//------------------------------//
// Fire In Your Heart 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Shinespark growled and sat halfway up, her ribs throbbing from where Herman's henchponies had kicked her aside. The yak ambassador was already a ways away, and the realization that following them wouldn't earn anything burned like fire in her heart. She'd probably get kicked again, or worse.

"Sh-Shinespark?" Dior spoke up behind her. "It's hard to tell because of the cold, but I may have hurt my leg..."

Shinespark twitched. She barely felt the cold.

"We need to pull back," Dior urged. "We've done what you came to do, and this isn't a place for us. We must go home."

"Aww, throwing in the towel already?" an annoyingly familiar voice chimed in. "Come on, you gotta put up a fight!"

Shinespark turned her head, an emerald mane standing out like a large plant in the sea of snow and slush. "Don't follow us."

Valey shrugged, barely seeming to notice the snow. "Why? It got me what I'm looking for. You two look like you got owned."

"That's not a polite way to speak about others who may be indisposed..." Dior winced, testing his shoulder. "I'll feel this in the morning."

Shinespark kicked snow at Valey in a far less effective version of what Herman had done to her. "Be quiet. I need to think."

"About how badly you got owned?" Valey swaggered up beside her.

"Yes!" Shinespark snapped. "It's none of your business, but they're ruining Ironridge and there's no one who can stand up to them and I can't stop them either!"

"No one who could take them in a fight, huh?" Valey raised an eyebrow. "I bet I could teach them a thing or two. If you had brought me fruit when I asked for it, so... nyaah. No deal."

Shinespark hissed and gritted her teeth in frustration. "I'm not asking you to! This is about the economy and ponies' jobs and families, not fruit! Just go away. The only thing I know about you is that you don't get it at all."

"Ehh... You sure about that?" Valey gave a sidelong glance after Herman. "I'm pretty sure I know a boss when I see one. That guy looks like he's mean enough and high up enough to have his own goon squad. Bet I could get in really cushy with the team with the power if I showed him my moves and offered my skills..."

Shinespark utterly gaped. "You greedy... little..."

Valey flicked her face with a wing, messing up Shinespark's bangs. "Hey! I got plans, sister. Smells to me like that guy's going to be running the place, and this bat needs a little permission and a little authority from the guys in charge to do whatever she wants. You hear?" For a moment, her eyes glowed with just as much intensity as Shinespark felt in herself. "Good. Don't worry, I just need to get in good with the winning side for a bit. Then I'll dunk everyone I don't like, just because."

Shinespark glared, furiously standing her ground.

"Ah..." Dior winced, trying to take a step, utterly ignored by both of the arguing fillies. "I think either my shoulder is dislocated, or my leg is broken. We need to go home..."

"Have fun." Shinespark didn't even look at him, fixated on Valey. "Ponies are losing their pride and their livelihoods and you're telling me you want to help the bad guys? Who do you even think you are!?"

Valey leaned on one leg, aloof. "Oh yeah? And who do you think you are? You losing your livelihood too?"

"What does it matter!?" Shinespark snorted in her face.

"Because who cares if others get chumped?" Valey rolled her eyes. "I've got problems of my own to worry about, and you can stick your head in a watermelon if you think I'd put those aside to help out anyone-" She froze. "Wuh-oh."

A team of construction ponies had been drawn by the argument's noise, and next thing Shinespark knew she was being hefted by the scruff of her neck and carried unceremoniously away.





Shinespark landed in a chamber in the Water District, high enough for an icy chill to permeate the air, with Dior nowhere to be seen. "The exit's that way," an angry-looking pony in a hard hat grunted, flinging a hoof. "We don't need kids getting in the way!"

They stomped away, and the door slammed behind her. Shinespark trembled with fury, too pent-up to speak for the entire ride. But now that she was alone...

"Raaaaaugh!"

Clannnnng! She bucked a support pillar, slamming her hooves against the metal despite her aches and bruises. It felt so marvelous that she did it again, and was winding up for a third strike before suddenly Valey was beside her, holding a hoof to her mouth. "Shhh! You want them to come back?"

"I have nothing to say to you," Shinespark declared, stomping away.

"Oh yeah?" Valey followed with a cocky grin. "Because you sure sound like you'd explode if I poked you just a little harder."

"No!" Shinespark quickened her pace, still stomping, and barged through a wrought-iron door that had been left ajar. "I am having the worst day of my life, no thanks to you, and you're following me and being utterly selfish and a complete uncaring jerk!"

Valey hovered, flapping along behind. "Meh. It's a healthier outlet for your anger than fighting that yak. And you should try not caring too sometime. Your blood pressure's gotta be through the roof."

Shinespark stopped and blinked. "What?"

Valey widely shrugged. "Okay, okay, so I decided to look out for a pretty face. Keep yelling, it's entertaining."

