The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Lingering Scars

"Feeling better?" Amber asked, sitting upright and leaning against Valey for support.

"You Riverfall mares are suicidally nice," Valey grunted, stiffened from the contact. "It's going to get one of you hurt, one day. Trusting the wrong pony. Maybe even me. Maple trusted me to get her out of a scrape in Ironridge safely that she wouldn't have been in if she hadn't come for my trapped rear, and I got bodied by some goons that only wanted me and then she got stabbed."

A smile teased its way across Amber's lips. "You didn't answer my question, though."

"...Yeah." Valey sighed, looking away. "I am. A little. Thanks for being cool with all that, by the way. But I still have no idea what to do now."

"If it were up to me..." Amber mused, unable to rub her chin in thought. "I think you should lay here with me a while more and keep me company listening to the rain. I won't be bedridden for a whole week, but it's still kind of lonely."

Valey shrugged. "I've heard the rain a lot in Ironridge. It rains all the time there."

Amber grinned at her, trying to catch her eye. "But does it rain against the roof right over your head when you have nothing more important to do than sit back and think about how lucky you are not to be soaked?"

"How important is anything I do?" Valey didn't meet her gaze. "Like... I'd love to matter, don't get me wrong. But the whole 'not really a pony' thing..."

"Doesn't matter to me," Amber said. "Where you came from or what's inside you, I mean. I mean, it matters, but in the good way. I think you can want stuff and be important."

Valey flopped onto her back, causing Amber to collapse with a squawk. "See what I meant about talking about this making me sound edgy? Seriously, all that stuff's so obvious, I should know that! But I... ugh. I told you, I can't figure out what to do. Dunno where to go with my life, even assuming it's mine to go somewhere with. Eh."

"You keep saying that just because you're not the original Valey, there's something bad about that," Amber remarked. "You know... everyone says the moon glass spirits are bad, because they can possess ponies when you put them inside, or something. But didn't you also say your sister is in that one you're wearing?" She pointed a feeble hoof at Valey's necklace. "She's not bad. She probably just wants to be a pony again, if she can think in there. And I bet if you stuck her inside Willow or someone else without a cutie mark, she'd change them just like the ones from space, maybe not even because she wanted to. And you seem like a real person. Whether you were originally a pony or not, for all we know there's nothing wrong with that at all, and you've always just wanted to survive."

Valey looked like she didn't know whether to risk considering it. "That doesn't change the whole... Meh. I dunno. Where do you think I came from, then?"

"The moon glass? Where in space? Why do you think not knowing makes it bad?" Amber countered. "Even good things can be used for evil."

"My cutie mark?" Valey glanced at her flank. "That, for one. I'm a personality attached to a power that's really good at fighting things. If some alien wanted to send a big soul bomb here but make themselves out to be friendly, you'd think they'd have sent cutie marks for sniffing flowers, or something."

"Or something." Amber touched her shoulder. "But didn't you also say that even with no idea what was going on, you didn't kill any of the scientists when you first came to? You said Nyala taught you about life in Icereach afterward, but if you had been sent as a weapon, wouldn't you have killed them and not looked back?"

Valey slumped. "'Sent.' Honestly, I just wonder if by total fluke there was a rock sailing through space with a pile of spontaneously-occurring not-souls inside. Seriously, this whole thing is just... eh."

"It doesn't sound like a fluke to me," Amber replied. "What if someone on this world flung it up there a long time ago so it could fall back down later, like a time capsule of life in case something ended the world and it needed to be repopulated? Or what if there was another world floating around out there in space that did end, and the moon glass was like a way for the people there to try and survive? What if-?"

"I looked into all that," Valey interrupted to say. "Snooped and sniffed around to find all the leading theories on it in Ironridge. Ponies there don't talk about the stuff all that much, but the odds are pretty good it came from the moon, and wasn't sailing around in space for a long time. The yaks think their big war several decades before caused it, and the griffons say there was some moon event right before it they call a Lunar Flare. And stuff coming from the moon, well..."

Amber tried to shrug. "Maybe the Lunar Flare was a coincidence? Or maybe there are ponies on the moon?"

"Maybe." Valey looked away. "The one legend I've heard... and mind you, the only batponies I've met have been ones that were bad at history and didn't like me... is that there's a so-called Mare in the Moon there who will get you if you're naughty. I mean, it's easy to see where a legend like that would come from. You look at the full moon when there's no clouds, it kind of looks like a pony face. But... eh, I dunno. Maybe I'm the Mare in the Moon. All I know for sure is that I feel like a pony, really wish I was one, and sometimes tell myself I'm not. I doubt understanding anything will help me. It's not like you can change the past anyway. I just need... something."

"Sounds like what you need is a hug," Amber guessed, flopping next to her and wrapping her forelegs around Valey's torso.

"Hey! Leggo!" Valey protested, but didn't struggle. After several seconds, she added, "Mind the wing. It's still kinda sore."

"Sorry," Amber murmured, shifting away from the bandages.

For a minute, Valey soaked up the attention. Eventually, she blinked and said, "You know I'm technically eight, right?"

Amber stared past her at that, thinking. "Huh. I wonder how that works. If your body can change depending on your cutie mark... How do batponies age normally? How old do you think you... Valey was when she touched the moon glass? How old do you feel like you are?"

