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// End Of The Beginning 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
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A loud knock heralded Shinespark's return, and everyone watched as the entire crew of the Immortal Dream filed in, down to the last pony. Even Jamjars was there, and Starlight felt a little relief at the knowledge Fluffy wasn't around for her to be rude to... though Jamjars was sort of her friend, and she sort of owed her a goodbye too.

She wasn't certain how it felt to say it, but she didn't think she'd miss Jamjars in the same way as some of the others.

"Wow, nice decorations," Slipstream remarked, glancing around. She winked at Gerardo. "You do all this yourselves?"

"Why yes, actually." Gerardo held a wing to his breast and bowed, his free talon occupied with a glass of punch. "And we spent the better half of the evening on it, too. Not only that, but after a full afternoon of work moving in much of this furniture!"

Nyala idled by a wall by the doorway, letting others pass by and gazing around. "It's pretty," she remarked, with a nod to Valey and Gerardo.

Starlight watched Nyala for a moment. Her behavior at Kinmari had occasionally seemed tense or odd, she recalled, but once they left the island, Valey's sister had relaxed significantly. She still spent more time on the bridge with Gerardo, Amber and Slipstream than anyone else, but she no longer felt like she was constantly not saying something. Maybe it was because they were away from the scientists and their ether experiments. She hadn't been fond of the underground lab, after all... Whatever the reason, even she seemed at ease.

Was this parting really that happy of a thing? Starlight wished she could feel that way too. But the best way she could manage to frame it was as maybe not that bad...

"You all have been busy," Harshwater agreed, surveying the home. "Should have asked me to help. I bet I can bench a few of these decorations." She nudged at a streamer, which was made from paper and light as a feather.

"Well, the work is done, and we have what we have to show for it." Amber bumped Gerardo's shoulder with her own, bobbing her head at Harshwater. "Dinner shouldn't be far behind, so I hope everyone is ready?"

Jamjars scuffed at the floor, ears down. "Maybe it'll be a good consolation prize..."

Starlight looked away. She didn't need someone trying to make her feel bad about a decision that was hard enough already.

"Dinner will be twenty more minutes!" Maple called from the kitchen. "I'm still finishing a few of the sides, but we can start setting the table and carrying things over if anyone wants to help?"

Harshwater flexed. "Allow me!"

Starlight frowned, sitting on a bench someone had dragged over next to the foot of the staircase. Harshwater was in good spirits too! Everyone was! Except Jamjars. She couldn't share her friends' good cheer about this parting, but she didn't want to share Jamjars' resentment either... She didn't know who to look to. Where was she supposed to find an example of how to handle this?

This was the kind of problem that made her feel alone, and wish for more friends. Fighting monsters and bad guys? When Starlight really looked at it, that was what she was good at. If it weren't for all the other things wrong with her life, and the fact that it took weeks each time to recover, she could do that regularly and actually be okay with it. It was the problems she solved by staying on her hooves and stubbornly trudging forward when she couldn't see a better way that really taxed her and made her feel alone when she dealt with them by herself.

...It wasn't like any of the ponies here knew how to help with that, though. If none of her existing friends even knew how to provide what she needed, was it that big of a loss after all?

Yes. It was. Telling herself it wasn't was just lying to herself to make it hurt less. But that didn't leave her any closer to-

"Starlight? Hey, pay attention!" Valey was waving in her face. "Birdo wants to know if there's any place in particular you'd like to sit, since it's kind of a party for you, and all."

Starlight blinked owlishly, having lost count of how many times this had happened today long, long ago. Why couldn't she pay attention? It was almost a little embarrassing... "I can sit wherever," she replied, though she preferred to be closer to Maple and Valey.

"Well, cool." Valey shrugged, walking away. "I'll put you by me then. Looks like we're almost ready!"

Starlight got up and followed along, tilting her head and wondering how it mattered where they would sit before they actually arrived at the table. Then she realized the dining room didn't actually have a table... not like the one on the Immortal Dream, anyway. It made sense, when she was on her own with Maple instead of dining with a whole crew, but the one Fishy and her workers had left was sized for only four, and its entirety was being used as a serving area. All the seating was scattered around the rest of the room in the form of chairs, packing boxes, the couch and anything else that could be serviceable, spilling into the adjacent rooms and using equally makeshift tables, yet still close enough together it would feel like they were all sharing a meal at once. She almost admired the improvisation.

