• Published 23rd Jun 2017
  • 8,247 Views, 4,585 Comments

The Olden World - Czar_Yoshi



Equestrian culture loves cutie marks. Filly Starlight Glimmer hates them and never wants one. So, she leaves Equestria.

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Rude

"You probably know who I am already," Gerardo Guillaume said, preventing an awkward silence from forming. "Gerardo Guillaume, griffon adventurer extraordinaire. In case you forgot, you lent me your aid earlier, and for that I am most grateful." He bowed graciously at Starlight.

"Uhhhhh..." Maple recoiled harshly, her expectations of a quiet, private evening suddenly dashed. "What are you doing in my house?"

"In order of importance?" He raised an eyebrow, staring at them with one avian eye. "First, to thank you; second, to apologize; and third, because one can never have too many friends." He coughed into a wing, and added, "Also, because I'll apparently be stuck here for a while and have nothing better to do."

"To apologize?" Maple asked, coldly pushing forward into the door while Starlight glowered at the griffon from behind. "For... breaking into my house?"

"To her, as a matter of fact," Gerardo said, pointing a wing at Starlight. "And in my defense, you did leave the door unlocked, and it was still raining when I arrived. Furthermore, this is a store..." He backed away from the door, allowing the ponies through. "Regardless... I have been made aware that putting yourself in the public eye in order to aid me was not something that was in your best interests to do?"

"What?" Starlight blinked groggily up at him, frowning.

"You saved my ship," Gerardo explained in simpler terms. "Or, more precisely, the priceless cargo inside it." He tilted his head. "Did you not?"

Starlight growled towards the ground. "Mmmph..."

Gerardo raised a concerned eyebrow at Maple. "Does she not like me, or is it always like this?"

Maple shrugged, leaning suspiciously against her store counter. "No offense, but you're not really making the best first impression on me either..." Inwardly, she bristled, hoping he would get the point.

"Erm. Yes. Ahem. I do apologize." Gerardo shuffled from talon to talon, apparently nervous. "I like to think diplomacy is my strong suit, but apparently I misjudged the situation. Might I have a redo?"

"Fine," Maple waved, moving to stand next to Starlight. "But just so you know, today I got up earlier than I would have liked, hiked back and forth across town while carrying a load, got rained on, ran around very frantically for four hours and just had a long, emotional and very one-sided chat with my newly-adopted daughter. I'm exhausted, and no matter how excited I usually might be to find an adventurer from distant lands standing in my house and wanting to talk to me, right now all I want is to make dinner, take a nap and reassure Starlight that her world is not about to implode."

"I... see." Gerardo blinked several times. "Perhaps it would be best for all parties involved if I came back at a later time, then?" He looked toward the window and blinked again. "How do you tell time here when you can't see the sun?"

"You do that," Maple grumbled. "I'm going to go put dinner on..." She and Starlight climbed the stairs, not waiting to see what the griffon decided to do.


"Stupid griffon... stupid griffon..." Maple stewed as she prepared a pot of broth, stiffly throwing in ingredients that would transform it into mushroom gravy.

"All I wanted," she sniffed angrily, stirring the pot with two hooves, "was to make dinner, sit down, and go to bed. But apparently, that is too much to ask for without some bozo invading my privacy when I was talking with Starlight and ruining the mood! Rrrgh!"

She slipped to the side, dumping a vat of rising dough on her counter and beginning to shape it into dollops on a sheet for baking. "He could have knocked..." She threw down a lump. "Or waited outside..." She splatted another, briefly folding her ears and pushing it back into shape. "Or apologized when I asked him to instead of talking about something completely different..." Dropping the mix, she threw herself onto her back, staring up at the ceiling and steaming. "But he didn't. And now I'm ticked, and can't cook right, and am talking out loud and sound like Amber!"

She panted for a moment, not quite hyperventilating but still laying on her back. Eventually, still irked, she professionally flipped onto her hooves and resumed spreading the biscuit dough, not speaking a word as she shaped them with considerably more finesse than earlier.

As she worked, leaning across to give the pot a quick sniff and additional stir, the back of her mind continued to spin. What had the griffon done? Come to say thank-you after Starlight worked her magic for him? Spoken in an unnecessarily theatrical manner that was probably a show for all the villagers?

A sudden hiss outside heralded the return of the rains, never content to stay gone for long. The cool air from the open window caused Maple's coat to raise, and she huddled slightly closer to the pot as she worked than she otherwise would have. She knew exactly what Gerardo had really done: caught her with her guard down. It wasn't something that would have been a problem years ago. A younger her would have been delighted to come home and find an explorer in her house. Now, she could only lower it for ponies she trusted... and as an offering to Starlight. He probably truly had no idea what he had walked into.

"Starlight?" she asked, turning around. "Do you think he was...?"

Starlight was nowhere to be seen. The benches at her table were vacant, the lights dim and the door to the bedroom ajar. Curiously, Maple stuffed the biscuit sheet into the oven to begin baking and walked toward the door on the tips of her hooves. It swung open soundlessly at her touch.

