//------------------------------//
// Another Bat, Maple 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Maple was outside the bridge in a flash, the first of her friends to get up after Senescey. "Wait!" she called, glancing around hurriedly and checking the sky first in case the batpony was flying away. "Senescey!"

No flying. No one was running down the dock, either, and Maple skidded to a halt, checking the deck and the roof and the more ordinary places next. Still no sign of Senescey.

"Come back," Maple asked the darkness, the rain obscuring any lingering traces of twilight on the horizon. "I want to talk a little more. We're not mad. Please?"

A yellow mane slowly rose out of the shadowed deck halfway across the boat, dripping with rainwater. Senescey rose up to her eyes, but no further.

"Thank you for apologizing and letting us know," Maple said, stepping no further and hoping she wasn't being followed. "Can I talk a little more, though? Please? I could see you're conflicted and don't want you to feel pressured into cutting ties you'll regret."

"I'm more worried I'll do something else I'll regret," Senescey lifted her head far enough to reply. "I feel awful about this, but I can't doubt that I did the right thing until I've gotten my own explanation!"

"I won't ask you to do anything or make you doubt," Maple assured, taking a single step closer. "I promise. I just want to offer peace."

Senescey's ears slicked back. "You're doing it right now! You should be mad at me or busy panicking or looking for answers or revenge, which you could press me for and you're not."

"And that's making you doubt whoever you're protecting your best interests in mind?" Maple frowned. "I'm not asking you to do any of that. I just want to get out of the rain somewhere where it's quiet and let you know you don't have to run."

Senescey glanced to Maple, then to the open, well-lit door to the bridge, and then to the far end of the deck where a door to a staircase led to the back of the cabin hall and the cargo bay. She swam backwards, beckoning hesitantly for Maple to follow.

Maple's hooves splashed as she raced along. A single shove got it open, and then they were inside. "Whoo. Going to need a towel tonight..." She shook herself off, glancing to the shadows where Senescey was still swimming and patting the floor. "Here. Just get yourself dry?"

Senescey got out, the top of her head wet from sticking it above the shadows and the rest of her body fluffy and dry. She watched Maple for a moment longer. "...I'm trying to run away after getting your filly foalnapped," she eventually said. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Believe it or not?" Maple smiled. "Because that's not the first time I've heard those words or that argument from a batpony, and last time, giving them a chance worked out very well."

"Your foal could be in danger," Senescey pointed out. "Don't you have bigger things to worry about?"

Maple shrugged. "Well, I would appreciate it if you'd tell me anything you know that could be useful, yes. But if you won't, I'm certainly not going to find out by yelling at you or running you off. And it won't matter until Valey has had at least another day to fly where she is, anyway, so if I can afford to be patient, why shouldn't I?"

Senescey winced.

"Conflicted?" Maple asked. "If you could tell me about why, I might be able to make it less uncomfortable. I'm still not going to ask you to say anything you don't want to."

"Nnngh..." Senescey gritted her teeth. Maple waited patiently.

"I don't want to lose you as friends!" Senescey finally burst. "I've only met you a few times and have no idea who you are and it's hard to believe what I see, but it's like you never even care about everything anyone else would bring against us! And I'm s-so tempted to just take your side and throw my lot in with you, but it's still only been a few times and that means choosing against her, who I've trusted all my life. My sisters and I have a j-job that's important, and..."

Maple reached out a hoof toward her shoulder. "Will telling us who asked you to be a betrayal?"

Senescey sniffed, not fighting the hoof. "No, but if I say it, it means admitting in public I don't think she's perfect. Doubts are supposed to be internal, not reach your actions. Once I cross the line of not letting her guide me once, that o-opens a door for... for anything more. And my path is too dangerous for me to afford getting lost halfway through."

Maple drew her a little closer. "You're worried about what will happen if you say aloud you think this someone could have made a mistake?"

"Y-Yes?" Senescey looked up.

"Hmmm," Maple sighed. "Then it sounds to me more like you care about having a cause than the cause itself. If this person deserves your dedication, they'll forgive you for questioning them when they do questionable things, and perhaps even want you to in the first place."

Senescey was silent for a moment. "The Night Mother told me to," she finally said. "Through a dusk statue, while I was meditating. She didn't say what would happen or why, or even anything about Starlight. I was telling her about you all and asking advice for how to help you or treat you well, and she suggested I help show you things in the city you may have missed or not realized were useful. She used the hospital as an example. When I mentioned Starlight's horn, that was a-all my idea..."

Maple stayed silent, slowly moving her closer and rubbing her back.

"Your hooves are wet," Senescey remarked.

"Oh! Sorry." Maple quickly withdrew. "They are, aren't they? That was my fault."

Senescey just sighed. "I don't know who captured your filly or why, or even if they're related, though they probably are. The Night Mother knows everything. She can talk to all of us all across the Empire and Mistvale, so long as there are dusk statues, so she can watch everything at once. And the island's main statue is in the basement of that hospital building. Ohhh..."

"It sounds to me like it could have been a coincidence, then," Maple assured... though if she were advocating against herself, she had more than one guess what a maybe-goddess might want with Starlight. "And I'm sure she'll explain when you ask her. But thank you for telling me."

"...Mhm." Senescey gulped, suddenly shaking. "It doesn't feel like it was the right decision..."





Starlight wandered through a new level of tunnels, bricks forming archways and curved ceilings that told her they were there to make the place look bigger. That was a lie. The corridors felt like pipes, a dark, inexorable tunnel that drew her along toward some unknown destination.

At least, they would have, but Starlight's shadow cloak remained intact and unbroken, a feeling of physical detachment shrouding her like she was blanketed from everything in the world. There, with the air constantly pressing on her back and the tunnels exerting their presence, the world was a thing she wanted to be hidden from. The lights were too dim for her to see far to the ends of the corridors, but whatever was in there that wanted everyone pulled along could barely even see her.

More empty cells passed by her sides, each one with its hard bed and simple chest and batpony gargoyle statue embedded halfway in the wall. Starlight entered a few, their magical barriers posing no more issues to her than the one in her own cell, but quickly realized there was nothing of interest and couldn't carry more than one knife easily without her horn. Once or twice, she passed more guards who looked either angry or downtrodden enough to belong inside the cells instead of outside, and every time, she felt something bright about them. More often dull than brilliant, and none even in the same playing field as Glimmer, so she didn't give them any of her time.

The maze wound on, Starlight's hooves eventually leading her to another alcove in a wall that opened into another staircase. She frowned; still down. She was underground, wasn't she? The direction she wanted was up... She sighed and folded her ears. Still, it wasn't like anything could hurt her with the Nightmare Module's power, and if up was the way out, down was the way further in. Maybe she could find what this place was for or what was canceling her magic in the first place.