//------------------------------//
// Fading, Yet Still Alive 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

"What are you doing!?" Lyn squeaked in surprise as Starlight hauled her into the gondola. "Put me down this instant!"

Starlight shoved the door roughly closed, and stared at its crack as the ground began to press against her and the rooftop fell away. "Sorry," she panted, breathing hard. "I'm just... done with everything. And I'm going to grab any chance I can get."

The inside of the gondola was plush, with a velvet bench on either side. Lyn took the one that was further from Starlight, watching her closely. "You aren't lying. I can feel your frustration from here." She dusted off her dress. "Please, ask before doing that again, however. I do not appreciate being surprised by any form of attack."

Starlight folded her ears, reminding herself that the princess's cutie mark detected lies... and apparently cutie marks worked just fine here. "I'm sorry," she repeated, the gondola swaying lightly as it rose. "I am helping, though. I want you to be anywhere but where you were just then."

Princess Gwendolyn scrutinized her. "You say that with great conviction. I know you know more than you have said. What are your aims? If I am going with you, I have a right to know."

"This place is..." Starlight stopped and swallowed, the thought crossing her mind that trying to explain the nature of being in the moon glass might make the memory-resetting process quicker. Navarre had rewound the moment she finished talking to him, after all... "Never mind. I don't think I can tell you."

Lyn stared suspiciously into her eyes. "And you believe it, too."

For a moment, Starlight felt a flash of regret, realizing she was doing exactly what she hated when Glimmer did to her. Maybe her lookalike really did have reasons that were both good and unutterable. "We both wish we didn't have to be who we are, right?"

"And who are you?" Lyn kept watching her, inquisitive. "It was I who summoned you, yet I feel as if you are looking into my soul. I cannot parse you, and I am normally quite skilled at reading the intentions of others. You speak about things that are close to your heart without so much as an invitation, yet are more guarded and reserved than the Aldenfold itself."

Starlight looked up. "I don't know."

"You see?" Lyn pointed a hoof, trying to gesture as if it was a paw. "You make no sense. I..." She blinked. "I was going somewhere with this."

Starlight instantly sat straighter. "If you feel like you're forgetting anything, concentrate on why you wanted to talk to me at your tower. You remember that, right?"

"Yes!" Lyn perked back up again. "I was-"

A snickering Gazelle pressed his face against a window.

With a flash of green, he was impaled from the side, tumbling away into the abyss. Starlight's ears pressed back. "One minute," she insisted, cracking open the door, sticking her head out and looking around.

"Oh, don't mind me," Chrysalis drawled, lounging on the gondola roof. "Just making sure I don't miss the fun. Speaking of missing things, though, aren't you forgetting someone? If you really think any random location some memory happened to remember is any more likely to be a hole in a perfect prison than the rest..."

"Shut up," Starlight warned. "This feels right! Those mountains are special in real life somehow, so they might be special here too! And don't even think I'm leaving without Valey!"

"Starlight," Lyn politely said behind her. "Thank you for joining me."

Starlight froze, slamming the door shut in Chrysalis's bemused face. "...Hi," she mumbled, turning with a limp mane to face her host.

Lyn blinked, staring at her. "I wished to talk, but... are you sure you are feeling up to it? I would understand if this meeting were overwhelming for you. You are a filly, after all." A bitter irony tinged her last words.

"No." Starlight shook her head at the ground. "Sorry. I've had a really bad day, and I really don't want to talk about it even though you might understand."

Lyn stared at her for a moment longer. "...I see," she eventually said. "Believe it or not, I think perhaps I do understand. You look as though you have not had a break in a very long time."

"Nope." Starlight curled up on the opposite bench, folding her forelegs and resting her muzzle.

"Then this meeting may as well be what we need." Lyn stretched out on her own bench, flicking her tail. "I have ensured we will not be disturbed while we are here. Please, take all the time to rest you please. I hope you will not be bothered by my presence?"

Starlight closed her eyes, keeping one slightly cracked to watch the princess. "Please stay," she insisted. Thoughts of guards who were mere phantoms and soulless memories themselves flitted across her mind. Lyn may not have understood just how little power to secure the place she had, but somehow, Starlight felt her frown lessen just a little as the ash silently drifted around them.





Princess Celestia had to duck to enter the cargo bay, which she did with so much grace the doorframe may as well never have existed. This was the one part of the ship Jamjars' power machine hadn't brightened, and with a twitch of her ears and a faint concentration, the luminescence of Celestia's mane grew until the room was bathed in the light of day.

An orange unicorn sat in the corner, face to the wall, and refused to look up.

"So, you are the one they call the captain," Celestia greeted pleasantly, Harshwater and Felicity staying behind in the hallway. "I have looked forward to meeting you."

She didn't approach, but still earned a response. "You have, have you? I hope you have an agenda."

Celestia watched Shinespark with a straight face. "My agenda is in speaking to you."

Slowly, Shinespark turned to face her, weeks' worth of uncut and unbrushed mane allowing her bangs to grow and shadow her eyes. Her tone was neither welcoming nor aggressive. "I've said all I have to say."

With a glitter of vibrant yellow, Celestia's aura brushed back her bangs, revealing the lingering crack along her horn. "...You do not seem like a pony with much patience for those who state the obvious," Celestia remarked.

"I don't have any impatience, either," Shinespark muttered. "You'd be wasting your time either way."

"Tell me about your cutie mark," Celestia said.

Shinespark blinked, caught off-guard by the suddenness of the question. "What?"

"Tell me." Celestia nodded, settling in patiently.

Shinespark sighed. "If you care, I got it years ago when I made an oath to protect my city. Turned out whatever it could do wasn't enough. And without my horn, it's not only meaningless but inert, too. Just a picture on my flanks."

Celestia hummed in interest. "In days long bygone, there were ponies whose marks gave them so much power, their societies looked completely different from yours or mine today, and they took it all for granted. There were also ponies whose marks gave them no powers whatsoever and were nothing more than pictures. Some of those ponies used those magicless pictures to do truly great things, like inspiring others and rallying them together under a common cause. If your cutie mark could do more for you, would you use it?"

Shinespark stared blankly at her. "Of course I would. What kind of question is that?"

Celestia smiled knowingly. "Then you still have sparks of your dream. You aren't the first pony I've seen who's talked themselves into giving up, or the second. Tell me about how you earned it, my little pony."

Shinespark stared a moment longer, then shook her head. "You have better things to do than listen to me. But fine..."