The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Pull Yourselves Together

Starlight held her eyes closed, enveloped by wings, fur, and warmth. Her entire body was pressed against Valey's fuzzy, hyperventilating chest and barrel, and as her friend clung to her like she was a life raft in a stormy sea, something cold she realized she had acclimated to as normal fell away. This was... important. Another pony, a living soul, needed her this desperately, and a simple, logical truth clicked into place inside her mind: if she had friends she would do this for, then her friends would do it for her, too.

She needed to feel needed like that, and she needed to never be alone. How often had she thought about this before? Was it a change from the Nightmare Module? Did being in this state make her more aware of the bonds between her and her friends? It didn't feel like a wrong thing. It felt like she had stumbled on something that was right, a light or a goal that was worth fighting for. How often before had she wondered if there was any end to her quest for a perfect place in the world, and how had she always missed that there was something so much better?

There was nothing better she could be doing with herself. Nothing. Nothing. She knew what true worth and purpose was, and this was it, because if she had friends with bonds this strong, she would never, ever have to be alone.

"Hic... Nnngh... Starlight..." Valey rubbed her back, laying on her own back upright against a wall with Starlight pressed atop her, managing to speak between bursts of hyperventilation and tears. "You're kinda cold... heh... Bananas, what happened to you...?"

Starlight held on and was held through another burst of shaky, accelerated breathing. "I touched moon glass and went like this again so I could use the Nightmare Module, because I needed more power to escape. It's not actually that bad. I could live like this, even. But you're completely destroyed. Nothing shakes you this bad, even the skyport with the windigoes. What happened to you?"

Valey took a few more gasping breaths, trying to get her shaky rhythm under control, and as she did, Starlight's leg slipped and brushed against her flank. Starlight winced at the contact, sucking in a breath of her own: Valey's cutie mark was hot! And she didn't think it was a magical sensation like what she had been feeling ever since she touched the moon glass, either. This was physical. Her mind brought up an image of Valey standing stunned before Stanza, a tiny spark crackling across her mark...

"You're not alright," she told Valey, still held in a tight grasp. "That place did something bad to you. What was it?"

Valey swallowed, taking a long breath and then a longer one. "Starlight, I... I..." She winced and fought off a fresh wave of tears, seeming to stabilize. "I dunno what's wrong with me. I snuck past some guards on the way down, and some of them were batponies. They looked pretty on edge, but not like me, so it's not that. I d-dunno... I dunno..."

"We're out now," Starlight reminded her. "We've faced a lot of dangerous things before, remember?"

"Ugh." Valey lifted a hoof to wipe at her eyes. "Felt like being stuck in a whirlpool, or something. It was like being in a room with a million people whispering at you to do stuff, only they're not your friends and probably want the worst for you, and it's not your ears but in your mind and you've gotta constantly keep trying or else you'll just... y'know... do it? I... Starlight, have I ever told you about the pendant I used to keep Nyala in?"

Starlight nestled against her. She was helping and Valey was getting calmer, and that was wonderful. "Maybe? I was blind when you were using it."

"Yeah. It worked like this, though." Valey hesitated again, gathering her words. "You turn it on and it creates a connection between you and the moon glass. And you get to decide how big that connection is, but when it's open, it's like... the soul inside the glass becomes you. It's not just that they're inside your mind, your mind and their mind become the same thing. And you can lower the effect and make it easier to stay in control by not opening the thing all the way, but if you sat back and didn't fight them? They'd become you. They'd get to speak with your body and move you around, and you'd even look like them. I guess you wouldn't have seen it, but when I opened the pendant, I... changed. Changed more the more I opened it, but when I was fighting Herman, I only looked half like myself. The other half was Nyala."

Starlight folded her ears, taking too much solace from her sense of purpose to be scared or worried. "Okay."

