The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Era's End

"Right. Ahem. Were was I...?"

Valey unceremoniously belched, before her ideas caught rail and a light sparked in her eyes. "Okay! Ironridge, eight-something years ago. There was a meteor shower... Lunar Flare... moon glass... whole bunch'a stuff..."

Her voice continued, spinning in circles and recounting things she had already said. Several times, she gained a burst of enthusiasm only to instantly lose her place in a fit of blinks, ear scratches and uhhhs.

Starlight squinted. "You're thinking about something besides what you're talking about, aren't you?"

"Your fault for asking questions I didn't wanna answer," Valey grumbled, tossing her poise out the window and stretching out on the wooden floor, cheek touching the boards. "But yeah. I am."

"Well, then, we don't have to talk about this," Maple reassured. "If the important thing was us knowing to stay away from any black glass, then we know what we need to to stay safe."

"Meh."

Slowly, Maple asked, "What are you thinking about, then?"

A minute passed in dripping silence, the storm outside filling the gap between pony voices. Then: "You know a dude called Arambai, right?"

Maple carefully studied the question. "How would it matter?"

"Oh, come on. I know you know." Valey's emerald tail flopped once against the floor. "He's in Riverfall, because Sparky is bad at secret-keeping. You're from Riverfall, because you're even worse at it and said yes when I asked earlier, remember? So how well do you know him?"

"...Closer than many of the other ponies in Riverfall," Maple said hesitantly. "I like to imagine that, at least. I don't really know. But one of my best friends there has a history with him, from when he hadn't moved there yet. I think he saw us as family friends."

"Huh. That's cool." One of Valey's ears twitched. "He ever tell you about why he left Ironridge?"

"No," Maple murmured. "He never talked about himself. We didn't even know he had been a factory chief until we saw him in a picture in the Sky District museum. But we've figured it out now, from what we know and what Elise said. He got into a fight with Mobius over whether to keep trying to make an airship after the first one crashed, and eventually surrendered to try to help unify Sosa. Then the other airships came, and it turned out to be the wrong idea..."

"Nah." Valey shook her head, hat sliding askew, cheek rubbing against wood. "I mean, he did do that, but that wasn't the last straw. Ten years ago, when they finalized plans to start building the Skyport, everyone who had their heads in the sand looked up and thought, 'Hey, maybe he was right!' That was the end of anyone liking Mobius."

"Ten years ago..." Maple mused. "My friend Willow first met him ten years ago. He was on a boat passing through Riverfall, and warned her that Ironridge was about to become dangerous. We had been hoping to travel here..."

Valey grinned against the ground, showing off her pointed teeth. "Hah. Was he? Figures he was looking for a way out that early. Everyone thought they could just put him in charge and have it be like the world hadn't moved on ten years without Ironridge while they were clowning around with their hooves in their ears. He knew it was pointless, but... eh..." She shrugged. "How do you take ponies who come to ask for a second chance and tell them they're ten years too late?"

"What happened to him, then?" Maple whispered against the rain.

"He put on a show." Valey's eyelids drooped, and eventually she could have been napping, save for the stream of words flowing from her muzzle. "Fought the inevitable a bit. Might've slowed it down by a month or a day or two. And then he went out with the saddest bang you've ever seen."

Maple craned forward, curious.

"Something like... seven years ago," Valey continued. "A bit after I turned up here, and a bit more after the whole Lunar Flare thing. He'd already been gone a lot, and it was obvious to anyone not in denial he wanted to leave. Didn't like ruling Sosa when they all looked to him to solve problems he never told them he could fix. One day, he marched up to Skyfreeze, where the newly-formed economic council met in chambers that were still under construction. He told them that he'd abdicate his post, lay down Sosa like a doormat, and let them have their new city order where the Sky District was on the top."

"He did...?" Maple's ears pressed back, face awash in disbelief. "Why?"

"What he asked in return," Valey said with a shrug, "was that they put a permanent ban on all imports of obsidian into Ironridge. The city's tiny, on a world scale, so there wasn't much here to begin with, and none left to find. All the supplies that currently turn up are brought in by treasure hunters and explorers from the wildlands and sold in other nations on the black market, especially Varsidel. You know... the place to the north with the war. For a council of merchants running these shipping lines, it was an easy request."

"And they agreed..." Maple breathed. "And so he left?"

