The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Being There

Endless rain poured down, beating hours of gray static against the roof over Amber's head. The yellow mare lay in a position that had once been comfortable, her side itching and growing sweaty against Maple's bed. "Hey, Maple!?" she called in a voice that refused to reach the volume she told it to. "Can you roll me over and open a window? I'm too hot!"

There was a clattering of hooves against a staircase, and Maple quickly arrived, stopping in the doorway to catch her breath. "You just told me to close it, Amber," she pointed out. "And I'm still tired, too. If I open it and give you a blanket, will that be a happy compromise so I can sit down?"

"You could sit down in here, you know," Amber murmured, doing her best to meet Maple's eyes without moving her head. "Mostly, I'm bored."

Maple trotted to the window with a huff. "Then you should know how I feel. I can't lay around all day, Amber. I need to walk around and do things! I feel like..."

"Need to walk around and do things?" Amber's lips twitched. "Like roll me over and fix the window?"

"Amber..." Maple moaned.

"It's not like you want to go anywhere with this rain," Amber remarked. "Unless you want to go look for Willow and Starlight, but they're probably holed up inside somewhere too. So sit in here and talk to me! I'm bored."

"You," Maple muttered, grabbing Amber's body with her forehooves and awkwardly turning her on her other side, "are like this because of your own fault. Here." She smoothed out the bed ruffles on her friend's coat, then sighed, flopping down on the edge of the bed and bouncing slightly. "I'm still trying to figure out what I want normal to be, now that I'm living in Riverfall with all my friends and Starlight and have Ironridge in my past. I don't know what I want to do with myself. But I don't think foalsitting my best friend is it."

Amber folded her ears, putting on the most helpless expressions she could. "Tuck me in?"

"You're enjoying this too much." Huffing again, Maple trotted out of the bedroom, closing the door partway with her tail. She looked back and added, "You said you wanted to know what it felt like, what I went through? It's not supposed to be fun. You feel helpless, trapped, and alone. I'm going to come when you call, but before you ask next time, imagine that nobody comes. Get better soon, Amber."

For a brief moment after Maple left, Amber was still, listening to her friend descending the stairs. Her bakery was open, and customers were coming in, so it wasn't like she had nothing better to do, after all.

Then, she shuffled, wriggling once and moving herself a few inches so that a bed fold lay less uncomfortably beneath her. It took the same amount of effort and willpower as climbing out of bed seconds after an alarm set two hours too early, but still, she did it.

Amber idly wiggled a hoof, watching it limply flop with glazed-over eyes as the rain continued to rush in her ears. Maple was right; she was having too much fun with this. Movement was hard, certainly, as if her body just didn't listen when asked, but not impossible, and she probably could have rolled over on her own. Getting Maple to move her was just much more... satisfying. Like a vacation, but neither entertaining nor relaxing. But after all the time she had spent keeping Maple close at hoof in the past two years, a tiny part of her reveled in being on the other end of such doting attention.

But Maple's condition had been serious, and making light of it or giving the impression that she didn't take it seriously... Amber felt a tiny spark of guilt in her heart that exploded and spread through her veins like lead, and within a second she found her hoof was dead and she couldn't even flick her ears.

The train of thought took her by surprise: had she just gotten worse? Instinctively, she tried to call out, only for the barest whisper of toneless breath to escape her lips. She couldn't even call! A surge of panic flared in her mind, and for the first time, Amber properly regretted turning Gerardo's sword on herself. What had even happened? Was this what Maple had been talking about? She should have taken everything more seriously, not tried to enjoy it...

To enjoy it? Amber tried to frown, pushing aside her feelings and trying to think rationally. She knew her condition had just worsened, but it had done so at the precise moment she regretted it happening. And... Maple knew what it was like, so if she was supposed to be able to roll over on her own, wouldn't Maple have known and told her she could do it herself? Maple had said the sword's paralysis felt exactly the way she once had, but it couldn't actually be tied to the victim's emotions, could it?

Amber lay in place, breathing, trying to clear her mind, making testing her idea her main priority. Gerardo's sword was clearly bad news; it had hurt Maple, and getting cut by it was something she suddenly regretted. But she had to not feel bad about that. If she hadn't used it on herself, she wouldn't have had a realization about how it worked, so that she was stuck was a good thing. It was a good thing... A good thing that she had enjoyed herself before, and not respected... No!

Sighing internally, Amber stopped struggling. Fighting with herself, it seemed, wasn't going to do any good. She tried to wiggle her hoof again, only to feel a tiny spark of frustration tied with resignation when nothing happened. She knew she had found something, and she concentrated on that feeling, but finding it had cost her what she needed to test it...

"...Hey."

Amber blinked, ears pricking. Valey? She couldn't turn her head to check, but knew she recognized the voice.

"Still can't talk, huh?" Valey climbed out of the shadows in front of her in an ethereal display of her batpony magic. "Look left for yes. I think."

Well, she had been able to talk, but apparently making the effort wouldn't work now. Amber glanced to the left, wondering whether to be nervous or excited by Valey's presence.

"Huh. That's too bad." Valey leaned against the wall, still within her sight. "Took Ironflanks a day or two to say stuff again, though, I think. Kinda weird, though. I could swear I heard you this morning..."

Amber looked up. That meant I don't know, right? She couldn't recall seeing Valey at all that day.

