The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Next Step

Valey crested a ridge to see Maple and Gerardo waiting, Starlight still on her back. As useful as it would have been for Shinespark to carry the filly, she didn't feel like pushing her luck... even if she wasn't entirely sure yet why she had put forth the effort she did to help the mare. Probably just one of those hero things.

"Valey!" Gerardo crowed with enthusiasm for two, and Maple's silent pink eyes lit up beside him. "You've found our final member!"

"Something like that," Valey grumbled, pacing closer and leaning against an outcropping to rest. Starlight wasn't as heavy as Maple and was a whole lot warmer, but she didn't even want to carry herself right then, let alone another pony. Shinespark slumped into view behind her.

"And... Shinespark?" Gerardo's voice caught, slightly confused. "I'll admit, when I saw you take the plunge after your fallen comrades, I didn't expect you to make it. How...?" He blinked. "Also, if I might be frank, you look terrible."

Valey shrugged. "Yeah, she's had a pretty rough night. Typical angsty teenager things... you know. No home to go back to, she's having regrets about her new tattoo, stuck with a kid she doesn't want-"

"She's pregnant!?" Gerardo gaped.

That got Shinespark to show a reaction. Valey snickered. "Not what I meant, but you know what? If she wants to clear that up, I think she can do it herself."

Shinespark shot her a dirty look, followed by extreme questioning from Gerardo. "...My home is gone," she reluctantly sighed. "I'm... trying to get over it. Or just be able to do something again."

Maple stared at her with such intense sympathy that Valey almost expected her to throw off the sword's curse and start talking then and there. Shinespark looked back, staring wordlessly.

"She was tragically impaled by my sword," Gerardo explained, patting the implement at his side. "I believe you were there."

"I was," Shinespark growled. "A-And if you remind me that I attacked him first-"

Valey strolled between them, cutting off their line of sight. "Don't go there, Sparky," she advised with a grin. "You're trying to get out of your sad sack, right? Tip from a professional do-badder: if it's your fault, be proud of it. Don't worry; she'll forgive you later."

With a bitter sigh, Shinespark reset her focus, looking back at Maple. "Valey said you found a power source for my ship."

Maple looked up. As Gerardo sputtered to explain the significance, Valey interrupted, "Technically, I already knew about it for a really long time. Just didn't tell you, since I had no clue how to move it, didn't want to break the power balance in Ironridge by giving one side a big advantage, and we were officially enemies. But now I do, that balance has already been kersploded, and we're both on Team Starlight, so... here we are?"

Gerardo tapped a talon. "All assuming that the so-called harmony from this underground palace and the mythical proto-energy required to run your ship are one and the same, that is. However, eldritch altars far below the lowest point in the earth anyone has delved before certainly fit the bill for finding mythical proto-energies or other resources of exceptional rarity. As a professional adventurer, I am hardly surprised."

"Yeah, but the only way to find out is to test it," Valey reminded, ears flicking in impatience. "Like, seriously, is there anything we're waiting for? I'm freezing and want to get out of this dump."

"A way out would be useful, for one," Gerardo suggested.

Valey glanced pointedly at Shinespark's flank.

"Right..." Shinespark drooped. "I just... flying over it... and seeing everyone again..." She sniffed, then stretched her lips in a snarl. "I'm fine. I'll manage. We can go."

Gerardo sighed, picking Maple back up onto his back. "Pardon my saying so, but you certainly do not seem fine. Nevertheless, it will be a long hike to anywhere, and we do still need to find a way either across the sea or up a cliff, so it does seem prudent that we begin..."

Instantly, Shinespark's horn lit blue. Her aura surrounded everyone, herself included, and they lifted, hovering off the ground and starting to float northwest.

Maple's eyes focused knowingly on Shinespark's cutie mark as Gerardo blinked in amazement. "Is this new? I was under the impression that this could only be done inside your power armor!"

"Eh, something like that," Valey explained, drifting contentedly along. "Her mark was in a piece of moon glass stuck in Braen... She explained this to you, right?" Gerardo nodded. "I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but basically there was a mechanism in there to destroy the moon glass and turn Braen back into a regular suit of power armor. And when there's nothing keeping your mark from returning to you, it usually just does."

"Stop talking, please," Shinespark whispered, eyes scrunched, voice barely audible over the magical whine of her horn. "Lifting four ponies at once isn't easy!"

"Then release me at once," Gerardo insisted. "I have had ample time to thaw thanks to Maple's magic and should be more than capable of flying on my own."

Shinespark gasped in relief as the griffon slipped from her grasp, the noise of her horn tuning down significantly. Valey watched the appendage uneasily; as far as she knew Starlight's self-destructive quirk was unique, but all unicorns had a limit beyond which their magic would simply be unable to work.

"Better," Shinespark gasped as Gerardo rose back up beside them, flapping on powerful wings.

---

In silence, they continued, a cloud of sapphire blue drifting slowly along between the ground and stormy sky. Shinespark could easily move faster when it was just her, she explained, but levitating herself and levitating others were different processes and manipulating things with telekinesis while moving at vast speeds was exceedingly difficult.

The watery ruins of Sosa passed beneath, the sky too dark to make out anything below the surface. Strangely, the darkness wasn't total, as if the world was lit by the moon or perhaps the stars despite the thick blanket of clouds that had rolled in since the battle on the dam. It was like the world was defying physics out of a need for what had been done to it to be witnessed.

