The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

An Inescapable Sin

"It's been two months."

"Yeah?" Valey rose from a shadowed floor in an enclosed room, a single lamp giving light to walls with exposed support boards and tacked-up pictures of dignitaries. "Is that a short time, or a long time? We both remember each other."

Her target lay on her back on a bed in the corner, half-dressed with the covers kicked aside and her mane splayed messily beneath her. "Both. It doesn't matter. You remembered not to knock this time."

"Well, hey, you're welcome." Valey took two steps closer, a strip of light glowing under the doorjamb to her back. "So lemme see what else I remember. Your name is Crystal. You've been here for ages, work for Meyneth as a maid or something in Percival's manor, are related to Chauncey but both of you really hate each other, and you go out of your way to be nasty or lifeless to anyone trying to show you a little sympathy. And you're pregnant. That about sum it up?"

Somehow, Crystal looked even more despondent than the last time Valey had seen her, emerald eyes dull and lifeless. Two months ago, when Valey first came to call, Crystal had been provocative in her listlessness, leading her on and frustrating her and distracting her from her goal: finding out anything important about Chauncey from someone who was on bad terms with him. This time, Valey needed any information she could get a lot more badly, and was prepared to be pushier and less-gentle... but it hardly looked like Crystal needed it.

In the bedside lamplight, dark stains traced the batpony's face, evidence she had been crying. Before, her tailored maid uniform had been a tight fit, still wearable and letting her pass for well-fed instead of pregnant. She still wore it, but was big enough now that it was unclosable, the front buttoned only halfway down and left open around her belly. Crystal watched her unborn foal without blinking, staring through them with a look of helplessness, despair and loathing, silently rising and falling with her breaths. She didn't answer Valey's question.

"Just saying, we're both going to get annoyed if I make small talk," Valey warned, sidling over. "Last peace offering, right here. Need a shoulder? Because otherwise I've got something I need."

"Take it," Crystal snarled, briefly heaving, looking as if any talking could send her off the deep end.

"Snazz." Valey grinned, stepped closer to the bed, reached over and grabbed Crystal in a big two-legged hug. "Really wanted to do this last time, and I've got a lot less reservations now."

"Hakkkt!" Crystal made an enraged choking sound, grabbed Valey back, and sprang into motion. She was surprisingly strong... or not, since she had exercise gear on her walls she apparently used, but still powerful enough to throw Valey into the air. But Valey was perfectly ready, twisting herself to alter their trajectory, and managed to land both of them upright in the middle of the room before breaking the hug.

She stepped back, grinning. "Well, that got you out of bed!"

Crystal eyed her loathsomely, half-buttoned maid uniform hanging from her frame. "What. Do. You. Want?"

Valey let her grin disappear, looking serious. "So hey. You're either having the worst day, the worst year, or the worst life, period. And that really stinks. Last time, I kinda tried to be nice to you because it seemed like a cool thing to do, and you threw it back in my face? So this is a chance you really didn't ask for. Right now, I've got a beef with Chauncey, you've got a beef with Chauncey, and I was thinking we could help each other out."

Crystal's loathing sparked in her eyes, then started to turn dull again.

"Ohh no." Valey waggled a forehoof. "Don't go listless on me or I'll hug you again."

"...Your companionship is as temporary as it is well-meaning," Crystal whispered, turning her side to Valey and looking away. "You have no help to offer me. Didn't you learn your lesson last time, fool?"

Valey frowned. "You know, I dunno how much more you can ask for when you make a point of driving away any friendly faces. Yeah, sure, I'll probably bail once we're done with this talk, even though I could come back again if you like. Isn't that still a hundred times better than sitting in your bed thinking about dark things all the time?"

"How much more can I ask for?" Crystal flexed a wing, lifting the side of her uniform and showing off her belly. "Use your brain."

"...Yeah, you've got abandonment issues," Valey sighed. "That's what I'm getting from this? Lemme guess. You had it bad, some dude came in and brightened your world, convinced you to give hoping for stuff a chance, said some stuff about forever, and then flaked out when you got to be too much work. Is that it?"

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Actually, I kinda do." Valey narrowed her eyes, stepping forward. "I've got a real good friend who had exactly the same stuff happen to them. Worse, even, except they had some even better friends who stuck with them and dedicated everything to them and helped them be happy about seeing another sunrise. Tell me I don't know what I'm talking about."

Crystal reluctantly met her eyes. "I have love. I'm not lacking for love," she rasped. "What I lack is a future. Your friend has a sunrise to look forward to? Then she's nothing like me."

Valey blinked, glancing down at Crystal's belly. "Oh. I get it. You're, uhh... You're worried you're not going to be able to take care of your foal." She blinked again. "Bananas, yeah, if your lifestyle is like this, they're probably going to get packed off to that creepy orphanage..."

"This is my true love's foal," Crystal whispered, lifting a hoof and massaging herself with the only care or gentleness Valey had ever seen from the mare.

"Bananas. Yeah, that makes sense." Valey kept her voice low too, being more respectful now that Crystal was talking. "So you do have someone, just will lose your kid or something once they're born? Or is that someone gone and this is a last reminder?"

"Nnghk..." Crystal looked down, her natural coldness and apathy clashing with a wave of clearly-recent emotion.

Valey sat down on the edge of Crystal's bed, motioning for her to relax too. "What was it you asked me if I could do last time, again? Something ridiculously impossible, but you know, I've actually got some friends who are really good at doing the impossible. If you don't tell me exactly what's up, there's not much I can do to help."

Crystal gave her a baleful look. "You're still trying to do that? I'll save my breath. You can't, and if you could, you wouldn't bother."

"Oh yeah?" Valey raised an eyebrow. "Prove it."

Crystal scowled. "That's what everyone else would say."

