//------------------------------//
// The Wilderness Everyone Loves 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Slipstream flew low enough to the foothills that she wouldn't be visible to anyone not very close after losing a long argument with Jamjars, the possibility of attracting unwanted attention by flying high for a better view outweighing the fact that if there were hostile creatures around, they would likely be doomed already. Glimmer hung in her forelegs, the less-useful of the two for scouting, while Jamjars rode woozily on her back, hiding her face in Slipstream's mane and pretending they were anywhere but flying - the more likely reason why she had wanted to stick close to the ground.

Water, thankfully, was plentiful. It felt like almost every other valley had a river, the product of countless miles of runoff and meltwater from the Aldenfold to the north. None of them knew how to tell if it was clean, but just from the clarity Slipstream was strongly tempted to find out.

The land was abundantly hilly, with tall, wild grasses covering the countryside. Occasional weeds and grains grew up through them, enough to make walking the hills a major chore, and even though the ground wasn't quite mountainous it was far too steep for farming. The valleys were deep enough for Slipstream to fly through unobstructed, and she measured with the sun to keep her course true southwest.

"Girls?" she panted after several minutes of flying. "I'm not an endurance flyer, and carrying two of you might have been too much. I need to land soon..."

Jamjars gave a wet burp. "Please?"

Slipstream drew into a landing on a hillside, the ground steeply sloped into a river that rushed out of sight along a bend. Jamjars dropped from her back, planting herself against the ground with her legs splayed, and nuzzled the earth with her cheeks. "I could kiss this ground like a Firefly Sister..."

Glimmer kept a hoof on Slipstream, not trusting herself not to fall on the foreign, sloped soil. "It was your idea to fly out here in the first place. Why did you suggest it if you hate flying so much?"

"I forgot..." Jamjars whined, hugging the ground.

"Whew." Slipstream was busy stretching her wings, rubbing their joints with her hooves. "I did track when I was in school and flew to work in Ironridge to stay in shape, but maybe all these months on the airship haven't been good for me. I hope I haven't been gaining weight..." She poked her belly to be sure and grimaced. "So much for all that work."

Glimmer frowned. "If you feel like doing something to change that, the crew could use you. You're one of the only three fliers we have left, counting Howe, and he might not be safe to count. We need you."

Slipstream blinked, looking up from herself. "Flying for months with stars like Valey and Shinespark and always being more of a tenant, that's not something I hear a lot."

"And those stars are long-term indisposed," Glimmer replied, the river rushing by below. "Between those with injuries or disabilities and those with questionable loyalties, if being out of shape is the worst you can say about yourself, you might want to get used to the idea of being important."

Slipstream blinked again. "...Wow."

"I love ground," Jamjars sang nearby, completely oblivious to the conversation. "I love it. I love it! I love ground so so much, and I really really love groooound..."

"Can I tell you a secret, now that we're out of the Empire?" Slipstream asked. "One that's probably not as secret as I like to pretend it is, but feels like one anyway?"

"Alright." Glimmer sat back in the tall grass and listened.

Slipstream took a breath. "I only joined up here because I had a crush on Gerardo and nothing better to do with my time, being newly unemployed. And I thought I was just coming along to Riverfall, and then I didn't get off when we left for the Empire, and... here I am. Just like that. Because I flirted with the wrong griffon on the job... or the right one. It's so crazy I stopped trying to wrap my mind around it long ago."

"Luck is fickle like that." Glimmer nodded. "Feeling overwhelmed?"

Slipstream hesitated. "Not... really? It's hard to be overwhelmed when you just go with the flow. That said, if what I do is going to start mattering and I have to take things more seriously..." She held a wing to her forehead and gave a nervous laugh. "I'm not even sure how to do that, hehe... I'm an average pegasus who used to read about celebrities in magazines and now lives down the hall on their airship and occasionally pretends to help with navigation..." She reddened. "But I mostly just hang out with the others who aren't as important and we talk about things and have fun, and... So what do I actually do?"

