The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Rewards And Sacrifices

Starlight snuffled in half-wakefulness, resting atop an upside-down Maple who held her in a hug as she slept. She felt herself gently rising and falling with Maple's soft breaths, Amber nestled nearby and soundly asleep. "Mmm... Maple..."

"You waking up?" Maple whispered, not opening her eyes.

"You're already awake?" Starlight murmured back.

"I have been for a while," Maple breathed, wonderful and all-encompassing against her. "I think holding this much harmonic energy is making it difficult. Or maybe I don't need sleep as much with it. Who knows?"

"Mmm." Starlight nuzzled her face into Maple's chest.

"You trying to go back to sleep?"

Starlight thought for a moment. "I don't think so," she decided. "I don't know. I have a lot to think about."

"Anything that shouldn't wait for later?" Maple whispered. "This is perfect, right now. I'm just so glad to have you back."

"No. I don't know." Starlight paused. "Was I really taken there because the pony behind the dusk statues wanted me to find that thing? Stanza?"

Maple exhaled, Starlight feeling her chest deflate beneath her. "That's what we were told," she sighed. "First by Senescey, and then Jamjars was sneaking around and says she saw the Night Mother herself talking to Gazelle in front of a dusk statue. It sounded like she had a problem and wanted to make us notice it, because she thought we'd fix it for her."

Starlight drooped a little. "She's probably mad that someone stole one of her dusk statues and did that to it."

"Tell me about it?" Maple asked. "About what you found down there? We were all distracted with the sword, and it only got mentioned a little..."

Starlight swallowed. "It's like they broke a dusk statue and bolted it back together, and built it onto an organ. An instrument. And the organ pipes grew all over the dungeon like tree roots, except they could move, and the ends formed statues with notes that asked prisoners to say bad or hurtful things into them. To tell it what they hated or were sad or vengeful about. The statue had a crown stuck in its chest like a knife, and it talked to me in my mind. It begged me to kill it and said a lot of things I didn't understand about darkness and pain. I don't know what it did to Valey, but she looked like she was in a trance while we were there. Puddles seemed to know a lot about it."

Maple ran a hoof comfortingly along her back. "It sounds horrible," she murmured.

"And then you were talking about objects that have emotions, like that sword," Starlight continued. "I wonder if Stanza is the same thing. Or Nyala. She's made of metal, but has feelings too, right? And what about Valey? She thinks batponies are some kind of machines because of how they react to moon glass and Nightmare Modules, but does that mean I'm one too? And if I'm not a real pony, how deep do we have to look to wonder if everyone is like this, not just batponies, and think that maybe there's no such thing as a real pony at all? Or maybe this is just what it means to be a person, which means that instead of me and Valey and Nyala being machines or something, the sword and Stanza are people too..."

Maple squeezed her tighter. "I am a mare who grew up in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere and spent her whole life with the world being just as big as that, Starlight," she replied. "During my foalhood, I wondered about whose house we would play at next, and my biggest worry was that someone I was friends with would be mad at me because I broke their toy. Later in life, I thought about Ironridge, spent my teenage years thinking about what life would look like once it became impossible. You know what happened to me once I tried to start a family. Starlight, I've had so much to worry about piled on my shoulders that it's a miracle I'm still able to live a happy, joyful, productive life, and all of my problems just had to do with me and a small circle of friends. And you're pondering whether the entire population of the world might not be real ponies? Thinking about where we came from and why?" She rubbed the back of Starlight's head. "These aren't things a filly should have to worry about, you know."

Starlight folded her ears. "I'm not worrying," she reassured. "I'm trying to find an answer. Valey would like to know, at least. And if I'm not supposed to think about it, who is?"

"No one?" Maple whispered. "Starlight, we do exist. I can feel you and feel how much I care about you, and know you feel the same. What does it matter how your body works? It has a soul inside, right? Your soul? Whatever you call on that makes you you, you have it. In Riverfall, nobody ever needs to know their purpose like this to be happy and live fulfilling lives."

"No, they don't," Starlight muttered. "But they also don't have any reason to doubt it like Valey does. You can live happily without knowing or thinking about it. I don't care whether I'm the same kind of pony as you or something that works differently, because whatever I am, I'm willing to be special if it makes me stronger so I can keep you safe. But is that sword a person? Or Stanza? If they're objects, we don't have to care about them and how they feel. They just have dead feelings, felt by someone alive and then put there like they were burned on, like what Felicity was talking about. But do you want to risk thinking of them that way when they could be people?"

"I..." Maple swallowed, having no response.

"I don't know," Starlight huffed. "It's a dumb question because I don't want to go back there or ever see Stanza again. But you need to know to know what to do. I just want to know who to help and how to help them."

Maple closed her eyes again. "How about helping yourself, first? I don't know as much as I'd like to about your mind, Starlight, but I don't think these are easy thoughts to think on. If you can be happy without knowing, maybe it isn't worth digging? I'm still not even sure I understand what you're trying to learn..."

