The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Crossing

Starlight had found food.

Exuberantly, with the setting sun tinging the topmost layer of the canopy gold above her, she munched and munched contentedly, pulling berries off a cluster of bushes with her telekinesis. Her eyes were closed, relying on the feel of her magic to separate the fruit from the leaves... though the leaves on this particular bush were quite tasty, too.

She scarfed the berries by the dozen. Small, bulb-shaped, and incredibly sour, they made her tongue puff up as she ate, but she didn't care. As far as she was concerned, any flavor at all beat out stale bread. Besides, she liked sour.

More usefully, the berries were fairly hard, sturdy and didn't drip. When she had eaten as much as she considered wise (plus a few extra hooffulls for good measure), she set down her saddlebags, rearranged the contents so that one was empty, and began packing the thing with berries as well.

The berries were small, and the bushes not infinite, so that task took her several hours. It might have gone faster if she hadn't kept eating, but she didn't care - at least, not until she realized stars were visible through the treetops above. The sun had set, it was night, and her horn was just beginning to ache again.

Starlight yawned, belching contentedly, and realized how badly she needed a drink. Deciding it could wait, she shrugged on her saddlebags... and promptly faceplanted into the springy earth.

She hit the ground with a yelp of surprise. Her saddlebags were heavy! And she was full, and more than a little tired. She blinked, twitching her ears, wondering if it was time for a nap.

Not sleeping now meant sleeping during the day... or staying awake twenty-four more hours, twice as long as she'd already been up. Swiftly making up her mind, she dumped her saddlebags again, rummaging through the contents. The filly produced a warm, lightweight blanket and backed her way to a nearby outcropping of stone, against which she curled, wrapping herself like a burrito. She hovered her bags next to her head, extinguished her horn, and listened to the night.

---

At a sudden burning sensation on her face, Starlight yawned herself awake. She blinked, cringing, upwards; the sun shone on her through the trees directly above. It was midday, and she had been rudely awakened.

Grumbling, Starlight shook out and packed her blanket, checking on the berries in her other bag. They had held up, it seemed - perfect. She searched the bushes one last time, grabbing a few more elusive clumps and throwing them in her mouth as she set off again.

The sun was perfectly overhead, so she couldn't use it for guidance. What she really needed was another river: water flowed downhill, so it would inevitably lead her to a lake, or, preferably, out of the mountains or even to civilization. As she walked, she daydreamed about what non-Equestrian civilization would be like. There would be no worship-this and worship-that of cutie marks... or possibly no cutie marks at all. She licked her lips and looked back at the gray equals sign on her lilac flank.

She walked perfectly counter to the gradient, reasoning that water flowed downhill, so by keeping her altitude constant she'd cross the most potential room for rivers to run. Eventually, her instinct paid off, leading her to a rushing torrent many times wider than the small stream she'd found earlier. It was moving downhill to her left, so she shrugged and followed it.

The river led a fairly straight course. Starlight was somewhat surprised; from her view of the mountains from above, they looked like folds in a blanket: jagged, triangular and geometric, straight sloped lines all the way to the bottom. She wondered if that meant she was nearing the bottom, but was hesitant to assume seeing how recently she'd been tricked by the alien geography.

Home... the mountains of home didn't look at all like this. They were tall stacks, rounded humps, whimsically deposited across flat stretches of land like scoops of ice cream fallen from the cones of giants. Even the homeward side of the supposedly-impassable mountain range she was leaving behind was somewhat curvy, though it was definitely closer to this than anywhere else.

Something about the triangular mountains soothed her. There was an ordered chaos to them, something wild and raw... that hadn't been made to be anything other than what it naturally was. She was almost jealous, in a way.

Jealous of mountains! Starlight laughed, picking her way around small logs that had washed up at the riverbank. No, she wouldn't be jealous of anything. That was too much like getting attached, and she had to prevent herself from caring too much about anything in order not to find her cutie mark.

Evening had come again, the sun shining the last rays it would shine before being swallowed by the impossibly high horizon when Starlight and her river exited the forest. She breathed in wonder at the lake before her, its perfectly flat waters stretching all the way to a massive, sheer cliff face to her left. Her eyes searched for the top, and perhaps a mile down she saw a small waterfall glistening in the dying light. That was probably where she'd been last night.

The waters met the cliff without leaving a path, meaning Starlight's only path forward was around the other side of the lake... and across any and all rivers pouring into it. Silently, she hoped there was at least one that left it, because if not, she'd have to find a pass, and that meant more climbing.

She didn't want to swim; she knew that much. And seeing as she wasn't tall enough to ford all but the shallowest of shallows, she set off to find something she could use as a bridge.

