The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Known

Starlight felt herself awaken, but didn't open her eyes. Everything was warm and dark, and she found herself with no pressing reason to get up. Stretching slightly, she curled up and prepared to enjoy the morning by doing nothing... or perhaps going back to sleep. It wasn't like Maple wouldn't do the same, of course. Aside from that first morning, the earth pony seemed perfectly content to let the time go by and cuddle. All in all, it was a much nicer way to start the day than with an alarm clock.

Maple stirred against her as she moved. "Starlight?" she mumbled. "You're up?"

"No," Starlight mumbled back. "I'm asleep. You can stay... if you want..."

A hoof draped over her, pulling her closer to Maple's snuggled form. "Hee... I like waking up this way. Thanks for putting up with it, Starlight. I'm glad..."

Starlight hummed, rolled so that she was facedown, and let herself drift back to sleep.

---

The next time she awoke, it wasn't quite so peaceful. First, one ear twitched, and then another, registering some sort of roar around the house... and not the soothing sound of rain on the roof.

She groaned, which seemed to awaken Maple as well. "Really?" the earth pony scowled, moving her hooves in an attempt to get up. "Why is the town so noisy these days? If it's another boat..."

Maple hauled herself upright, and Starlight eventually followed suit. Both blinked owlishly for a moment as Starlight lit her horn, removing the need to open the blinds for illumination. "Well," Maple announced, sliding off the bed, "I'm out of patience for noisy events for the time being, and have every intention of pretending it doesn't exist. Come on, Starlight, want me to fix your mane?"

Starlight stood still as her mane was fussed with, eventually coming away with it in a neat single ponytail that Maple probably thought looked quite cute. She followed the mare to the kitchen, sat by the table as breakfast was prepared, and eventually nursed an ordinary bowl of cinnamon milk and oats, all the while pretending to ignore the hubbub outside. Maple sat across from her, and they politely and awkwardly stared at each other and nowhere else for the duration of the meal.

"All right," Maple said, putting aside her finished bowl, "this is getting ridiculous. It sounds like they're just outside the..." She trotted to the window and looked down, bewilderment pausing her in mid-sentence. "House? Why is there a giant crowd of ponies standing right outside my house?"

"There's what?" Starlight got up, walking over herself. "How big is it?"

"Maybe something happened and my store got famous," Maple murmured, turning toward the stairs. "I'm going down to check. You can wait here, if you like."

Starlight declined, creeping warily along behind Maple as the mare moved to open the lower door. The moment it swung open, her mane was blown back by the sheer force of excitement radiating in from outside. "Hi!" a pony beamed, managing to cram their face past all the others and into the door. "Is this where Starlight lives? The one from the Plains of Harmony?"

Both ponies in the house froze. Maple took a step backwards, ears folded. "I... what?"

"Starlight!" another shouted over the first one's head. "We heard she crossed the southern mountains! Is it true?" More ponies pressed in, and more questions were launched, though they quickly became indiscernible due to the clamoring.

Maple's ears pressed heavily against her head, and she tried to stammer an inaudible response... when a field of cyan telekinesis picked her up and gently pushed her aside. That same field hardened into an iron ball, forcing the doorway clear of ponies as Starlight icily stalked outside, maintaining space for herself with a telekinetic forcefield that the visitors smashed up against. "All right," she hissed, words drowned out by the crowd, "you have three seconds for me to realize this is a nightmare and wake up."

None of the ponies heard her. Three seconds later, Starlight's horn crackled with energy, and suddenly the entire crowd was encased in a giant manacrystal, Starlight standing in a clearing in the center. Behind her, Maple looked on in shock. Her horn twinged painfully, but she ignored it.

"One at a time," she demanded, shrinking the crystal just enough so that a lone mare stumbled free. "What happened to not bothering foreigners about their pasts!?"

"I-I..." the lone mare stammered, clearly stupefied by the crystals. "I don't know! I j-just followed the others because they were excited, and t-they said, well..."

