• Published 23rd Jun 2017
  • 8,250 Views, 4,585 Comments

The Olden World - Czar_Yoshi



Equestrian culture loves cutie marks. Filly Starlight Glimmer hates them and never wants one. So, she leaves Equestria.

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Viewing Party

Valey doggedly paced forward, carrying Starlight on her back up a gently-sloping tunnel to the central atrium, Shinespark running dejectedly at her side. The sounds of battle grew muted behind them before fading entirely, and she couldn't tell if the fight had ended or been drowned out by the storm.

"Okay!" She stumbled into the atrium on a mid-tier balcony, nearly tripping as she came to a halt. "Right across this room, there should be a tunnel straight to the Stone District. We can just find a cave, hole up, wait this entire thing out..." Her eyes focused downward. "Oh, that's probably not good."

Between her hooves, gouged into the polished marble floor, was a giant arrow pointing around the ring-shaped balcony, indicating the information desk a quarter of the way around. Valey's eyes followed to where the desk had been forcibly ripped from its alcove, then leaned against a wall with the terminal screens facing outward. A mess of severed cables hanging beneath had been shoddily re-wired, with a gigantic glowing emergency power supply laying exposed on the ground to keep the whole thing going. In front of it, more interested in the glowing screens than the newcomers, sat Herman.

"Bad news! Bail harder!" Valey pushed her legs, trying to run, and heard Shinespark take off beside her. But when she glanced aside, rather than running, the unicorn was soaring straight for the remains of the kiosk. Groaning, Valey headbutted a glass railing. "Oh, bananas..."


"You!"

Hissing violently, Shinespark flew toward Herman, pulling up just out of his reach and barely stopping herself from striking him like a missile. Her restraint had less to do with the clearly-battered yak and more the fact that Dior was seated next to him, completely free of restraints.

Herman turned to face her. "Shinespark. I wondered if you would accept my invitation. Are you here for the party?"

"Party?" Shinespark's face scrunched, confusion fighting with rage for dominance. "Wait, huh?"

"The viewing party," Herman repeated, shrugging in his tattered uniform. "During the battle on the dam, I had expected Selma to betray and kill me. Unfortunately, he played his part poorly, and I survived. Since I have no further role in the plan..." He shrugged, pointing at the terminal screen.

It was a video feed from a security camera, Shinespark realized... one in the Stone District, evidently with a backup power supply of its own. The image was focused on the Blueleaf road, and a group of pegasi headed by Selma could be seen holding parlay with Elise and her citizens.

Herman went back to watching. "I am out of the game. My part in it is over. No matter how the pieces fall, I will be arrested come morning for crimes against civilization. Stay and watch, or go about your way."

"...And what's Dior here for?" Shinespark narrowed her eyes, horn staying lit.

"Also watching," Dior sighed, not meeting Shinespark's eyes. "Herman invited me on his way here. Shinespark..." He folded his ears. "The game with Braen is up. You took back your brand; the Spirit knows the armor is empty. Tell me you haven't told them yet that you were her."

Shinespark blinked. "No, but what does that have to do with anything? Dior, Herman destroyed our home! And you're just sitting next to him, like... like..."

"Like the kind of coward that would teleport out of his armor the moment his plans went awry, then hide in the Sky District while Ironridge fought itself to death?" Dior finally looked at her, his eyes a bright orange. "Exactly. Shinespark, don't tell me you forgot about what we planned regarding us and Braen..."

"No..." Shinespark swallowed. "You're trying to take all our rumors about you being Braen and give them irrefutable evidence, so everyone blames this catastrophe on you and doesn't look further. To protect me, Dad and the ship..."

Dior sadly nodded. "There's nothing I could do if I was anywhere else. With the Defense Force? My leadership of them may be a technicality written in law, but if dams are falling and districts are sinking, I don't think Ironridge's warriors are interested in the law. Besides, I've been set up to take a hit like this for your sake for years now. It will probably mean a large number of ponies from both sides becoming very angry at me, since Braen is currently only popular with those obsessed with revenge, but that's fine."

"Dior..." Shinespark took a step forward, eyes beginning to water again. Herman watched with passing interest.

"You, though, shouldn't be here," Dior continued. "Shinespark! The entire point of this plan is for your reputation to remain intact. Get to Blueleaf and try to calm this fighting, or else to the warehouse and check on our ship! Don't waste your time here on myself and Herman."

"You seriously might wanna listen to him," Valey remarked, standing even further back. "We're free to go! Like, I can see the tunnel right over there! Why would you stick around Herman any more than you absolutely need to?"

Herman shrugged. "As I said, stay or go. Pretend I am not here. It should not matter either way."

"Rrrgh..." Shinespark bared her teeth. "Dior, I tried talking to them! One of them shot me with a missile! If the Spirit won't listen to me any more, the Defense Force never will! Whatever reputation I had was either fake or not good enough! I can't... Look at me! We had accounted for losing Sosa, but I can't even keep myself together now enough to follow through with things I just planned this morning! Who's going to be inspired by a unicorn who's still crying while she talks!?"