"This look good?" Valey patted the couch, which was opposite a row of boxes, strategically positioned to be available to everything without feeling like it was in the center. A low, empty cabinet had been set in front of it to act as a table, giving the seat an obvious work-in-progress feel yet still being perfectly serviceable.

When Starlight thought about it that way, it was no different than the rest of this home.

"Coming through!" Amber interrupted, balancing a large tray on her back. Starlight's nose told her this was the pineapple, a dish she had eaten rarely enough that it actually brought back memories of that last night in Riverfall. Hadn't that departure been quiet and solemn, even though everyone knew they'd see each other again? Why couldn't they just do that? She knew this was the last time she would see her friends for a very long time, but making a point of it just made the parting hurt more.

"Here we go!" Maple added, following her with a tray of her own, using her cutie mark to carry even more. Starlight watched as the mares set everything out on the serving table. It smelled good, and she was a little hungry after how long it had been since the sandwiches...

Part of her wanted to know why an occasion like this warranted such good food, and she kicked it down viciously. It might have been hard to make this a happy moment like everyone wanted, but she wasn't at all about to start resenting this party. Her friends were going all out to try to do this for her, and even if they were misguided, or even if she was wrong about how to feel, she wasn't going to resent it. She could at least keep quiet and be solemn.

...Every second that passed without saying anything hurt just a little bit more.

"Starlight, are you alright?" Maple asked, stepping over after finishing with the current round of deliveries. "You don't look very happy."

"I'm not." Starlight's ears pressed down. "I know you're trying to make this happy, but I'm afraid of tomorrow and especially afraid of what it will feel like if this does feel happy. I don't want to celebrate losing everyone."

Maple nodded. "I don't think that's very worth celebrating either. But what if we celebrated all the things we did together while we knew them?"

Starlight thought about that. What memories did she have with her friends she really wanted to celebrate? What had they done together that was worth remembering? Nothing came to mind, but if there was truly nothing, she wouldn't care so much about holding onto them.

"I don't know," she replied. "What things did we do that we're celebrating?"

Maple grew a small smile. "Hard to think of any, isn't it?"

Starlight blinked. "You want me to feel that way? Or you don't think there's anything yourself? But you're hosting this party!"

"Oh, I didn't say that," Maple chuckled, before her voice grew honest again. "Starlight, I'm nervous about tomorrow too. And when you have something bad on the horizon, it's easy for it to block out everything you should be looking at instead. That's the real reason we're doing this: so we can remind each other of the good times and we don't have to forget about them just because they're out of sight. Truly, I'm not having a perfect time either. And I'm sure there's a lot of wonderful things we did that I can't remember myself. But our friends will have our backs. You'll see."

Starlight swallowed. It made some sense, but not perfectly. Maple certainly believed what she was saying, but reminding each other what they were about to be missing didn't seem like the most comforting action either. But whatever. There had to be truth to her friends' ideas. They couldn't all be wrong while she was right. If she was the only one who knew anything about how this would feel, that wasn't a happy thought either...

And yet the good cheer of her friends was still there in the background, like a blanket of noise she could hide under for just an evening longer. Pretending tomorrow wouldn't happen would make it hurt more, probably. But would it make the waiting time feel better?

Maybe that's why they were doing this. Maybe they wanted to keep their heads down just a little while longer themselves. Starlight sighed. She was so used to playing the long game, making decisions that cost her in the present with hope of a future payoff, and it so rarely worked out in her favor... Maybe she should start doing that too. The worst that could happen was already inevitable.

More of her friends filed in, Gerardo and Slipstream and Harshwater and Nyala, and Valey and Shinespark were already present. "How much more do we have?" Amber called, returning with another platter of food. "Maple? I don't think I saw anything else?"

"Spices and garnish," Maple replied, getting up and leaving Starlight. "Oh, and I forgot the arugula! And can someone try the seasoning on the fish? I know I got two opinions but we can still get something else to add if it needs it!" She bustled quickly off back to the kitchen.

Grenada eyed the fish, a giant fillet that could have been a centerpiece if not for the pineapples, and the dozen ponies it was expected to feed. "I am always surprised to see which cultures eat these and which ones avoid them," she remarked, nodding in approval at its scent. "I would guess the locals' tastes are shaped by necessity..."

