The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Silent Things

For a long, long time, the cart continued in silence, and not a word was spoken.

Maple and Starlight lay side by side, their hooves tucked under them for warmth, watching the gentle rise and fall of Valey's breathing. Rain registered in their ears, loud and crisp against tree leaves and standing puddles in the road. Rays of gray light shone past the openings in the wagon cover, the sun several hours from setting behind the endless clouds.

"Do you think she's asleep?" Maple whispered.

Starlight didn't answer. She felt Maple tense, as if to rise... and then relax, thinking better of it.

Quietly, Starlight got to her own hooves, crawling out from under the blanket and softly stepping along the edge of the cart, keeping a safe radius from Valey as she walked to get the mare's face into view.

Her head was sideways, facing away from where Maple lay, tucked between her neck and hind leg, one forehoof coming up to brush her nose. Her ear stood up like a beacon, though it didn't track Starlight when she moved. The one eye that was visible was squeezed shut, and her mouth was scrunched, not in a smile.

From the other side of the cart, Maple gave Starlight a look, and Starlight nodded.

Slowly, with a slight bit of wobbling, Maple got up too, taking a corner of the blanket in her mouth and dragging it along with her. She came up behind Valey, stood as straight as she could, looked down... and in one clean motion, draped the blanket over her, making sure not to cover her head.

Valey fidgeted, kicking once with her forehoof and moving it away from her face. But she didn't wake.

Maple waited a second longer as the batpony's breathing returned to normal. Then, seemingly satisfied with her work, she turned around and paced to the back of the cart, where she sat, looking out at the world.

Starlight stared from the opposite side of the cart. Maple's ears were swiveled backwards, waiting to hear if any tiny hoofsteps would come to join her.

Wordlessly, she came, settling into place again at Maple's side.

"Hey, you," Maple murmured, wrapping a hoof around her shoulder, voice little more than a whisper.

"Hi," Starlight murmured back.

"How are you holding up?" Maple touched the top of Starlight's head with her chin. "It feels like forever since the last time we got to stop running and talk..."

"I'm fine," Starlight said. Her horn hurt, but not badly, and Maple didn't need to worry.

"That's good. I'm still so sore from the last two days..." Maple flexed a leg and laughed weakly. "I hope Grand Acorn isn't too far from Gnarlbough. I just want to get back to Riverfall and have this whole adventure be over with, but I'd hate to look at Faron and tell him we just didn't have time to see the ponies he wanted us to see..."

"Willow's husband? He wanted us to apologize to someone, didn't he?" Starlight looked up.

Maple leaned aside and met her eyes. "That's what I remember. Maybe he wanted us to see if they were all right. All I have written down is the address."

Starlight hummed, and was silent.

"Hey." Maple squeezed her, gently. "Tell me about you. What do you think about the city? About all the crazy stuff that's been happening to us? You haven't been talking much, and I miss talking to you."

"Because everyone else talks a lot," Starlight answered. "We're always traveling with ponies or griffons who hate it when nobody is talking and never want anyone to have time to think! How am I supposed to say anything?"

"Mmm..." Maple's ears folded briefly. "Gerardo did talk a lot, didn't he? Now that you mention it, I think I got annoyed by it as well. So much has happened since we last saw him, though, I guess..."

"It's dumb, too," Starlight pouted. "We keep getting in trouble because our friends are sticking their noses in beehives all the time. At least Valey didn't get us captured. But why can't we just stop making a big deal about ourselves? There are probably like a million ponies in this dumb city who have nothing to do with getting captured or stealing crates or breaking generators or any of that stuff!"

"I know." A pause. "What do you think it is?" Maple eventually asked. "That makes this happen to us? Do you think it's just luck that we keep getting helped by others who make a big splash in the world? Or is there something about us that makes us the ponies things happen to?"

Starlight frowned.

"I don't feel special," Maple continued. "I feel like a normal pony, who worries and hopes about things just like everypony else. Maybe less lucky than most, but the only thing anyone could do was move on, so I did. But then I got you, and then I became the first mare to leave Riverfall in years, and now I'm sitting here after being foalnapped, escaping from prison, tagging along when a whole city's power was fixed, and just tucked in a pony with the weirdest sense of self-worth I've ever seen. One of those could be luck, but all of them... Why?"

