//------------------------------//
// Don't Leave Me 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

"Valey!"

A wisp of sapphire magic latched onto Valey's tail, causing everyone in Shinespark's grasp to jolt downwards as her horn flickered from the strain. "Valey, wait!"

"Guh!" Valey bounced back against the force, wings giving out on her for half a second before she stabilized, hovering. "Bananas... Sparky, leggo."

"Valey, wait." Shinespark hovered, blue aura flickering above her head and around her body. "Slow down. You're going back? I-I..." Confliction stabbed across her face. "That's not fair! I feel bad about leaving the Varsidelians too, but we have friends who are counting on us who are right here and we need to get back to the ship and leave! Leaving the Empire, sailing wherever we can find to go! And it's not fair to me that I have to make this decision and you think you can just go bounding back off to that death trap and leave me to be responsible and look out for our friends on my own! No, Valey! I want to go back too, but I'm not making up excuses for it! Forget your Nightmare Module! It was the Empire's problem and it can stay the Empire's problem!"

Valey shuddered. That was exactly what she needed to not think about if she was going to... going to... Her train of thought derailed already, and when she attempted to swallow, it turned into a choke. "I don't wanna have whatever bad stuff it does if it's left unchecked staining my hooves, Shinespark! I've got enough issues with this already! Were you there when I was talking about what that thing meant to me? Y-You were already off chasing Puddles, weren't you?"

An icy explosion echoed behind them, and the frigate rocked again, lighting up the night. "Well, I know you were here when I said what this means to me, because I'm doing it now!" Shinespark floated closer and grabbed Valey's shoulders, eyes freshly glistening. "You're my friend! And right now, I have to run away from a battle we both want to keep fighting and both know we'd either lose or win with too much blood on our hooves to live with ourselves! Don't tell me us staying could go any other way! See them?" She swept a hoof at Melia, Grenada, and Grapejuice. "How about them!?" She pointed down at the Immortal Dream, which had noticed their pause in flight and was sailing closer. If the skies hadn't been free of sentries, it would have been dangerously close. "I'm running because all of them need me, because I've got friends worth living for, because I can do more alive and on the move just like when I left Ironridge! And I think our friends are worth more than a Nightmare Module, and are worth more than risking ourselves in a war of that magnitude. I'd do the same for you. So... just because you don't have a horn that's necessary to carry these ponies to safety... please don't leave me?"

"Bananas..." Valey flapped her wings and shivered, shooting one last glance at the frigate. "There's also the sound stone. My connection to Amber..."

"And my connection to my father and Ironridge." Shinespark met Valey's eyes, faces inches apart, separated only by billowing sea winds. "Let's go. Please go. Please don't fly back and do what I want to but can't just because you can."

Valey gritted her teeth, ears flat against the wind. "I'd have fought to stop the fighting for you..."

There was nothing more to say. Valey lunged forward, grabbed Shinespark, and dove with her and the others in tow towards the approaching Dream.





With a windswept thud, everyone landed on the deck of Shinespark's ship. Maple was there, as were Starlight, Gerardo and Slipstream, Nyala waiting on the bridge and Jamjars somewhere down below. Shinespark hit the ground with a stumble, panting and staggering, and Valey was instantly at her side to prop her up, even though she was barely standing herself.

"You've returned!" Gerardo greeted, gratitude and worry mixed on his face. "It's excellent to see you all still alive and mostly in one piece! With... strangers as well, I see." He raised an eyebrow at Grapejuice, then frowned. "Before we get interrupted, would you mind explaining the presence of-"

"Your fell entrance was... err, passable," Howe proclaimed, sticking his head up from a stack of barrels and supplies on the deck, freshly reclaimed from the broken pirate skiff that had been raiding their stores. "It could use a few more dramatic injuries and war wounds, but Shinespark nailed the appearance, at least! I give it a solid B-plus!"

Neon Nova flashed his signature smile, striking a tattered pose behind him. Shinespark's eye twitched. "Right. We sent them here..."

Gerardo's headcrest drooped. "One notorious pirate captain of high renown, one griffonness I'm very much not looking forward to meeting once she's awake, and... erm... these. Obligatory concerns regarding heresy and the Empire's laws aside, I must ask: did you have to?"