"I haven't seen a large amount of farmland in this region," Gerardo agreed. "I do wonder what sorts of things they export. Fish, perhaps, but I also heard they make income by running trade boats between other, eastern cities and using the profits to bring goods and materials back home..."

Starlight followed Grenada's lead, figuring the food itself was better-suited than Gerardo's speculation to taking up her time. Jamjars was lurking around the serving table as well, far more impatient than any. "So can we serve ourselves, or what?"

"Easy," Harshwater chided, shaking her head. "It's almost all served. Just a few minutes longer..."

"Oh, you can start filling your plates!" Maple called from the kitchen. "I just have toppings left! Form a line, though, the table's a lot smaller than usual!"

Valey nudged Shinespark with an aggressive wink. "Big shame about that, huh?"

"Pipe down," Shinespark muttered. "This isn't the time to be worrying about aesthetics."

"On the contrary," Gerardo interrupted, "a good aesthetic makes this party far more pleasing for all, and we did go out of our way to put a lot of effort into the... Why are you looking at me like that?"

Valey burst out laughing. "Not that kind of aesthetic... Nyaah... Never mind..."

Shinespark reddened and lowered her ears.

"...You know what we need?" Amber smiled, happily surveying the trio's antics. "A toast. To everyone. For everything."

"Hear, hear!" Harshwater pumped a glass already held in her wing.

"Seems like an appropriate occasion." Slipstream pulled out one of her own as well. "And everyone does the honors?"

Maple scurried back into the room, unpocketing a glass of her own. "A toast to all the memories we've made together?"

"A toast to epic vistas and narrow escapes!" Gerardo held his drink high.

"A toast to booting around bad guys and taking names." Valey raised hers too, and with a wink at Shinespark, added, "And big tables!"

Shinespark hid her face. "A toast to disrespectful friends you can't help but love anyway."

Harshwater raised an eyebrow, but shrugged it off. "A toast to not being dead in a mineshaft somewhere, or a martyr in Mistvale, and to ditching bosses who don't deserve you!"

Grenada nodded respectfully. "A toast to good leadership. It is not a burden all of us are adept at carrying."

"Yeah, but a toast to learning from your mistakes!" Amber's drink joined the fray, held just as tall as the taller ponies in the group. "And to remembering what's important, following your friends and always coming back!"

Maple bowed her head. "A toast to having a home to return to."

"A toast to the friends who are that home!" Valey pumped hers higher.

"And to the world that home exists in," Nyala added quietly.

"A toast to me!" Jamjars was the loudest so far. "So can we eat, or what?"

Slipstream gave her a disapproving look. "A toast to Felicity, and everyone else who can't be here with us."

"Bananas, yeah! A toast to Felicity!"

"A toast to Felicity's foal," Maple added softly. "And to the doctors who might give them a better chance at survival and a normal life, and to Felicity's ability to grow into a good mother."

Valey blinked. "You know, she was sleeping the last two times I tried, but I gotta get her on the line for this party as well..." She tapped the remaining sound stone, having no horn to activate it.

"A toast to never being truly that far away, no matter how many thousands of miles separate us." Gerardo bowed along with Maple.

Amber folded her ears. "Yeah... A toast to Maple and Starlight."

"A toast to Starlight," Maple agreed, glancing Starlight's way. "Starlight? Do you have anything you want to toast?"

Starlight glanced at her forehooves, realizing she had forgotten to get a drink earlier. "A toast to... to..."

Her friends waited patiently for her to decide. But what could she say? How were they even deciding what to toast, let alone how could she copy it? All of these walked some weird line between what they had and what they wished for, optimism incarnate. It wasn't that they were wishes for how the world could be, but wishes for how it was now, taking something that already existed and making it the best version of itself.

Above all else, what did she have to wish for?

She raised a hoof without a glass, but it felt like it worked anyway. "A toast to..." She fumbled on her tongue again. "To Sunburst. Without him, I wouldn't have met any of you, and... I hope I can see him again. And to everyone else who will be my friends in the future."

"Yeah!" Valey cheered, flapping her wings. "Back it up!"

"And with that..." Gerardo beamed, slamming his mug down. "I believe it's appropriate to say, dig in."