//------------------------------//
// As The Pegasus Falls 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Starlight sat in the schoolhouse, looking at everything that had changed. The decorations were rearranged, stony-colored streamers made from construction-paper cutouts of clouds and mountains and fish hung across the corners of chalkboards that were more covered with posters than actual chalk drawings. There was a map on one wall she had never paid attention to before, long and skinny, showing off the waters to the east, yet not nearly long enough to make it to the desert. The teacher's desk and the students' chairs were arranged differently than last time she had been here. But all in all, it felt like the same kind of transition the room underwent every year, so even the difference was familiar.

Memory Starlight wouldn't have been running around investigating. When Miss Nickel asked you to wait, you waited, because Memory Starlight enjoyed learning and didn't want to disappoint her teacher. For once, even though their reasons were different, their actions perfectly aligned. It was a more comforting feel than anything else in the room.

So, when the door to the recess yard opened again, Starlight was feeling more at ease and oddly normal than she had at any time since arriving in Sires Hollow. Maybe she could actually have a normal conversation...

Miss Nickel stepped back in, leading a filly Starlight recognized easily by her distinctive appearance. This was Fluffy Fleece, a short-necked pegasus with a white coat and a white mane and tail that barely even looked like they were made from hair. It was the kind of mane everyone stared at and wondered how it felt, from the younger ponies who didn't realize it was rude to try and touch it to the ones old enough to know better than to stare. But Fluffy was usually a good sport about the whole thing, even though she tended to keep a wider area of personal space between ponies who weren't her close friends.

Thinking about it, Starlight realized Fluffy must have considered her a closer friend than she knew back in the old days, because they sometimes had sat together reading the same book. Though that was probably before she got her own cutie mark in making pillows, and Starlight started enforcing her own distance as if it was contagious.

Fluffy's mouth made an 'O' when she saw Starlight, and dawning realization washed across her face. "Starlight... Glimmer?" She tilted her head. "Everyone said you went away."

Starlight nodded. "Umm... hi. I did."

Miss Nickel closed the door behind her, shutting the three in the classroom. "Starlight's been through a lot, or so I've heard, so be gentle, Fluffy."

"Why did you come back?" Fluffy Fleece asked, stepping forward. "Did something change? I thought you hated it here..." She craned her neck, clearly trying to get a look at Starlight's flanks without being too obvious.

Starlight turned so her blankness was easier to see. "I'm visiting. With my new family. And I changed a lot. I'm fine with cutie marks, now."

"Really?" Fluffy's ears perked. "Well, that's good! So... you remember me, right?"

Starlight nodded. "Mhmm."

Fluffy hesitated. "...Well, you seem nicer, so I hope things are going better for you? I know you were really sad about Sunburst..."

The teacher raised an eyebrow, but Starlight held up a hoof, signaling she was fine. "I have a family. And friends. I miss the way things used to be, but I'm..." She couldn't say okay. She didn't even know if better would be appropriate. "I haven't given up yet."

"Given up on what?" Fluffy asked. "I thought you left to go follow Sunburst. You're not back because you couldn't find him?"

"No..." Starlight forced her eyes to wander, not wanting to feel like she was scrutinizing this filly by staring. "I wasn't looking for him. I just wanted to leave and be somewhere no one would ask me to get a cutie mark ever again. I'm back because my friends have an airship, and we were flying in the area and wanted to visit."

"Oh." Fluffy looked conflicted. "So you're not here to stay?"

Starlight knew the answer to that just as well as she did. "Do you want me to?"

Fluffy Fleece blinked. "What? Why ask me?"

"I don't know if I'm staying," Starlight insisted. "It depends on whether I want to. And that depends on who remembers me. And how they remember me. I wasn't very nice."

For a moment, Fluffy's brow contorted, and she glanced apprehensively at Miss Nickel. Starlight pre-emptively held up a hoof again to stop the teacher from interfering, and with a deep breath, Fluffy spat, "No, you weren't."