"N-Not a lot of options," Valey gasped. "Look, we saved some dudes and we're technically alive a-and..." She trembled. "I'm spent. Bananas, I don't wanna think about stuff anymore and I'm definitely done fighting for the night. Look, that ship is bad news, so can we pack up down below and get as far away from here as we can?"

While Valey and Shinespark focused on Gerardo, Maple moved to tend to Grenada, Melia and Grapejuice. She wasn't as surprised to see them as she could have been, and had likely been briefed on who was where by the pirates who flew over earlier, instead giving the three of them a tired, welcoming nod. "Valey has the right idea," she murmured. "Want to go downstairs? Sirena is here, and we've got a lot of spare rooms. Some of them are still pretty messy, though..."

Melia's ears folded. "After how I ran away without telling her where I was going, we might need a little bit more than just seeing each other again to make up. I don't know if I can. But tell her I'm okay?"

Grapejuice rocked back and forth on her hooves. "So. Earth pony. Remember me?"

"Ummm..." Maple's ears folded as Grenada slunk off to stand by Shinespark. "Should I? Were you one of the ones who invaded us?"

"Oh yeah." Grapejuice nodded emphatically. "I was the one who hid in your shadow for the whole thing and just checked out the view. Don't think you ever noticed me."

Maple's eyes widened. "I-I... Please don't? I can't tell if you're joking but I'm not in the market."

"Woah! I'm kidding!" Grapejuice backed off, her own eyes widening as well in alarm. "Just checking out your sense of humor. Gotta know how to hang with who I hang with. Nah, I'd never do that." She paused. "Without permission."

Starlight glared defensively from Maple's side, and Grapejuice backed down further, slinking away and leaving the two of them alone.

On the other side of the deck, Gerardo was staring out at the frigate on the near horizon, close enough that the explosions were visible like blue and orange fireworks and sounded loudly in his ears. "Leaving, you say," he remarked to Shinespark and Valey. "Have you given any thought to where?"

"Not here," Valey sighed, giving Shinespark a cowed, hopeful look. "We, uhh... kinda spent all our time fighting for our lives."

Shinespark nodded, returning the look with a grateful expression. Her horn pulsed weakly, and a flickering aura returned Gerardo's sword, the griffon taking it in a talon. "Anywhere but here, like we did in Ironridge. I'm not sure what our options are. We could sail to Varsidel and try to get through there to Yakyakistan, though it would mean abandoning this ship unless we could find more harmonic energy. A better plan might be to return to Ironridge and get more, then fly to Yakyakistan. If our windigo heart will hold out that long, at least."

"Amber said she had another windigo heart," Valey added. "We would have two. Twice the range. We could get to Yakyakistan, hang out until they give us our border pass thingy, and then book it to Starlight's home and hope maybe it won't be as lousy a place as everywhere we've tried here."

"...I see." Gerardo sighed, turning down his head. "Well, I was... hoping the Empire would work out for us, though I suppose this makes sense. There's nothing we can do to recapture Puddles, correct?"

Valey shrugged. "Only if you're as insane as I am, and Sparky gave a hard no on that one. Listen, I've already fought her once, and was barely strong enough to escape. Now? She's hurt, or something, and I can't tell if it makes her weaker or more dangerous, but all that over there is her fighting Meltdown, who's basically a cross between a bounty hunter, a religious inquisitor and a dragon. As far as I can tell, at least. You'd have to not only catch Puddles, but stop her from catching her first. There's also Gazelle and a big pirate war there, and we've got enough ex-pirates on this boat that we really don't want to be getting their attention. I doubt even Wallace could save her, now."

Shinespark gave a trembling sigh. "I can't fight any more tonight. I'm sorry, Gerardo. I'm going to go take this armor off and put it in the engine room, since apparently the cargo bay is a mess. You can watch as long as you want, but it won't make things feel better. We should leave."

Valey watched as she turned her back, then swallowed. "Hey, uh, need a hoof with that? I've got nothing better to do, and... bananas. I hate this. Just, can I?"

"Okay." Shinespark sounded tired, folding her ears and lowering her head as she stepped for the door belowdecks. "Sure. I could use someone to talk to, too."