The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Something Familiar

"So your horn is pretty much exploded now, right?"

Valey looked back over her shoulder, slipping her way through a narrow, shadow-ridden passage as Maple and Starlight followed, leaning on each other for support. Starlight panted, dizzy and slightly nauseous. "It'll... It'll wear off..." she growled, closing her eyes. "It's not broken. It just works differently."

"Works differently. Right." Valey nodded slowly. "Well, hey, that's good! I thought you might'a been in pain, or something. It would stink if you hurt yourself being flashy, because I could totally have gotten us out of that way easier. Oh well!"

"Nngh..." Starlight grimaced. In hindsight, it was stupid; both unnecessarily exerting herself and trying to steal the batpony's show when that was the reason she walked into the fight in the first place. If it could be called a 'fight,' that was. Despite Redshift's seriousness, and Starlight had no doubt she was serious, Valey had made it look like a circus act. Laughing at danger was one thing, but disrespecting ponies just trying to get back at the world for their own bad luck? To say it was disrespectful would have been redundant, but her brain was too wracked with pounding to think of anything better.

"Sorry I can't carry you," Maple whispered aside to her. "Ugh, why am I so beat up? Why are we so beat up? This city just wants to teach us that adventures are dangerous over and over..."

"Not that you didn't steal my thunder, of course," Valey was rambling. "I mean, I have this really cool exit I've been planning pretty much since I met you, but its like every problem we run into takes care of itself before I can do anything!" She snorted. "Remember how we ran into Selma back when we were leaving the fort? He didn't even try to pick a fight. Rude. ...We should run into more problems."

"Or, we could run into fewer..." Maple offered, a note of strained hope in her voice.

Valey sniffed and turned a corner. "Hi boring, I'm me. Nope nope no- oh hey look, stairs!"

Her emerald eyes lit up, smiling in the darkness even when her mouth was hard to make out. Around the bend, a narrow staircase sat, tucked against one wall and supported by a single crossbeam on its way up to a bridge crossing the street one story up. Valey jumped, landing smoothly atop it and looking both ways. "It's good!" she called. "Doesn't look like a dead end! Come on up!"

Starlight's hooves parted from the cooling mud as she stepped onto the first stair, and she instantly couldn't tell if she missed it or not. On the one hoof, it was sticky, annoying, unpleasant and a part of the lower city's oppressive atmosphere that she couldn't wait to be rid of. On the other, it was a constant cooling touch, and that made her head feel slightly better. She staggered once as her horn gave off an errant shower of sparks, catching herself and continuing to the top.

"...But for real, though," Valey said as she crawled up the final step and collapsed on the bridge. "Your magic hurts you to use? That's kinda a fatal flaw, even if you are a filly as strong as some adult mages. Weird, too. Usually it's a brand that gives ponies unique quirks like that."

"I'll make it work," Starlight hissed, laying on her side with her head to the ground. "I don't need a cutie mark! Nopony does! Nngh... ow! You'll see!"

Valey awkwardly shuffled her forehooves. "Uhh... suit yourself, but I'll take my chances keeping mine. Those kids back there were loons, but what they tried happens all the time, and others are way better about actually getting the drop on me. Without mine, I'd be toast." She winked, and added, "I still think cutie mark is adorable, by the way. Where'd you get that?"

Starlight clamped her mouth shut, and remained that way until Maple slowly crested the stairs, taking each step gently so as not to risk damaging it with her weight.

"...Right." Valey blinked down at her, then at Maple. "Hey, Ironflanks, you mind if I carry her? She looks kind of like a puddle and is slowing us down, and I do wanna find some place where you two can put your hooves up for a bit. You're, like... doing a bit too good a job at beating yourselves up, here."

"Be gentle," Maple sighed, "and fine. And do you really have to call me that?"

"Well, what else am I going to call you? Tree sap?" Valey asked, hefting Starlight's frowning form and slinging her crosswise over her back, the filly's head dangling over one side and hindquarters the other. "I'm bad with names unless I make them myself. Still need something for this kid, too. Something like, uhh... Something small and cute. Eh, I'll think of a good one in time. Now let's go!"

"Slow down!" Maple halted her with a hoof, then walked over to Starlight. "You carry her like this," she explained, dragging one of the filly's forehooves across Valey's black neck and turning her until she lay evenly on her back. "Better. Now we can go."

Valey grinned. "Aww, this feels like a hug! Now I see why you're always trying to cuddle her!"

"I have reasons for the things I do," Maple mumbled, ears turned down. "And be nice! I haven't had an easy life either, okay?"

"Nice?" Valey's face scrunched. "First off, who gave you the idea I could do that, and second, I was complimenting her. That's perfectly nice! Silly pony." She stuck out her tongue. "Nyaa."

For her part, Starlight slumped lethargically on Valey's back, trying to sort her head into productive thoughts... or at least any thoughts at all, aside from how many better options she had than wasting her magic on the foals. Her ride felt different, she noted. Looking at them side-by-side, Maple and Valey had the same proportions, both fully-grown young mares with the standard body type and no unusual physical traits. But in that much contact, and after spending so much time using Maple as a personal taxi, she could feel a world of change just in how they walked. Was it demeanor, and the way they stood? Did Valey have different muscles due to having wings? Or was she merely in better shape? She could just be smaller. Her coat was different, at least, short and silky next to Maple's long winter fur.