"Shinespark..." Dior got up, slowly pacing over to her. He touched her chin with a hoof.

"Why can't I do this?" Shinespark choked. "I know we planned for you to take the hit if anything ever happened because of Braen, and I know I planned for what to do if Sosa was destroyed, but I can't do either! I could have stayed on that dam instead of jumping off, kept my brand where it belonged, kept the Spirit in Blueleaf under control... but I took it back because I thought I could catch one or two ponies as they fell! I didn't even get that! Now you're saying you're not even going to try to go down to Blueleaf and find a way to help, and even though it was planned for years I'm still not fine with it, even though as much as I apparently care about that I'm falling apart here instead of going to help myself, and... and..." She sniffed, hard. "Why can't I live up to myself when my ponies need me the most...?"

Herman glanced at her, breath rumbling in his chest. "Because you are a child," he replied. "A nineteen-year-old unicorn who cut her foalhood short and wrapped herself in a web of games and lies and stories about her destiny to try to accomplish a task bigger than a million ponies. And then, instead of hardening your heart and learning to control your emotions so you could always do what needed to be done, you chose to rely on a piece of technology you controlled with your feelings, giving you an excuse to take everything as openly and earnestly as possible and never grow up. You made ponies love you by feeling. You tried to use a limitation as a strength, and while your effort was admirable... now that your plans have reached a point where you must not feel in order to act, it paralyzes you."

Shinespark sat, wordless, anger and disbelief mixing on her face. Herman continued, "You look at Ironridge and see ponies. I look at it and see only numbers. A true leader would be able to do both as needed, so we are similarly deficit, in a way. Perhaps your youth makes it not your fault. Perhaps you could have tried harder, acted earlier, practiced. But it matters not, because that is in the past, and now it is breaking you."

Valey sidled up beside Shinespark, nudging her shoulder. "There's old Herman, always giving the world's worst pep talks. I've heard a million of those, myself. More than a little part of why I don't like him... but you gotta admit, it's hard to argue with what he says. Now ask yourself if you'd rather follow me out of here or stick around for an encore."

"If it makes you feel better," Herman hummed, "I have been inconvenienced quite a few times over the years, adjusting my plans so as not to break you prematurely."

Shinespark's eyes flashed blue. "Die."

"Yarrrgh!" Yelping, Valey dove out of the way, taking Starlight and Dior with her as Shinespark's body was surrounded by a furious glow. The enraged unicorn shot forward like a bullet... until with a hideous clang, she stopped short in midair, bouncing off the blade of Herman's magical axe as he summoned it to block her path.

Moaning, Shinespark rubbed her head as she rolled to a stop on the floor, before lifting her head and glaring at Herman. The yak returned her stare. "If you want to resume our duel from atop the dam, I have time for that, too," he announced, slamming the ground with the shaft of his axe for emphasis. "Remember, the outcome changes nothing. Forfeit at any time, or kill me, and you can walk away freely."

"Raaaaugh!" Shinespark's horn pulsed into overglow, and she fired a beam of burning mana straight at Herman's face.

With a mirrorlike tinkle, the blade of his axe intercepted it, reflecting the beam and sending it soaring off into the air of the atrium. It impacted distantly on the roof, a giant glass panel warping from the heat.

Shinespark was already flying again, smoke visibly trailing from her horn. Howling, she streaked towards Herman, who raised the axe to strike at her in response. He swung, aim perfectly true... and Shinespark teleported, keeping all of her momentum as she approached from another angle.

Instantly, Herman adjusted, ready to cleave, not block. Again, Shinespark teleported, her momentum building, her horn's sapphire glow being eclipsed by red from the heat as the strain of so many rapid-fire spells took its toll. But Herman didn't even have to rise from sitting in front of the displaced console, his axe completely handling the fight for him.

Suddenly, there was a teleport where Shinespark didn't immediately appear... and when she did, it was inches in front of Herman's chest. With a massive fork of lightning, she plowed into him, horn piercing his uniform and then his chest like a white-hot branding iron. There was a concussion of air, and her momentum threw him backwards nearly to the railing.

For a long second, the only sound was sizzling... and then Herman's hooves clamped around Shinespark's body, pinning her in place. She barely got out a gasp before he rolled upright, crushing her against the ground.

"...Ow." Herman rose shakily, a charred black patch in the middle of his chest. When he tried to walk back to the screen, Valey saw why he had been sitting: that his uniform looked like he had fallen down a cliff wasn't for show; he was limping heavily. Shinespark, he ignored.

The mare lay awkwardly on her back, one hind leg twisted at an unnatural angle. Her eyes slowly glassed over, her sides heaved as she hyperventilated, and Dior quickly rushed over to her. "Shinespark!" He nudged her, rolled her so that her broken leg was against the ground, pressed an ear to her mouth and then her chest, and started trying to set the limb so that it wasn't twisted.

"Quiet," Herman muttered, his duel completely forgotten as he focused on the display. "Invite her to watch again, if she likes. It looks like a fight is starting."

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