"I had talked to Nyala before that, in my body," Valey continued. "Whenever I got particularly lonely or detached in Ironridge, I went down to the crystal palace and put the thing on and just stayed there until I got hungry. She actually has some memories in my body, I think. So when we were in the skyport, I, like... felt the windigo storm pressing on my mind and influencing me, somehow. And opening the pendant, I suddenly have two souls instead of one to resist that, and I think whatever energy the connection was using h-helped as well."

"Can confirm," Puddles groaned from the heap where she lay, "that's how it works. Unless we made you and her start fighting, you'd be stronger together."

Starlight listened along. Valey was taking a huge tangent and she wasn't sure where it was going, but if she needed to prepare herself or psyche herself up before talking about Stanza's tunnels, that was perfect. She saw no valid reasons to stop being like this.

"Cool." Valey glanced at Puddles and folded her ears. "Good to know, I guess. Anyway, d-down there... felt like the same thing. Like having another pony in my head. Only instead of a single soul with a voice you could talk to, and stuff, it was like... a giant tentacle-y mass of emotions and music notes. No words, just emotions, and all bad ones. Stinking loneliness is the worst, and then there was vengeance, worthlessness, jealousy... ugh. And while I was in there, like..." She swallowed again. "I was changing. Just a little, but like how I was for Nyala. Just the very tips of my mane and tail, and sometimes the membranes on my wings. It was subtle, and wasn't like it was building up to anything. Only colors, really, and the same amount the whole time, just constantly changing and changing again..."

"Really?" Starlight frowned. "I didn't see anything different."

Valey patted her with a strained laugh. "Yeah, kiddo, you're one hundred percent gray right now. Not a drop of color left in your body. And since you talked about it last time this happened on the boat, I'm pretty sure you're colorblind right now."

"Colorblind?" Starlight blinked. "I... don't think so? Nothing looks different than it ever has, I think."

Valey slouched up the wall an inch, uncovering Starlight and turning her head to look at herself. "Yeah? Think you look any different than you used to?"

Starlight examined herself, unsure how to answer. She really didn't, but did that mean...?

"Yep. Colorblind." Valey left her there, still laying atop her but no longer tightly embraced. "A-Anyway. Had that going on the whole time I was down there. Was seriously wishing I had that pendant back to help resist it, but I'm honestly not even sure it would have done anything. Because the price for using the pendant was that I got super hungry, and..." Her stomach growled noisily in emphasis, and she reddened a little. "Heheh. Yeah."

Puddles went a little limper next to them. "Can also confirm, cute Valey was changing colors down there just a little... Owie, Puddles is hungry too..."

Starlight folded her ears.

"So yeah." Valey sighed, and as she slowed down and relaxed further, Starlight began to realize just how tight some of her muscles were. What had she done, flown across the continent in a single sitting? Oh, right...

Valey swallowed. "You wanna know the really weird, creepy thing, though? Everything else has asked. Like, I'm pretty sure this isn't the first time something has tried to get inside my mind or do weird things to me. Near dusk statues, when we were at that concert, when I first touched the Nightmare Module... there was always something pressing there, but it's like it was kept outside and I could choose not to open my mind and let it in. Bananas, the Nightmare Module even used words. But this, like... felt like it went in and I had to fight it off from there. And I'm not even sure I did fight it off. It might have just been exploring and decided to leave me as myself."

Starlight chilled. "I'm not okay with that, and you shouldn't be, either."

"You think? Hello, in the middle of a massive breakdown..." Valey gave an exasperated chuckle, still weak. "Closest thing I can think of to what it did was moon glass, and I've never actually felt... well, can't remember feeling that before. But bananas, if that's anything like what it feels like to get drained that way, that's not a way I want to go."

"You think Stanza was similar to touching moon glass?" Starlight's ears perked in dark interest, her attention now much more captivated by the thought of breaking that accursed machine, ignoring Puddles' amused look in the background. "I wonder if that explains why I wasn't affected. If the Nightmare Modules and moon glass are related, maybe I was being protected by something stronger."

