//------------------------------//
// Cast Down And Discarded 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Starlight arrived near the schoolhouse in front of her friends, instinctively remembering the way. The recess yard was up against the eastern edge of town, allowing most of it to be naturally fenced in by mountains, creating a perfect space for foals to play.

Memory Starlight thankfully no longer haunted her vision. She chalked it up to just having had enough time since the experience at her house: now she had come to terms more with what she remembered, and it was no longer exploding out in front of her awareness. The memories were still there; she was almost painfully aware of what her old self wanted to do. If she allowed herself to daydream, she'd see herself running up to the fence and standing up on it and calling over, looking eagerly for anyone on the other side. But she was more lucid than that, now. Memory Starlight was an impulse that could never be fulfilled, a clogged pipe, a sign pointing her toward everything she still could be if only she was normal and okay.

But Starlight wasn't either of those things, so that silent, foalish urge to run to the fence died in her head, unable to come to life no matter how much she wanted it.

The playground was empty, anyway. It wasn't a tall enough fence to keep her from seeing that, and even if it had been, foals were noisy and she had ears. "Are we early?" she asked, walking forward and investigating.

"It looks like it?" Maple guessed.

"Guess we've got a few minutes." Fishy shrugged. "So... feeling any different after lunch?"

"About what?" Starlight kept her ears straight, turning to look at her. "I wasn't paying much attention."

"About... you know..." Fishy twiddled a forehoof. "Never mind. About everything. You know anything I can do for you, or had any new thoughts about whether you'll stay here?"

Maple stepped defensively closer to Starlight, but Starlight stepped out in front. It was a question for her, after all. She was the one whose happiness Maple was putting this on the table for. But that didn't mean she had an answer.

After several seconds of standing in the front without an answer, Starlight hung her head. "I don't know what I need."

"Okay," Fishy said, "forget about what you need. What do you want? Say you even get best of both worlds. What is that?"

Starlight averted her eyes. "I want to be normal. I want things to go back to the way they should be. And since that can't happen, I don't know if going halfway would help."

"And what did your old house make you want to do?" Fishy pressed. "No inhibitions, no nothing. What would you do if no one was watching?"

Starlight blinked. "Why if no one was watching?"

Fishy shrugged, leaning on the schoolyard fence. It was painted bright red, a messy job done by little hooves, and contrasted nicely with her mane. "Oh, just thinking aloud. I have an eye for detail, and noticed you put the blinds up. Figured you did that for a reason. Wondered if there was anything else you felt like doing something about."

"I just wanted to put it back how it belonged," Starlight answered. "It felt more right doing that."

Fishy raised an eyebrow. "Well, whether you leave or stay, I'd appreciate it if that house was doing right by at least someone who used to call it home. Anything else we can do to it that'll make it feel more right, like so?"

That made Starlight think. She was sure there would be something... or a lot of things. Things she could still do now, that didn't involve rewinding time completely. The house did feel better with the blinds back where they belonged... Maybe being halfway to an impossible perfection really was better than not trying at all.

"I'd need to see it again," she decided. "But there probably is. Can we go there again after this?"

Maple nodded wholeheartedly. "If it's something you'd like to do, you're why we're here."

Before Starlight or Fishy could reply, a door in the side of the schoolhouse slammed open, and over a dozen foals tumbled out, yelling and pushing to be the first ones onto the field. Once the barrage was open, they divided into crawling around on the playground equipment, chasing each other across the field, or standing in small groups and shuffling around by the edges, too absorbed in whatever they were talking about to properly roughhouse. A teacher followed them out, seating herself in front of the door and keeping watch. Somehow, thanks to all the chaos, no one immediately noticed them... and when they did notice, Starlight wasn't who they saw first.

"Hey! Look, is that a giant bird thing!?"

"Dude, what is that!?"

"It's wearing a tuxedo!"

Gerardo chuckled, accidentally finding himself the center of attention as the wary teacher scrutinized him and the foals appeared caught in a pressure squeezer between approaching the fence and staying a healthy distance from it. "Aha, no need to fret, my little friends," he greeted, leaning on the fence and winking at the teacher. "I am a particular species of giant bird thing known as a griffon, dubbed with the moniker of Gerardo Guillaume, griffon adventurer extraordinaire! And this is a uniform, not a tuxedo, though I'll admit it's very fancy..."

As he talked, he shot Starlight the faintest of knowing looks that she instantly understood. This was a mob in the making, and she didn't like mobs. If she wanted to reconnect with any of the foals she had once known, this was her chance to make herself scarce now and come back at a better venue.

Starlight wasn't quite fast enough. The teacher saw her, meeting her eyes with a look of clear recognition. But she had more pressing matters to deal with in the form of her foal squad being enthralled with a giant bird thing, and nothing came of it before she slunk out of sight around the corner.

"Decided you didn't want to deal with that?" Maple asked, catching up quickly.

"I don't miss them enough to instantly become a celebrity," Starlight replied. "...But I do recognize some of them..."

"That's good to hear," Fishy puffed, also catching up. "Whew, you're fast on your hooves. Any you knew better than others?"

