The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Missed You

Within the darkness of her crate, Starlight huddled. The stallion carrying her had set her down - roughly - and everything was still, except for Selma's muffled voice which she could somewhat make out. It probably would have been easier if her ears were in workable positions instead of mashed against her head, but she could get tone, at least.

There was a faint hiss... and suddenly, the voices stopped. Carefully, Starlight lit her horn, feeling it buzz against the metal pressing on it. Her field expanded, stretching outside the box, using the same scanning spell she had used to discover the cavity outside. There were many tall, hollow objects... pipes? And assorted junk, laying on the ground... but no ponies. No, that wasn't right. There was one pony, or at least something soft and breathing, in a very un-ponylike position against one of the pipes.

Maple. It had to be. Closing her eyes against the blackness, Starlight's horn shone harder, until with a flash, the interior of the crate was pony-less once again.

---

She materialized on the floor, head swimming, horn instantly going dim. The stone floor clacked against her old horseshoes, refitted for the journey after not being worn in Riverfall, and she staggered to catch her balance. Shaking her head, she blinked once... and again. It was just as dark as it had been in the box. Had she somehow gone blind, or were there just no lights? Struggling, she lit her horn.

Flash! It strobed slightly brighter than she had expected, causing her eyes to be forced closed and her headache to worsen. But as she shook, waiting to recover, she heard a gasp... and the sound of hooves running over. "Starlight? Starlight, was that you!?"

Was that Maple's voice? Forcing her horn to the bare minimum level of illumination, she cracked an eye... and her newly-adoptive mother was carefully running toward her, on the ground and completely unrestrained. She blinked, headache momentarily forgotten. "Huh?"

"Starlight..." Maple reached a hoof out as if testing to see that the filly was really there, shock and gladness mingling in her voice. "How did you get here?" she whispered, drawing a hoof around Starlight's back and pulling her into an embrace. "I thought they abandoned you with Gerardo..."

"I teleported..." Starlight moaned, slightly nauseous and once again glad she was hungry. "There was room in one of the crates, so I hid and came out when I heard them leave. My horn hurts..."

"Then put it out," Maple said gently, tapping it with a hoof and immediately flinching. "Ooh, that's hot. I can't imagine how it feels..."

She obliged, and the room went dark. Dark, but not cold, because Maple was hugging her... and as the seconds ticked past, she could feel the mare beginning to shake. "I was going to come find you," Maple eventually sniffed. "I was going to tear this fortress apart if I had to. I wasn't going to leave either of us alone... But now that you're here, what can we do? We have to get out, but I don't want to take any more risks. Anything that could get you taken away again..."

"Then don't do anything," Starlight mumbled. "I need to rest first. I can sneak past anything when I have magic, but right now my horn feels like cheese."

"Hmmm..." Maple exhaled, softly holding Starlight against her. "Did you hear what that villain was saying, while you were in the crate? When he was talking, right before he left?"

"No..." Starlight groaned.

Maple sighed. "He tried to convince me that Gerardo's delivery was something that would harm Ironridge, and that he was doing me a favor by getting me away from him. I think he wanted to win me over, but he was terrible at it. But either way..." Starlight felt her tense in the darkness. "Starlight, I don't... I don't know if it's safe here, any more. What happens if we do escape, and then have all of the Defense Force thinking we're criminals? We could run into them again, and... I think we should go home. Back to Riverfall, where it is safe. I know things got a little tense for you there, at the end, but..."

"We shouldn't have to leave because Gerardo got us in trouble," Starlight protested. "Not if you want to stay! We're just normal ponies. Why should they have anything against us?"

"Because we got involved in something we shouldn't have gotten involved in," Maple said bitterly. "I don't know, maybe I should have gone along with Selma and done whatever he wanted. If I had known you would be safe, I would have for sure... and who knows what Gerardo's up to now, by himself? He's probably getting himself into even more trouble, and if we want to associate with him at all we'll be in it, too. And that's not counting ponies like Howe..."

Starlight thought for a moment, which grew easier as her head progressively cleared. Her horn still hurt, but it was no longer debilitating. "We could go to the Earth District," she offered. "That pegasus we had lunch with said the guards don't go down there. I bet a lot of ponies live there."

