//------------------------------//
// Versus Wallace, Words 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Valey sighed, watching the cave entrance to Wallace's rear. "Everyone says this. I dunno why. Look, in Ironridge I was a huge-"

"Stop right there, young Valey." Wallace firmly interrupted her. "Shinespark! Tell me of your companion's actions shortly after leaving that city. There is a hole in my knowledge between Yakyakistan's attempted invasion and your condition on arriving here, and I would see it filled."

Shinespark winced. "I wouldn't be the best one to say. I was... down after Ironridge. I had a broken leg, broken spirits, a bad cold and a wrecked ship to clean up. I might have not been paying her a lot of attention."

"Mmm. And was she feeling down with you?" Wallace raised an eyebrow. "You speak as if you were alone for this time. Everyone else was out and about?"

Shinespark nodded. "If you mean in general, she was running around with Amber. Trying to rile me up with tables. She certainly handled it better than I did at first."

Wallace turned to Valey with a rhetorically-questioning look. "What's this about tables? Sounds like there's a story in there."

Shinespark reddened and turned away. "It's nothing..."

"I asked her, not you." Wallace patted Shinespark on the head with a single massive feather. "Well?"

"It's nothing," Valey echoed. "Just me being dumb. Not getting the lessons of what not to do from Ironridge through my head just yet."

Wallace looked intrigued. "Oh? Lessons you've learned now, I suppose. Tell me how you got that there should be no repeats of this mysterious table incident through your head."

"It's not an incident!" Shinespark protested. "It's just... tables are... you know..." She pawed at the ground. "Have you ever been in a conference room, board-meeting style, where there's a long table down the center and everyone's sitting at the sides in two rows? Maybe you wouldn't, because I haven't seen any in the Empire. But it looks classy, and I might have... gone overboard with them one or two times in Ironridge, and Valey used to..." She trailed off, mumbling.

"What was that?" Wallace leaned closer in interest.

"Look, it's not important!" Valey stomped a hoof. "You can see she doesn't wanna talk about it, right? That's why it was a lesson to be learned. No more fl... No table jokes with your friends!"

Shinespark took a deep breath, cutting her off. "She used to tease me relentlessly about them. But really?" She tilted her head at Valey. "It was very annoying, but I thought that was the kind of thing we looked back and laughed at. Not were ashamed of."

"Uhh." Valey blinked. "Getting conflicting signals from that. Were you or weren't you bothered by me... you know..." She waved a hoof uselessly in the air.

"Oh, I was bothered by it," Shinespark confirmed. "At the time. I guess it's funny looking back on it. But it certainly wasn't enough to stop us flying to the Griffon Empire together."

Valey shrugged cluelessly at Wallace, who chuckled. "Hah... You really have a negative outlook on your old shenanigans, don't you?" He waggled an eyebrow. "I'd almost wonder if you like her."

Before Valey could even squeak out a reply, Wallace cut her off, adding, "Remember, what's said in this cave stays in this cave. Garsheeva has no eyesight here. And between us three, if the laws were different... Morena and I might have once been something more. So I understand."

"I... I mean... no!" Valey sputtered, finally getting her voice, glancing between Wallace and Shinespark. "Like her? Bananas, no, I was just being a gremlin! I didn't actually like anyone! Why would I like her? I used to-"

With a spark of teleportation, Shinespark was suddenly right before Valey, hoof raised. She punched her in the face.

Valey fell backwards with an undignified crash, sitting up and holding her jaw. "Didn't think you would actually go through with that..."

"Really?" Shinespark asked, standing straight over her. "Really? I'm... I'm kind of hurt by that."

"What?" Valey blinked.

"Maybe you forgot," Shinespark said, "about that conversation you and me and Amber had? The one where I told you, not to change anything but because you deserved to know, that I maybe liked you? About how I knew your love life was complicated and how there were laws anyway and I would never act on it?" She sighed. "I know you used to flirt with me. And with everyone who was a mare. And if you want to feel ashamed of that, fine. Go ahead. But don't emphatically say you don't like me, and especially don't ask why anyone would."

Valey winced hard. "Why would anyone like you? What? No, I didn't ask that! No, look, I'm sorry, I..."

Shinespark's ears folded too, and she looked to Wallace. "Did she?"

"I don't think so, my little pony," Wallace chuckled. "But this is all very fascinating. Don't tell me with all the pounding the world has done against your defenses, what truly ails you is a problem between friends. What's all this about a complicated love life?"

