The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Bored

Starlight woke blearily, with a feeling that told her sleep wouldn't be the answer to having nothing to do forever. For once in her life, she was too hot, and every part of her felt stiff and restless. She wasn't full, but wasn't hungry either. Most of all, she desperately needed something to do.

"Hellooooo?" she mumbled loudly, seeing little point in getting up.

The door swung open more quickly than she was expecting, and Amber's head poked through. "You were asleep again? Spend any more of the day like that and you'll turn into a cat!"

"Mmrmph." Starlight rolled herself upright and onto the floor. "It's not my fault there's nothing better to do around here." Tail dragging, she made her way to the door where Amber waited.

"Nothing to do?" Amber's eyebrows rose. "Are you sure about that, kiddo?"

"Well, what do you do all day?" Starlight countered.

She hadn't expected a response, but Amber was all too willing to give one. "I make my rounds across the whole town and hang out with every pony I know," she smugly proclaimed. "Between that many, there's always someone who has something cool I can get in on. Wanna know what I did today?"

Starlight nodded, so Amber continued. "Went swimming, ate lunch with a friend..." She leaned in conspiratorially. "You were there. Then I went and saw another friend who makes paintings. She asked me to model for her. She usually does. After that, I tested a zipline another friend was building to make sure it was safe for her kids, and then I went to the library and got a book I'll read if I ever have time." She grinned as if spilling forbidden secrets. "You look like you'd be good with books. If you're ever bored, just go check that place out. Our literature's a little dated, but we do have an author or two in town."

"Huh." Starlight blinked. She wasn't reading books as a personal rule... but that didn't seem to have stopped her with Sosa's journal in the cave. Perhaps it would be worth breaking more often.

"Starlight!" Maple appeared around the corner, a tray balanced on her back. "Dinner's almost ready, and Willow just arrived. She said you wanted to speak with her?" She grinned slyly at Amber, before adding, "And it seems someone else has shown up to eat all my food again, as usual."

"Hey." Amber put a hoof across her chest in self-defense. "I worked to make it here, for your information. Besides, you give free food to everyone..."

Maple rolled her eyes. "Since when is memorizing directions and getting lost anyway work?"

"Oh, come on..." Amber rubbed at the back of her neck. "You haven't had this place that long. And everything looks the same in this section of town!"

Starlight's face scrunched in confusion. "Doesn't everything look the same in all of the town?"

"Amber..." Willow's voice chided from out of sight. "The one that was right next to mine wasn't set up for a business, remember? We've been over this many times."

Maple moved over and nuzzled the mare as she came into view. "Thanks, Willow. And who knows? Maybe I'll need a bigger place some day, now that Starlight's staying with me. If I do, we can try harder to find one that's not so far away."

Amber relented, so Maple sighed and turned to the bedroom. "Starlight? Want to come for dinner?"

Starlight paced out and seated herself at the table, where an unknown dish with sliced apples over a flan-like pastry awaited. She sniffed, and found it quite good.

As the others arrived and sat down, she swallowed her first bite and asked, "You moved? Why?"

Maple looked away, face falling, leaving Willow to speak up for her instead. "Remember what I told you about life having ways to change your plans without warning?" Starlight nodded, so she added, "Well, Maple moved a while back, and then something changed and she had to move again."

"And you should do what I don't do and not bug her about it," Amber chimed in, already serving herself seconds. "It was a little hard on all of us."

"Okay." Starlight leaned down for another bite. As curious as she was, she hardly wanted to make herself unwelcome by poking her nose where others had hinted it didn't belong. Especially not when she didn't want to tell most of the other ponies where she was from. Willow could know, she supposed. She trusted the silvery mare. Amber was nice too, she decided, but maybe not as trustworthy.

Briefly, she recalled her encounter with Arambai. The stallion had made no secret of showing that he had secrets, but had been perfectly respectful of her own. It was starting to feel more and more like that described every pony in the town... including herself.

"So you're bored, hmm?" Maple broke her train of thought, leaning towards her and smiling pleasantly.

"Yeah." Starlight nodded, pausing to lick her empty plate. She didn't think she wanted seconds.

"I told her about the library already," Amber helpfully volunteered. "She didn't seem that interested. Maybe you'd have to take her there to see?"

"They do have a very good stock of adventure books," Maple hummed thoughtfully. "Mostly because of ponies in Riverfall who dream of them but can never leave, of course. They probably would be boring when you've experienced the real thing..." She laughed slightly. "I don't imagine you had any run-ins with pirates, mysterious cults or ancient artifacts on your way here, did you?" Then she sighed. "Of course, when you can never actually go anywhere, it doesn't hurt to imagine..."

