really was all right..."

"So you can feel like things could be good in the future, too."

Valey sniffled at the stone.

"You need a hug," Amber said. "From me or your friends, not the windigo."

"Yeah." Valey wiped away a tear that was caught on the bridge of her muzzle. "Seriously, I know I was miserable in Ironridge and just convinced myself otherwise, but this is no fun. I hate moping! It doesn't make me feel like... me. I gotta get up and do stuff. But it sounds like what I need to do is just let go of the possibility that all this moon glass stuff happened for a good cause, and just... I dunno."

"It sounds like what you need to do is hang on until I see you again, and until you can get back to our friends," Amber insisted. "You can do that, right? You can make it?"

Valey sat back up and sniffed. "Heh. Something like that. I wanna say Starlight's moving toward me, but honestly, she's so far away I can barely smell her as-is. I always wondered why I can do that. Anyway. Not poking around into batpony history or Nightmare Modules or any of this stuff until I'm out of hot water. I can do that. Hanging on, and all that. What do you want me to do instead?"

"...Well, you're at a resort, aren't you?" Valey could easily imagine Amber shrugging. "Would it be too much to ask for you to stay there, take it easy and enjoy yourself for a while? Keep an eye on the windigo, but try to stay safe and keep anything big from happening?"

"Relax and enjoy myself. Got it." Valey grinned. "Seriously, if I can get past the other clientele, I want to badly enough that it might just work. Love you, Amber. You're the best at pep talks."

Amber gave a tired sigh. "I've... had a lot of practice with a certain other mare in my life. One who's currently on an adventure with you in the empire. And it's a little draining sometimes, even though you're the one in danger and I'm the one in a place to provide support, so please take care of yourself and try to be alright. Love you too, Valey."

The sound stone winked off as Valey pulled the small battery she had purchased away from it. That was a nice feature, at least. No need to waste power on time they wouldn't spend talking, and the partially-charged battery would last to serve her another day. Battery, Nightmare Module, sound stone... She really needed some saddlebags. It wouldn't do to keep all this in her hat, and the sound stone would likely accidentally activate if she tried. That would have to be her goal for the next day, because the sun was setting and she was tired, and Puddles would undoubtedly have to be dealt with again before she slept.