The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

No Stalking

As Starlight trotted through the narrow corridor leading out of the tree chamber, Maple laying heavily on her small back and faceted crystals glinting welcomingly around her, her thoughts turned to the shadowy experience she had had while unconscious. It gnawed at her mind like a dream that refused to vanish with dawn, and as much as she wanted to let the past be the past and focus on getting back to Riverfall, the memory just wouldn't leave her alone.

What had that been? A nightmare? It could have been. The forced stillness she had felt on trying to reach Valey had been so much like trying to move in a dream and finding herself incapable, her legs and body bound in real life by the close confines of her bed and unable to translate into motion in her mind. And if she broke it down, the elements present had all been things that had scared or impacted her recently. The blizzard, Valey nearly dying in her fight against Herman... but what about the monsters? Where did those come from? Her own detonation of the dam? That hadn't killed anyone... at least, no one below. And try as she might, she couldn't even bring herself to feel guilty for it.

It had all the elements of a nightmare, including the limited focus. The snow had been so thick, she couldn't make out any detail; it had just been her and Valey and a few specific things that mattered. And she wanted so much to brush it off as one... but she couldn't.

She had almost died. She had ridden, nigh disembodied, inside Maple's cutie mark, and been reconstituted by a flame of pure harmony after being completely deconstructed by a machine that used her own Equestrian harmony to fight windigoes. If she had wondered before whether she was made of the stuff, now she was almost certain. But with so many intensely unusual and magical circumstances put together, it would almost be more surprising for nothing to have happened... so the nightmare very well might not have been random.

Still, with all the things that had happened to her, what could even have caused that? The flame? The flame was good, pure and untainted, and the dream was completely the opposite, so that couldn't be. Although, remembering the display she had destroyed in which the flame had been melting moon glass to empower the heart... perhaps what she had seen was somehow generated by that? Could it have left behind an aura, or something? Starlight didn't know enough about magic to do anything better than wild speculation, but she did know that the nightmare had been gray and White Chocolate's moon glass had made her see gray and there just might be a connection.

She had also ridden in Maple. Maple's cutie mark was fractured, but looked like it was healing. And she had been stabbed by Gerardo's sword, and no one really knew how that worked. Emotionally, she wasn't well either, having once been depressed and then exhausted by Ironridge. But could her adoptive mother really look like that inside? Starlight violently shuddered. That couldn't be.

Atop her, Maple sniffed, and she felt another tear trickle down the mare's cheek and onto the side of her head. "Don't worry," she assured, crossing out from the tree and over the bridge to the rest of the castle. "I told you, I'm all right. You'll be all right too, once I get you out of here and back to Riverfall. I promise."

The third possibility was that Starlight had been close enough to death to see what lingered on the other side. Even more than the others, that sent a chill down her spine. There was no such thing as an immortal... well, except for Princess Celestia, but still. Normal ponies like her couldn't just live forever, and the same went for Maple... and Valey, too, now. Was that the inevitable destination for everyone? She desperately didn't want that to be true either, and fortunately, the more she thought about it, the less sense it made. Had she been dead, what was holding her back from interacting with Valey? Her connection to life? Where were all the other souls of the dead? How could there be dead monsters in death? And what was Valey doing there in the first place - an older Valey, no less - when she was clearly alive?

Valey being in Maple didn't make much sense either, but she knew the batpony had frequented the tree and its flame, and even touched it many times before. That the tree was showing her a vision both made the most sense and felt the most palatable as an explanation, and she wanted to accept it and be done... but that still left the question of why. Why had the tree shown her something like that? She knew it had emotions, if not thoughts and desires as well. If it had done it, it meant it was deliberate... and that it was important, since the tree was nice and a nice tree probably would have wanted to show her something nice as well.

At least if it was important, she didn't have to worry about forgetting. Starlight could almost feel the memory physically floating in her mind, like a small kernel of shadow, and whenever she wanted to think about it, it was there in just as much detail as when it had happened.

She stepped out into the table room, and saw other ponies.

"Starlight? You are here?"

"Hah! Told you I could smell her from halfway across Ironridge."

One of the ponies was Valey, dressed in so many slings and bandages that she was well on her way to becoming a mummy, floating regally in a yellow telekinetic aura. The mare who held her was a unicorn Starlight hadn't seen before, with a strange texture to her coat and mane that made her glitter, appearing faceted just like the crystal of the tree.

Atop her, Maple's eyes lifted. "Valey...?"

