//------------------------------//
// There For You 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

"Nnngh... hic... snrrfl..."

After several minutes, Valey's tear ducts were empty. After several more, her cries decreased in volume, and Maple silently thanked any of her friends who overheard for not opening the door and interrupting. But it took well over an hour for the batpony's shaking to lessen, and even then she didn't lift her head, clinging to Maple with her face against her chest like her life depended on it.

Maple just sat, glad the position she was in was a comfortable one and stroking Valey's emerald mane with the tips of her hooves as she held vigil and waited. Valey's ears were the best expression of her mood, folding in forewarning of a new wave of sniffles and otherwise being limp and lifeless. When they finally held themselves up for over a minute, Maple decided to risk talking.

"I still think you're a pony," she whispered, forelegs wrapped around Valey's head. "Or at least a person, even if you're different, like griffons. Your feelings and emotions are very real."

"D-Don't go..." Valey sniffed, holding tighter. "Nnngh... Maple..."

"I wouldn't let go even if this ship started sinking," Maple assured. "You said you valued having me as a friend who trusted you immeasurably, didn't you? Times like this are why." She hoped she wasn't putting words into her friend's mouth, but continued anyway. "Because you can give me things to trust me with. It's no use if you just keep it all to yourself, now..."

She rocked Valey back and forth a little, and Valey hiccupped.

"I'm still here," Maple insisted, and left it at that.

She couldn't know what Valey was feeling, beneath her short coat and clenched eyes and trembling wings and forelegs, though the trembles were starting to lessen. She could guess: loneliness, fear and self-doubt were probably high on the list. But in the end, all she could do was sit and wait and maybe give voice to her feelings if she could think of the proper thing to say.

Instead, it was Valey who spoke first. "Heh heh... Sure blubbered a lot less when I first told that to Amber..."

"Shhh," Maple urged, stroking her back. "It's a lot better to feel than to sit alone with your emotions. That's something it took me painfully long to take to heart. You're doing a wonderful job, Valey. Feel..."

Valey sniffed again and tried to get a hoof beneath her, but ultimately kept leaning into Maple. "Meh. Bluh. Bananas. There goes my reputation with everyone else, at least. Probably heard me all across the Griffon Empire."

"A reputation for what?" Maple kept holding her. "Being immune to this? Unable to be beaten down?" She put her chin lightly atop Valey's mane. "Then stay down for tonight and let yourself be held as long as you want, and in the morning, you can have a reputation for being knocked down and getting back up again. And that's something that's a lot more inspiring to fallible mares like me."

"B-But I don't wanna be held..."

"You don't want to need to," Maple gently corrected. "But you do want to. You're holding onto me like I'm the only thing in the world."

"Nngh. Am I seriously that easy to read?"

"No." Maple patted her. "I've just been there before."

Valey blinked a large, unhappy eye up at Maple, as if daring her to say she was a parasite from outer space. Wanting her to say it, even, but not believing she would.

"Not that," Maple murmured, pulling Valey's head back against her. "Being in a bad situation, and then having the thing I was still relying on yanked out from under me with no warning, leaving me with nothing but my best friends. And now I've gone through something like that, and you've got me. Is it comforting? At all? Do I help?"

Valey answered by redoubling her grip strength, pressing herself into Maple and heaving a long, shaky breath.

Maple let her, holding her like an adult-sized foal and rocking her gently as she lay. "Do you remember anything from your past... From the other Valey's life?" she asked, chancing a change in conversation.

"N-No," Valey sniffled. "No to both. Woke up without a clue who or where I was, though not super disoriented or anything. Like Nyala, only I didn't feel weird being a pony like she does being armor."

"Mmm," Maple whispered, stroking her mane as Valey went completely limp, no longer shaking. "So you wouldn't have any memory of being a foal, would you? Or maybe you really are eight years old, just with an adult body. Younger than Starlight, I'd guess."

Valey sniffed again. "Nope. And maybe. Biologically, I was a foal and then had my growth spurt pretty soon after, so somewhere around twenty. Mentally, I dunno. I've got eight years of memories, but definitely didn't spend any time learning to crawl and talk and stuff. Been old enough to like mares for a while, at least. Kinda just stopped thinking about it once I was big enough that I stopped getting flak from jealous Defense Force goons for outranking them while looking like a filly. Actually, though? Who knows? I could be like a thousand. Don't even know what I am..."

"I told you," Maple repeated, "you're a pony. Your feelings are proof enough of that for me and anyone else, and if for anyone they weren't, that person would probably be very worried about whether they truly existed, too." She paused for a moment. "Did you have parents?"

"Maybe. Sorta. Nah." Valey made no effort to sit up, though she didn't hold so tightly, laying on Maple and finally seeming to trust that she would stay there and wouldn't leave for anything. "I kinda left out a lot of the details. Have Amber tell you the full story. I was, like... just a little spooky to all the other villagers, 'cuz the first thing I did was beat up all the scientists that put me together. Don't get me wrong, they deserved it. They were jerks. But... everyone else knew I wasn't the old Valey, since I didn't look anything like her, and I was powerful. Cute little fuzzy ball of pain. Some sort of living space weapon turned into a pony. So no, didn't really have parents. Nyala was the one who liked me, which was super weird because I was some other thing that had taken over the body of her sister. She's super nice. Kinda like you, M-Maple. You should hang out with her sometime..."

Maple closed her eyes and felt another unspent tear leak free. "So this is the first time in your life you've had someone hold you and offer to make everything okay. You never knew what it felt like to have someone who was there that completely for you, did you?"

"Heh," Valey chuckled. "I still don't believe it. You get locked up by the Defense Force on sight, Maple. You can't just walk in and make all my problems go away by calling them naughty, or something. Nice to imagine, though..."

"Can't I?" Maple murmured. "Like I said. You, me and Starlight repelled a foreign invasion and slew some magical demons together. Feeling bad about yourself is serious, but next to a thing like that? Who's to say I can't make everything right?"

"Heh heh..." Valey started laughing harder, and then harder still until she finally needed to sit up and wipe her eyes. She glanced across at Maple with a teary grin, still touching but faces separated by a comfortable distance. "Bananas. I wanna believe you can, and that just does the trick..."

Maple smiled back. "Then stay awhile. The sun has set, and we're sailing west. There's nothing else you need to do and nowhere you need to be."