"We could..." Maple mused, shifting so that she was sitting beside Starlight instead of across from her. "Of course, we'd go there anyway if we were going back to Sosa to look for the boat. But instead of just passing through..." She paused. "Okay. Once we get out of this place, we go to the Earth District, and if things get better, we can stay for a while, or keep going and find Gunga and his ship."

"We have something to do in the Earth District anyway, remember?" Starlight added. "When we were leaving, Willow's husband asked us to go find some ponies."

"I didn't remember..." Maple slowly gasped. "He gave me an address, didn't he? I still have it in here somewhere. He wanted us to apologize, that's right... Didn't he say something else, too?"

"Something about staying away from graveyards at night," Starlight recalled. "I think? In Sosa?"

"Mmm... that sounds familiar..." Maple murmured in agreement. "How's your horn feeling?"

"It still hurts." Starlight sniffed in emphasis. It wasn't that bad, but if it was a question of whether they should leave yet... "Shouldn't we wait here a while, for all the guards to go to bed?"

"I'm not sure how long that is, though," Maple admitted. "Hmmm... I don't want to fall asleep to pass the time. After all that, I'm not even sure I could. How about you?"

"I'm not tired," Starlight lied. Maple couldn't see it, but her eyelids were already closed, and she desperately wanted to imagine that they were laying together in a fluffy bed instead of a cold stone dungeon. "We should wait longer."

Maple shifted slightly against her. "What did being in those crates feel like, anyway?"

"Cramped." Starlight's ears burned from the memory... or more likely, they were still bruised from being mashed at such heavy angles. "Hard to breathe. It made me glad I was small."

"No, I mean..." Maple hesitated. "Did it feel dangerous? Like something that could hurt an entire city? I kind of want to open the crates to see what's inside, since it didn't seem to hurt you..."

"Parts. Machine parts. Metal ones."

"That doesn't sound dangerous," Maple commented. "Unless they were for a weapon, or something. Or maybe it's an economic danger, like how the airships replaced water ones."

"Or maybe he was lying," Starlight dryly retorted. "Should we try to take the crates with us when we leave? I might be able to carry one in my magic..."

"Now that sounds dangerous," Maple said softly, tail twitching against Starlight's. "Wouldn't it be hard on your magic? They're heavy enough that I get tired, carrying them myself."

Starlight frowned. "Well, if they're that dangerous, we can't just let these guards have them, and if they aren't, we need to get them back to Gerardo!"

"Do we?" Maple asked sharply. "Think about it, do we? I'm not very happy with him right now, since he brought us along for this instead of leaving us sleeping in our hotel room! And you were worried about him earlier, weren't you? He's our friend, but... I'm not sure if I want to go that far out of my way to help him now. Or more importantly, put you through that much. And if we do get them, he's just going to have us try to deliver them again..."

"Well..." Starlight bit her lip, thinking of a counter. "But what about the guards, then? What if they are dangerous, and he wants them for something?"

"He said he wanted to destroy them," Maple said hesitantly. "I think... But maybe... I don't know. I'm sorry, Starlight, I don't know what to do..."

"Use your cutie mark," Starlight offered. "We open them, find the piece that looks the most important, and take just it and hide it. That way, if they're bad, they won't work. Right?"

Maple slowly inhaled. "That... actually could work. Do you know how to open them? Usually, I use a crowbar for supplies for my store, but I didn't pack one of those..."

Starlight nodded. "I've opened crates with my magic before. I just need to wait for my horn to feel better. It shouldn't be too long."

"Just don't push yourself," Maple gently cautioned. "We have all night, if you need to sleep, and can. I won't be going anywhere. I'll be right here, by your side..."

Comments

[alamais]

...my horn feels like cheese.

nom

Yesss steal the key part of the doomsday weapon!

[bronyheat]

8445615
The OO-Ray is only for completely peaceful, non-military applications!
static.wikia.nocookie.net/venturebrothers/images/c/cb/Dr._Venture_presents_the_Oo-Ray_%28medium%29.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/720?cb=20181217234146