The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Friendship Through Punches

"Yaaaaaugh!"

Whud! Valey flew across the grass, all four hooves impacting at the same time. The shock of the blow sent her adversary back two steps, and Valey flipped away, landing upright and panting.

"Helping?" Morena asked, battle cloak cast aside, together with Valey in Izvaldi's broad concert field without another soul in sight.

"Yeah." Valey flicked her bangs out of her eyes with a wingtip, breathing heavily. "Thanks for coming. Sometimes, there's nothing like... you know..."

She vaulted forward, locking her forehooves and bringing them together in an overhead smash. Morena blocked with one meaty forelimb, catching and straining against Valey's weight before flinging her to the side. Again, Valey landed upright, carving four furrows where her hooves hit the grass.

"Like sparring for clearing your head," Morena replied. "No need to explain. I know how it is."

Valey looked at her hooves, feeling like they'd need to discharge a thousand more punches before her frustration at the day's events was spent. Still, she was undeniably better, cooled by the lingering dampness in her coat and rainwater in the grass, not confined to explaining how she felt through words alone. Gritting her teeth, she charged again. "Take... this!"

First a punch, then a twirl, kicking with both hind legs and spinning again into an uppercut. Morena was too heavy to be launched, but she lost another step of ground under the onslaught, returning with a heavy slam that Valey had to roll to avoid.

"Hah... hah..." Valey paused for breath, again coming to a stop and facing Morena. "Bananas, tha... thanks. Really just had a stressful day, and I don't think punching Shinespark's ship or yelling at nobody would have been the same."

"Talk about it however you want," Morena invited, stance ready for more. "I'm listening."

Valey tensed her legs to spring again, clashing and breaking apart with Morena once more. "...So hey," she said during the next break for breath. "I can trust you with pretty much anything, right?"

"You and your friends brought my daughter back from the dead," Morena returned, lowering her guard. "But if you want to talk, I don't usually have a lot to say."

"Yeah..." Valey looked away at the distant forest groves splitting up the farmland. "You ever interacted much with a batpony called Crystal?"

"Crystal from the mansion?" Morena shook her head. "Everyone learns to leave her alone sooner or later."

"Apparently not me," Valey sighed. "I might have, uhh... gone to talk with her twice now, and had a really frustrating time."

Morena didn't look surprised. "Why?"

"Why talk with her?" Valey shrugged. "I dunno. Because she hates Chauncey, and I know Chauncey's up to no good, and figured I'd hear it from someone who's been around him longer. Neither time I've even been able to ask before the subject gets changed, we have a nasty catfight..."

"...You shouldn't talk to her alone," Morena said after a while. "Some creatures have a way with words that makes them very damaging to speak with on your own. Where were your friends in this?"

Valey looked down. "Didn't bring them. Shinespark's recovering from the tournament, Maple hates getting involved in all this stuff, Gerardo... I dunno. I guess I didn't..."

"If you're trying to keep them safe because you don't think they can handle it..." Morena pointed a hoof at her. "You don't look like you're handling it well either."

Valey flattened out in the grass, sighing. "Yeah, doesn't mean they'd take it any better. I just, like... I used to be a bad guy, you know? In Ironridge?"

Morena shrugged. "I can relate. You remember my story."

"Low-class punk, almost a pirate... yeah." Valey nodded. "Yeah, so you'd probably get it. The thing is, talking with Crystal makes me feel... dirty. Like I'm ignoring all the stuff I've learned and the better stuff that's happened to me and just going and acting like I did back then. And honestly, I wish that wasn't a problem, because playing dirty and being resourceful is kind of important when you need to be able to protect your friends from anything at a moment's notice! But it is. And I dunno what's up with me or what to do about it."

Morena watched her for a moment. "How high of a standard do you hold yourself to?"

"I... I dunno." Valey averted her gaze. "I mean, this is the Empire, right? Most everyone here kinda hates batpony guts. And it was the same in Ironridge, though that might have been more my fault. But I used to embrace the reputation and do whatever I could to feel like I deserved it, because nothing's worse than having all that heaped on you for no reason, you know? Only now it's, uhh... Well, it feels like maybe if I try a little harder, stuff won't be so lousy in the Empire for me all the time. You know. 'Cuz I'm a batpony."

"So infinitely high, then," Morena said. "If Garsheeva or the Night Mother could do that for your kind, they aren't. How often does that leave you with a sense of triumph, like the good makes up for the bad?"

"You mean in terms of stuff I do? Bananas, I dunno." Valey shrugged. "There was, uhh... Well, the time I beat up Herman and saved Ironridge. That was pretty awesome. Of course, it was also mostly thankless except for my friends, but still. And then there was..." She winced. "Ugh. I was gonna say the pirate ship, but that was kind of just a mess. And then when I went to save Starlight, only she had already gotten herself out and wound up doing more to save me than the other way around. I guess I don't even know."

Morena nodded. "And how often does it leave you feeling dirty, or like you're not good enough?"

"I can see where this is going..." Valey pulled on her face with her hooves, grimacing into the grass. "But Morena, like... I don't want to settle for just being okay! Or a bad pony who sometimes does good things! You don't... You, uhh... You ever heard where I really came from?"

Morena shook her head.

"Up there." Valey pointed at the sky. "Moon glass. Crazy scientists. Dunno how they did it, but they put me in someone else's body... Like, can you get this? What keeps me up at night is that I'm afraid I'm here for a reason, and it's a bad one."

"...That changes things," Morena sighed, sitting down. "But not as much as you think. Do you believe in destiny?"

Valey tilted her head. "Huh?"

"Yes or no." Morena shrugged. "If not, it shouldn't matter why. Should it?"

