//------------------------------// // Oh Boy Relationships // Story: The Olden World // by Czar_Yoshi //------------------------------// "So." Valey slid the door to Shinespark's room on the Immortal Dream closed behind her, shutting herself and Shinespark in in the dim light. "Hey." Shinespark just sighed. "Lying to Wallace Whitewing." Valey nodded sympathetically. "Got put on the spot?" Shinespark's shoulders sagged. "Look." Valey moved so she was squarely facing her. "Every time I've asked, you told me you needed a little more time, and now it's not my or any of our time to give you. You gotta get this sorted out. Talk to me? It'll be a lot easier than figuring out stuff on your own." "How much do you already know?" Shinespark barely met Valey's eyes. "About Grenada?" Valey settled into a chair across from Shinespark's bed. "That the very next morning after all that pirate garbage, or whenever we woke up, she smooched you and gushed for a bit about how she felt, and you kinda knee-jerk reaction told her who her dad was in return." "And she thought about it," Shinespark finished. "And told me she wasn't sure whether it changed anything for her. I hadn't prepared for anything, but if I had, that would have been the last thing I was prepared for." "And now you've got yourself an awkward mess," Valey went on. "You took care of her and were super nice to her for years without telling her it was because you were related, she started liking you for it, she told you so and now you haven't been able to do anything because the one thing you were counting on to make that not matter, she just rolled with and still likes you. And now you've gotta actually deal with this instead of just pretending you two can have a good old friendship like you always used to." "Way to sum it all up." Shinespark folded her ears. "And now it's starting to matter because our situation is in limbo and as patient as either of us can be, it's dancing around a subject that's one of the highest crimes here in the Empire, and when I get put on the spot and have to make things up..." She swallowed. "What do you want me to do?" "Talk about it." Valey shrugged. "Stop burying your head in the sand. I'll listen. I know all about back-from-the-dead sister troubles, Sparky. Been there, done that." Shinespark gave a hopeful, frustrated smile. "I don't even know where to start." Valey nodded. "That's cool. How do you feel about relationships? Any kind of relationships. Family, friends, lovers, mortal enemies even. Even us, if it's not too awkward saying it to my face. Just... talk about stuff." Shinespark let out a huge, heavy sigh. "I don't. Not much beside professional relationships, at least. These last two or three months aside... I had a huge weight on my shoulders in Ironridge, Valey. I tried to be there for my people on a personal level as a leader, hearing their stories and their cries with my own ears. Whether or not that worked, it didn't leave me with a lot of time for normal relationships. My friends were ponies who could help me, and ponies who could help me were... usually my friends. Arambai and Dior, the closest things I had to family? We plotted and talked about how to restore Ironridge. Ironridge was more of a bond for us than that Dior and I were related, or Arambai had helped raise me. There's also Matryona, but that's... different." "Yup." Valey sympathetically smiled. "I get that too. But you haven't even thought about those? Like, at all?" Shinespark shrugged. "Not really? I've enjoyed having you all as friends since we left, of course, but it's not something I tried to analyze or understand. I just enjoyed it." Valey shook her head. "Okay, yeah, you don't need to do that. Unless you do. Like, I guess... Most basic of basics, here. You got a type? Whatever comes to mind." Shinespark's ears pressed back awkwardly. "How surprised would you be if I said mares?" "Mhm." Valey nodded along, not surprised at all. "Pretty common. Can also relate. But, so, like, you didn't have to hesitate to know that. So as much as you might have never really thought about this before, you at least have thought about other ponies and been all, 'wow, I like them.' Yeah?" Shinespark mutely nodded. Valey raised an eyebrow so that she could see it. "Cool. Ever had a crush?" Even in the dim light, it was apparent that Shinespark was reddening. "Valey, is this really... I mean, where are you going with this?" "Trying to get what you don't get." Valey shrugged. "You've got another pony who, whether you're related or not aside, thinks of you as her crush and you think of her as your sister, and you just