Starlight folded her ears. "It's not any harder to think about than anything else I think about. Maple, I hate being alone. I help myself by looking out for my friends. That's just how it works."

"...I don't know what to say," Maple finished. "I don't know what to say."

"Are you ready to get up?" Starlight asked, nudging her. "We could go for a walk around the boat. Maybe talk about something else."

"That sounds nice..." Maple stirred beneath her, picking Starlight up and rolling upright before getting out of bed with the filly atop her back. "Let's go for a walk."

---

Maple's wandering led her and Starlight through the kitchen and pantry to the ship's cargo bay, a tall, dim room at the very back where things that didn't belong with the food were stored. A few crates lined the walls, stuffed with parts from Arambai's workshop in Riverfall, moon glass looted from Kero's villa in Skyfreeze, gifts from the mercenaries Maple had teleported out of the tunnels and anything else they had happened to pick up on their journey. Now, it was also home to Braen's old armor, dull and inert and heavily slashed clean through in multiple places where Gerardo's sword had pierced it.

The armor was on its back, having been split open down the belly the way someone would enter it without teleporting in order to get Shinespark out. In between the outer metal and inner padding linings, mechanical and magical components were crammed, many sliced or stabbed and some having fallen out altogether. Hunched over it was Slipstream, a very thick manual open to her side.

"Hi, Slipstream. What are you doing?" Maple asked politely, stepping up behind her.

"Aah!" Slipstream jumped. "Me? I was..." She briefly fumbled for her voice. "I found some documentation for this armor in the library, and was reading it and trying to figure out how the perception and memories worked. I'm not touching anything; I'm not qualified. But I wanted to see if she's still aware of what's going on while she's like this, or if it would be possible to move her mind and memories into the ship's terminal while we find a way to fix her, or..." She folded her ears.

"You both spent a lot of time on the bridge, didn't you?" Maple murmured, moving over to her side. "Shinespark got a lot of attention, being stunned, but Nyala might have it a lot worse..."

Slipstream swallowed and hung her head. "We're not the stars of the show. Not like you and Shinespark and Valey and Starlight. We know we're the B-team, just some lucky or maybe unlucky ponies that get front-line seats and to be along for the ride. I wonder if she regrets taking the chance when it came to jump out and get in the action and make a sacrifice to really make a difference. Shinespark would have been defeated instantly without her, and Valey is still in the tournament because they made a stand. But the price..."

"Shinespark will fix her," Maple said, hoping this was within Shinespark's abilities. "Once she's back on her hooves. She absolutely will."

"Yeah. I hope so." Slipstream looked up, her eyes slightly wet. "Never thought I'd be watching a friend lay completely still and in multiple pieces, split open down the middle, with someone telling me they'll be fine. This is a weird life we lead."

"Tell me about it. I'm glowing." Maple glanced down at herself, a dim pink radiance wafting off her coat and a brighter one from her irises. "You don't see that every day, but... here I am and here it is. I've probably had hundreds of completely remarkable things happen in the last week I don't even remember just because I'm too used to things being unusual."

Slipstream smiled regretfully. "This is a little too unusual for me, I think. I'd like to get back to my new normal of sitting around talking with my friends on the bridge, please."

"Hmmm..." Maple matched her smile. "Well, I'm glad you have a normal you enjoy, as whirlwind as out lives can be here at times. What do you do all the time, up there? Just hang out and enjoy yourselves?"

Slipstream shrugged. "Nyala and Gerardo and I? Mare talk. With, well, Gerardo, but it works. We speculate on the tournament, try to predict brackets, just for fun. We read textbooks from the ship's library and teach each other what we learn. Explore the city sometimes and come back and tell each other what we did. I dress up and try clothes on, too. Nyala likes doing that, so she can imagine herself as me. Heh." She wiped the corner of an eye with a feather. "I really do hope she comes back fine."

"I'll wish you as well as I can," Maple promised, smiling at her descriptions. "Is there anything I can tell to Shinespark or Gerardo if I see them, by the way? Starlight and I are taking a walk around."

"I don't think so." Slipstream shook her head, still smiling. "Gerardo just went to bed an hour ago. He was sitting in here too. If you see Shinespark, tell her to get well soon, though. Both for her sake and Nyala's."

"I'll do that." Maple bowed, lowering her head and retreating with Starlight still on her back.

---

They made their way to the deck next, Maple stopping to put her hooves on the railing and letting the marine breeze tousle her braided mane. Her glowing, obvious in the dim cargo hold, was completely invisible here, the clouds having decided to disappear for a day and let glorious sun burn forth. Starlight could see the cliffs of the southern mountains towering beyond the marina's masts far in the distance, though, and knew those could deliver changes in weather faster than the blink of an eye.

"Any success thinking about different things?" Maple asked, staring out at the activity on the dock across from them.