The glittery unicorn exhaled. "And you're Maple? This is a relief. Ever since that explosion, we've been trying to get everypony the attention and safety they need, focusing on what we could for who we could, but when Maple went missing after we thought we had left her somewhere safe..."

Starlight's eyes narrowed. "And what about me? Did you ever go looking for me? Huh?"

The unicorn hesitated, lifting a hoof, apparently unused to being put on the spot. "Well, we searched the ship! Gerardo said we needed to find you. But the snow was melting so we would have seen anypony who fell off, and..." She looked curiously back. "How did you two get down here?"

Feeling a sudden, boiling anger, Starlight lit her horn. Her telekinesis wrapped around Maple, flush with pink magic from the tree, and set her aside. Starlight straightened, cheeks puffed and lips drawn, marched right up to the unicorn's face... and slugged her with a sucker punch. "That's where I was!" she yelled, chest quickly heaving, and glanced back at Maple, tears already stinging her eyes. "You didn't check her! You didn't ask or try to find a way for her to communicate or..." She gnashed her teeth. "Who do you think you are!?"

Valey crashed to the ground with a yelp, her telekinetic cushion gone. The unicorn rubbed her stricken cheek, looking hurt. "I'm Fire..."

Starlight wasn't done. "You want to know about 'that explosion'? That randomly and mysteriously saved your rears? That was me! And I almost disappeared, but she caught me with her cutie mark, and not one of you even tried to figure it out or help her! Why not? Why not, huh? I almost killed myself to save you, and you didn't even do everything you could to help my mother!"

As much as Fire shied back from the outburst, Valey looked even more cowed. "You almost what?"

"I meant what I said," Starlight told her, glancing back at Maple and levitating the mare back to her. "I'm fine now, thank you very much. But if you have any food, she really, really needs it..."

"Heh..." Valey chanced a grin. "Well, there, at least, I've got you covered." With her good wing, she popped her hat off, reclaimed from the chaos of the central atrium, and fished out a packet of sliced, dried mango. "Nothing beats the fresh stuff, but that ship of Sparky's is still really well stocked. Here ya go. And... sorry."

Starlight took it, effortlessly summoning a shard of crystal and manipulating both it and the package at once, slicing off the top like a knife. Dispelling her tool, she floated out the contents to Maple, who took them gratefully. "Sorry?" Starlight tilted her head. "Weren't you asleep?"

"Yeah, I was!" Valey growled. "But I didn't have to be! After everything went all blue, Ironridge basically... fixed itself. Everything was still smashed, but the weather instantly went normal, and even the snow in the Sky District started melting. I was a little worried about what had done that, but I could still smell you nearby and knew Ironflanks wasn't going anywhere, and I thought..." She gritted her teeth. "Ugh, I thought it was over and I could take it easy! I mean, seriously, I was mega tired, but it's not like I fainted or anything. If I'd actually checked on you myself, I'd have noticed the smell and been able to say something, or..." Hanging her head, she closed her eyes and hid her face.

Starlight watched, Maple chewing beside her... but Valey didn't look up. Suddenly, she realized the batpony was waiting for an extension of forgiveness.

"...Well..." She walked forward, her little hooves quietly clacking against the pink floor. "We're alive now," she said, reaching Valey and touching her chest with her cheek in a not-quite-hug. "All of us. And we're going to survive. Right?" She looked up. "So I forgive you."

"Heh..." Valey met her eyes. "Thanks. And yeah, I'm pretty sure this is finally over."

"It better be," Starlight muttered under her breath, turning to Fire. "Hey. You said you were Fire? You were in the atrium when I couldn't see, right? Are you the Yakyakistan official Herman was talking about?"

Fire started, realizing Starlight was addressing her. "Oh? I-I... am. A little bit more than just an official, actually, but yes. I'm sorry about not finding you and your mother. We couldn't figure out what had happened, but since we knew Maple's cutie mark could buffer harmony magic, we assumed it had just been her. Even if the colors didn't match up, but-"

"Don't." Starlight cut her off. "You can use magic down here. I saw you levitating Valey. The first time I came down here, I couldn't, and the other unicorn with us never could. But right now?" Her horn crackled pink. "All of this place's magic is helping me. I'm probably even made of it. So whether you believe I saved you and all of Ironridge or not, I have some demands, and you had better listen, because I can flatten you right now."