Starlight didn't even remotely wince. Whatever this was, she had it coming.

"You were rude to me for getting my cutie mark," Fluffy continued, not about to stop. "You tried to crash my party and were a big downer, and made it feel like you didn't want to be friends anymore even after I was nice to you and felt bad for you after Sunburst went away! I thought you were lonely and was just trying to help!" She took a few angry breaths, trying to calm back down. "But everyone just said you were hurting, and I should be patient. And that was a whole year ago, and you do seem sort of nicer, a lot. So, um..." She anxiously shrank. "Are you better now?"

"I'm still not really okay." As much trouble as Starlight had been having with staring, now she had to force herself to look back at the filly again. "But I'm sorry I was mean about your cutie mark. I'm okay with cutie marks now. I shouldn't have done it. I don't want to push ponies away again."

"You're still lonely?" Fluffy guessed. "You look kind of... you know. I can tell."

Starlight nodded.

"Well, I..." Fluffy fidgeted with her wings. "Do you want to be friends again? I'm not sure if I forgive you yet, but I did miss the old you..."

"I miss the old me too," Starlight said earnestly. "I miss her a lot."

Fluffy stared at her in confusion. "What?"

"I'm not who I used to be," Starlight said. "I changed. A lot. And not back to how I used to be."

"Oh." Fluffy nodded in half-understanding. "Well, if it helps, I'd like to give you another chance."

For a long moment, Starlight couldn't answer. There was one thing she knew above all else: if she had friends in Sires Hollow, then even if she went to Ironridge with Shinespark and Valey, there would be no way she could keep all of her friends together. But at the same time, however much she did or didn't trust Glimmer, there was a piece of her lookalike's advice that she wanted strongly to believe in: goodbyes were easier the more friends you knew, because you wouldn't be so alone after.

"Okay." Starlight offered a hoof. "Friends?"

Fluffy Fleece's eyes widened slightly, as if she hadn't truly expected Starlight to say yes. "Um... okay... Friends!" She came closer and bumped the offered hoof. "So... what do you want to do, or talk about? What have you even been doing all this time? Hopefully not nothing, right?"

Behind them, Miss Nickel cleared her throat. "Girls, why don't you go get some fresh air? I'm about to bring the class in from recess, and we'll need this room. Fluffy, you can be dismissed early to go with Starlight as both of you stay with a parent or guardian. Okay?"

Memory Starlight would have laughed at the idea that she was weak enough to need a guardian, especially in a place as removed from danger and political turmoil as Sires Hollow. Starlight caught the thought a second after it passed, briefly wondering why she couldn't find it funny anyway... but this was just the past version of her. Things just didn't work like that anymore.

Still, though, hope buoyed in Starlight's chest. Fluffy had actually treated her exactly the way she wanted to be: neither mobbed with blind adoration nor shunned and exiled, but called out reasonably when she did something wrong, then offered a chance to make up. She gave the filly a deeply appreciative look, though Fluffy was too busy thanking Miss Nickel and grabbing her things to see it. This was the kind of pony she wished there were more of in her life.

...Her decision on what to do when the Dream flew on had just grown that much more complicated.

Fluffy was first out the door, but she held it and waited for her. Maple and Fishy were still talking outside, but both looked up at the fillies' arrival.

"Starlight!" Maple greeted them first. "How did it go?"

Starlight glanced at Fluffy. "It went pretty good."

"You're one of Starlight's new friends?" Fluffy asked, looking up at Maple. "Hi! I'm Fluffy Fleece."

Maple drew in a little breath. "Your mane looks so soft... I'm Maple. And yes, I am Starlight's new mother. It's nice to meet you?" She offered a hoof.

Fluffy bumped it with a tilted head. "Maple...?"

"Just one name." Maple shook her head. "Ponies don't have multi-part names where I'm from."

Fishy leaned against the schoolhouse with her forelegs crossed. "You don't say? I just figured you were keeping it to yourself. Never even thought to ask!"

