The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

An Extended Debriefing

After Valey had been reintroduced to the rest of the group, everyone assured that there weren't too many hard feelings, and lunch ordered by way of the castle staff, every party member sans Jamjars gathered around the table Gerardo and Shinespark were gaming on the previous night, ready to talk about practical things.

Valey started the conversation off. "So, important stuff. I was kinda too busy running away and not bringing down the law last night to remember or care much about all the names I heard and dudes I met, so assume I know nothing and am horribly confused until someone jogs my memory otherwise. First off, who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Anyone I can trust?"

Maple nodded, the others giving her permission to answer first. "We've had a big day too, and haven't actually met any of the important royals. There's a griffon, though, Wallace Whitewing. He's... like a more muscular Gerardo, but-"

Gerardo cut her off with a fit of sputtering. "Comparing me to Wallace the Great!? M-miss Maple! It is rare for me to feel so unworthy of compliments, but I must insist..."

"As I was saying," Maple continued, batting her ears at being interrupted, "I have a good feeling about him. My character judgement might not be the best, and I didn't meet him for long, but he felt like the kind of person who wouldn't even think about being dishonest, and seems to enjoy helping others. But... he might also get us into trouble. I don't know."

"Eh, met him." Valey shrugged. "I've kinda already forgotten what he was like, though. Don't think he did anything bad?" She blinked. "Oh, right, he told me you guys were here! Yeah, he was kind of cool."

Nearby, Gerardo sulked. "'Kind of,' says you. Only kind of..."

"The other important pony is Meltdown," Slipstream added. "She's the one who brought you back last night? She looks terrifying, but is actually nice. She cares about rules a lot and is very professional, and doesn't waste time being silly or unhelpful. A lot of creatures here are scared of her, though."

Maple nodded, taking over. "We asked her, and what we found out is that Meltdown enforces a lot of rules that no one likes. Apparently, it's illegal to make mana generators like the ones in Ironridge here in the Empire, and instead all the magical power is sold from an organization she's in charge of that belongs to Garsheeva. It's called the Power Distribution Agency, and is how the government makes money to pay its workers and fund projects."

"Essentially, selling power is the Empire's substitute for taxation, a funding model prevalent in Varsidel, Ironridge and smaller territories," Gerardo finished.

"Huh." Valey blinked several times. "You know, I was wondering why the castle was so dark and badly defended against batponies. I guess it's because the Stormhoofs are being greedy and not wanting to spend money on power?" She shrugged. "Huh. I wonder if this Meltdown realizes making money that way makes places vulnerable to attacks."

Shinespark shrugged back. "Supposedly, Stormhoof is in the Empire's southwest corner, all the batponies are far to the north, and the Empire and them are on relatively good terms. I guess they don't think it's a major worry."

Valey bit her lip. "I dunno... Have you seen how hard random strangers here can go off on bats? Actually, maybe you wouldn't have, but... some bat who's actually mean gets their hooves stepped on, they could probably assassinate someone important all on their own. Like, I could have gotten one of the sphinxes here with ease."

Everyone frowned, but no one had a satisfactory answer, so Gerardo continued instead. "The other thing about Miss Meltdown is that her agency has a lot of investigative authority. She apparently has a reputation for sticking her nose where others very strongly feel it does not belong, and furthermore has a great record of tracking down and arresting the perpetrators of heresy. Her unannounced appearance frequently means someone is being investigated, and with her track record..."

"Imagine it." Slipstream shuddered. "You're sitting in public with your parent, sibling, child, friend, lover, whatever... and then she shows up. She's never wrong, and she's there for someone. She's like a reaper. And you'd have to wonder if you did something you didn't even know about, or if your loved one did something and didn't tell you and it's about to be over in an instant..."

"I know about reputations and public image." Shinespark swallowed. "And that's not how you build a good one."

Valey hesitated, then tapped a hoof. "Sooo... good guy? Bad guy? In between? Sounds like as long as you follow the rules, she's actually great..."

"Well, that shouldn't be terribly difficult." Gerardo proudly raised a talon. "Use common sense, abstain from piracy, don't desecrate the batpony statues, no inbreeding, no inter-species relationships unless you're a sphinx, no-"

"Oh bananas." Valey went pale. "She was testing me. I totally made a random remark that I could kiss her after she bailed me out in the halls down there, and thought she was flirting back! Okay..." She held a hoof to her forehead, suddenly in a cold sweat. "I hate this place's rules. Someone better not see us rolling around and think I'm with one of you guys... Hey, what counts as a relationship?" She glanced at Gerardo. "Is it specifically the naughty stuff, or what?"

Gerardo raised his talons apologetically. "I'm afraid I've never had cause to learn the answer."

"Well... nyaah." Valey sat down in a huff, crossly folding her forelimbs and sticking out her tongue, then wincing heavily as her legs locked up. "Ow! Oh, come on..." Gritting her teeth, she went on anyway. "I guess we try to steer clear of the walking toaster just in case, then?"

"It might not matter," Maple hopefully offered. "If she'd track us down anyway if we did something bad, then as long as we're in her good graces, we could make use of that?"

Everyone evaluated that, and no one seemed to object... until Shinespark put her hoof down on the table. "I can give you another reason we might not want to get mixed up with her," she firmly said.

Everyone perked, and she went on. "I recognize the look in her eyes," Shinespark continued. "It reminds me a lot of myself, back in Ironridge. It's just intuition, and I can't say why, but... well, be careful. Remember how my ambitions ended for everyone."

"Don't make too good of friends with her. Cool." Valey nodded, cracking her neck. "So, that's two maybe-goods. Any nasties I should know about that I haven't met already?"

Maple turned to Slipstream, who glanced at Gerardo, who shrugged. "I can't say we've encountered anyone particularly ignoble," he informed her.