"Uhh..." Valey shrugged in Amber's embrace. "Honestly, I was only around other batponies for less than a year, and I don't think Nyala covered that. I know when I first appeared, I looked like a filly, but grew up pretty quick. Was already an adolescent when I left, just shy enough of being fully grown that me getting promoted on Herman's Defense Force got a bunch of existing ponies mad because they thought I was a kid. Dunno how old the old me was, either. Biologically, that probably makes me early twenties? If it even works that way. Mentally, I haven't a clue. Some days I'd love to write off what I do or don't understand as being immature, and others I feel like I'm surrounded by big babies who are twice my age. For all I know, given moon soul time, I could be like a thousand. I've definitely been horny for a while, though... I think."

"You think?" Amber giggled and poked her limply. "How can you not be sure about that?"

"The same way you can know nothing else about the rest of what your life is." Valey sighed and closed her eyes. "Say there's a minor officer in my ranks I really want to bug. I pull up his file, see he's got a special somepony, find out where she lives, then make eyes at her and send her a letter about her butt with my name on it. Their faces look like turnips, I get my laughs, mission accomplished. But when I enjoy doing that, am I enjoying the prank, or... you know? If I'm teasing Sparky about being cute when she wants my attention for some truce-related thing since I sort of helped her behind everyone's backs, is that because I like her or like being a pest or... I just don't know."

Amber hummed in solidarity. "Ever do the same thing to stallions?"

"...Once or twice."

"And do you get the same warm fuzzy for making them blush?"

Valey didn't even hesitate. "Nah. Definitely not."

"And how do you feel about me hugging you now?" Amber asked, nestling her cheek against Valey's coat.

"Uhhhhhhhhh..."

"Then I wouldn't worry about it." Amber winked, noting that she had made Valey blush. "And you're definitely acting older than eight, too. Foals that young don't think about those things. I have it on good authority from a lot of friends with foals of their own."

Valey relaxed, seeming to take her words to heart. "Except for Starlight," she pointed out.

"Starlight is special," Amber rebutted. "And definitely not eight. Her situation is very different from a normal filly's."

"So's mine," Valey grumbled. "My entire childhood lasted, like, a year."

"Sounds like you have some lost time you need to make up." Amber closed her eyes. "Once I'm up and about, you're welcome to hang out with me around town, if you like. Some of the stuffier ponies say I should grow up, but they're just jealous they don't allow themselves to have fun doing things like racing foals across the town or finding the fastest way to climb a building from the outside."

"Meh. Sounds cool." Valey went completely limp, eventually extending her good wing over Amber like a blanket. "You know, I'm actually feeling not bad right now. Thanks for... uh... thanks."

Amber grinned into her dark grey coat. "I'm glad we could help each other out. I was pretty bored by myself in here with nothing to think about, anyway."

"Meh," Valey repeated.

For a moment, neither spoke. "Enjoying having something to enjoy?" Amber asked.

"Maybe. Sorta. Yeah." Valey shifted, rearranging herself in the bed. "Do you, uhh... mind talking about anything else later? I've got to get it through my head that this is actually happening, right now."

"Sure." Amber snuggled closer. "I'll probably be limp and invalid for a while longer, any-"

POW!

"Greetings, friends!" a very loud, bombastic voice echoed through the stairwell and closed door, perfectly audible over the deafening hiss of the rain. "After the rain abruptly cancelled my epic rendition of the Battle of the Flame District, I retired to a local abode to continue storytelling, but was eventually evicted when-"

"Gerardo!" Maple's voice shrieked. "You just broke my door and shook ten gallons of water all over my storefront and my customers!"

Valey and Amber looked at each other with wide eyes as a din began to rise from the room below. "Want to stay up here and pretend nothing is happening?" Amber furtively asked, not breaking her hug.

"Oh, no way." Valey extracted herself from the bed, licking her lips. "That bozo will probably come up here and see us, and if I'm going to open up and be a big softie, I need a bit more time than this to shout it to the world. Besides, smells like tasty drama." She raised an eyebrow. "So, uh, mind not telling anyone that I actually let someone cuddle me? Especially Ironflanks. She'd be super jealous."

"A secret, huh?" Amber grinned conspiratorially. "Now that sounds like fun."

"Cool." Valey stood up, adjusting the sling holding her wing steady while it healed. "Need a lift?"

"I think so," Amber panted, trying to get her hooves beneath her. "Just because I know that sword's secret doesn't mean it'll give up without a fight..."

Comments

[alamais]

*squee*

[Venlinelle]

…You know, Amber has a point about the ponies in the moon glass- we know they’re actual ponies now, not just cutie marks- not necessarily being malevolent. They do seem to just be ponies, and the harm comes from trying to shove them in the same body as a pony already living in one.
So… who are they, and where did they come from?

Reread edit: I’m still very unclear on this. Luna sent them! For some reason. Somehow. At some point. And also the Artifice that became Valey, even though Luna didn’t have that Artifice in the first place and multiple copies of the same Artifice can exist. Hmph. On the bright side, I was spot-on about the moon glass souls not being evil.

"If I'm teasing Sparky about being cute when she wants my attention for some truce-related thing since I sort of helped her behind everyone's backs, is that because I like her or like being a pest or... I just don't know."

Like many things during this point in the story, this is hilarious with the later knowledge that Shinespark is essentially coping with her stress right now by fantasizing about Valey.