//------------------------------//
// Crystal Containment Conundrum 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

"Hey, girls." Valey announced herself at Maple and Starlight's door without knocking, but not coming in either. "Dunno if you heard, but guess what? It stopped raining!"

Starlight looked up from where she sat with a book on the bed, Shinespark having tracked down a library earlier and refilled the ship's unread book supply. In a chair across from her, Maple's ears perked. "Did it, now?"

"Uh, yeah. Can I come in?"

"Of course." Maple rocked slightly, drawing something with a quill in her mouth and a paper pad in her hooves.

Valey wasted no time in banging the door open, coat groomed and bandages gone after having successfully mooched another healing potion off the castle staff, as had been suggested. "Guess what time that makes it?" She grinned, hefting a tiny barbell with one wing.

"More training?" Starlight set her book aside and stood up, rubbing her horn. It still felt different, but she didn't want to experiment in case this was like the first time and she had a limited well of power from the flame that would let her go all out exactly once before settling into a slightly-improved normal. "Okay."

"That's the spirit." Valey flipped her barbell like a baton. "Hey Ironflanks, you wanna join us?"

Maple blinked. "To spectate? Well, I guess I haven't done that in a while..." She pocketed her supplies and stretched.

"Nahhh." Valey grinned harder. "Come fight with us! Learn a trick or two of your own! Come on, it'll be fun!"

Maple's face fell. "You know that isn't really my idea of fun, Valey. Fighting isn't really what I do."

Valey blew a raspberry. "Uh huh. So no one would expect it if they tried to chump you and suddenly you punched them and were awesome. Just for today, Ironflanks. You gotta learn one trick. How about it?"

"You're in a good mood today," Starlight spoke up, hoping to take some of the heat off Maple.

Valey flipped her barbell again. "Ya think?" She glanced at her wings. "Okay, maybe a little. It's not like something I've been feeling consistently lousy about failing at forever is finally getting taken care of, or anything."

"Your sister?" Maple asked, face lifting.

"Yeah..." Valey rolled her shoulders. "Got a memo from Meltdown. Garsheeva's messing around with the generator, trying to fix stuff. She thinks she'll be ready for us right before the tournament starts again. So, we've got a date. In the meantime, wanna hang out?"

"By training?" Starlight raised an eyebrow. "It didn't really sound like she wanted to."

Maple smiled apologetically. "I can come watch, though."

"Eh, I'm not trying to be pushy." Valey calmed slightly, giving Maple a serious look. "Just... remember that discussion when we were deciding who would go down into the crystal palace and didn't know what we'd find? You've got some powerful stuff going for you, girl. A little practice being creative and you could actually be a huge threat with your cutie mark alone, forget being able to dodge and hit stuff. And you wanted to come with us. Starlight's been practicing with me for months so she can be at her best when push comes to shove. Help do her part to keep us safe. And I know there's something in you that would rather it be the other way around, with you protecting her."

Starlight's ears drooped. Valey had a point... "I'd like it if you spent a little time practicing how to protect yourself, too."

Maple took a deep breath, then exhaled, doing her best to put on a game smile. "If that's how you want to sell it. But no promises I'll come back tomorrow. Just for today."





"Constant vigilance!"

Maple shrieked in surprise as Valey grabbed Starlight out of nowhere, spinning her and lobbing her into the air like a sports ball. Starlight flipped, flailed and was airborne for several seconds before landing, steering herself so that she ended upright with her tail. Starlight winced from the impact, dusted herself off, and looked to Valey for approval.

"Good stuff, kiddo." Valey patted her on the head with a wing. "You've clearly been practicing these last few days."

"That's how you train her!?" Maple gaped. "There was no warning, or..."

"You don't have warning in a real fight," Starlight replied, echoing Valey's lectures. "I'm fine, though. I still knew it was coming, and I've been practicing."

Valey grinned, going back to playing with her barbell. "Relax, Ironflanks. Yeah, this is what we've been working on for a few weeks. Landing on your hooves is critical for recovering when something sends you flying, and is the basis of pretty much every acrobatics trick ever. Go on, kiddo. Show her your moves."

Starlight tensed, squinting in concentration... and jumped, pulling off two backflips in a row with less than a second of wobble on the final landing. "It's easier when the ground isn't wet," she noted, the ship's deck soaked even though the rain had stopped and the clouds were lightening above.

