The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Story

"When we were younger, we were inseparable. Of course, age makes a bigger difference then, so we were hardly equals... I was the leader of our little group. The one the others looked up to. I had recently finished my growth spurt, while Amber was still a filly and Maple was somewhere in between."

Willow's eyes drifted as she began to recount the story, hovering aimlessly from house to house. "We were ambitious, though. Adventurous. Did anypony tell you why there are so few stallions and unicorns in Riverfall, yet?"

Starlight nodded. "Mhm. But she said that had changed and didn't tell me why."

"Well, I'll get to that. But this simplifies things." Willow sighed, considering the best point to start, and continued. "Myself and the others didn't really think of ourselves as ponies to stay and live out our lives here, growing old and never setting hoof outside this village. For years, we would stay up at night, and I would tell them stories I'd heard listening to the Sosan sailors who guided ships along the river. We promised ourselves that someday, we'd go on an adventure ourselves, and see the world..."

She stopped and paused, taking a moment to let the memories refresh themselves in her mind. "It was Amber who wanted to go the most. She should have been born a pegasus, I'm sure. Imagine all the enthusiasm she has now, only focused. Funny, now, that she's the one with the least regrets..."

Starlight narrowed her eyes. "But you said you didn't have any regrets."

"That's not entirely true," Willow murmured, her chin on Starlight's head. "I merely choose not to dwell on them. But they are there. Anyway..." She cleared her throat, and shifted around the filly. "Maple, by contrast, simply adored me and wanted to do everything I would do. I'm sure that's not all there is to it, as she did become branded for our efforts... but it was a big part."

Willow sniffed, clearing her sinuses. "I, on the other hoof, was mostly interested in the foreign ponies. When everything is the same around you growing up, it only takes meeting one pony from far enough away to completely change your world..." She nudged Starlight's ears. "When I'm done, if you have any stories you'd like to tell me, I'd love to listen."

"But you haven't even gotten started yet," Starlight complained, tucked against her chest.

"Shhh. I'm getting there." Willow stared, then closed her eyes. "Our dream was to go to Ironridge; to see the city and make a living for ourselves. But we couldn't just leave whenever we wanted. On my own, I could have made it much earlier, but as the caretaker of a group? I needed to make sure I was old enough for the job. And we couldn't leave while Amber was too young, either. We also needed to get some money to live off of, and buy passage..."

Willow sighed heavily. "Eventually, Maple became... earned her... cutie mark?" At a nod from Starlight, she continued. "In packing things. She was arranging supplies in boxes to try to make them fit... and that was when I knew it was almost time. So I started spending more time at the docks, and I began looking for a boat that might take us." She hung her head. "I didn't find what I was looking for. Instead... I met Arambai."

Starlight tried to give her a questioning glance, but her horn only wound up grazing Willow's chin. The older mare needed no prompting, however. "I did. This was a year or so before he moved to Riverfall. Town legend says he appeared out of nowhere one day and set up and stayed, and he did never tell me his name, then... but I'm sure it was him. He was the captain of a westbound ship. I asked passage for me and two others."

"And what did he say?" Starlight flicked her ears.

"Something I hadn't expected," Willow answered. "He didn't truly refuse me. He just warned me that something bad was going to happen soon, in Ironridge. He told me to be wary... that we should stay here, because this wasn't a good time to be optimistic and ambitious. But he assured me that nothing bad would befall this town."

"So you stayed here," Starlight muttered. "And trusted him."

"I decided to be cautious," Willow corrected. "I didn't tell anypony what he had said. I told Maple and Amber that I was still looking for a boat... which I was. Only, instead of asking for a ride, I just tried to gossip with the sailors. I listened to them, asked them to talk... and do you know what I found?"

She shook her head. "At first, nothing. But as I got more and more familiar with them, I began to notice a change. They talked less, and the words they did say had less meaning. They were nervous. I didn't know what to tell Amber and Maple..." Willow gulped. "But soon, I didn't have to."

Starlight's ears folded. "What happened?"

"Alder happened," Willow said dryly. "My son, whom you just finished scaring witless."

The silence that ensued was broken by several heavy drops, the rain choosing that moment to resume. Willow and Starlight sat in the open, but didn't budge, Starlight protected by the bigger mare's posture and thick coat. Pellets of water bounced off of Willow's head and back, trickling along the ground beside them. From the safety of Willow's shadow, Starlight eventually asked, "How?"

"How?" Willow smirked. "I think you're a little too young to know the exact details of that. The important part is that I was constantly associating with mysterious, interesting stallions who had things to say that I wanted to listen to... and occasionally, I let myself enjoy it a little more than I should have." She sighed loudly as the rain began to turn to mist. "And then I paid the price. I put off telling Maple and Amber as long as I could. There was no way I could care for a foal and those two while navigating a foreign city filled with mysterious danger."

Stiffening her back against the rain, she continued in the same calm voice she had maintained for the entire tale. "They learned eventually, of course, but that's a story for another time. Our dreams were dead. When Alder was born, I didn't know what to do with myself. I devoted myself to being the best mother I could be... I decided I never wanted my son to be able to see me look at him and think that, given a choice, I would take a life of adventure over him. And that was the end of that."

A prolonged silence stretched between the two, broken only by the static of rain all around them. Eventually, Starlight mumbled, "Huh."

"The important part," Willow said, breaking her stoic narration and resuming a warmer tone, "is that things happen. Who you think you are and what you're meant to do can change extremely fast. And as much as it can hurt... a strong filly like you can learn to love what you still have, and what you've gained." She turned to look at Starlight, opening the way for a few errant drops to land on the filly's head. "Can you do that for me?"

Starlight nodded mutely.

