//------------------------------//
// Onwards To Izvaldi 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

"Starlight. There you are."

Starlight stood by the Immortal Dream's railing, letting the night wind blow through her mane as Stormhoof's countryside drifted far below. The great pink energy comet propelling the ship from overhead prevented the deck from growing truly cold, though a chill was already working its way into her fur. She had figured standing out here would make warming up more pleasant when she finally turned in for the night, and cooling off out here was a perfect chance to think on her own, so she wasn't thrilled to hear a voice from behind her.

"Starliiight..."

"What do you want, Jamjars?" Starlight didn't look back, making a point of watching the village passing below.

Two little hooves clunked on the railing beside her, and Jamjars was there. "We have things to plan. Or have you already forgotten?"

Starlight flicked her tail. "I don't think you told me in the first place."

"I didn't need to because you already knew." Jamjars sounded proud of herself. "You heard what everyone was saying about Izvaldi. In fact, you were the one who found out what Stanza was in the first place! You remember I heard Chauncey muttering that to himself once, right?"

"Of course you were listening in." Starlight frowned. "What about Izvaldi? You mean how we're digging around in a friendly country's business looking for something to hurt them? I know what I saw with Stanza, but I don't really like this. We're going to get drawn into something again..."

"Umm, yeah we are," Jamjars quipped. "Your friends will probably get caught, or learn something and then do the wrong thing with it or something. That's where you and I come in. What I've heard is you have some kind of darkness invisibility spell now?"

Starlight looked further away. "Only temporarily. I can't use it right now and am not doing what it takes to get it back."

Jamjars sighed. "You really ought to reconsider that. It sounds good. But with or without it, what I want to do is beat your friends to the punch. We're going to do some sneaking around ourselves and find something of our own, and it's going to be bad enough that we can blackmail Izvaldi with it into leaving everyone else alone if they find something that starts a fight. So are you in?"

"...Really?" Starlight raised an eyebrow. "You're worried they might react badly because someone knows something that makes them look bad, so you want to fix it by finding out more things to make them look bad?"

"Critical mass of fear of embarrassment." Jamjars grinned smugly. "A tried and true tactic. If one threat doesn't cow someone into submission, make another! And besides, we can keep anything we find to ourselves, so if your friends handle this well and everything works out, Izvaldi will be none the wiser and it'll just be a backup in our pockets. Come on, this is my field of expertise. Work with me here, Starlight."

"Are you sure?" Starlight frowned, tilting her head. "What do you even think we're going to find, anyway? For that matter, where are you even going to look? You want us to go down that hole in Puddles' room before everyone else? The lift is broken, and neither of us can fly."

"Three steps ahead of you," Jamjars promised, leaning casually on Starlight's side. "Remember when we snuck around the first time we were there? We saw Percival, their griffon honcho, making kissy with a mare. You know, heresy laws, and all that? Percival outranks Chauncey, and whatever's up under the hospital, it probably isn't connected to their leader having an affair. So, all we do is sneak around some more, get more evidence on what's going on, figure out exactly who he's dating, and then if Chauncey gets mad or tries to rope the rest of us into anything, we go to Percival and threaten to spill his dirty little secret to Meltdown unless he pulls rank and makes Chauncey leave us alone. See? Foolproof."

Starlight wanted to protest, but the more she thought about it, the more Jamjars' plan actually seemed sound. Forcing back a threat with a bigger threat sounded like an invitation for someone to do something even bigger to them in retaliation, but as an emergency card they only brought out if they really had to? And Jamjars was right; Percival's affair was probably serious enough that it would work as leverage while not being connected to any goings-on with Chauncey and the hospital.

"...And what if we get caught?" She frowned, bristling slightly at Jamjars' contact. "What if we just dig whatever hole we're in deeper?"

"Easy," Jamjars smoothly answered. "We don't. And if we do, I can talk my way out of anything, and you can blow someone up with your magic if you don't like them. But we won't get caught. Mapping out guard patrols and rotations is very easy, because you never get in trouble for watching guards even if they see you. They just care about you trying to get past."

"This is a bad idea." Starlight looked down.

Jamjars nudged her. "No worse than sticking our noses where they don't belong in the first place, is it? Starlight, my nose belongs where it doesn't belong. This is my job. It's what I'm good at." She tapped her blank flank. "Come on, trust me! Or are you seriously going to sit back and do nothing?"

"Alright! Alright." Starlight got up and sighed, pushing Jamjars off her. "I'll help you sneak around. Just..." She wanted to say be careful or don't go too far, but both of those were pointless. Jamjars was already exactingly careful, never reckless in the pursuit of her goals. Setting the goals, on the other hoof... There, there was no such thing as going too far. Out of all Starlight's friends and companions, Shinespark had been ambitious enough to make herself the savior of an entire city-state, yet she didn't doubt Jamjars would sign up for twice as much without even balking if she was sure it would further her goals.

"Brilliant," Jamjars purred. "Now, come by my room sometime within the first day or two we're there. I want to act well before anyone else does, just in case we have difficulties and need to turn back the first time. I want to go over everything we already know to make sure we need to communicate as little as possible if we're hiding. In the meantime, have fun with whatever it is you're doing."

She left with great ceremony, swishing her tail and humming a tune. Starlight sighed and shook her head, but there wasn't really anything she could do. What would she stop at to protect her friends? Anything? How about taking a risk with a high chance of backfire? But Jamjars was a far more skilled sneaker and manipulator than she was, so she would have a much better ability to weigh the risks... but this still didn't sit perfectly with her. But the sentiment was in the right place, and she couldn't do nothing, but wasn't there anything better she could do? But...

From the weather or her own indecision, Starlight realized she was finally feeling a lot cooler. At least Jamjars was giving her time to think about it. She abandoned the railing and moved toward the door to the stairs, hoping spending the rest of the night with Maple would make her feel better. A few beginning drops of rain encouraged her on her path.