Glimmer shrugged. "You play to your strengths, volunteer to do things that need doing and take charge when you think it's within your abilities. Just like deciding to go scouting when you have little medical knowledge, but a good pair of wings. That's all there is to it."

Slipstream's blush deepened. "I-I... Wow..."

"How are you feeling?" Glimmer asked, flicking her ears.

Slipstream nodded. "Good, but nervous. But also good. I'm sorry, I just... I don't even know how to process being told all this."

"Being told that other ponies are counting on you?" Jamjars looked up, finally starting to recover. "You're that reliant on what others think of you for your own self-image? That isn't healthy."

"Well, no! I mean... But..." Slipstream fidgeted. "How would you feel if you were told Melia and Sirena were counting on you to save one of their shows?"

Jamjars blinked... and chuckled, slinking out of sight into the grass. "Heh heh... Point taken."

"I'll do my best, of course," Slipstream promised, turning back to Glimmer. "Get my head out of the clouds, and help out. Right." She shook her wings. "I'm maybe ready to go on?"

Glimmer got to her hooves. "You've barely even caught your breath. Are you sure?" She flicked her ears at the grass where Jamjars was hiding. "Maybe we should walk for a ways."

Slipstream bit her lip. "The hills are steep and the grass is very tall, but we might have room on the riverbank if we were careful not to fall in..." She looked again. "On second thought, there was a massive storm, and it looks swollen from runoff. We're going over the tops of the hills."

"No flying!" Jamjars heartily agreed.

Slipstream scooped Glimmer onto her back, not about to let the filly fall during the treacherous climb. It was only a short distance until the slope evened out, but with almost as much elevation change as they had moved horizontally, and Slipstream took it slowly, testing each step for solid hoofing. There was no doubt Glimmer recognized how steep it was just from the angles of the pegasus's back, and she moved as carefully as possible, using her weight as a counterbalance.

Slowly, they crested the hill, grass rising up as high as Slipstream's face that she had to push aside with her wings to proceed. Occasional stickers and thorn bushes kept her cautious, and Jamjars clung close behind, helping probe the path with her telekinesis. They followed the curve of the slope back down to the river, making sure they didn't wander too deep into the thicket... and eventually, they curved around far enough for a structure to be seen.

It was a bridge, spanning the river and wide enough for a single cart, made in a whimsical style from a pink material that wasn't quite brick, but a similar kind of stone. Slipstream's ears perked, and she pressed forward, the underside of the bridge clean and open and the top slightly too high to see.

"What is it? I can't see!" Jamjars complained, wading through grass that came all the way up to her chin even when flattened.

"Here. Let me fly us there. It will only take a second..." Slipstream grabbed her, braced for the complaints, and pumped her wings, landing on the structure and setting Jamjars down again. "Wow. This is... What is it?"

It was almost like a road, except not made for any cart or hooves she had ever seen. Evenly-spaced wooden slats covered the bridge, and ran along through cleared pathways atop the adjacent hilltops that both curved gently out of view. Two unbroken metal bars ran parallel along the slats, perfectly flat and even, and supporting the entire assembly seemed to be the sole purpose of the bridge. But some artisan had still created it with pride, covering the thing in chiseled, artistic swirls that could have been a foal's drawings if they hadn't had a deep-seated order to them as well.

"I have no idea." Jamjars scratched her head. "Metal bars on wood? It looks like a path. Someone obviously made it."

Glimmer tilted her head, climbing down from Slipstream's back and feeling one of the rails and several slats with a hoof. "Is this a train track?"

"A what?" Both others looked at her, confused.

"Oh. I guess you didn't have trains in Ironridge." Glimmer felt out one of the rails, climbed on it, and began walking southeast. "It's a track that vehicles move on. They're called trains. If someone built it, that means both directions go somewhere someone wanted to go."

Intrigued, Slipstream and Jamjars followed, crossing the bridge with Glimmer and seeing where the train tracks would lead them.