Starlight stamped a hoof. "Okay, look! I didn't come here because I wanted ponies to be obsessed with my past, or care about where I'm from, or treat me like anything special, because I don't want to be! Got it?"

She stood there for a second, watching. From the crystals, eyes blinked back at her, and she suddenly realized that the captive ponies hadn't listened to a word she had said. Guiltily, she remembered the panic she had felt the first time she had sealed herself; the feeling of neither needing to nor being able to breathe.

The crystals vanished. There was a minute of still silence, and then the crowd dispersed and vanished in the blink of an eye, only a few cowering stragglers remaining. "I-I'm sorry," a mare wept, looking as if she might try to roll away if her legs didn't start working soon. "I didn't mean..."

Starlight looked down at her, blood chilling at the expression on the mare's face. "No..." she murmured, voice rising. "I'm not dangerous! I'm sorry! You were being too loud to hear me! W-What was I supposed to do!?"

The mare finally found her hooves and scrambled away, leaving Starlight standing alone in the middle of the street. Suddenly, the weight of her horn hit her like a ton of bricks, and she staggered. Ordinarily, she would have shrugged it off like she always did... but this time, it felt far more appropriate to collapse, the dust of the road brushing harshly against her muzzle.

"Aaaaagh!" Starlight pounded the ground, covering her face with both hooves. "Now they're probably all afraid of me! Why did they have to be so... rrnngh... why weren't they listening? What did I do wrong!?"

"Starlight." Maple's shadow covered her, and it was clear from the tone that she had to try to keep her voice steady. "I know it's been a little stressful with the things Arambai said yesterday, and I don't blame you. I'll find them. I'll talk to them and make them come around. Okay?" A hoof scooped her off the ground and attempted to set her upright, failing as she slumped over again. "Starlight?" Maple's soft face met her eyes. "Please?"

Starlight finally got up, hugging herself close to the mare. She sniffled and said nothing.

"I think," Maple announced after a minute, "that we should go see Arambai and tell him about this. He said he was going to do something, after all. Maybe he can help."

"I'm still staying," Starlight mumbled, clinging tightly. "I'm still not going to leave, okay?"

"Yes. Thank you." Maple patted her, then began to lift her onto her back. "Now let's get going."

Before they could, a loud rustle of wings sounded from above, heralding a griffon swooping in with a mare on his back. "Err..." Gerardo landed, looking awkwardly at the two. "Did something happen of which we're unaware?"

"Yes," Maple growled, "something did. We just got visited by a mob of ponies who knew where Starlight was from. And before we could explain or learn anything, they ran away."

"Wow." Amber blinked, hopping down from Gerardo's back. "Really? That almost makes what we saw last night look tame."

"It was weird," Maple sighed, "and we're going to talk to Arambai."

Comments

[alamais]

Well that was unexpected. I wonder who blabbed.

[Lexicon_Spark]

8369692
Hemlock.

[Hap]

Oh no!

[VcSaJen]

Wait, what? This isn't a dream?
And yep, this is the beginning of her habit of using unconsented magic on live ponies for egoistic reasons. We've all seen it in season 6.

[titanhades70]

8727981
Egoistic reasons. Not wanting to be bugged about her past by a mob of unknown ponies doesn't sound egoistic to me. I think anyone would understand where she's coming from.

[Texus]

8729111
I agree.

[Merula]

Someone is getting gutted

[bronyheat]

Wow got really worried there, at least Starlight is determined to stay... For now.

[Venlinelle]

The magic continues to escalate! Before she fell off the waterfall, she had trouble maintaining a crystal around herself; now she can maintain one around what sounds like a few dozen ponies.

Speaking of the waterfall, I’m curious about how tall the cliff- it’d have to be a cliff at that point, even if it’s a more gradual mountain range elsewhere- is. I’m picturing about a mile.