As they rounded the northern tip of the mountain and the Earth District began coming into view, the full extent of the damage became obvious. The flood hadn't spread in a straight line so much as a spiral: the waters had burst out to the east, landed in a valley that funneled them north, and met the river Yule, which flowed to east from west. There, they had backed up against a river canyon downstream from Ironridge in the badlands and formed a massive lake stretching up the river, flooding all of riverside Sosa and encroaching on the Earth District from the north.

After so many turns, the flood's brute hammerlike force had been blunted to a swiftly-rising tide, and instead of the blasted moonscape the five were leaving, trees and buildings still stood, some crumbled, most leaning, and a few straight and upright. Shinespark picked a sheltered rooftop tower from the sturdier structures and beelined straight for it.

They alighted in what had once been an open-air observation post, looking out over a workyard that was now a shimmering surface of black. The trees surrounding the area were still standing, but all bent in the same direction, like they had been rubberized and exposed to a strong wind before setting once again, or a brush that had been combed against the fur of a giant pony in the same direction far too many times.

Wordlessly, Shinespark set them down under the tower's roof, curled up, and started to shake.

"Hey." Valey stepped up beside her, but didn't launch into a pep talk.

"This was mine," Shinespark sniffed. "The Oasis... it's right beneath us. Or was. It's probably completely underwater now."

"...Ah." Gerardo also paced closer, leaving Maple and Starlight sitting together even though neither could move. "I remember that place. It was a fine establishment."

"Nnghkng..." Swallowing, Shinespark stood up. "What am I doing, running off to check up on my own projects? I should be... helping the Sosans..."

Valey raised an eyebrow. "No offense, but you might want to see to your own stability before wrecking your mind running off to all those refugees. Look at it this way: either they'll turn on you and blame you for what happened and it'll be terrible, or they'll blindly trust you just like they always have and act like you're a saint and now that you know you don't deserve it, that'll just feel awesome. So?"

Shinespark shuddered.

"Ugh, why can't Ironflanks be up and about!?" Valey groaned, starting to pace. "Why do I have to do all this pep talk and rally girl and therapist stuff? She's the one who actually likes absolutely everyone! I just wanna get out of this in one piece! Look, how about this: you go run off to do whatever after leaving us somewhere dry, and we'll go bag your boat on our own, 'kay?"

Gerardo raised a talon. "Well, I could always-"

"No." Valey cut him off. "You're really good at saying the worst possible thing with no bad intentions whatsoever. You'd be even worse at this than I am."

She turned back around... and Shinespark was gone, a glowing blue ember in the distance on its way to the unlit silhouette of Karma Industries. Valey stomped with two hooves. "Oh, come on!"

"I was going to suggest," Gerardo reprimanded in a soft tone, "that were she to simply leave us here, I could fly Maple to the ship, see about powering it up, and return here to pick up you and Starlight. Her magic did, in fact, work its magic on me, and as I've so far gone without substantial physical injury, I well believe I can safely make the trip."

Valey groaned. "Well, we're kind of stuck otherwise... but look what a wreck Sparky is! Isn't Ironflanks going to kill us if we take off now and just abandon her with this mess?" She glanced at Maple. "You are, aren't you?"

Maple looked pained. Her eyes drifted upward.

"...Yeah." Valey slumped. "Out of the four of us, two are basically corpses and I'm at my very limit. Birdo's... Well, who knows what he can do? But I really don't see us being big giant Ironridge heroes, and after all the city's done for me, I'm completely fine with that. I can see you considering it, and Starlight even pressed that button. Even I was going to have a hard time doing that. She must really hate this place. Stinks that the grand entrance of the second chapter of my life has to go this way, but if I'm mortal now, I do not want to waste it on this pile of yak hair."

"Examining our options for recourse..." Gerardo stared out at the watery wasteland that had once been Sosa. "Presently, three of our members are stuck here, unless you fancy yourself able to fly. I can carry perhaps one at best. No matter what we do, our first move will involve me flying out of here, at the very least on a resource-gathering mission to obtain food for waiting until Shinespark comes back... if she ever will. Seeing as our team is so immobilized, and having an airship would provide a mode of transportation as well as a safe haven for the incapacitated to rest, it seems that attempting to retrieve it is the optimal next move whether we intend to flee or help. So, shall I get on that?"

He took a step toward Maple, who slowly agreed. Valey nodded. "Yeah, I guess you can. I'll stay here with Starlight. Probably going to try to catch a nap. I really..." She yawned. "Really need it, and I've got an alarm if anything nasty comes this way." She patted her flank for emphasis.

"Well, then, it seems we've come to an agreement." Carefully, Gerardo picked Maple up, spreading his wings and moving to soar away. "Should we succeed, we shall return, and should we fail we'll return as well, whether it be due to insufficient power or the failure of the warehouse to survive. Although, I dearly hope the latter has not come to pass."

Like that, they were gone, leaving Valey alone with Starlight. "Insufficient power..." she mumbled, glancing back out at the Earth District. Karma Industries, usually a glowing pillar of civilization, was dark, as was the entire Stone District. The only lit area was Blueleaf, thanks to its off-the-grid power generator: Sosa had been flooded, and taken the city's power supply with it.

Fighting back a shiver of her own, Valey hugged Starlight close, guiltily grateful for the filly's unnatural warmth. There was nothing she could do but wait. So, true to her word, she nestled up against an abandoned desk and closed her eyes.

Comments

[Phoenix Kitten]

as much as I normally clamour for a good fight scene, I love stuff like this even more.
Just... picking up the pieces after a devastating loss... or a Pyrrhic victory, whichever you could call this. I'm not too sure.