"Okayyy..." Valey hummed, biting her lip. "So how about this? I've got an airship. Or, some good friends with an airship I live on. I don't see anyone here you care about except your foal, you're definitely not cool with folks like Chauncey, and my friends are really, really nice. If you could make an effort to not be venomous to everyone who tries to help, you could probably come with us. You could have your kid, keep your kid, raise your kid, and we'd help you and keep food on the table and the whole place safe. Now, this is totally theoretical, but why couldn't we do that?"

"You could," Crystal admitted. "But you wouldn't."

Valey folded her forelegs. "Are you insulting my friends' hospitality, or saying you'd be such a jerk we'd stop putting up with you? Because the latter's kind of your decision, and unless your faith in equinity is absolutely zero, I'm pretty sure you don't know my friends better than I do."

"And you don't know me better than I do," Crystal countered. "Or my problems. I'm more trouble than I'm worth."

"Yeah, well, maybe that's a good reason to tell me about your problems." Valey raised an eyebrow. "And I dunno... There are a lot of ponies who'd say you're worth a lot just by being alive."

"You're irrational," Crystal whispered, still standing. "Either that or lying. I haven't done anything to help you. You have no grounds for helping me aside from wanting something in return. Once you get it, you won't care anymore, because you don't understand true love."

Valey briefly gritted her teeth. "Alright. I admit it. I want something. But that something is to know any dirty stuff about what Chauncey's up to, because me and my friends are trying to do something about it, and if you hate him that benefits us both! And you know what else I want? I used to be kind of a scumbag who made a lot of ponies really mad at me for a living. Then someone stupidly gave me way too many chances for no reason, and it turned out to actually get my attention and turn things around. I wanna see that work for other ponies too, even if it's just to feel like I'm not an anomaly and that's how things work. Happy?"

Crystal watched her, then sighed. "I don't care anymore."

"You care about your kid." Valey pointed a wing at her belly. "Tell me about your kid."

Something seemed to crack in Crystal's demeanor, a single fresh tear running down her face. With a heavy breath, she stumped back to the bed, climbing on and passing within inches of Valey. She rolled onto her side, pulled a flap of her uniform out of the way, and lay back, pointedly presenting herself. "This is my true love's child," she whispered, reaching up and craning her neck around and nuzzling her taut coat. "I love them. My life will be over when they're born."

Valey folded her ears, but didn't press quite yet. "How long is that?"

Another tear dripped from Crystal's cheek, landing on her belly. "Two months."

"And what'll happen when they're born?" Valey whispered, fighting back her sense of anticipation at finally getting somewhere.

Crystal nuzzled herself harder, starting to shake with sobs. Valey stayed frozen, not about to be pushy while she was getting closer. She hadn't come here with the intention of this. She wanted to find Crystal, ask about her relationship to Chauncey, use some of that venom she remembered from last time to learn something useful about how to undermine or deal with the stallion... yet here she was, in this same trap again. Maybe she saw herself in Crystal. Maybe she saw Maple. Maybe her conscience was just too big for its own good.

"Sarosians... are under a curse," Crystal choked. "The way we were created. We... always breed true. Our foals are always the same as our lovers. It is a brand. A sign of sinfulness. I-If I don't give mine up before they are known to be mine, Garsheeva and the Night Mother will know..."

"...That your lover isn't a bat..." Valey trailed off, finishing for her. "Oh bananas."

Comments

[Zapdroid]

9493950
I was under the impression the Night Mother is Nightmare Moon, as it’s definitey not Luna, also a god, and related to the Night and batponies. And again, I believe it said somewhere that the Night Mother and Luna are separate entities at the moment. As for a Glimmer believing herself to be Starlight, she could either be lying as you said or as I stated in my post, “some part of Luna that was implanted by her within Starlight with no little to memories but who instinctually supports Luna’s goals.” Glimmer seems too coincidental to be some random figment of Starlights imagaination, something must of created/caused her to be created. Another theory is that Glimmer is just the harmony magic in Starlight being awakened by the harmonic flame and developing a personality, but I think there are just enough connections with Luna to make my theory plausible.

[Mini-Joe]

ruh roh, now we got two baby sphinxs on the way

[Boopers]

So a batpony can get pregnant from a griffon? This gonna be interesting...

[RoboRed]

...Oh...that's not good...

[Hap]

9494104
We saw the night mother once or twice. She's a sphinx.

[alamais]

Catching up, and it's time for more Crazy Theory-Mongering, with Allie Mae! This time, it has to do with changelings!

Okay, so here, at this time, we're seeing that changelings and bathoers are one and the same, just one has a 'soul', or a sapient AI loaded on their hardware, or whatever, and the other doesn't. We've heard that de-souled batlings act rabid at first, though it appears from Nyala's body that eventually they can calm down and turn into, from what little we've seen at this point, empty shells. So, if these are the same as the 'lings we know from the show, then it seems like something major happened in the meantime, and de-batted 'lings can now be sapient, autonomous beings. Or, maybe they just need enough time without a 'soul' and eventually they go emergent and develop their own personality from scratch?

Setting that aside, I've now a vague notion of there being some sort of connection between Jamjars and changelings, maybe now, maybe in the future. Why? Her chameleon spell sounds pretty damn similar to changeling magic. Like either a weaker or unrefined version of it, essentially. Did she make it up? Discover it? Is she a changeling? Did she learn it from one? Do they learn it from her?

Finally, in this chapter I'm just staring at the reactions of this batmare right here. Crystal, I mean. Hakkkt! Reee. Bitter. Pissy. Strong. Kinda seems to hate the world. Might be an okay mother? Cynical and disillusioned, though. A bit scary. Yeah, poor ol'...Cryssi?...

...

CRAZY THEORY-MONGERING TIME ENDS!