//------------------------------// // Assailed By Memories Unending // Story: The Olden World // by Czar_Yoshi //------------------------------// The Immortal Dream settled down in the shelter of the low ridge separating the valley of Sires Hollow from the reaching talon of the sea to the east, resting in the water rather than on land. This close to the mountain wall, no wind blew, and the waters were calm and placid even through they grew rough further out. A small dock reached down from the trail back into the mountains, holding two small fishing skiffs and a medium boat that could probably sleep four, if the passengers were willing to be cramped. It had a lengthy platform with a bench that ran along parallel to the staircase to the trail, and was completely uninhabited. Starlight stood by the railing with everyone else as they drew near. "That's a fishing place," she said, though it wasn't too hard to guess. "Looks abandoned," Gerardo remarked. "Albeit in decent repair. Strange. I would have expected the dawn hours to be prime material for fishing." "How deep is the water here?" Shinespark called from the bridge. "How close to land can we get!?" Starlight stared over the railing and into the depths, searching her memories. "Cold and really deep." She had dropped a toy in there once, long ago. She had been told it was gone forever. Shinespark edged the Dream up parallel to the boats that were already moored at the dock, not enough room to fit it fully alongside them and the dock low to the water, at that. "We'll need to jump or fly," she said, stepping out of the bridge once again. "Who all is going ashore?" "We are," Maple declared, standing at Starlight's side. "Me!" Valey hopped up as well. "I gotta see what this place is about for myself." "And I'd be remiss if I bypassed the opportunity for adventure," Gerardo added, joining them. Grenada glanced between Shinespark and the away party, the orange harmony comet shimmering overhead. "We will keep the ship ready and waiting for your return. Remember, as remote as this village is, we will all be more comfortable once we are back to Ironridge." "We did come all this way, though," Shinespark countered, with a glance at Starlight. "We have lots of fuel left, and multiple contingencies in our writ and Princess Celestia's letter. Since we're here, make sure to do what you need to do." "We will," Maple promised. "Now, can I get a lift?" Gerardo prepared to lift her, and Valey, Starlight, when Jamjars piped up. "Can I come too?" Maple bit her lip. "Would it be okay if you didn't? We're visiting very quickly, and this is for Starlight." "I'm her friend too." Jamjars shrugged and rolled her eyes, turning to walk away. "But whatever." Maple sighed. "Starlight?" "Will you cause trouble?" Starlight asked, glancing at her fellow filly. "I swear an oath not to." Jamjars drew a hoof across her heart. "Unless one of you does something first and I need to bail you out, I will be look, don't touch for the entire stay." Shinespark cleared her throat. "Even then, if you can't promise to stay out of trouble no matter what..." Jamjars shrugged. "I'm promising not to be the first one to get in trouble." Starlight winced. This felt like trouble, but she didn't want a fight... "Fine. But stay where I can see you, okay?" Jamjars batted her eyelids. "I thought you'd never ask." Starlight groaned. "Let's just go..." In the time the discussion had taken, the shore suddenly wasn't so empty. Valey poked Maple and Starlight's shoulders, gesturing towards the bend where the mountain trail to the village twisted out of sight. "Yo," she whispered. "We're being watched." "Are they hostile?" Maple's ears fell. Valey tilted her head. "Probably not? But I think they might be armed. Smart, honestly, if there's any chance we could be pillagers. Let's go make peace." Gerardo scooped up Maple and Valey grabbed Starlight, both conveniently forgetting about Jamjars. The four assembled on the dock, its old timbers creaking slightly beneath their hooves, and their welcome party gathered at the top, where the staircase merged into the mountain in a steep trail. The ponies in the rear all were gawking at the blazing harmony comet, and only the two in the front held their composure: a lone, armored Equestrian guard, and a very short, well-fed, middle-aged mare who looked very familiar. "Are you...?" Starlight squinted, stepping forward. Names from her old town had long been buried beneath more pressing things in her memory. "Starlight?" The mare stepped forward, eyes widening and guard going down. "Is that you? You're alive!?" The guard blinked, his spear never properly raised, but now a lot lower. Starlight's friends stayed back as well, letting this meeting be for her. The mare carefully climbed down the staircase, Starlight waiting at the bottom, struggling to remember her name. "It's me," she eventually said. "I'm back..." "Starlight?" the mare asked again, taking a single step forward. "What even happened to you? We thought you were dead, or ran away, or..." "I ran away," Starlight confirmed. "I'm not dead. And I don't know if I'm back. I'm visiting with my new family." She folded her ears. "I... don't really remember your name. Sorry. A lot has happened..." "Fishy?" the mare asked. "Fish Fillet? I caught fish for the bakery's sandwiches and did their finances? Was friends with your parents?" A memory clicked in Starlight's mind. "Oh. You were over for dinner sometimes. Right. Um..." She had no idea what else to say. "Hi?" Suddenly, she was being hugged. "We thought you were dead," Fishy repeated. "After you vanished, we thought about how unhappy you had been since Sunburst left, and..." At that point, Maple stepped forward, but she didn't interrupt. "You're Starlight's new family?" Fishy asked, looking up. "We are. I take care of her, most of the time." Maple nodded. "What about you?" "Family friend." Fishy shook her head, letting Starlight go. "And now the mayor, which is why I headed up the party when Grandpa Glitterfish came running up from the docks talking about a second sun on the horizon. Always wondered if my head for numbers would lead to something. Heh." She offered a hoof, unable to keep her gaze fully away from the harmony comet. "What is that thing? Almost reminds me of eight years ago..." "It's our airship," Valey said with a swagger. "You seem pretty alright. We're kinda just visiting, but mind showing us around? I'm curious what the place is like, and Starlight might wanna know what's changed? Valey, by the way." Maple blinked, realizing she had forgotten to introduce herself. "Oh! And I'm Maple." "Gerardo Guillaume, griffon