Apprehensive, Fire stood her ground. "Demands? I... Starlight, I'm still finding out about what has been going on in Ironridge with Herman and our embassy, but please believe me: that isn't what Yakyakistan is like. We have a lot of apologizing to do and reparations to make, and you have every right to be angry or hurt for what's happened. I assume you lost your home because of us, or possibly worse. And we're going to do what it takes to make things right. If that means bowing and giving whatever you need... it can be done. But, please... could you make requests, instead? It's not my place to ask, since debts like these can't be truly repaid, but we want to go into this with as generous a spirit as possible and hopefully come out as something better than resentful former foes."

Starlight blinked. "...You're really humble for a Yakyakistan official."

Fire waited, watching to see if that was a compliment.

"We've only been in Ironridge for a few days," Starlight told her. "We didn't get our house blown up or anything. And what we want is to leave. No one stopping us, no one chasing us or hunting us down, and none of our friends left behind. That's what I want."

Fire blinked. "That's it? You just want a way out of the city?"

Nodding, Starlight watched as Maple finished the last of the mango pieces, lifting her back onto her back. "Yes. What else would we want?"

"Well..." Fire hesitated. "An explanation, for one. Of what Yakyakistan was doing with windigoes, or meddling in foreign affairs so soon after a brutal war was fought due to expansion. These are national secrets relating to the security of the entire world, but-"

"No!" Starlight barked, harshly cutting her off. "I don't want to know more secrets! I don't want to know things that will have crazy pegasi or sad unicorns breathing down my back to use me as a research project! That's how we got stuck here in the first place! Besides..." She sniffed, breaking eye contact. "I want to forget about the windigoes. Pretend they never happened. My life doesn't have a normal, but I don't want this to become it. I'd even be happy, living in Riverfall where everyone knows where I'm from, getting my cutie mark and growing old... maybe having kids... but right now, I never even saw the windigoes. They were just a bit of howling and cold air, and one dumb idea and a bad dream, and... it doesn't make sense, and I don't want it to. If it doesn't make sense, it doesn't feel real. I want Valey to have beaten Herman, call that the end, go home..."

Valey exhaled. "Mmmmmph. Kinda got a point, there. I sure wouldn't mind knowing just why I threw my butt on the line beating up Herman... but right now, I did it for Starlight, and if we're going to be moving on and getting on with our lives, that's good enough for me. Ironflanks?"

Maple shuddered. "Thanks for the food. I... won't be able to listen to any explanations right now. I just need to get home. Please, take me home..."

Starlight raised an eyebrow at Fire.

"...Right. You know what you want, at least," she sighed. "That's almost a shame. What happened on the ship... was that really you?" She looked intently at Starlight.

"I hooked myself up to the harmony extractor," Starlight replied. "I joined myself to the windigo heart. I thought it would transfer the energy and work like an attack to weaken them. Did anything else happen?"

Fire paused, her mouth half open. "It... completely destroyed the clouds," she said. "Over the entire city. There was a blue ring, and... I didn't do anything. There are very, very few things I'm aware of in the world with that kind of power."

Starlight frowned. "Where are you going with this?"

"Nowhere," Fire sighed. "You want to be let go, and we'll honor that. The last time Yakyakistan fought with a pony who could do that, it was Blazing Rain, and you should know how that ended. But even then, we have reparations to do and trust to rebuild. As much as I'd like to invite you back to Infinite Glacier as guests of the highest honor... and I will, in case you would like to come... you can go where you wish. We won't stand in your way."

Grinning, Valey sidled over and nudged Starlight with a bandaged hoof. "She's as strong as Blazing Rain? No-myths seriously? Wow, Sparky will be miffed to hear that."

"Well..." Fire reached into her drawn-back robe, then pulled something out. "You are the only two ponies in living memory, excluding immortals and as far as I am aware, who have done this."

In her hoof was a chunk of crystal, jagged and cruel like a curved knife, glittering with a frosty teal. It gave off a faint coldness that stung the inside of Starlight's nose, and she blanched. "Is that...?"

"A windigo heart," Fire finished for her. "A fresh one, one of eight and harvested by you. We made it a priority to find where they fell and get them all back, as they can become dangerous in unknowing hooves. If you want them, they belong to you."

Starlight stared at the shard, feeling her eyes widen against its dull light. Eight windigo hearts. All the trouble she had had in Ironridge had been caused by two, started when an unknowing Sosan had stolen the crates containing them from the side of the road, and here she was being offered eight. Her heart pounded in her chest.

"You'll need at least one of them," Fire told her. "If you want to leave Ironridge. The remaining boats have been out of service for ten years, and even if they were trustworthy, there is a canyon shortly east of Ironridge causing the river to back up and drain slowly, and the rapids there will be unsurvivable. Furthermore, all of the airships in the hangar have been smashed, and any inbound ones will be unable to refuel with the skyport damaged and Sosa's generators gone. But Arambai and Shinespark say their ship can be quickly repaired from the damage your shockwave did when it overloaded the systems. If you don't want to stay in this city, it could be your last chance to leave for a very long time."

