The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Virtue to Vice

"Drink this. I don't know if you can understand me, but it's a healing potion. It will help your ribs."

Starlight frowned as Maple held the jar of red fluid up to the still-captive mare's mouth, her horn taking a break and only concentrating on the crystal now that the lights were back on. In the distance, they could hear thumps, yells and an occasional wild battle cry from Valey, who sounded perfectly fine with the situation. Helping her enemies aside, though, those potions were a precious resource. Hopefully Maple didn't use too much...

"I'm not going to stroke your throat to force you to swallow," Maple sighed, holding the rim up to the stubborn batpony's lips. "Please let me help you."

The mare grimaced, looking like breathing hurt too much for snarling to be worth it... and relented, opening her mouth and closing her eyes.

Maple only gave her a third of the jar, then stepped back, waiting to see what would happen. There was no visible difference to the mare's front, but her breathing slowly strengthened, and soon she was back to glaring again.

"Ohh..." Maple slumped, sealing the jar again and sitting back. "Please don't make me regret that. We never did anything to you, and I'm just... tired of making enemies wherever I go. Why did you attack us? Why did you try to invade our ship?"

The mare snapped something at her, one word, in Sarosian. Starlight glared back.

"I can't understand that," Maple apologized, shaking her head.

The batpony stared harder.

"Do you have a name?" Maple tilted her head. "At least you seem to be able to understand me."

"Kayshe," the batpony snarled. "Not that it means anything in your lawless tongue."

"So you can talk. Hello, Kayshe." Maple nodded. "Could you at least be nicer? That potion is expensive, and I didn't use it on you because I hated you. You attacked my ship and tried to tie me up. I haven't met you and didn't do a single thing to you before now. You can at least be nice in return."

Kayshe's eyes somehow narrowed further. "Under what goddess do you claim I wasn't justified?"

"I..." Maple blinked. "You're pirates! Aren't you? Piracy is illegal! I shouldn't need a goddess to say that, but Garsheeva says it is anyway!"

"The Cat Mother. Pfah." Kayshe spat. "You're not a true follower of anyone, invoking rules when they suit you and ignoring them otherwise. You were bedding one of our kind. That's unforgivable under any goddess, mine or the one you claim to follow."

Maple blinked. Then she blinked harder. "Valey... We were..." She held her hooves to her face. "Ohhhh no... I think this is a big misunderstanding..."

"What was she doing?" Starlight tilted her head and continued to glare. "Letting Valey sleep in our bed? How did you know that before you attacked us and came in here, huh?"

Kayshe scoffed. "We're also pirates. Your ship was undefended, and we wanted supplies. If you hadn't broken a sacred law right under our noses, we would have subdued you and let you keep your lives, safety and ship!"

"Valey is not my lover," Maple sighed. "She's my friend! And she was in a bad place, so I was being there so she wouldn't have to sleep alone! We know about that rule, and none of us were breaking it!"

"You would have subdued us?" Starlight raised an eyebrow, still wearing her saddlebags. "Really? Because it sounds like you're getting beaten up out there. Subdued us with what?"

"Please don't taunt her," Maple whispered. "I'm sorry if we came off that way, but that's not what we were doing! Please calm down!"

Kayshe's nose pulsed, and she sniffed. "...Hm. You don't smell like you did. But anyone self-important enough to do that would be good at covering for themselves."

"I told you, we're not," Maple repeated firmly, not begging. "We weren't insulting any goddess, or being full of ourselves, or doing anything more than helping each other sleep through a difficult night."

"Hmmmmm..." Kayshe's brow narrowed again. "What do you want? I'm already your captive."

Starlight stepped forward, close enough that she could have kicked her again without moving more than a single hoof. "She already told you, she wants you to be nice!"

Kayshe wasn't paying attention. Instead, she stiffened, both ears radaring wildly around. "It whispers..."

Her voice was squeaky with accent and hard to make out, but both Starlight and Maple tilted their heads. "What does?"

Kayshe smiled a nervous smile. "I'm sorry. I-I was wrong. You're both clearly blessed with the Night Mother's favor." She bowed as best she was able.

"Huh?" Starlight leaned forward again, having stepped away. "You're... what?"

"Something just changed your mind," Maple breathed. "Are you...? Tell me how to prove it."

"How would you like?" Kayshe did her best to tilt her head, aggression and disdain completely vanished.

"...I'll release you," Starlight offered. "But the moment you try to do something to Maple, I'll crystal you again, and this time I'll dance on you instead of just kicking!"

Kayshe kept up her smile, clearly uncomfortable with her change of heart. "Do that?"

The crystals vanished, and Starlight sighed, finally able to relax her horn.

"Ow..." Kayshe stretched, opening and closing her wings several times and checking all of her joints. "Mmm... Good to be free..."

Starlight kept watching her, while Maple tilted her head. "Are you alright, now? What was it you said about whispering? Did you get a message from-"

Crack!

Kayshe zipped upward, a hoof extended, and kicked the mana light in the ceiling, causing the container to break and the crystal to tumble, dim, to the floor. They were in shadow again.

"Aaah!" Starlight yelped, collapsing as a heavy weight hit her from above. Kayshe was on top of her, wrapping her legs around her, grabbing around her barrel... She lit her horn, preparing an instantaneous blast of crystal, when something abruptly cracked there too and she lost her concentration. Kayshe was... biting her horn?

"No! Get off...!" Starlight protested, struggling, energy dancing halfway along her horn but too interrupted by the attacker's jaw to form a corona. Then something clicked beneath her as Kayshe's hooves continued to reach, and suddenly she felt her saddlebag strap slacken.

Whud! "Get away from her!" Maple yelled, tackling the batpony and knocking her off Starlight with her enhanced weight. Starlight felt the bags leave too, and blinked. What was she doing?

"There's something in here," Kayshe hissed from the other side of the room, and Starlight realized she had shadow snuck out of Maple's grasp. "It calls out to my heart just like the Night Mother's song! You have a holy artifact! It must be! I will relieve it of your possession!"

"Hey! Give those saddlebags back!" Starlight jumped forward, lighting her horn. "They're important!"

The room lit teal, and for a moment Kayshe was half-in and half-out of the window, her hindquarters stuck inside the room with the pane running through her middle... and then with a fluid ripple, she was pulled to the other side, saddlebags and all. Starlight was instantly at the window, horn blazing, trying to see where the thief had gone, but all she could make out was her own hornlight reflected in the glass.

"Starlight," Maple panted, getting back to her hooves. "Are you alright!?"

"She tricked us," Starlight growled, punching the window ineffectually. "She stole my bags... and Valey had just said to keep those safe! That she was putting her valuables in there!"

Maple's pupils shrank. "Then she took the sound stone..."

Before Starlight could agree, there was a stylish rap on the door. "Yo, Ironflanks?" Valey's satisfied voice echoed from the other side. "Pretty sure I've scoured the ship from tip to tail and booted out all the pirates. You still got those three? Aside from those, we're safe and clear!"

Comments

[alamais]

[RoboRed]

....Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.

[KMCA]

oh... the nightmare module..... yep, that could be actually worse than the shard.

[Alchemik]

Well, that's less than ideal.