As she breathed in, Valey's green mane got in her face, earning a cough and several blinks and a failed attempt to wipe it away. But with it, delayed in recognition by several seconds, she caught a scent she couldn't quite parse. Subsequent sniffs confirmed it was definitely coming from Valey's mane. It was familiar, somehow, but she couldn't place what it reminded her of, or where she had smelled it before.

"...You know..." Valey broke the silence, humming to herself. "Speaking of brands and not having them, I just remembered this spooky old story that says if you lose yours, you turn into a scary monster. OoOoOo..." She flexed her wings. "Better not be too stubborn about them, huh?"

"That's bogus," Starlight grumbled, her head reminding her that she was, in fact, presently miserable. "And you said lose, not decide not to gain. And aren't there tons of ponies here already who don't have cutie marks? They're not monsters."

Valey frowned and gritted her teeth. "That depends on your definition of monster..." In a flash, she lightened up. "But yeah, I didn't say it was a true story, either. And whoever managed to lose a brand? You get one, it's on your butt for life. These things aren't exactly transferable."

"I'm well aware," Starlight deadpanned.

"You know..." Maple hummed warily to herself, as if searching through memories she knew were best left alone. "I did hear a story once, about a pony who lost their cutie mark. It said so many terrible things happened to them that they lost all hope for the future, and when they did, their mark just disappeared... but I don't know if it's true. I wasn't in a very good place when I heard it. It might have been made up to try to push me to keep going, I don't know. And there definitely wasn't anything about a monster, either..."

"Huh. Weird." Valey's ears swiveled, scanning down a passing side road containing several discarded, broken crates and a flickering light somewhere beyond a door. "Wow, though, now I feel like being in a spooky mood. This city sure isn't helping, huh?"

Around them, the path contained the same jagged, cubical aesthetic that had defined it on the ground, only the mud floor had been replaced by roofs of varying heights and occasionally unsound construction. Valey leaned in eagerly every time there was a hole into someone's house, though nine out of ten rooms were dark and disinteresting. The gaps, holes and steps were covered by bridges and ramps of plywood and corrugated aluminum, except in places where the material had been co-opted for use as doors instead. At least the doors, however ramshackle, had a better rate of existence than below.

"So, more spooky stories..." Valey's voice was an exaggerated, quivering whisper, as if she was a songbird trying to warble three octaves too low. "I'm not a normal pony, yeah? Pretty much the whole city already thinks I'm a monster, whether it's from how I look or how I act. And those kids were right, by the way; I'm a jerk. Should've given them a pat on the back for remembering to never trust a bat. And just between you and me... I heard that story from another like me. So if we're already monsters... what's a monster to us?"

Starlight's spine crawled, mostly thanks to Valey's theatrics. If she hadn't been on the mare's back, she could easily imagine her putting on a magical minstrel show, sliding in and out of the shadows while talking and projecting her voice from every direction, finishing things off with a jump scare and a whisper in the audience's ear. She was so wrapped up in the sudden idea, she almost forgot to process what Valey actually said.

"I don't think I want to find out," Maple answered for her. "Really, this place is creepy enough already. Do you have to go and tell horror stories now? I'm on pins and needles as is, and you're not helping. Couldn't we talk about something... nice instead? Or even nothing, so we can at least hear if anyone tries to sneak up on us? For a city, this place is too quiet..."

"Something nice?" Valey's grin split so far sideways, Starlight could see it without the mare turning her head. "Ironflanks, did you miss the bit where I'm a mean little gremlin who plays with everything? Seriously, stop expecting me to be nice. It's naive and kind of turning me on."

"U-Umm..." Maple drew a step further away. "No offense, but I'm really not interested in that. Bad... Bad personal experiences. Sorry."

"Meh. Not a big surprise. I didn't peg you as a mare's mare, anyway." Valey stepped forward, staring straight ahead. "And by the way, I was being nice, just for you. If I really wanted to get spooky, there are dozens of better stories out there for that. I could talk about the Yak Civil War... The Tale of the Three Dragons... The Mare in the Moon... The... oh, er, probably would count as being mean to say the name of that one. And don't worry about us being snuck up on, either." She winked back at Maple. "I can only smell one of them following us."

"That," Maple began, suddenly drawing close enough to Valey that they were nearly touching, "is really not the best way to go about being reassuring or nice..."

Comments

[Hap]

I really want to ship Valey with Amber.

[bronyheat]

It was familiar, somehow, but she couldn't place what it reminded her of, or where she had smelled it before.

Well, Starlight spent a long time in caves leaving Equestria so... bat guano, maybe? /s

But seriously, this seems like it was pointed out because it will be important later, especially since Valey keeps commenting on how Starlight "smells."

[Venlinelle]

Valey frowned and gritted her teeth. "That depends on your definition of monster..." In a flash, she lightened up. "But yeah, I didn't say it was a true story, either. And whoever managed to lose a brand? You get one, it's on your butt for life. These things aren't exactly transferable."

Quitter’s talk!

Interesting that they also have the story of the Mare in the Moon. Obviously they’d notice when the pattern appeared on the moon, but the fact that it’s the same name implies it might’ve carried over from Equestria.

Extensive reread edit: SO much foreshadowing!

"Speaking of brands and not having them, I just remembered this spooky old story that says if you lose yours, you turn into a scary monster."

Yeah, I bet you remember that story.
It’s both funny and sad seeing Valey try so hard to think of herself as a monster, knowing what we know about her now.