Slowly, Starlight nodded.

"Right now, the hearts are unprotected and raw," Fire continued. "Unlike the specially-sealed ones we shipped using Gerardo. That makes them more useful for dangerous types of experiments you would likely have no interest in, but also reduces their capacity to hold harmonic energies. If you like, we will leave you one and take the other seven back to Yakyakistan to be treated, since you'll primarily want them as batteries. We can then charge them at Ironridge, assuming the city lets us, and find a way to ship them to you, wherever you've gone. But they're your property, so it's your decision."

Valey raised an eyebrow. "Not to be rude, but aren't you being kinda naive? If, say, Starlight was just a random schmuck who didn't do anything to help, she could be telling you all this and scoring a bunch of super dangerous artifacts and you wouldn't be doing anything to make sure she's telling the truth. Not that I don't want a clean ride out of here, but trusting everyone to be stellar paragons and stuff just worked out really well with Herman."

Fire flinched, drew back her head, and sighed. "Yes. I am. I don't... live in very realistic conditions at home, apparently. It's saddening every time I'm reminded of that."

"Valey..." Starlight grumbled, ready and willing to not question trust if it meant a faster way out.

"But it's not pure conjecture," Fire quickly added. "You were right, earlier: you're using this castle's magic. It's already very special that my magic works here at all, and is thanks to countless hours of meditation and training in Yakyakistan. But you are adding it to your own. You have to have some kind of innate connection to harmony that other ponies lack, and it might explain being able to unleash that power on the windigoes."

An innate connection... like where she was from, as Arambai and Shinespark had speculated. "Fire..." She looked seriously at the unicorn. "You really want to help me, right? And if I tell you things bad or even normal ponies would probably chase me for, you mean it about letting me go and live my own life?"

Fire touched her heart with a hoof. "I swear it on Princess Celestia."

Starlight blinked, then decided to try something safer first. "I destroyed the dam. I was the one who pushed the button. Herman said he was going to anyway, but I did it myself."

Fire slowly blinked back, unsure how to react to the news. "And I'll keep my promise," she eventually said.

Starlight nodded. "Me and Maple are from Riverfall. No one's come to Ironridge from there in years."

"And that's where you are returning?" Fire tilted her head, then smiled. "I hope you are happy there."

"...I'm not from Riverfall, though," Starlight continued, throat tightening at what she was about to say. "I crossed the mountains. I'm from the south. Equestria. The Plains of Harmony. I did it alone."

Valey gave her an interested glance, and Fire's eyes widened. "You...? How? That's supposed to be impossible! The only passes are in Yakyakistan and the Griffon Empire..."

"Not telling," Starlight firmly told her, taking a determined stance. "You're still not going to stop me?"

Fire looked conflicted, once again averting her gaze. "I... No. I won't. And I won't tell anyone, as you requested. But..." She folded her ears. "I have a feeling... that wherever you go, you won't find your peaceful life. I don't know who you are, but those mountains are designed to be uncrossable, even by a trained, full-grown team of pegasi, and wielding harmonic energy of that magnitude, even with the aid of a machine... Either one would be proof that there's something more special than a normal pony about you. Yakyakistan might not deserve right now to know what it is, but I promise you, I'm not wrong."

Starlight gritted her teeth, old memories of her aversion to being special bumping up against her mind.

"Starlight," Fire said. "Throughout history, there have been... patterns. Almost a thousand years ago, Equestria sealed itself off from the rest of the world after a terrible tragedy in which Princess Celestia's own sister was lost. A thousand years before that, the world was scoured by several great demons: the windigoes... and Discord. Equestria was created, and Unicornia buried. There might have been another calamity a thousand years before that. Either way, through fate or self-fulfilling prophecy, the world tends to move all at once, and often in these specific intervals. A war isn't unusual, but the reappearance of windigoes, along with a filly such as yourself... and perhaps the arrival of obsidian, as well, may be heralds of things to come."

"Oh, come on!" Starlight stomped. "I told you, I didn't want a bunch of mumbo jumbo or vague threats or explanations or anything! I just want to be left alone so me and Maple can be happy together!" She glanced at the room's resident batpony. "...And Valey!"