Light from the door illuminated half of a lilac body slumbering softly on the bed, Starlight's head fully in the shadows. Maple felt her poise soften at the sight, and she stepped further in, leaning her head onto the bed. The feel of Starlight's gentle breaths brushed against her cheek, and like that, all her tension was gone. It didn't matter. The thing that mattered was currently on that bed, and she was happy enough to be at peace.

With a smile on her face, Maple resumed her cooking, thoughtfully adding more to the pot. She had too little experience to know what Starlight would love, so she let her imagination take its place, projecting her mind out beyond the mountains.

Should she use spices commonly associated with Riverfall? It would always be good if the filly developed a taste for local cuisine. On the other hoof, maybe something more exotic would impress her. Face scrunching as she tried to sniff two vials of spice at once, she felt her eyes brighten at the combination and prepared to generously shake it in.

Thud.

Maple gasped, realizing that something yellow and fuzzy had plastered itself against her window. She squinted. "Amber?"

"Mapllle!" The yellow mare grinned through the glass, clinging on upside-down like a giant yellow squirrel before lithely wriggling around and squeezing herself through the aperture, leaving a trail of water across Maple's counter as she slithered to the floor.

"Amber, what...?" Maple squinted curiously, standing over the soaked mare laying on the floor.

"So, enjoy the gift?" Amber grinned cheekily up at her. "Stupidest thing I've ever done, but wow will it be worth it in the morning. And oooh, is that something coking I smell?"

"Gift? Wait a minute. You didn't..." Maple blinked worriedly, doubt creasing into her brow.

"I did!" Amber nodded twice, wearing an expression that suggested she was leaking a national secret and loving every second of it.

"Oh." Maple hung her head. "He might have surprised me, and I... told him to go away."

Amber bit her lip, still laying on the floor. "Huh. Hope you didn't make it too awkward, because me and him are kind of friends now and he's stuck in Riverfall until I can fix his boat."

A silence as perfectly awkward as Amber had implied settled between then. Eventually, Maple said, "Well, I am making dinner, and you're welcome to stay if you're hungry." She rolled her eyes and added, "Not that being unwelcome would ever stop you."

"Or that I'd ever be unwelcome?" Amber asked, flipping upright with a smirk. "We also tried to take some of the heat off Starlight, by the way."

"That was you?" Maple raised an eyebrow. "Everyone was ignoring us on the way back. It sounded like you were doing something when I was leaving, but... what did you do?"

Amber stuffed a hoof in her mouth, suddenly trying not to laugh. After composing herself for a moment, she snickered, "Basically, I got everyone's attention, then convinced old Hemlock right in front of the crowd that I had sabotaged his crane and made it explode. He blew his stack super hard! I think he was actually looking to blame someone for that already, but whatever. Most of the crowd probably just thought I was messing with him in return for wrecking Gerardo's boat, but they loved it and played along. Gerardo was in on it, too! I got him to tell everyone the crystal thing was a safety mechanism in his boat. Get some conflicting stories out there and then don't give anyone time to think about it, you know?"

She licked her shoulder, straightening an errant clump of fur, and continued. "So yeah, Starlight might still be a bit of a celebrity, but she's already old news. And Gerardo's stuck here for a bit, so as long as he hangs around her he'll keep her in his shadow. I'm also technically a fugitive now, which is why I came in through the window, but who cares? So, when's dinner?"

Relief washed over Maple's face. "Soon. But you actually did that for her?"

"Well, I can't say it didn't feel fun to do," Amber said, brushing some dirt off a foreleg. "Ever since that one day where he followed me around the downtown bazaar and..." She shook her head. "Ugh. You remember. Who does that, anyway? Point is, he had it coming."

"Why's it so loooooud...?" Starlight complained, hobbling out of the bedroom while rubbing her eyes with a hoof.

Maple pursed her lips in alarm. "Oh! Sorry, I forgot to shut the door for you! But, umm..." She smiled hesitantly. "The biscuits are in the oven and this gravy is coming along well, if you'd like a taste?"

"Kiddo," Amber said, leaning down with a smile, "me and Gerardo got the town off your back for you while you were out there. Just wanted you to know." She threw in a wink for good measure.

"...Huh?" Starlight blinked several times, mouth stretching in a massive yawn.

"Yep," Amber added, "we did. And by the way..." She glanced aside, then whispered out of the corner of her mouth. "The dude's actually kind of... y'know... nice. You did him a big favor, and he did one in return for you. So it would be cool if you at least said thank you, next time you see him, because I have a feeling that the last time, you didn't."

"That's why the other ponies left us alone," Maple added from the background, still stirring. "Something about you being old news. You won't have to worry about being special after all!"

Starlight blinked again, hope and mistrust mixing in her eyes. "You did? How?"

"Hogged the spotlight, stole the show." Amber waved nonchalantly. "Gave Hemlock the runaround he deserves. Still am, actually. I just told Maple all about it. She'll give you the story. I've gotta run."

"...You're not staying for dinner?" Maple asked, a slight look of annoyance on her face as she finished dumping more ingredients into the pot. "But I was making extra!"

"Oh, I am." Amber grinned, hopping up onto the windowsill with a salute. "Just after I'm back... with guests."

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