"Practice makes perfect," Valey insisted, winking at Maple. "Natural talent helps too, but she's got that in spades. Best student I've ever had. All the Defense Force goons flunked out on my fruit-throwing exercise."

Without warning, she flung the barbell like a javelin at Starlight's face, then caught it with her tail at the last second. Starlight narrowed her eyes, but didn't even flinch. "See?" Valey did a midair flip of her own. "She's a natural."

"That's..." Maple blinked between them in worry.

"It's a whole lot less dangerous than learning to dodge stuff thrown by anyone who wants to hurt you." Valey flipped the barbell again and caught it with a hoof, landing and tucking it beneath her wing. "If she does mess up, it's gonna hurt, but she'll have me around to take care of her instead of being downed in the middle of a melee. Anyway, all that stuff's coming along nicely. How about leg strength? Kick me hard."

Starlight nodded, lowered her head and charged. It was a straightforward task, and Valey blocked with the flat of a foreleg as Starlight pivoted on her front hooves, smashing both rear ones into her mentor at the same time. Valey grunted, but held fast against the blow. "Good stuff. You're gonna need to be a lot better if you want to stop anyone with a body that small, but it'll still catch anyone off guard who expects you to hit like a feather. Tell Ironflanks how you choose which hooves to use."

"Right." Starlight took a breath, already steadied from the charge. "Rear kicks are much more powerful, since rear legs are better at pushing. Front kicks are faster, safer and more accurate, since you can see who's in front of you and don't have to turn around. Since it's easier for me to keep myself safe through fighting smart and reading my enemies than it is to get much heavier and double the length of my legs, I'm focusing mostly on rear kicks for strength, so I can cover all my weaknesses. But everything is important."

"See?" Valey lounged against a railing. "It's not just about building muscle mass and learning to tough it out when you get injured. Not that those aren't important, but being smart is the bigger half compared to being strong. Otherwise, I'd never have beaten that Randorf guy. And your cutie mark is plenty strong. So all you gotta do to be set is learn to use it smartly!"

Maple bit her lip. "Well... I take it that means it's my turn?"

"Yeah." Valey leaned her back against the railing, standing upright with her hind legs crossed and her forelegs folded over her chest, a position which could be unbalanced by a light breeze. "So come at me, Ironflanks. I won't hit back. Just show me what you got in the brain department. Starlight, watch and take notes."

Maple gulped, but kicked into a slow run towards Valey, brow furrowed in concentration. Valey's tail flicked, prepared to catch or knock away whatever Maple might produce to hit her with... and then Maple unpocketed a deluge of water, splashing all across her face.

"Blech! Gahhh..." Valey rubbed her eyes and shook her mane, dripping. "Good stuff, Ironflanks. Bananas, I just got dried off..."

Maple's ears fell in apology. "You said be creative..."

"Nah, that was great." Valey waved a hoof, still trying to dry off her face. "Impossible to block and nobody will see it coming. Bananas, one second." She dashed into the ship, returning with her face buried in a towel. "So!" she announced once she was no longer suffering from water draining into her eyes. "Starlight, what's your mom's biggest asset she just showed off?"

Starlight nodded. "Hiding things that no one is expecting."

"Bingo." Valey flung a hoof at her, then turned to Maple. "And Ironflanks, what were you doing with a gallon of water in there?"

Maple reddened. "Cooking, ballast and in case anyone was thirsty..."

Valey did another flip. "Oh yeah, the whole making-yourself-heavier thing?"

"Mhmm." Maple nodded. "Things I put in my cutie mark add to my own weight, so I made a habit of carrying around heavy things so if I ever need to carry something heavy, I'm used to it. And it's helpful to be able to take things out so I'm always a weight I'm familiar with. And I suppose it makes me stronger..."

"Whole lotta advantages. See? You're a natural too." Valey winked. "You'd be surprised at how strong most cutie marks are when you put your mind to them. Point is, all we need to do to get you super competent is make it so you're used to pulling this stuff out in a pinch. Or maybe brainstorming some more useful things for you to carry around..."

She rubbed her chin, hovered, and slowly, slowly turned to look at Starlight, a mischievous grin spreading on her face.

"What are you thinking?" Starlight asked, stepping closer to Maple and raising an eyebrow.

Valey tossed her barbell again. "Hey, Ironflanks. You can store magic in there, yeah?"

Maple nodded. "I haven't tried it often."