Valey glanced warily up at him. "Is that any of your business?"

"It's my business," Shinespark sighed. "I'm sorry, but it is. You've taunted me and tried to make me blush far too many times for it not to be."

"Yeah, and that wasn't cool," Valey agreed, averting her eyes with a pout. "Look, I don't need to undignify you like that. You don't need me doing it. So I stopped. Why is this a problem?"

"...You know normal ponies flirt with each other all the time, right?" Shinespark raised an eyebrow. "I am not an expert. I was so busy with the Spirit all throughout adolescence, the only friends I could afford to spend time with were the ones in my work structure. I am so inept at romance I screwed up horribly at noticing how Grenada was feeling, and to me this is still obvious."

"Are you asking me to do it again?" Valey gave her a dangerous look. "Is this exactly like how everyone else is nonstop going, 'Oh, you were so much happier in Ironridge!' Maybe you forgot, but normal ponies and me are oil and water. We're not the same! Just because someone can get away with that doesn't mean I can, okay!? I don't work that way..." She frowned. "Or are you still thinking you want me to anyway?"

Shinespark winced. "I don't know, maybe you forgot, but I just reminded you about the time I said I like you? You think? Maybe?" She wilted. "Empire laws and other obstacles aside..."

Valey's eyes deepened in concern. "Yeah, but you don't-"

"Don't even think about finishing that thought, young Valey," Wallace warned. "She doesn't what? Deserve something? Your affections, perhaps, because they're so much worse than a mythical normal creature's?" He ruffled his plumage. "That sounds tied to a specific event, and if you were still teasing her after Ironridge, I suspect it has nothing to do with your old mannerisms at all."

Shinespark blinked in dawning realization. "Valey, what happened to you and Amber...?"

"Nothing," Valey responded, quickly adding, "ask her yourself."

Wallace cleared his throat. "Regrettably, she isn't here in person, though I wish she was."

"Valey?" Shinespark took a step closer, folding her ears. "That's not how you ask someone not to press. What happened?"

"No, I really mean nothing." Valey waved a wing. "We, like... hung out over the sound stones for months. Had some pretty cool stuff going. Maybe. I guess. And then I dropped it. After she had started coming all the way out here to hang out with us. Like, we're still friends, I think. I'm pretty sure this happened before that conversation you were talking about, even, where you said you liked me and stuff. Bananas, I don't remember."

Shinespark narrowed her eyes. "You sound too nonchalant."

Valey finally snapped, sitting up hard. "Okay, what do you want me to say? You want me to talk about how I messed with someone in Riverfall and they messed with me back, and I was all, 'Hey, I'm one of the good guys now, maybe I can actually have fun with this and it'll be okay,' and then we partied and I wound up using her as an emotional support more and more until that stupid day when Puddles broke free, which was my fault, and then bagged me and hauled me off to Goldoa and was all snuggly and flirty and stuff and Amber thought it was no big deal for her expectations even though I felt like I had betrayed myself because I had it so much better than in Ironridge and I couldn't even be responsible for one! Stupid! Mare! Ugggghhhh..."

Wallace's brow furrowed in confusion. "You... betrayed yourself by being hugged by Morena's windigo-possessed daughter? Somehow mirroring your behavior in Ironridge? I'm not sure I follow..."

Valey sniffed and rubbed her eyes. "Yes..."

"Valey, what?" Shinespark tilted her head in concern. "I don't follow what you said either."

"I enjoyed it," Valey said simply. "Maybe just a little. I was shaken because I was trapped and she had me on a short leash with the threat that she'd bail. She was staying put, and, like... Like, I did not have fun at all while I was captured. That whole thing with the pirate ship was dumb. Please tell me you know what I'm saying. I don't think I can explain it..."

"You feel like you did something wrong because Puddles hugged you." Shinespark raised an eyebrow. "And... flirted with you? Something? I caught up too late in Goldoa to see it..."

"More like broke us into some sort of beachside resort," Valey grumbled. "And yeah."

Shinespark leaned over and hugged her.

Valey fidgeted, but Shinespark didn't let go. "Right. And I suppose this feels the same?"

"No, because... I mean... Yes, but..."

Shinespark sighed and backed off. As she did so, Wallace nodded, stepping to the entrance and spreading his wings. "Stay here. I'll be back momentarily. I have someone you need to meet."