"Maybe," Starlight answered. "Stanza's not going to go away, you know. I still have to decide whether it deserves me to do anything about it, whether I'm going to do anything, if I am, how..." She folded her ears. "I have a lot to figure out. But it's not urgent. And I am enjoying being out with you."

Maple yawned. "That's good. Actually doing things is making me a little more sleepy... Maybe I also just sat in place for too long. I don't really feel like going into the city, or back to our box to watch more tournament fights... Shall we just sit here for a while, or try going back to bed?"

"It's not even noon yet," Starlight mumbled into her neck. "Our sleep schedules are destroyed."

Maple giggled. "That's just what happens when I stay up with little sleep for two days wishing to have you back. I can really relate to Slipstream right now..."

Starlight hesitated. "I wonder if I could have done anything with Nyala while I was gray. Or any batponies, actually. Stanza was talking in my head somehow. I think it's a dusk statue thing, that they do to batponies. But we can talk back, right? And Nyala's just another body, except her soul is stored in a piece of moon glass. I wonder if there's a way for me to talk or interface with her somehow."

Maple hesitated, mulling it over. "Like some sort of telepathy? I don't think batponies can communicate telepathically with each other, can they?"

"No," Starlight said. "But they also feel like completely normal ponies most of the time. When I go gray, I..." She swallowed. "I get a voice in my head. I think it's me talking to my body, because it tells me things about myself and what I can and can't do, and I can ask it to do things that change me or make things happen. So I might not know how to do that, and batponies might not, but if it's something we're capable of, maybe I could... do it automatically when I'm like that?"

"Sounds like something to test if you ever need to do that again," Maple sighed. "We do have a limited number of windigo hearts, though, so please don't play around with it. If you have to touch moon glass, only do it if it's very important."

"Of course I will," Starlight promised.

Maple waited around a while longer. "So, going back to bed? I'm feeling a lot more like I could get to-"

Suddenly, a shadow covered them and was just as abruptly gone, a burst of wind trailing in its wake. Maple and Starlight's eyes were stolen upward as a colossal shape wheeled about and dropped toward them... and then Wallace Whitewing was there, landing sturdily on the deck with a mighty thud.

"Greetings, heroic ponies!" He bowed, Morena and Diego hopping off his sizable back. "I hope we haven't come at a bad time, but word on the street is you've been in quite the kerfuffle as of late! We thought we'd drop in and see if there was any more smoothing over with which we could assist!"

"Oh! Err..." Maple stumbled into a bow, slightly caught off guard by the griffon's appearance. "Wallace!"

"Indeed, it is I." Wallace clasped a talon to his breast. "And my companions as well!"

"We were watching that fight," Morena acknowledged, bouncing a war hammer on her shoulder. "You know the one. I don't know how you did it, but that was really something. Diego especially wanted to offer his congratulations."

Diego grinned and twirled a dagger in his aura. "You know, I really was hoping you'd show old stallion Grandpapa a few more worlds of pain than what you did, but if I ain't glad your run survived him and that sabotage, I don't know what I am! Where can we give congratulations?"

Maple folded her ears and awkwardly grinned. "Oh! Ummm... Shinespark is recuperating. I think everyone is, really, but you can come in and I'll see who's up?"

Starlight poked her. "Isn't there someone they'd much rather see than Valey or Shinespark?"

"Hmmm?" Wallace blinked at her and tilted his avian head sideways. "Whomever do you mean, young Starlight?"

Starlight cleared her throat, returning the look. "I don't know what you did with her or how you lost her again after everything Valey and Shinespark did to catch her at the pirate ship, but we got back Puddles."

Comments

[Mini-Joe]

oh boy, more puddles time

[Boopers]

And I was just about to ask what happened to Puddles. Puddles <3 cute Valey forever!

[alamais]

Guys, guiyz, guise—I've got it! The sword isn't a sword at all, but a really expensive chef's knife for a giant! Think about it: it won't damage living flesh, and it cuts through tough armor like it's nothing so what would it to to a tomato? But the thing is, my dudes, the thing is, it was bought and used by a really bad cook. Like, Sweetie Belle bad. So that's why it's full of sadness and regret and whatnot—both the original owner's, for being bad and failing at food, and the knife's own despair at having never seen its true purpose properly fulfilled.

We just need Maple to start cooking with it and it'll cheer right up.

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[Czar_Yoshi]

9461136 Remember that Swan Song comment way back in Urohringr/Durandana where he made a joke prediction about the stuff Rainbow would be doing later and accidentally perfectly nailed the entire plot of Rohbredden a year or two before it happened to an uncanny level of detail?

Just saying.

[alamais]

9461248
cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/540030050909814784.png

[Oberth Effect]

9461248

Yet another reminder I sort of want to read through that entire series again to try to find comments like that. Then I realize just how long it is...

I want to find that comment again anyways just to see this glory