"Wasn't affected?" Valey tilted her head, the motion catching and tangling her mane a little on the brick wall she was leaning against.

"Yeah." Starlight swallowed. "I can feel those things too, you know. I felt what you were talking about at the concert, and there was a time I was sneaking around Izvaldi with Jamjars where I felt something I'm pretty sure now was a dusk statue. And moon glass affects me, too, and I can also use Nightmare Modules. But when I was in the tunnels, I felt like there was something big watching me, but I was hiding or protected from it."

Valey dug a hoof around in her ear. "Huh. That's weird. Puddles? How about you?"

Puddles weakly shrugged. "Silly Valey. Do I look alright to you?"

"Uhhh..." Valey stared for a moment at her emaciated form. "Well, I guess that place was hard on you too, or something. Bananas, we're all isolated cases, though. Starlight, normal unicorns don't just touch moon glass and react like that. All the other batpony guards I saw down there seemed physically fine, even if they were disgruntled or on edge. And Puddles is a windigo in a mare's body. We don't even have a normal pony to compare things to."

"You're alright now, though?" Starlight asked, still laying atop her, much more comfortable now that Valey's chest was rising and falling steadily beneath her.

"I think so?" Valey folded her ears. "I mean, as alright as I usually am. Had a headache for a few minutes, but I think I'm fine now." She hesitated. "Yeah, I'm fine. A whole lot better than I was down there, at least. Think we could stay here for a little bit longer, though? I need... ugh. Didn't even talk about what happened once we got to the center, and I'm already-"

"Don't." Starlight silenced her with a gentle hoof. "That door doesn't look like anyone's opening it from the other side. We can stay like this as long as you need to."

Comments

[Scarlet_Harmony]

Before I start reading, myself, could someone explain to me what this story is about? The description doesn't really help much... xD Please? Anyone?

[Zapdroid]

9450090
Starlight Glimmer abandons Equestria and goes on adventures across a new land. She makes friends, enemies, and nusciences (everyones favourite dynamic duo...) along the way, and discovers she might just be more special than she wants to believe. With plenty of action, suspense and mystery, interspersed with a healthy amount of slice of life moments dealing with serious and often relatable character issues, this story has kept many a reader thoroughly engaged. The start is a bit slow, but once you make it through that it’s almost impossible to put down. Definitely ones of the best stories on the site, and you owe it to yourself to give it a chance.

[Zapdroid]

Dreadfully awaiting for you to switch back to Shinespark at the most cliff-hanging moment.

[Mini-Joe]

9450090
thats the point, your curiousity should be the thing getting you to read this. i will tell you this: its a VERY good story, please treat yourself to it.

[Mini-Joe]

so youre telling me that this entire story she has been colorblind??

[Boopers]

Where could they possibly be now? Are they in the capitol now? Is Garsheeva waiting on the other side, ready to devour them?

[Czar_Yoshi]

9450090 Plotwise, it's a story about Starlight running away from home as a filly after Sunburst leaves and trying to find or make a new life where she has friends and family who won't leave her. She has to balance a burning desire to be normal and a hatred of unfairness and being "special", like Sunburst got taken away for being, with the fact that she's actually very talented and capable and often able to do something about it when everything goes wrong and other unfair things are happening in the world. The story is split up into several major acts marked by changes in location as Starlight moves around the world, and it's a huge-scale adventure with political drama, fight scenes, sealed evil... but also a slow-paced slice-of-life story where Starlight takes her world on her back wherever she goes and tries to find a place worth putting it down, with an almost-all-OC cast and a lot of focus on personal growth and drama and character relationships, both for Starlight and her new friends.

[Scarlet_Harmony]

9450516
Thank youuu

[Venlinelle]

There was nothing better she could be doing with herself. Nothing. Nothing . She knew what true worth and purpose was, and this was it, because if she had friends with bonds this strong, she would never, ever have to be alone.

Awwwwww