"And you two are hardly ever apart..." Valey's grin grew. "What if you two made a special team combo move? Maple stores Starlight's magic? If Blazing Rain was so special, no one would ever see a magic earth pony coming. I wonder if you can do that."

Starlight blinked. That would mean using her horn... but her horn did feel like it needed to be used. "How would we do that?"

"You cast magic on me and I try to store it?" Maple tilted her head.

"Yeah, give it a go!" Valey hung upside-down in the air, juggling the barbell with her tail. "Do that crystal spell on her. Ironflanks, try to not get crystalled!"

Starlight swallowed, stepping into position. Just encase Maple in crystal, no special shapes required. She pointed her horn, readied her magic, and fired.

Flash!

There was a jet of teal light, and Maple was frozen solid in a block of crystal. Starlight winced, letting it drop.

"Sorry!" Maple gasped upon being freed. "Ohh that felt weird. I wasn't ready. D-Do we try again?"

Valey rolled upright. "Eh, yeah, let's not give up after one failure. Come on, pocket the magic. Let's go again!"

Flash!

Once more, Maple was encased in a crystal. "Is it not working?" Starlight asked as she freed the mare a second time. "Or do you need to try again?"

"I don't know," Maple panted, getting her bearings after being frozen. "Maybe... What happens if I try to pocket a smaller piece of crystal after it's been formed?"

Starlight bit her lip. "Well, I can't make them just grow in midair. They have to grow on something, like the ground or a pony. So maybe you could pocket a rock with a crystal around it?"

Valey snapped her wingtips. "Yo, hold up. Idea of the century, right here." She offered Maple her barbell. "Pocket this."

Maple nodded, taking the training weight and making it disappear, looking to Valey for explanation.

"So, that's pretty heavy, right?" Valey grinned at Starlight. "Heavy enough, at least. I wonder what happens to something's momentum if you crystal it while it's flying, though? Ironflanks, you whip that out and throw it... like, over the railing so it doesn't damage anything, and Starlight, you hit it midair and turn it into a huge boulder. I bet it'll completely own whoever it hits."

Starlight winced. "The amount my crystals hurt my horn to use depends on how much they get hit by things. It's why it's hard to use them as armor. It sounds like it would work, but I could only do that once or twice..."

Maple apologetically passed back the barbell.

"Mmm..." Valey held the side of her head, taking it and resuming juggling it as she hovered. "Alright, good to know. But just in case, you wanna practice hitting thrown things with, like... a little crystal? What if Ironflanks threw some pebbles, and you turned them into spikes or daggers? And just in case you did need to blow your horn out on an ultimate move, someone like Herman would have a seriously bad time getting hit by a very fast flying boulder."

"Can I try pocketing some crystal, though?" Maple asked, looking expectantly between them. "If I'm out here, I still might as well try..." She faintly blushed.

"Oh yeah. Catch." Valey tossed Starlight the barbell in a gentle, curving arc. Starlight's horn flashed, and soon it was frozen in a ball about the size of Maple's head.

Starlight presented it to her, and Maple pocketed it with ease. "...Anything?"

A strange sensation welled up in Starlight's horn, like a small portion of her magic was cut off or missing. She could feel everywhere around it, and still try to do things with it... If her magic was a pool of water, this was an air bubble, completely immobile and suspended in the middle. She tried to interact with it, call it back, push on it and expand the size of the crystals... Her magic flowed around it like normal, but from the missing piece, nothing.

"That's really weird." Starlight frowned. "What happens if you un-pocket it?"

Maple lifted a hoof... and suddenly it exploded with crystals, as if all the energy Starlight had tried to put into expanding her creation when she couldn't reach it went into it all at once. Maple yelped, the crystalled barbell now frozen to her hoof, and Starlight gasped in surprise, instantly letting the crystals dissipate. She could feel them all again, and her magic returned, whole and undisturbed.

Valey raised an eyebrow.

"What just happened?" Maple stared at her hoof in concern, the barbell laying on the deck in front of her.

"I don't know," Starlight mumbled, slinking forward to poke at the fallen training weight. "I can usually feel the crystals I've made while they're out there. I couldn't feel that one while you pocketed it, and when I tried making it bigger, nothing happened. Then it got bigger all at once when you brought it out."

"That's weird." Valey grabbed the barbell and held it out to Starlight. "Try it again."