"That was just a warning," Fire sighed. "Just in case. I hope for both of our sakes it is meaningless, because you deserve to live out your life in peace, and Yakyakistan is poorly prepared to stand as a bastion of harmony in the world right now. But even if it isn't..." She gave a small smile. "There are still fifteen years left before the turn of the millennium. That's plenty of time to live out your foalhood, at least."

"...Yeah. Fifteen years." Starlight hung her head. "Ironridge could've waited fifteen years. But it didn't."

Fire nodded. "The world was in turmoil leading up to the past cycles, as well," she promised. "...Still. As long as Yakyakistan stays the Yakyakistan I know, you have nothing more to worry about from us. We will be your friends if you need it, and otherwise leave you be. Now... let me charge this heart for you, and we can be on our ways."

Starlight didn't stop her, and neither did Valey, turning and watching as she walked past. Maple, however, caught her attention.

"Wait!" the earth pony called. "When I was getting Starlight down here... I borrowed Braen's suit of armor so that I could move. It's still down there. If you can lift it, Shinespark would probably appreciate having it back."

Fire nodded, winked, and disappeared down the staircase below.

"...Well," Valey sighed once they were alone. "Just you and me and you. You, uhh... look kinda out of it, Ironflanks."

"I'm tired of trying to hold myself together," Maple moaned, drooping. "It's just too much..."

"Heh heh..." Valey looked away, spinning a hoof idly against the surface of the table and causing the collection of points on the surface to spin. "That's too bad. I'm feeling a little messed-up myself, and was kind of hoping you'd be feeling up to talking me through it, or something. You know... the kind of thing I got in my head we'd totally be able to do when we were talking in the Flame Barracks. You know what I mean, right?"

Maple shook her head. "I don't know anything right now..."

"Meh. That's too bad." Valey got up and started pacing away. "Oh well. Take care of yourself first. Waiting probably won't kill me. Just... eh... after all that... Nah, just take care of yourself."

As Starlight paced after her toward the exit, brushing past the table, its surface caught her eye. The collection of points was the same, still that hexagon-inside-a-triangle pattern she had been told associated with the Yakyakistan church... only now, one of the dots had very faintly changed color and appeared to be glowing pink. Was it her imagination? Maybe it was. Or maybe it had always been glowing like that. Deciding she had more homeward things to think about, Starlight straightened Maple on her back and picked up her pace, running for the lift to the surface.

Comments

[alamais]

I see Glimmy leveled up and put some skill points into Scary Binch.

Pondering that vision, if it really did come from the tree and that was a glimpse of future!Valey, that implies some degree of atemporality among the harmony trees. I wonder then if the tree(s) already know Glimglam's future, or if they only get glimpses as well.

Also hmmmm...eight windigo hearts. One more would make nine, which is a number of some significance now, and Tweedledee and Tweedledum are out there somewhere with the one they stole back. I wonder if we'll run into Howe and NeNo again in the future...

[ZanyZapper]

8843801
With the eight hearts, I wonder if it's going to parallel what happened with the Equestrian elements where there were five and the sixth revealed itself when needed.

Kinda feel bad for Fire. Assuming she is what she appears - sheltered and naive and used by Herman. Only to get slugged by Starlight. Poor girl.

Also wondering what the dot changing color means? Is it from Fire charging the heart so that it is now the northern element of kindness; one of the ponies present being recognized as the bearer of kindness; or something else.

(Now that I'm actually paying attention to the colors and what they represent. )

[Alchemik]

Ah, so the Griffons do have a passage. Why then, was Gerardo not going through that one? Blocked? Exiled? Yammered too long in the wrong important person's ear?

[Venlinelle]

The third possibility was that Starlight had been close enough to death to see what lingered on the other side. Even more than the others, that sent a chill down her spine. There was no such thing as an immortal... well, except for Princess Celestia, but still.

And Luna, and Chryssy, and Discord, and Cadance! And a couple others in the future.

[Venlinelle]

Fire flinched, drew back her head, and sighed. "Yes. I am. I don't... live in very realistic conditions at home, apparently. It's saddening every time I'm reminded of that."

I wonder if this is about her living in conditions similar to Equestria, even if she’s not from the country itself.

Also, I’m sorry, the mountains were designed? By whom? Celestia cut off contact with the north (as far as current Starlight knows), but she doesn’t have that kind of power. Discord does, but in this continuity he wasn’t around a thousand years ago. Hmmm.

It’s amusing that Luna’s banishment is singled out as the event a thousand years ago when so much other shit happened. Chryssy showed up, the Crystal Empire vanished, the sisters were crowned (yeah, yeah, not in this continuity, but still), the Pillars went to limbo…