"Eh, almost." Valey's leg twitched peacefully, scraping at the ground with the side of a hoof. "He also had a condition that they had to keep a bunch of ponies without brands working for them. The idea was that these stones are rare enough and in high enough demand to be really valuable, even with most ponies knowing how bad they are... so all you have to do in a place like Ironridge that's already harder to reach than usual and has less demand than usual is make it a little harder to reach and have a little less demand than that, and boom. It's not worth anybody's time to bring the stuff here, so there's no supply and no possessed ponies."

"And then he left," Maple repeated.

"Yeah, yeah, and then he left." Valey cracked an eye at her, then shut it again. "Took the last boat to ever leave Sosa, except for that one ferry Sparky keeps around. Then they took all the ships that were in the city, moved them to an area upriver by Gnarlbough, and rerouted the river's flow through the Earth District, stranding them all high and dry... Called it Sosa's Graveyard, because that was where they sent their legacy to die. And that was the end of that."

"That's..." Maple sniffed.

"Unfair?" Valey grinned. "Tell me about it. The dude takes a horrible, no-win situation and makes the best out of it... which I can totally relate to. He actually manages something really good with the nothing he has, and what does he get for it? At best, ponies get that they did that to him and feel sorry for the guy. Since the whole point was to make obsidian unknown and unneeded, though, the ponies he helped most don't even know what he did... and mostly think he's a scoundrel and a traitor. Some thanks for being a good guy, right there."

"And he still doesn't give up," Maple whispered. "In Riverfall, the Arambai I know is secretive, but he always gives everything for the town and never asks anything in return. No wonder he doesn't tell us what he used to do..."

"Mmph." Valey licked something from the edge of her lips and swallowed. "The funny thing is that Sparky's the one everyone gives credit for being this big, massive hero, even though all she's ever done is pull a bunch of crazy strings in secret and look cute. When you think about it, she's exactly the opposite of what I am: no matter what she does, the world wants her to be a hero, and she can get away with all the misdirection and back-room skullduggery she pleases and never change that."

Maple looked as if she wanted to say something in protest, but thought better of it, nose wrinkling at the taste of unspoken words.

"Really," Valey said, "think about it. You guys said that shortie back in Blueleaf told you about her, right? So you already know how Sparky's this whole legendary lost heir to one dynasty adopted by another that was warring with it, or something? How she's got that big, fat statue in the Sky District that's all 'First pony to be born on an airship' and all that? How she was probably conceived while the original Spirit airship was crashing and burning? She's even got Spark in her name, which is apparently important in yak lore. You could probably slap a vague, mumbly prophecy on her about how she's the chosen one and not make her any more obviously a hero, and I know for a fact she's hiding something that screams it even more than all that stuff put together. She could go around zapping ponies with moon glass and still be a hero, she's so up to her ears in the definition."

For the first time since the very start of the conversation, Starlight spoke. "So what? Why does that matter more than whether she helps ponies?"

Valey paused, and cracked an eyelid. "She has Good Guy written all over her."

"So?"

"So..." Valey frowned. "The same way I'm a walking, talking Villain with a capital V?"

"Something you've made a very poor argument for," Maple pointed out. "So you're a mischief maker and take pride in being a public nuisance. Those aren't very serious crimes, even if you didn't keep saying you could behave like a saint and still be bad."

"You know what?" Valey curled into a ball that was facing away, shuffling slightly as she got comfortable. "You're wrong, but I'd be wasting my time trying to change your minds. I'm tired and wanna take a nap, so just talk about your own stuff or something for a while. But I'm warning you, good luck finding anyone else who agrees with you. Other ponies know I'm bad news, even when you were apparently born without that instinct."

"What about Elise?" Starlight asked. "She liked you."

"Shut up."

Starlight and Maple looked to each other, and both held their tongues as Valey's breathing stilled and the world faded back into focus around them.

Comments

[ZanyZapper]

Valey really seems to need a hug right now. And I'm not even sure why, tho I think there's still more to all this than she's told and that is eating her up inside. Poor mare.

[Boopers]

8595466
Add a few crates to adorably hide in and I'm all in ;) (or rather Starlight is?)

[bronyheat]

She's even got Spark in her name, which is apparently important in yak lore.

Paging the Austraeoh, we have a broken Urohringr in isle 3.

[sploopy slooder]

valey's constant self deprecation is getting a bit obnoxious. without context all i see is a bat-pony version of pinkie pie that wants everyone to hate her for some reason. did she kill a dude? did she kill LOTS of dudes? did she bang someones wife and start a war?