"Cool. Great. Argh." Valey tried to lean back, wincing. "Guess I got the bottom of the barrel, then. Wanna hear my list of bozos? I've got a big one..."

The others nodded in morbid curiosity, so she began. "Bar bouncer! Wouldn't let me in. Bar chef! Tried to drug me, then beat me up, so I whacked him good. Random sleazy bar patron: reverse-mugged me. Don't ask, I have no idea. Uhhh..." She scratched her head. "First set of city guards: had a really, really creepy dude I had to piledrive. Tunnels under the city: found this old bat dude called Grandpapa who was okay while there were others around, but really creeped me out once we were alone. He might be an insane cultist or something. Murderous chef: probably in jail by now. Second set of guards: actually sort of cool. Third set of guards: nope nope nope. Fourth set of guards: way too gullible for their own good. Prince Garbylardy what's-his-face: a big coward and kind of a jerk to everyone. Fifth set of guards..." She blinked, losing her train of thought. "Wait, were they the fifth? I skipped someone, didn't I? Or wait, were there reinforcements? No, two squads mixed, I think..."

"In short, there were many guards," Gerardo summarized, speeding a conversation up for once.

"Yeah, that." Valey pointed stiffly at him, leaving her foreleg on the table. "The biggest and baddest though, get this: that Gazelle guy from Kero's will? Supposedly the top prince or something?" She raised an eyebrow. "Imagine old me in Ironridge, but he has the run of an entire continent and none of the nobles can tell him to go away. That's the impression I got, at least. Ironflanks, if you can do your thing and hug a sob story out of him so he joins our side, that would be pretty useful."

Maple nervously chuckled. "I'm not sure if empathy works that way, but maybe?"

"Of course, there's always the chance he's totally evil," Valey went on. "But I sort of doubt it? He didn't try to stab me, or anything, so at least he doesn't fly into a psychotic blood rage at the sight of bats. I kinda feel like I heard good things about him, too, but I don't remember from where. Either way, I know we kind of stuck together just because in Ironridge, but I still think that was strategically dumb of you and I think the same about this guy. Maybe he'll turn out decent, maybe he'll save us all and nearly die dueling a giant monster, or maybe he'll be the next big bad I have to take down. Stay away from him if you can, and if you can't, focus on finding out what makes him tick and on learning how things work so you can at least have a chance playing his game. Do anything else, and you're gambling."

Uneasy nods went out all around, leaving Valey to wrack her brain for a lighter subject matter. "Cool dudes I found, though! Or, like... one cool dude. I think. Birdo, what's that you said about those weird bat statues?"

Gerardo cleared his throat. "I'm unfamiliar with their official name, though the phrase dusk statue rings a bell. They are statues Garsheeva mandates the batponies be allowed to set up and maintain within the Empire, supposedly used to allow them to commune with the Night Mother who is revered in the north. I can't say I've ever seen one, and I imagine them to be quite well-hidden, though if you do somehow become privy to one's location..." He raised an eyebrow. "I would be most interested in hearing whether it truly works."

"Yeah, cool, that's what this is." Valey leaned over, trying to rub her shoulder but only earning another cramp in her foreleg. "So I found one. It's in a maintenance room under the bridge to shore. It kinda weirded me out and I didn't try talking to it, but what I also found there was another batpony! Pretty cute, said her name was Senescey, and most importantly was actually reasonable, helpful and nice. If I see her again, maybe I'll try to get her on board with our group, or something. And her mane reminded me of bananas. But yeah, she was good. Actual highlight amid all the other ridiculous stuff out there..."

"Well, then!" Slipstream stretched far more luxuriously than Valey was able. "They said we'd hopefully be able to go before too long, so what do we want to do? Do we have any way to fix the ship so it can store enough mana power to run normally yet?"

Valey tipped her head, and Shinespark quickly explained. "Out of harmonic power, so no flying. The Dream can still sail on water using mana power, but the mana core was destroyed in Ironridge and the one I got from Arambai's for a hotfix is too small to hold any meaningful charge. We sailed here by charging it using the harmony extractor with Maple's brand to conserve power, but can't rely on that to get everywhere, so we need to get a new mana core before we can sail. And that's expensive."

"Hrrrrmm..." Valey stared into space. "Didn't someone steal a big one from the Water District lighthouse when everything was exploding?"

"Left it in Ironridge," Maple said sadly. "Since they were having a power crisis, Arambai said they'd need it for rebuilding the generators..."

Valey drooped. "Bananas. So, we stay here until the ship's fixed, huh?"

"Pretty much," Shinespark sighed, drumming her hooves on the table. "We have to, at least for a while."

"Oh, yeah..." Blinking, Valey tried again to stretch. "We're locked up, right? What do we have to do to get out of here?"

Gerardo explained Meltdown's information about the war room meeting they would be required to attend, the others nodding and following Valey's expression. When he was done, she asked, "So. Kero?"

"Will be there," Shinespark confirmed. "I assume, at least. Along with enough generals and probably powerful ponies that he shouldn't be able to start anything. Still, we haven't met him and don't know a thing about what he'll do. Once a mercenary leader who ordered you attacked and did work for Herman, always one... but the rest of the mercenaries turned themselves around, so who can say? Then again, he did abandon them."

Valey blew a raspberry in annoyance. "Well, I'll just bust him up if he tries anything. If I can move. Hey, anyone feel like massage duty until we have to leave? It'll be totally relaxing for me and you'll get to touch my nice, fuzzy coat..."

Comments

[Venlinelle]

Valey blew a raspberry in annoyance. "Well, I'll just bust him up if he tries anything. If I can move. Hey, anyone feel like massage duty until we have to leave? It'll be totally relaxing for me and you'll get to touch my nice, fuzzy coat..."

Sold, I’ll do it!