told me you're stuck and don't know enough about relationships and stuff to wrap your mind around this. Bananas, guess what? Neither do I. I've sort of unofficially got a marefriend back in Riverfall I'm reasonably sure isn't on the same page about anything with me, and is really helpful and nice but has also been strangely elusive and vague about absolutely everything for the entire last month. I get it. I'm there right now. So I don't even know where I'm going. I'm just trying to run your mind around in the right area and seeing what you can think up." "Well, I did say that," Shinespark sighed. "What was the question, again? You were asking about me and romance?" Valey lifted a wing. "Every had a crush?" "No." Shinespark shook her head, hesitated, then shook it again. "I mean... I could have, but that's where I had to draw the line. I didn't want to sabotage our effort by accidentally giving someone undeserving treatment in the Spirit just because I liked them. It would have made me biased and interfered with tactics and..." "Uh huh." Valey raised a warning eyebrow. "You sure about that?" Shinespark blinked. "What are you...?" She folded her ears. "Oh. You mean Grenada." "Isn't that exactly what you did for her?" Valey adjusted herself in her chair. "Babied her, tried grooming her for leadership even though you're like less than a year apart, made up a cushy job just for her? It's not like I was stealing massive amounts of Spirit intel or anything, so I totally wouldn't know." "But that's..." Shinespark trailed off, biting her lip, and sighed. "I don't know what that means." "Yeah," Valey agreed. "Ever did that for any of your other siblings?" "...Not really." Shinespark looked down. "I'd say she was different, but we were all special cases. Elise, the oldest, came into her own and was doing things before I was even conceived. Some of my siblings live with her. She made a big effort to track them all down, and a lot of the ones she found she either adopted or they were well enough on their own. Dior is a sibling from my mother, so he's different there. Grenada is..." She shook her head. "I'm not sure I ever heard the full story, actually. I just know she's a sibling from my father." Valey nodded. "So maybe didn't even have the chance. I guess what I'm getting at is... like, what's the difference? For you? What specifically makes someone a sibling? With how you treat each other, that is. Blood doesn't count." Shinespark swallowed and averted her eyes. "That's what it is I don't know. Grenada is waiting and waiting and being patient after everything I did and let happen and I don't even know how to put words to..." "Oh well." Valey sighed. "Yeah, I dunno what to tell you. I'm bad at figuring out what siblings are supposed to do too. Any way you could just... skip labeling stuff and tell me how you feel about Grenada, with individual feelings as opposed to relationship names?" Shinespark trembled. "N-No." "No." Valey frowned sympathetically. "Why's that?" "Because..." Shinespark's teeth gritted, and her words didn't come. "Afraid of something?" Valey guessed, getting up and taking a step closer. "Of, uhhh... Of letting her down?" Shinespark folded her ears. "Afraid of letting yourself down?" Valey tilted her head. "Of being wrong about what you want and talking yourself into something you'd rather not have? What do you feel like you want?" "Things to be how they were," Shinespark whispered, eyes squeezed shut. "Yeah." Valey quietly stepped closer. "You wanna kiss her? Get all fuzzy and face-to-face and smoochy smoochy shmoo?" Shinespark jumped a little on instinct. "No!" "Cool." Valey patted her on the back with a wing. "Congrats. Sounds to me like a grade-A non-romantic relationship is how you feel. Now you tell her, and if she takes it poorly, I'll either clean her clock or do this weird therapist stuff for her, too. Because bananas, if you two could get by on friendly terms without either being a ball of sadness or bringing the Empire down on our backs when we somehow just got her off the hook for piracy, that would be awesome. Wanna go find her?" "...Can it wait?" Shinespark asked. "Just for a little. I... feel like I'm starting to think about things and have things I need to say." "Yo, sure." Valey stood still, feeling Shinespark put just enough weight on her that she might stumble if she left her. "You want to flop on the bed, or stand here, or what?" "Anywhere is fine," Shinespark muttered, speaking slowly. "I just thought... just want to make sure of the reasons for why I'm..." Valey patted her back again. "Hey, I get it. Take as long as you need."