//------------------------------//
// Jamjars Never Forgets 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
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Moonlight shone down overhead as Maple, Amber, Shinespark and their friends all sat together in their private colosseum box, waiting for a battle they knew wouldn't start. Below, an arrogant-looking griffon beat her chest and lambasted her opponent into Howe's microphone for being late, and there was nothing they could do.

"Well..." Shinespark looked down from the railing, folding both her forelegs atop it, then sighed. "There goes Valey's lead. Now she might as well have lost to Wallace. She'd be on one loss either way."

"I beg to differ," Gerardo interrupted, a stark opposite to her resignation. "That may have been true if this were sabotage in retribution for her victory, but thanks to young Jamjars, we have a reasonable idea it wasn't. Valey's efforts in that fight are, in fact, why she'll still be in the competition once this match is called against her."

"They could at least hurry up," Slipstream remarked.

Maple nodded. "Aren't they on a tight schedule? Why let her opponent brag so much about her not showing up? They could just move things along, especially since we told them she can't be here tonight."

As if on cue, the griffon was ushered away, looking displeased that she didn't get to gloat more. "A pity, too," Gerardo sighed. "That one could have used that look wiped off her face, I believe."

"Nnngh..." Shinespark growled into her folded forelegs, gritting her teeth.

"On the bright side..." Amber sidled up beside her, leaning lightly against Shinespark's side. "The stars are pretty, aren't they? You can see them really well."

Gerardo tilted his head. "Is that all that unusual? On the way of adventure..."

"It is in Riverfall," Maple cut in. "The sky is covered by trees all the time, never mind when it's constantly raining. If you want to see the stars, you have to wait for a clear night and then go by the river. Amber and Willow and I had a special spot we went to, sometimes."

"Yep." Amber nodded. "And in Ironridge, the city used to be so bright, apparently it was hard to see them at night. Though that's changed now that they're short on power. I guess Stormhoof really does try to conserve energy, doesn't it?"

"It's true," Shinespark murmured. "I sometimes would fly out a few miles away just to get away from the city for a night. Pegasi did it too, actually. Not what I was thinking about at the moment, but thanks for looking on the bright side, Amber."

Amber grinned and bounced once in place, nudging Maple. "I try. Had some friends who needed a positive voice over the years."

"Yeah? Well, if she's staying in the tournament, Valey might need that anyway once she hears she's down on a forfeit too," Shinespark said.

Gerardo gave her a look. "Isn't she already aware this was when her next fight was to take place?"

"Sometimes, Gerardo?" Maple shrugged. "It just takes hearing something from a friend for it to sink in. I don't know how she'll react. She probably won't even care. I'd like to wait and see when her next fight gets posted after this before we call her next, though. She's probably getting close to Starlight and doesn't need the distraction, right now."

"Right. If anyone needs a distraction, it's us." Amber put a foreleg around Maple and another around Shinespark, squishing them into a hug. "Right, girls? Let's try to enjoy ourselves for a night while we wish Starlight and Valey the best."

"Right," Maple promised, hugging her back. "Let's enjoy ourselves."





While Maple and her friends watched the battles, a lone light shone aboard the Immortal Dream, a single cabin lit against the darkness. Jamjars wasn't guarding the boat against intruders. She had more important things to do.

The yellow filly sat in a chair at her desk, using her poofy wig as a cushion, ignoring her collection of tantalizing posters in favor of a few trinkets on her desk: a smashed, magical earpiece, and a carefully-bound black diary she had acquired in Riverfall. After all, she needed a place to record potential blackmail.

Her hooves held the book open to the section from her time in Izvaldi, the earpiece rotating idly in her magic as she scanned for every entry relating to batponies. Batponies were related to the Night Mother, after all, and whoever that transforming sphinx was, she needed something to use against her.

Dear Me, one entry read, Percival is dating a pony. He's the ruler of Izvaldi, and a griffon. Griffons and ponies together count as heresy, and his relationship is secret. For future research: who is it? Percival wants Wallace to win the tournament so with his wish, Garsheeva will consider him a sphinx and he can rule his province, but sphinxes can go out with whoever they want. What if the real reason he wants this is so he doesn't have to keep his relationship secret?

Jamjars tapped her teeth with a quill tip and frowned. Unless he was dating a batpony, that wouldn't help, and she hadn't been back to Izvaldi to do any more digging on that front. She turned a page.

Dear Me, the next one began. Chauncey is creepy, but I finally found something to use against him? I heard him monologuing to himself when he thought no one was looking. He was mad at someone called Stanza, who he said was his creation and had a song he didn't need. He blamed them for making Melia and Sirena hate him, and for causing the riot. I wish I could remember what he said word for word, but I caught a cold from standing in the rain and my head is cloudy. For future research: he said something about the second tournament round, but I don't remember what. Watch him if you're there.

Jamjars frowned and pushed that one aside too; she hadn't been having any luck tracking the stallion down and doubted the Night Mother was any creation of his. Did he have a problem with the Night Mother? She felt like maybe, but quickly skimmed her book and her memories and couldn't say for sure, growling at herself. Why hadn't she been more thorough? Living with trustworthy ponies all the time was letting her get complacent.

She almost started on the next page, an entry about Puddles, then stopped, still playing with the crushed ear clip she had picked up when that entry was made. He had been talking to it, she knew, and while it was clearly broken, could there be anything about it that would give her a batpony-related lead? If there was, anything was worth investigating.

Flexing her aura, Jamjars lifted the earpiece and tugged on it like a clam, forcing the broken halves of the shell back into a shape where they could be pried apart. The casing finally split in half with a crack, revealing a few broken wires, two tiny, spent crystals... and what looked like a flake of moon glass. Jamjars grinned, poked it, and grinned harder, pressing it upright and flattening her head on the table to look through it, verifying that it made everything look gray through it just like normal.

She didn't touch it for too long, not needing anyone's help in getting a cutie mark. Certainly, she wasn't about to get one the same way as her mother, if a shard that small could even hold a mark. But what she did know, flipping hurriedly to an entry on Valey near the start of the book and corroborating it with several others, was that moon glass and the Night Mother were almost definitely related.

Jamjars clicked the book shut, fixing its little padlock only her telekinesis knew the combination to, her grin spreading. It was a loose connection at best, but that was all she needed to tell where to dig next. Fixing her short mane and taking a minute to admire herself next to one of her favorite posters, she slipped the trinkets back away where they belonged, trusting that things were about to get interesting.