"Miss Nickel says I can go with you for the day, by the way," Fluffy quickly added, pointing back at the door and then glancing from Starlight to Fishy. "Hi, Miss Mayor. So where are we going?"

Fishy shrugged, gesturing to Starlight and Maple. "It's their tour. I'm just the guide."

Maple stared at the sky in thought. "Well, we were just talking about returning to Starlight's old-"

She was cut off when a stallion came racing up, panting. "Mayor! Mayor Fillet, we... Somepony said they saw a bat-winged pegasus throw Silver Saddle in a garbage dumpster!"

Fishy had been chewing on a reed, and immediately spat it out, going bug-eyed. "What!?"

"That sounds like Valey," Maple admitted with a wince. "Though she usually has good reason..."

"What's this about a dumpster?" Gerardo queried, bounding around the corner.

Fluffy stared at him with a spark of realization. "You're with Starlight too!?"

"Indeed, but what's all this?" Gerardo leaned his beaked face forward, staring intently around.

"Sounds like Valey's gotten up to something," Maple muttered, glancing between the mayor and the reporting stallion. "Where was this?"

"What she said," Fishy added, backing Maple up. "If this is true, this is something I gotta see."

The stallion beckoned them along. "I heard it was this way, right next to the guard headquarters..."





The guard outpost had attracted a full gaggle of ponies, all clustered around an alley at its side. The said alley held a trash bin, and the said trash bin held an unimaginably cross guard pegasus. At least one stallion was on the ground, laughing hysterically, and a pair of mares were giving each other vindicated looks off to the side, but most of the ponies were just there to gawk. Valey had refused to flee the scene, and was standing next to the trash bin, whistling innocently.

"What's all this ruckus?" Fishy demanded, leading the approaching party.

"Mayor!" Several ponies jumped, and many heads turned, the crowd parting to give her a path forward. "Get a load of this!"

Fish Fillet paced forward, ignoring the laughing stallion and ending in front of the garbage bin, watching Valey and the pegasus with a neutral expression only a champion card player could manage.

"Hello, Mayor," the pegasus said, her neck and head protruding above the edge of the trash bin, some day-old lawn clippings stuck in her mane.

"Hello there, Silver Saddle," Fishy replied, carrying on without a hint of emotion. "What's going on here?"

Silver Saddle's voice carried its usual calmness, but this time it was barely restrained. "On behalf of the Equestrian guard, I must report that I have been assaulted by this mare, here." She pointed a hoof at Valey. "I believe she seeks to tarnish the dignity of my position."

"So let me get this straight." Fishy nodded, still stony. "You threw her in this dumpster?"

Valey kept whistling. "I'm a crowd pleaser. She didn't think I could."

Fishy nodded again, turning back to Silver Saddle. "Were you two in a relationship?"

"What kind of question is that?" Silver asked. "I've never seen her before."

"Ehhhh..." Valey waved a hoof. "You sure were talking like you thought I thought we were."

"So what you're saying," Fishy continued, still perfectly expressionless. "Is that you've been..." Her face twisted into a stupid grin. "Dumped?"

Silver Saddle scowled. "Mayor..."

Fishy sighed and shook her head, lighting her horn and floating a few grass shavings out of Silver's mane. "This is the middle of a work day, Miss Saddle. And while I suppose I expect to find you spending that rolling in the hay, this isn't quite what I had in mind."

The dumpstered pegasus reddened.

"Tsk tsk." Fishy frowned. "And here I thought you liked to have first pick of partners. Didn't know you were happy to settle for leftovers and refuse."

Silver Saddle exploded, her entire face going crimson. "Mayor Fillet, do you mind!? This is deeply unprofessional!"

"Sorry, Hon." Fishy apologetically shook her head. "I've got one for every complaint I've received over the last few weeks about your conduct. Find something comfortable in there and take a seat, because we're gonna be here a while."