"I can't believe you," Shinespark hissed, lowering her head. "You really don't care. Why don't you go chase that yak and see to your own goals, or however you put it?"

"A dude like that shouldn't be too hard to find again." Valey casually did a backflip in midair. "And I've gotta wait for some stuff anyway. But yep. Could care less, but not without getting really bored."

"I need to be alone with my thoughts," Shinespark whispered, kicking open another door. "Leave me-"

Evening sunlight flooded the room, enough that Shinespark had to shield her eyes. Slowly, they adjusted to the outdoors, and she stepped forward cautiously. "Wait, is this...?"

Ahead of her, a long, faintly-curved road stretched, a crystal-blue lake to the left and a bottomless valley to the right, a lone mountain with a lighthouse standing at the other side.

"Yo." Valey whistled, landing and walking up beside her. "I could hang out here more often..."

Shinespark took off running.

Valey called something and gave chase, but the wind was in Shinespark's ears and her heart was pounding too fast for her to hear. As she passed the midpoint, she threw back her head and screamed, still running, wishing her breath was blowing every worker and contractor out of the Sky District and out of Ironridge and keeping the city's heart and pride down where it belonged. Perhaps it hadn't been this bad in the past, or perhaps her father had done a better job of hiding it from her, but the last golden age of Ironridge had ended before she was born. It was her problem if she would never get to see her city's heritage and her city's pride, no matter what Valey said. Her heart felt like Sosa, stuck low while everything else flew up above, and she tripped head over heels and landed at the far end of the bridge when her legs gave out after she had forgotten to breathe.

Shinespark panted raggedly, laying at the foot of the steps to the lighthouse as her lungs stabbed her and her muscles burned. Soon, however, Valey caught up.

"...Girl, you've got issues."

Shinespark was too winded to respond.

"I really mean it." Valey shrugged. "You should try caring less. It's what I do. And I'm having a pretty great time, which I definitely wouldn't be doing if I sat around crying about all the stuff wrong with my life. Wanna go down to the place with the trees and steal some bananas with me?"

"Never," Shinespark rasped. "Sosa belongs at the gateway to Ironridge, not some new district at the opposite side of the city. And if anything, you're making me care more."

Valey flicked her mane out of her eyes with a hoof. "Yeah, who would have thought you're hot when you're angry? Nope, not trying to get you fired up at all." She winked, continuing before Shinespark could respond. "So you're stuck on someone stealing your spotlight, right? Easy peasy. Just beat them!"

Shinespark's shoulders sagged. "And how are we supposed to do that? Sosa makes sea ships. They have airships, and the airship economy is growing fast. Any technology we could have had is thirteen years out of date, and Mobius is blocking every..." She frowned. "But he's not anymore. But we're still so far behind. We don't have the resources to out-compete them for sky travel, and even if we did the skyport is in the Sky District!"

"Oh yeah?" Valey winked. "So you don't have enough, and they have too much? Nothing a little thievery can't solve."

Shinespark raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were on their side."

Valey slapped a pious hoof across her chest. "Nahhh. I'm on my side. You were saying?"

"What was I saying?" Shinespark scratched her head, feeling an itch to say something, anything, even if it meant nothing at all. "Even if there are pieces in the right place, Arambai is a master strategist, and he's been trying to save Sosa for thirteen years. There's no possible way I could come up with something here that would work, even if your advice is somehow good."

"Screw having a plan!" Valey threw her hooves in the air and grinned. "Step one: tell yourself you're gonna stick it to them. Step two: be cool with being the underdog for a bit if you're not as awesome as me. Step three: figure it out as you go. How's that for a plan?"

Something in Shinespark's chest clicked. She refused to say it to Valey's face, but at least some of her words rang truer than true: she didn't need a plan to care. Even if she had a goal that was unreachable, did that mean she couldn't have it, and couldn't live like it was reachable? A swelling sensation filled her, and she stared into the lingering sunset, feeling almost like she grew an inch. "The sky shouldn't be theirs. It should have been ours, thirteen years ago. It should have been mine...! Mine to give to them..."

Valey sidled up beside her and puckered her lips. "Feeling better? You're welcome..."

"Leave me alone!" Shinespark's voice echoed, and her horn flared sapphire, attempting to push Valey back with telekinesis... only for an expanding dome of force to radiate out from her, sending the other filly flying. Her horn crackled and sparked, and she stared up at it with a gasp.

"Ow! I'm okay...!" Valey called from halfway down the bridge.

"What the...?" Shinespark breathed, her horn swirling above her, begging to be used.

Valey soon caught back up. "Well, that was rude. Hey, is that a magic surge?"

Shinespark blinked.

"Happens sometimes when you... you know..." Valey pointed at Shinespark's flanks.

Shinespark whipped around, staring at herself as well. She was no longer a blank filly.