"Good," Willow sighed. "As shaken as I was back then... Maple and Amber forgave me. Alder is happy, and has two more siblings. I have a husband. My life isn't what I dreamed it would be, once... but it's a lot better than many ponies can ask for, even in as peaceful a town as Riverfall."

"So..." Starlight mumbled towards the ground. "Sycamore said something happened here a while ago, and wouldn't tell me what it was. Was that what he was talking about?"

Willow exhaled slowly. "It was, yes. Shortly before Alder was born, Arambai returned to Riverfall and began his life here. And after that? The boats stopped coming. It didn't happen instantly, but for the last seven years, we haven't seen a single boat go by."

Starlight's eyes widened. "They stopped?"

"More or less," Willow whispered, voice muted by the hiss of rain landing on and around them. "To some ponies, that's a good thing. Riverfall is now so isolated, nothing will ever happen to change our town for good or for worse... and it's a good town. There's a lot to be happy for, here. To some ponies, this will be a paradise forever."

"You don't believe them, do you?"

Willow chuckled. "Being too sure of your own future is never a smart thing to do. Something will happen to change this town, someday. Who knows? Maybe it will even be you."

Starlight shuddered uncomfortably at that, prompting Willow to lift a hoof and hold her closer. "For other ponies, though, it's a cage with no escape. We don't have the knowledge or the resources to make a boat that could survive both the trip east and the open sea, and we wouldn't go to Ironridge. Arambai discourages everyone who tries. Eventually, ponies just stopped trying."

"So if they aren't leaving anymore, where are all the unicorns and stallions?" Starlight asked. "Or pegasi?"

"If there were ever any pegasi here, they would have flown away," Willow said wistfully, her damp forelock plastered to her head and no longer able to shield her eyes from the rain. "As for the others, it just takes time for a culture that's been around as long as ours to change. Riverfall has always been a town where stallions are rare and mares are everywhere. Some just enjoy staying inside and letting us do all the work. Others don't like the attention that comes with being a rarity. In fact, that could be said of almost all the Sosans in town. They're very quiet ponies..."

There was a long silence. Eventually, in a voice so low Willow had to lean in to hear it, Starlight asked, "So what happened to Ironridge?"

Willow opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by the approaching sound of hooves splashing across wet glass. "Hey!" a voice shouted from behind them, distinctly recognizable as Amber's. "Willow? Starliiight? You gals out here, or what?"

The yellow mare charged around a corner, decked out in a slick poncho likely liberated from Sycamore. Her face flew into a smirk when she saw the duo hunched over in the rain. "Well, well, well! If it isn't the mare who told me to go get dried off before scooting inside her pretty home! Ha ha ha! Who's laughing now, grandma?"

Willow fixed her with a calm, unbreakable stare. "Starlight and I were having an important talk. The rain could have waited, but I wasn't about to go out of my way to deal with it."

"Oh. Heh." Amber shrugged sheepishly. "Well, Maple asked me to come hunt you down and let you know lunch is ready. She made fruit salad. Nothing special. See you back at the house!"

She disappeared as quickly as she had arrived, leaving Starlight and Willow sitting alone once more. "Ready to go back?"

"Yeah," Starlight muttered. "I'm cold." She hesitated. "But... can I keep talking to you later?"

"Of course you can." Simultaneously getting up and leaning down to give Starlight a hug, Willow broke into a slow trot, memory and instincts guiding her effortlessly back toward her house.

Comments

[Hap]

The plot thickens.

[Texus]

The important part is that I was constantly associating with mysterious, interesting stallions who had things to say that I wanted to listen to... and occasionally, I let myself enjoy it a little more than I should have." S

Well I guess she stayed with one Stallion in the end at least, but I don't really like that she gave herself to that much Stallions apparently.

[Czar_Yoshi]

8968346 Riverfall doesn't really have the same expectations of how parenting and relationships work as most real-life, first-world places. In Willow's case, she's not regretful because she feels like she gave herself away - Riverfall society's idea of an ideal relationship isn't based around commitment and loyalty so much as adventure, fascination, mystery and new things. Willow would have been living loosely, doing that in real life, but in Riverfall, that's the dream. She regrets having done it because of the consequences it had for her and her friends' plans, not because of the act itself.

It's fine not to like that, of course. The Olden World's locations I try to keep internally consistent, but they don't necessarily say anything about how I feel real life should or does work.

[PropMaster]

Fascinating. I wonder what happened to Ironridge!

GRDC: 3

[AppleTank]

we don't got to Ravenholm Ironridge

[Rupple]

And as much as it can hurt... a strong filly like you can learn to love what you still have, and what you've gained.

Or, an emotionally fragile yet maniacally persistent pony like her can snap after being severely hurt and abandon everything she still has in favour of a rage-induced idea, yet have the mental devotion to carry it out long after cooling down, at which point a normal pony would've just dismissed it as a silly thought conceived in a moment of anger.
I doubt the canon Starlight has never had anyone be there for her or try to console her at all through those years, yet she still persisted. Maybe they weren't as good at children as Willow, I dunno. Still, even with all the trust and the feelings of not wanting to disappoint her her very presence makes Starlight feel, it's probably going to take a lot more than that. But she's still malleable, and for once in a town of her dreams, so maybe it could work out.

[StormLuna]

Starlight's going to bolt under the cover of darkness so she doesn't become caged out there, isn't she?

[Merula]

Let me guess, Glimmer is gonna be in Ironridge when this bad thing goes down, isn't she?

[bronyheat]

Well that's good it seems Riverfall is mostly benign then... Mostly, but what happened in Ironridge?

[Walrusesarecute]

Willow opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by the approaching sound of hooves splashing across wet glass. " Hey! " a voice shouted from behind them, distinctly recognizable as Amber's. "Willow? Starliiight? You gals out here, or what?"

Nice interruption over a mystery in the story?