She hung her head. "I just can't stop thinking about it..."

Starlight shrugged. "I don't know."

"Do you?" Maple squeezed her lightly. "Because I know you don't like me saying this, but you're even more special than I am. Me leaving Riverfall is like a tiny version of what you did."

"Eh. It... doesn't really matter any more."

"It doesn't?" Starlight could feel Maple stiffen in curiosity.

She shook her head. "It does, but it isn't as important. I'm still never getting a cutie mark, but there are more important things to worry about right now. At home, I could get sent off to a big school for getting a cutie mark in magic, but here, you got treated like a criminal just for being next to that dumb griffon! Ponies are going to be unfair here whether I have a cutie mark or not, so if I have to be stronger or better or more determined than someone else to keep you safe, it's worth it."

Maple hugged her close. "It should be me looking out for you..."

"Should be," Starlight grunted. "The world doesn't work like it should. Especially not this place. I'm never going to go along with it and let it hurt me when there's something I can do about it."

"I wish everypony could see it that way," Maple murmured, looking over her shoulder at Valey's slumbering, blanketed form.

Starlight looked too. "What's her deal, anyway?"

"I wish I knew for certain," Maple sighed. "Then maybe I could do something about it. I don't think she's lying when she says she enjoys her life, but I think it took her a very long time to convince herself of it. And whatever she says, her definition of what makes a pony good or bad isn't one that would make the world a better place, even if she's right and other ponies agree. I don't know, I... I know what it's like to have plenty of things and friends who are nice and still feel worthless inside, like the whole reason you exist is to fail. I don't know if she feels like that, or ever has, but I guess I see a bit of myself in her, and that's why I'm trying so hard to make her see..."

"She doesn't really want to talk about it," Starlight remarked.

Maple vehemently shook her head. "No, she does. She very much does. Haven't you seen how often she brings it up? It's like she knows I'll respond and tries to goad me into arguing about it. Because it's not just compassion. I... I don't like being reminded of those times. I'd love if she were happy and carefree, and it would make me feel like I could really make a difference in the world... but there's a part of me that's more selfish, and just wants to help her so she stops reminding me of what that felt like."

"Maybe she just likes being pitied?" Starlight offered.

"I don't know." Maple's head drooped, ears nearly touching the rain. "I've met ponies before, in Riverfall, who seem to want nothing more than to make you feel some particular emotion toward them, and Valey doesn't feel like that. They're shallower and more straightforward, more like... when she's..." She blinked. "Have we ever actually seen her being mean to another pony?"

Starlight thought. "Didn't she scare Redshift with her shadow magic?" After a bit more thought, she added, "She was asking for it, though. So was Neon Nova."

"I think she scared a mare in Blueleaf, too," Maple added. "But... only after she hit me when I tried asking for directions. It wasn't disproportionate retribution. It wasn't even as bad as what happened to me in the first place..."

They looked at each other, and Starlight wondered if her eyes were just as wide as Maple's.

"But we've seen other ponies react to her, haven't we?" Maple whispered. "She scared off the ponies in the lobby of the Defense Force building this morning, and again when we were in that bar in Blueleaf. Everyone who knew who she was acted like she was disgusting."

"And she wanted to help Blueleaf," Starlight added. "Even though she said she didn't have to, because her job was just in the Stone District. She made us bring Redshift instead of leaving her unconscious at the bottom of the city, too."

Maple's newly-dried chest fluff bristled from proximity to the falling rain, and she stared out into the rainy world. "I don't get it. I thought I was starting to understand her. I thought she was just doing petty things that didn't matter to keep ponies afraid of her and justify how she looks at the world, but now that I look at it all at once, every single thing she's done has been to help someone, whether it's us or a city of ponies she doesn't even know. She's not just a regular pony who's done things that are good and others that are bad... she's a hero. But everyone is still afraid of her, and even ponies who aren't, like us and Elise, still know her reputation. I just don't get it at all..."

Comments

[bronyheat]

"Because everyone else talks a lot,"

This chapter is a mood. Raises hands In a good way!

Stories need those quieter moments of character development and this story so far doles them out at just the right times. Speaking of, I really do hope Valey joins the hero squad; she's a fun character and I'd hate to see her actually end up being a villainous villainy-pony.