adventurer extraordinaire." Gerardo put a talon to his breast and bowed. "Nice to meet you all. Fish Fillet, or Fishy," Fishy repeated. "And sure! Come right on. We're just glad you're not pillagers." She chuckled. "Stuff doesn't change too quickly around here, but after all the months you've been gone, well... it's been enough for a thing or two to happen." Starlight walked first out of her party members, her hooves finding holes and contours in the trail that were painfully familiar, yet she never would have remembered existed. Most of the gawkers moved aside on the trail to let them pass, though the guard that headed up the party with Fishy stared at them with half-closed eyes. "You have an airship," the guard said, glancing between the harmony comet and Starlight's friends. "Don't suppose you're thinking of heading north with it?" Valey pursed her lips. "Longer story than you think. I take it you've got opinions on that?" "Sure do." The guard quietly nodded. "Maybe we can talk about it over lunch. This is supposed to be a quiet posting, and no one's looking for trouble." Valey nodded, glancing at Maple and Gerardo. "Sounds good to me." Starlight followed Fishy, already knowing what her friends were thinking. It wouldn't be easy to convince a guard that they had an airship, yet weren't interested in the border without a rock-solid alibi, and they'd probably be reported even if they did. But there was no denying she was from here... However they sliced things, they were probably going to need that Writ of Harmonic Sanction to all stay together without far too much trouble. Good thing they still had it. The trail through the pass to Sires Hollow was steep, and by the time they reached the apex, Fishy was panting and several of the other villagers were winded. "Whew," Fishy managed, glancing at Starlight. "You're not tired at all from that climb?" She peered back at the bay, far below. "Kids have so much energy..." Starlight shrugged, noticing the exertion on herself but not really caring. "I exercise sometimes." It was a little bit of an understatement. She had spent hours per day of the crossing killing time by training with Valey, and the atmosphere on the Dream was far thinner than it was down here. After all the scrapes she had gotten into, it was at least a productive use of time. But with voluntary handicaps of no horn and no wings, she had yet to best her mentor even once, even with over a hundred hours of practice. Probably to be expected when Valey had a lifetime of experience and was twice her size... They rounded another corner, and Starlight's focus snapped back to her surroundings. A valley sprawled ahead, tinged green from the pine trees scattered throughout the building rooves, and she was just high enough that she could see both the treetops all the way across and the roads that sprawled between them. The roads and houses of Sires Hollow reached all the way to the steep mountain slopes to the east and west, built up along the western slope a little with lattices and supports. To the north was another lake, fed by the mountains and tucked almost entirely into a pocket of cliffs, and a river flowed south from it, winding through the village. To the south, Starlight knew, the river would loop around a ways until the ridge they were standing on ended and it could flow back north into the bay where they had left the Dream. Also heading south was something that passed enough for a road that ponies could use it whenever they wanted to visit the more inland towns. Ponies often went that way to sell their fish. Pass through enough towns, Starlight had heard, and you would eventually reach one that had a railroad terminal. That was the way Sunburst had gone when he left. None of the buildings rose more than two stories high, with timber and stone as the abundant primary construction materials. Ponies waved with interested hellos as they followed Fishy through the streets; visitors here were uncommon enough to be interesting, but not so rare as to stop the town in its tracks. Some of those ponies waved from wooden store counters with open-air windows and wooden signs advertising their wares, the affluent ones showing off their affluence with stone countertops instead. Stone bricks formed foundations, curbsides and barriers around sculpted gardens. These buildings and their ponies had been here for long enough that someone had taken the time to make them look pretty. "Seems like a pretty relaxed place," Valey commented, a few ponies looking at Starlight with something akin to recognition but none jumping out of their horseshoes and screaming that she was alive. "Kinda detecting a theme with the construction, though. You guys don't have any troubles with fires?" Fishy shook her head. "We have a very dedicated fire brigade just in case. But most of the time, lightning strikes higher up in the mountains. Not a lot of lightning rods here for the storms." "Always the chance for accidental blazes, rather than ones delivered by the weather," Gerardo remarked, pointing to the hoofful of stone chimneys rising above the buildings. "You have to burn something for heat, after all." Fishy nodded sadly. "We lost the entire inn about five years ago. It does happen. But it's usually wet enough to keep things from spreading, and like I said, we're very vigilant." Starlight let them talk, trying to remember the layout of the town. It was coming back to her like a dream, places that existed in a fragment of scents and colors in her mind reassembling themselves before her eyes with every turned corner. When they reached a bridge across the river, she had to stop, sagging against the railing and watching the banks in the distance, assailed by memories of the times she and Sunburst had once played here... She wasn't going to cry. But she hadn't been quite ready for this. "So where are we going?" Maple asked, stopping alongside her and putting a hoof on Starlight's shoulders. The bridge was reasonably active, and while they were hardly impeding traffic, they were far from alone. "No place in particular." Fishy shrugged. "Figured I'd give you a walkaround, then go see the town hall. It's where most things happen. Unless there's anywhere any of you'd like to visit?" "What about Starlight's old home?" Maple cautiously asked. "Indeed," Gerardo added. "I'm surprised we didn't opt to set course for there first." Wasn't that where they were going? Starlight remembered this bridge. This was the path she had taken home after every time she... "Ah, well, ah..." Fishy rubbed her ears. "I thought I'd let you ask before doing that one on my own. It's a bit of a complicated story..."