Starlight thought for a moment. She had absolutely been a member of the groups who hung by the fences, eschewing running in favor of a walk-and-talk. Actually, she had spent a recess or two indoors as well, mostly the ones when Sunburst wasn't at school or there was a project she didn't want to put down. Maybe that would be a better place to look for calmer foals. Whatever else was going to happen, it was just a fact of life for her now that rowdy or chaotic situations were stressful. Too much opportunity for someone to attack her while she was distracted...

"Starlight?" Maple gently prodded. "You're zoning out..."

"Oh." Starlight blinked back to reality. "Sorry. Umm... I recognized Fluffy Fleece, and Bell Pepper and Chocolate Orange, and Snowdrift..."

Fishy glanced at the door. "Any you'd like me to go get?"

Starlight bit her lip. "I think Bell and Chocolate didn't like me after I messed up a team science project because I didn't want it to get me a cutie mark. I don't remember doing that to anyone else, but I probably was rude about it to all of them."

"You know what?" Fishy rose to her hooves. "I'll just let Miss Nickel know you're back, and she can figure out what to do from there. She knows those kids better than I do, anyway."

Starlight shrugged as Fishy disappeared into the schoolhouse, having no problems with this plan, and turned to Maple. "So do we wait?"

"I don't see what else to do," Maple replied with a shrug of her own, settling down beside the schoolhouse wall.

It wasn't a long wait at all. Noises of Gerardo happily bragging and foals yelling in response continued to drift around the corner, but the front door quickly opened, a familiar and slightly-older face greeting Starlight in the doorway.

"It really is you, Starlight Glimmer," the teacher, Miss Nickel, eventually said. "Well. Not often I get to see a sight like this."

"Hi," Starlight replied, standing with her hooves close together. Somehow, in this town, it didn't feel quite as important to flinch every time someone said her full name. "It's me."

"There's a story, I'll bet," Miss Nickel said. "But the mayor here says you're just passing through, and wanted to see your old friends without getting ran over?"

Starlight bit her lip. "Yes?"

"Thought she should see some ponies who knew her," Fishy added. "Since it's been months, and all."

"But..." Starlight hesitated. "Do they still remember me doing..."

"Hard to say," Miss Nickel replied. Starlight tried to read her, but she was still trying to read Starlight. She didn't remember her as the strictest pony. In fact, she erred on the side of being too soft, but maybe her round face just colored Starlight's perceptions there. As a result, though, this was one of the mares who had been forced to spend the most time putting up with her cutie mark attitude.

"But you still remember," Starlight said, ears down. "I'm sorry, if it matters."

Miss Nickel blinked, hints of the schoolroom visible behind her shoulders. "Well... thank you. And yes. I do... but that's less important than that you're still alive. Is there anyone in particular you'd like to see?"

"Anyone who won't freak out because I'm back," Starlight insisted.

"Let's see what I can do," the teacher agreed, stepping back and beckoning Starlight inside. "Come in and take a seat. I'll need just a moment..."





On the other side of town, Valey stood on the second floor of the guardhouse, having an eyebrow-raising contest with the guard she had been sent to rouse.

"It was your boss dude who sent me," Valey said, standing and refusing to blink. "He didn't give me permission to rouse you with a pillow, but I'm pretty sure if I had felt like it anyway, the permission was implicit."

"But you didn't rouse me with a pillow," replied the guard, a pegasus mare who had been and still was using a bedroll, no interest shown in standing up even now that she was awake. "You aroused me gently and ladylike, and came into my house to do it. It was simultaneously very rude and very considerate."

Valey raised her eyebrow harder. "I'm pretty sure 'rouse' and 'arouse' have completely different meanings."

"And I'm pretty sure that for my purposes, they're interchangeable. It's funny how you play coy about this." The pegasus's voice was silky-soft and unreasonably reasonable, and sounded like she couldn't get mad if she tried. "As you can see, I am still in bed. Try not to give too much voice to your own desires when ascribing unnecessary meaning to my words. After all, we have barely met."

Valey eyebrowed so hard, it caused the rim of her hat to wobble. "Keep overcomplicating things, and I'm going to physically drag you down the stairs. I'm already chill with your buddy, and something tells me he'd find it hilarious."

"Being dragged down stairs isn't really my thing," the pegasus guard apologized, shaking her head in a way that made it even more obvious she was still laying down. "And I'm sorry to hear that. He isn't the greatest find in town. But if you really did get him, he probably wouldn't appreciate you carrying another mare where he could see it."

"Bananas." Valey scratched her head. "Why is it always the pegasi...?"

"Pardon?" The guard innocently blinked.

"Nothing." Valey waved a hoof. "You really wanna mess with me, though? You wanna call my bluff? Think I'm kidding? Think I'm not strong enough to suplex you down the stairs?"

"I think you're thinking a little too hard about suplexing me," the pegasus replied in her patented, overly-calm tone.

Valey's eyebrow touched the moon. "You and I have a very different definition of suplex..."

"That's because you're allowing your desires to cloud your judgement," the pegasus insisted. "Really, there doesn't have to be anything awkward about this. Carry on and I'll be forced to conclude you're tempted to cheat on my superior with me."

Valey yawned and turned her back on the pegasus. "Welp. Don't say I didn't warn you."





Outside the guardhouse, there was an empty trash bin. It didn't stay that way for long.