---

A series of flat, decently-large rocks poked up through the river, just high enough that they avoided most of the splashes and spray. Starlight Glimmer sized them up, decided they would do, then waggled her tail and leapt.

With a clink of metal on stone, she landed on the first one. Her legs complained slightly from the jump, but she was still sturdy. The stone below her was too, not shifting in the slightest from her landing. Pausing, she examined the river surging around her again, lining up the best way across. She targeted her next stone, backed up as far as she dared, and made another jump.

Tink! Her hooves made contact, scrabbling for purchase. She'd been munching on berries from her saddlebag all day, so it wasn't as heavy as it once had been, but was still cumbersome. Minding its weight, Starlight judged another stone and leapt again. Halfway there.

She made it past one more jump... and paused, realizing she had made a mistake. The end of the river loomed just ahead, but it was more distance than she could jump at once and she was all out of stones. She frowned, bit her lip and pouted. The river rushed around her.

Eventually, when the river had made it clear it wasn't going to magically grow a new platform for her to stand on on its own, Starlight sighed and narrowed her eyes. Grunting in concentration, she lit her horn and pointed it at the halfway point between her and the rocky edge.

Flash! A stream of teal flew forward. Where it impacted, cyan manacrystals formed together in midair, interlocking into a prism that traced its way down until it ingrained with the riverbed. Starlight stuck out her tongue in concentration, pouring all her focus into the high-powered spell, all the while making sure to deliberately not enjoy it.

The crystal block stayed put. After a few moments, horn still active and keeping it in existence, Starlight gritted her teeth, ran forward, and jumped again.

Her hooves made a strange, metallic sizzling noise as they came in contact with the substance, but it was as sturdy as anything she'd ever walked on. Not stopping to rest on her work, Starlight immediately jumped again, relying on her momentum to carry her to the far side.

She landed abruptly, pebbles shifting under her weight, and hopped to higher ground. Her horn went out, the block behind her disappearing in a flash. She smirked, proud of herself... but not too proud. She didn't want a cutie mark in river crossing, after all.

So, with the setting sun in her eyes and the forded river at her side, Starlight set off once again, returning to the lake at the bottom of the cliff.

Comments

[Aloxamax]

Why doesn't she just levitate herself? That's one of the most useful things we've seen any unicorn do in this series.

[Czar_Yoshi]

8259636 She doesn't know how to do that yet. But she'll definitely figure it out some day.

[Hap]

She scarfed the berries by the dozen. Small, bulb-shaped, and incredibly sour, they made her tongue puff up as she ate, but she didn't care.

I thought for sure she'd poisoned herself. Damn, girl. You gotta be more careful.

That was too much like getting attached, and she had to prevent herself from caring too much about anything in order not to find her cutie mark.

Okay, I see. She drew on the equals sign, and is trying to avoid getting her cutie mark.

[axxuy]

Jealous of mountains! Starlight laughed,

What's she laughing for? Mountains are a perfectly reasonable thing to be jealous of--I mean, have you seen some of those things?

[VcSaJen]

8259636
It's more complicated than you think. If you imagine magic as an arcane hand, trying to levitate yourself is like grabbing your hair with a hand and pulling it upwards and expect to ascend into air. Now, if you're clever, you can "grab" ground and push it downwards: magical equivalent of a handstand. But it's limited by your TK range, and need solid surface.
Starlight from the show is most likely doing combination of weightlessness and propulsion spells.

[AppleTank]

"I definitely dont like doing this!" she said, while doing it.

[PropMaster]

Okay, not a cutie mark.

Also, I was very sure that Starlight had just poisoned herself. Obviously not wilderness survival savvy! She does seem to be lucky, though.

[sporklasagna]

She's doing some sort of weird reverse Cutie Mark Crusading!

[Rupple]

Would've been quite an abrupt end to the story if she poisoned herself right there and then, especially considering how much she ate

[Teraunce]

9439071
The CMC would really like to know your location in time and space Starlight.

[StormLuna]

8260606

I'm assuming she has the drawn on cutie mark right now? Also, from what I'm reading it seems like she is going in circles.

[Czar_Yoshi]

10979184
Yep. And she's going on a switchback, down the mountains. Alternating between east and west (I think, it's been a while) but always heading gradually north.

[Merula]

So she can do high level magic after all!

[Venlinelle]

Oh, so that's what we have going on! It's funny, a friend of mine was just pitching this as a concept to me; how convenient.

Very impressive that Starlight can already create and maintain solid objects out of magic at this age. It seems like that would be very difficult, but then, that's why we love Starlight.

[Walrusesarecute]

this is going to be interesting.... when she reaches civilization.