//------------------------------//
// Yelling Your Thanks 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

For a moment after Valey's declaration, the room was quiet.

"You, uhh..." Valey squinted at Harshwater. "You don't look thrilled."

"No one wants to ask you to give up your dreams," Harshwater responded carefully, emotion subdued. "I certainly have no ground to stand on, asking for it. All I'm doing is asking anyway, and you don't owe me anything."

"Yeah, but-" Valey winced. "Yes I do! Bananas, I need my friends! I chose everyone here over my cushy job in Ironridge forever and a half ago, threw all my coins on this table... If I walk away, I walk away with nothing. It was totally worth it, but I need you guys, and that means making sacrifices."

Harshwater regarded her. "Well, I hope that works out for you. The most consistently happy ponies in my old company were the ones who were content with themselves, whatever they had, without being centered around themselves like jerks. Sure, there were plenty who got high off victory or relationships, and being able to ride those is all well and good. But when they're elevated to what you live for, you're asking to get destroyed. What happens when we can't fulfill a contract or are too late? Or when your friends and family die in the field? No one gets lucky forever."

"Says you," Valey glumly countered. "What about all your stuff with Kero?"

"Congratulations, you've realized I'm flawed." Harshwater rolled her eyes, putting her hooves up and settling down in her bed. "I never said I was one of those ponies. I just know what it looks like because I've seen all this before. Maybe you don't have the mental fortitude to roll with life and let things that need to happen... happen. I can't blame you, because I don't."

Valey's ears flopped. "Yeah, so what do you want me to do about it?"

"I have no idea!" Harshwater retorted. "How about...?" She sighed. "I have no idea."

"You and me both." Valey slumped against the bed.

Eventually, she found something to say. "You think it would be easier if I wasn't, like... ridiculously strong? You're talking about just dealing with the way things are, but I can usually change them. You think that would help?"

"No." Harshwater quietly huffed. "No matter your means, you'll always find a way to get yourself into trouble by doing something stupid and beyond them."

"Like me and that last fight in the tournament?"

"Like me chasing Kero all the way here from Ironridge after we knew he had betrayed us." Harshwater rested her head on her chin, ears down. "It doesn't take any power to stow away on an airship. It takes even less to enter a fight you know you can't win. Just recklessness and stupidity. And I can confirm right now that being weak and helpless stinks."

"Hey." Valey narrowed her eyes, pulling herself up to look Harshwater in the eye. "Knock that off, seriously. I know you feel bad about yourself, but you've been doing more for this ship than literally anyone else we onboarded since it first flew! You actually have an idea of what to do with injuries beyond throwing healing potions at them, you're more willing to try talking sense into me when I screw up than anyone else here, and all this when you can barely walk without a wall to lean on? You're awesome, not helpless. And we'll help you in return."

Harshwater shuddered. "Why is it so hard for you to look at yourself and say the same? Forget stopping Herman and a war and saving all of Ironridge from Yakyakistan, how many times do I have to say what you did for me!? If you could see yourself with even a tenth of that respect and admiration and treat yourself like you deserve it whether you have friends to tell you it or not, you'd look the part, too! You don't deserve to be a basket case!"

"I spent six years treating myself that way!" Valey was suddenly on the bed, standing over Harshwater and glaring. "Stealing from the Earth District, annoying everyone, making myself feel cool and living at the top of the world. And it was miserable! I'm not living that lie again!"

"That is not what I'm talking about and you know it," Harshwater forcefully countered, matching Valey's glare. "You knew full well you were a good-for-nothing punk layabout and did everything you could to live up to it even though you were holding off a war on the side. Don't treat yourself like a vagabond, treat yourself like a hero! We already know you are, and you don't have to kill yourself doing stunts in the tournament to prove it!"

"Oh yeah?" Valey snarled back. "And what if I'm the one I need to prove it to!?"

"A different tune than what you were singing earlier. You said you were in it for Shine-"

"You two should kiss," Jamjars commented from a crack in the doorway.

Both mares froze, a frantic pattering of hooves announcing the filly's retreat before they could do anything.

Valey stared at the door... and flopped down, landing in the bed a short distance from Harshwater. "Aww bananas," she sighed. "Sorry about that."

"For?" Harshwater blinked, her own fury completely subsided.

"Nah, you're right." Valey shook her head. "Look, I... When I first made a break from Ironridge to join up with these guys, I kind of wasn't thrilled with my own potential to be a good guy. And I sort of did it by blowing all of my friends up with a sedative grenade to see if I could make them mad at me, since I needed to know if they'd stand up to me rather than getting themselves hurt if I was being dumb. And it was... Like, Starlight was the one who got it. I don't even know if any of the others did." She rolled so she could see Harshwater. "So thanks for yelling at me. I need friends who can do that from time to time."

Harshwater frowned. "You're welcome. Maybe I needed it too."

"...You're not gonna tell me off for saying I need friends to get by at all?" Valey raised an eyebrow. "Some kind of self-sufficiency thing?"

"No." Harshwater snorted. "First off, I was talking about getting every bit of purpose and fulfillment in your life from relationships and things other than you. Thinking you can be fine without them at all is a recipe for disaster. You just have to be able to hang on without getting destroyed when they come and go." She hesitated, then sighed. "And second, I'd be a massive hypocrite saying that when I'm looking up to you as hard as I am."

Valey shrugged. "You don't have to do that, you know. I guess when ponies count on me too hard, I start needing to do stupid stuff to live up to it."

"Then do something stupid and have some confidence in yourself," Harshwater replied. "I do have to, because my dumb brain won't see you as anything else than the mare who spared me and then came to save me when Kero would have gotten me killed twice. I feel like I need you on a pedestal, and am stretching myself far too thin keeping you from knocking yourself off."

Valey narrowed her eyes. "Alright. Deal. If you stop calling yourself dumb in return. I already told you, you're awesome. I think you are, and anyone else who's seen how much you do for this ship would too."

"Even if I do it for selfish and fearful reasons?" Harshwater gave her a warning look. "Making myself useful so I can have a place here. Trying to fix you up because I look up to you and need you to stay there. Helping-"

"Yeah. I get it." Valey cut her off with a hoof to the chin. "Bananas, I don't care. I first started bothering Maple and Starlight because I thought they'd make really fun marks. Then because they put up with me. And I just told you, stick up for yourself. If that means being friends with us for your own sake, all the better."

Harshwater sighed and closed her eyes. "You're an idealistic idiot."

Valey nodded. "Uh huh. Never heard that one before. And you're someone who's actually willing to take me down a notch if it leads me to do dumb stuff. I appreciate that. Seriously. It means a lot. You get that, right?"

"Nngh... Fine." Harshwater reached out, grabbed her, and pulled herself closer into a one-sided hug. "I feel ridiculous," she mumbled into Valey's coat. "And stop me if this hurts your scars."

Valey blinked, then grinned gently, extending a wing. "Nah. And I can stay here a while. It'll be fine."