Starlight shook her head. "There was nothing but trees and cliffs and caves out there. It was dangerous, but not very exciting. I wouldn't do it for fun."

"That's the point of living vicariously, though," Amber chimed in. "If you get to watch somepony be put in danger without any danger to yourself, you get safe thrills, not unsafe boredom."

Maple snorted. "Maybe we should just have more real adventurers write books."

"A real adventurer..." Amber sighed wistfully. "How many of those do you think exist in the world anymore? Like... five?"

"More than that, I'm sure," Willow muttered, sipping tea from a mug. Starlight frowned; for some reason, she only had water.

"And there's one sitting right here," Maple added, pointing proudly at Starlight. "She's probably the only pony in all of history to have made it here without taking a boat from Ironridge, or the sea."

"Without wings, either." Amber nudged Starlight jovially. "If I had some of those, who knows where I'd go." She blinked, and added, "But I'd make sure to come back here and visit you two every now and then. Even when your home is on the road, you have to have a real home, too..."

"Would you really go, though, if you could?" Maple asked, setting down her own mug and counting up how much food was left in the pan. "I know we tried to do that once, but that was then..."

"You did?" Starlight blinked. "When?"

Willow smiled bemusedly. "Didn't I just tell you that story earlier?"

"Oh. Right." Starlight's ears sank, and she slumped slightly in her seat.

"Well, there is a little I didn't say," Willow continued, prompting her ears to perk back up. "After I found out we wouldn't be going to Ironridge, I didn't want to let these two down too hard, so we made a back-up. Instead of going west on a ship powered by mana or steam, we built our own, wooden boat, and rowed south down the river you floated in on. It took us nearly a month to build the boat and another to get there, but we made it all the way to the cliff base. I don't know if you ever saw the cliffs up close when you reached the river to come here..." She smiled softly. "But they made the whole thing worth it. We camped there until we ran out of supplies, just enjoying the wild... and then drifted back here, and haven't left the village since."

"If you didn't see them and ever want to," Amber added, "some day, I'll take you. I've still got the boat we used. Got myself branded making it. But let me tell you, they're a sight I'll never forget."

Starlight blinked. If she was ever to tell these two where she had really come from, this was the best chance she'd have have for a long while... so she threw caution to the wind and took it. "I sort of saw them." She shrugged, and added, "I was kind of dead, though. But they were pretty from the top."

"The... top?" Amber's face scrunched. "What?"

"Of the cliffs," Starlight stated matter-of-factly. Then, she sat back, waiting for the impact of her words to sink in.

Amber got it first. "You were up there," she said blankly.

Willow was similarly confused. "How did you get down?" she asked, head tilted.

"I fell by accident," Starlight said with a shrug.

"You fell?" Willow's jaw dropped.

"Forget that," Amber said, voice rising. "How did you get up there? Those things are so high even pegasi get tired and give up halfway to the top! For a unicorn, that would be impossible!"

Her adrenaline from the announcement wearing off quicker than she would have liked, Starlight suddenly felt cold. It hadn't even sounded nearly as epic as she had hoped. Suddenly fearful, she demanded, "I'll only tell you if you promise to never tell anypony else. Got it?" She leaned in fiercely towards each of them in turn. "I ran away because I was tired of being treated differently because I didn't want to be like others. I don't want to be special or famous!"

She sat back, slightly shocked at herself. First, she had spilled a secret she had been feeling proud of herself earlier for keeping... and now she had just yelled at Willow. What would she do next?

Fortunately, Willow seemed to be completely understanding. "I promise," she said softly. "But you shouldn't tell me anything if you don't want to."

Amber looked almost more surprised at being yelled at than from the announcement that Starlight had fallen off the cliff. "Wow," she finally said. "Yeah, don't worry. Your backstory is safe with me."

"Well... all right..." With none of her earlier confidence and no other options, Starlight heaved in a breath and began her narration, sparing none of the details she had given Maple earlier.

Comments

[Hap]

I feel dumb. I just now connected the explorer's name with this region's name for unicorns.

[AppleTank]

8312953
...wait what?

[GMBlackjack]

Okay, so I read a ton while out on a kindle so I haven't been making comments.

BUT, overall... this town. This town. This town gives me one of those vibes of 'everything is just too good'. There's just enough odd details to put me on edge (stallions leave,,, but also nobody leaves these days, and there are still tons of mares... Lots of things ponies would rather not talk about... But end up being innocuous?)

This entire place is slightly off, and I can't quite put my finger on exactly why. It almost seems TOO normal. Maybe that's it. we know there's something else going on, but can't really SEE it. Hmmmm...

-GM, master of potatoes.

[Merula]

Cats out of the bag now

[Walrusesarecute]

I know there has to be more to Starlight’s story, and if there is I am still gonna have to wait a long time.