"...Anyway." Valey rolled her shoulders, flexing her one good wing. "I was following Starlight and the others around, but then it started raining and they holed up with some other mares to get out of the rain and as funny as watching Dior get absolutely mauled by flirting was, it eventually got old, so now I'm here. You aren't horribly offended or unnerved that I'm alone in here with you while you can't move, are you?"

She wasn't, but Valey's old warning about her reputation in Ironridge did ring in Amber's mind... Still, she needed some way to reset her thoughts, especially one that wasn't boring, and it sounded like the batpony was asking permission to stay.

"Cool," Valey said, watching her eyes. "For me, at least. 'Cause... no offense, but I was actually thinking of doing something really mean."

Amber's heart spiked in worry, but her curiosity overrode it. She waited, hoping Valey would explain.

"See, there's this part of Ironridge I kinda brushed over," Valey went on, fidgeting with her hooves. "A lot of parts, actually. Did you know that I've got issues? Because I do. But the thing is..." She took a deep breath. "'I trust you, I don't care who or what you are or what you've done, I'll be your friend and give you as many chances as you need, and blah blah blah...' That's Ironflanks. She's awesome. And really, really gullible, naive and easy to take advantage of, but still exactly what I needed. You kind of become a loner when absolutely everyone hates your guts, you know? But the thing is... I tried to warn her. I told her over and over again that I really do have baggage she doesn't want to deal with, and she didn't want to deal with it. Doesn't want to hear it. Told me to knock it off, and to be honest, I probably deserved it since I was being super edgy about it. But... still."

Amber could do nothing but look left in agreement, even though Valey wasn't watching, and wait for her to go on.

"And the thing is..." Valey sighed, taking off her hat and holding it in both forehooves. "I love that she gave me a chance. I needed her to give me a chance. But ever since that third night, I have been absolutely spooked of losing all this. I mean, I'm sure she'd actually be nice and understanding if I went up and blubbered everything I ever felt like on her shoulder like a big foal, but... I'm actually not. So I'm trying my absolute best to be the same silly, likable, vaguely-inappropriate goof she insisted on being friends with before I got my world shaken by losing a fight against a bunch of mooks, putting my life on the line for a city I don't care one bit about and all that other stuff, and I feel like I'm gonna explode. Thinking about stuff isn't good enough. I need to talk about it. And not with her. You get where I'm going with this?"

This time, Valey was watching for a response. Amber didn't waste any time in looking left.

"Snazzy." Valey poked her in the chest with a forehoof. "Now here's why it stinks to be you: I don't care about you. Don't take that as an 'I don't think you're cute and wouldn't like to get to know you' kind of thing, because off the record I do and would. Take it as... I don't know you or have anything riding on you still liking me when this is all over, because I'm a wuss who can't gamble anything important on this even if she needs it."

Amber looked straight ahead, trying to meet Valey's eyes.

"And the worst part," Valey continued, "Is that I'm not even gonna ask if you're okay with this, because I'm secretly such a mess that the only time I've ever come even close to this before was with someone else who couldn't move, talk, or even lift a hoof to reject me. That was Maple, in the eastern valley after the dam, and I still chickened out of saying anything about my past, because I'm actually that insecure. Sorry, and I know this is taking advantage of your incapacitation and part of why I have a reputation in the first place, but I need this and I need to look after myself as well as cities of hundreds of thousands." She hesitated. "You're okay with that, right?"

Valey needed her helpless? The realization welled in Amber like hope; even though she was entirely correct that they didn't know each other at all beyond a first-glance interest, listening to ponies was hardly something she was bad at, and never had consequences she couldn't bear. And if she was in a unique position to do that... Without thinking, she whispered, "Of course!"

Valey blinked at her, then thumped her head against the wall. "Oh, you tease..."

"No!" Amber softly called, trying to reach out and still managing nothing. "I mean it. I'll listen. You can say I'll regret it, but I'd like to know more about you. Besides, I think you just helped me here. Tell me. I want to hear."

"...You're asking for me to completely unload on you." Valey gave her a flat stare. "Are you sure you don't like the cute and cuddly me better? Like, absolutely sure? Because I told you, Maple is ticked about me having baggage to the point of telling me not to talk about it."

"I'll make her understand, if you want me to," Amber promised. "But tell me your story! Especially if you need it to be told. Please. I'm good at listening."

Valey raised an eyebrow. "You know what you're asking for, right? This is probably going to end in me crying into you like a pillow. I'm serious. Last warning..."

Amber gave a smile of determination. "And weren't you going to tell me about this whether I was okay with it or not?"

There was a second of silence... and then Valey growled, lowering her head and slumping onto the bed. "Fine," she said. "It all started... You see this?"

Amber blinked, watching as she held up the golden pendant around her neck. "It's pretty," she agreed. "I noticed you wearing it earlier. Is it an heirloom?"

"Something like that," Valey sighed, laying down. "It all started on a night eight years ago in a remote colony in Yakyakistan, when there was a meteor shower that brought moon glass to the world..."

Comments

[ZanyZapper]

Huh, interesting tidbits around how the series works. Curious to see what may come of that. A rapid recovery technique or maybe even immunity.

Whenever the moon rocks come up I can't help but wonder if their appearance was tied to Nightmare Moon. Perhaps bits of actual moon fling off as her bonds were starting to weaken in prelude to her eventual escape a few years later?

And yay, incoming Valey backstory! Been looking forward to this!

[Alchemik]

Ooo, lore dump inbound!