Starlight concentrated, getting only a little crystal on the end and finding herself pleased as the spell shaped itself with barely any effort compared to what choosing specific forms for her crystal had taken before the crystal palace. "Yo." Valey passed the barbell to Maple.

"So what are we doing now?" Maple pocketed it, looking expectantly at Starlight.

"Umm..." Starlight could feel the hole in her magic again, sized appropriately to what she had pushed out into the crystal. "I'll try to make it disappear. It's still there, though. See what happens when you take it out?"

Maple withdrew the barbell, a little flash tingling along the end as Starlight's crystal vanished.

"Huh..." Valey hovered between them. "Now try to make it grow again! Can you control the shape it grows to?"

Starlight refreshed the crystal, this time trying to will it to grow in a long, straight spur as Maple held it inside her. When she withdrew it, the crystal rapidly expanded, but in a formless mass just like last time.

"I guess not?" Maple tilted her head at Starlight. "Hmmm..."

Valey flicked her tail at Maple, having nothing to occupy herself by juggling. "Hey, what if you try to shape it? Starlight, you said you got cut off or something from it, right? Maybe it... needs direction from Maple, or something?"

Maple's ears fell. "I'm not a unicorn, Valey. I don't even know how I'd begin learning to do that..."





Two hours later, Starlight stared at Maple, feeling the hole in her magic as they watched each other from across the deck. Maple poked her tongue out of the corner of her mouth in concentration... and the barbell slammed down at her hooves, crystal growing and spreading along the ground until it lifted her up on a pillar twice as tall as she normally was. Maple lifted her hooves, checking them one by one. "I did it! I'm not stuck this time!"

"Hot stuff, girl!" Valey flapped over and gave Maple a celebratory shoulder bump, nearly toppling her and forcing Valey to catch her before she hit the deck. "Heh heh... Whoops."

"It worked? You did it?" Starlight raised her eyes hopefully. She didn't think she had overdone anything with her horn enough to waste the tree's blessing, but preferred to be safe rather than sorry.

"Yep." Valey drifted past, offering down a hoof for Starlight to bump. "Raising yourself on a pillar to get in the air? There's one more signature Puddles move stolen for Team Us. Speaking of which, I hope you're practicing that too when your horn lets you. Even if it's a discount super jump, that's still the closest thing to flight you're gonna get."

Maple was beaming, almost unshaken by her fall as she trotted over and the crystal pillar disappeared. "So you think I did good?"

"Yeah, I'd call this good for the day." Valey wrapped a wing over her back. "If you want a break, that is. I'd say you two have a pretty epic move in the works. Could use some polish if you wanted to come back to it another day, though..."

Starlight raised an eyebrow. "What do we work on next?"

Valey shrugged. "Well, aside from just making it faster, smoother, higher, and having Ironflanks work on safely getting down... Next thing to try is pocketing two crystals at once. Gotta see how they interact with each other." She patted Maple's back. "But hey, I might be a hard drill sergeant, but I'm fair. You didn't wanna join us and then you did cool work today. So go take it easy for a while and be proud of yourself, girl. I'll just finish things up with Starlight and we'll be right down after you."

Maple blushed at the praise. "Well, I was just using my cutie mark..."

"Nahhh, you did good! Go celebrate, already!" Valey grabbed her discarded barbell, tucking it away beneath a wing. "Go tell Amber about how awesome you... Hey, looks like someone's coming?"

Starlight and Maple followed her gaze up to the sky, where a winged silhouette was growing closer. In several seconds, an armored griffon landed, bearing Grandbell colors and quickly bowing.

"Hey, dude." Valey nodded. "What's up?"

"You are the filly Starlight?" The guard tilted his head at Starlight, who nodded back. "Princess Gwendolyn cordially invites you to lunch at the northern aqueduct tower. If you wish to accept, please join her in forty minutes."

"Really?" Starlight blinked.

Valey grinned. "Lunch with a princess? Hey, lucky you. She's a cool cat. You should go!"

The guard just nodded.

"Well, okay." Starlight shrugged. "I'd like to go."

"Of course." The guard spread his wings. "I shall inform Her Highness of your response. The tower guards will be notified and expecting you."

He winged away, and Maple gave Starlight an interested look. "I wonder what she wants to talk to you about. He didn't say anything about the rest of us."

"Probably means it's just her." Valey stretched, wandering toward the door belowdecks. "In that case, I might just go saw some logs..."