"I guess I do, then." Valey folded her ears. "Or, at least, I think it's likely enough that I'm scared of the possibility. And it's a fear I try to live and deal with, and sometimes, I do a pretty good job. But I guess it can still mess me up from time to time."

Morena was silent for a while. "...I have good news and bad news, Valey."

Valey raised a cautious eyebrow.

"The bad news is that it exists. That's what these are for." Morena touched her cutie mark. "No one knows a lot about them, or how much they change things, but ponies who don't follow theirs are few and far between. Even sarosians, who are born with theirs instead of manifesting them when they find their greatest wish. I assume you know what yours does."

Valey swallowed, feeling a lump in her throat.

"The good news..." Morena hesitated, as if she were about to say something dangerous. "Anyone can change. That's Wallace's mantra. It's the promise he gave to Diego and I, and the darker the world is, the brighter it shines as optimism. But... and I didn't find this out until after I had known him for a long time... it's not just an ideal. If you want to change your destiny? Change even your brand itself? There are ways."

"You've, uhh." Valey watched her in rapt attention. "You've got my ears."

"Garsheeva offers wishes to anyone who wins the tournament," Morena said. "It's well-known that she grants anything in her power. It's a lot less-known that the Night Mother grants wishes too."

Valey stared.

"There's no tournament involved," Morena continued. "All you have to do is visit her. And the things she can do... Have you heard the tale of Giovanni Goldfeather, whose offspring broke all the known rules of sphinxes and changed the Empire's political landscape for generations? Legends survive on the wind's breath saying his curse was actually a wish from her. If you wanted to be something other than what you are that badly... there is a way."

"Nnngh..." Valey grimaced. "But I really, like... I don't like the Night Mother, though. Bananas, all this stuff with batponies being picked on here? Why doesn't she help if she's so cool and great and everything? And that stuff with Starlight going to Gyre? She was behind that, apparently. But..." She sighed, then took a breath. "If I did want to find her, I don't suppose it's as simple as telling me where she is?"

"Everyone who knows isn't allowed to say." Morena shook her head. "And even if they were, I don't know. Wallace does. He's made a wish to her before. It's why he's so strong. Many think his strength isn't natural, but none expect to actually be right."

Valey watched the horizon. "So you just have to scour the whole entire Empire, huh? And probably all of Mistvale, too."

"There is a hint." Morena hesitated. "One hint, known as Garsheeva's Riddle and passed down in the Griffon Empire in plain sight for those who know it is there. You've probably heard it several times. It goes like this: glory to Garsheeva. May her love, as deep as the Aldenfold, and her virtue, as pure as the moon, be revealed to the entire world."

"Well... bananas." Valey folded her ears. "Yeah, I have heard of that. That's a riddle?"

"Wallace tells me it is."

"...I'll pass," Valey said after a deep breath. "As much as things worry me... my cutie mark is a weapon. A really, really strong one, and even if there's some shady purpose behind it, I've used it so far to protect my friends. I'm not about to wish to be weaker. But thanks anyway. It means a lot."

Morena eyed her, nodding slowly. "More sparring?"

"Yeah." Valey got back to her hooves, then hesitated a final time. "Maybe this means something more to you than it does to me, but my cutie mark lets me predict opponents' attacks before they make them. Basically lets me see the future."

Morena froze.

Valey mirrored her reaction, wincing hard. "That's a bad thing, isn't it...?"

Sighing, Morena stood down, dropping all pretense of fighting. "Foretelling the future is one of the Griffon Empire's divine heresies."

Valey's eyes bulged, and she stomped the grass beneath her into a muddy pulp. "Oh, come on!"

Morena winced sympathetically. "There's a reason for it. Knowledge of the future is supposed to be exclusively the domain of Garsheeva. Anyone trying to do the same, like charlatans and card-reading tricksters, are seen as infringing on her holy right. But I've never heard of a pony who can really-"

"Woah!" Valey's cutie mark twinged, and she ducked left to avoid a surprise right hook... only the punch never came. Morena's eyes widened slightly.

"Yeah... Heh heh..." Valey wiped the mud off one of her hooves with another. "That's why I do so good in the tournament. But, so, that... makes me a pretty big liability to my friends, I guess?"

Morena sighed. "I don't know what would happen if Meltdown found a pony who truly can tell the future. It could be anything from condemnation as a heretic to having your brand sealed in obsidian and locked away to being regarded as a goddess. How tightly have you guarded what you can do?"

"Because of the tournament? Bananas, pretty tightly." Valey shrugged. "It's my one big advantage. I don't want my enemies to know how I work so they can prepare. My friends know, though, and anyone from Ironridge like Kero, so Chauncey... would... too..." Her eyes went huge with another realization, and she suddenly felt even less okay than she had before coming out to spar. "I think I need to talk things over with my friends all of a sudden. Gazelle is kind of hanging out on my ship, so do you mind if we use yours?"

Morena shook her head, regarding the mess they'd made of the field. "Whatever you've realized, good luck."

Valey swallowed, flapping her wings and taking off. "Thanks. If I'm right about what's going on, I'm gonna need it."

Comments

[Mini-Joe]

aw hell, its cutie time

[Boopers]

So her love is supposed to be as deep as the Aldenfold and her virtue as pure as the moon?
That pretty much means she's a heartless immoral hypocritical bitch, doesn't it? The Aldenfold is one giant magical illusion and the moon is pretty much tainted with Nightmare Moon currently.
But now it's supposed to be a riddle for the location of the Night Mother as well? Dunno where this is going.

[Hap]

9503237
I don't remember what the Aldenfold is. Can you refresh my memory since you seem to?

[Boopers]

9506069
Try this chapter: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/376880/425/the-olden-world/a-questionable-interlude
It's the mountain range cutting the northern lands off from Equestria.

[Alchemik]

Well, that's not ideal 2: Electric Boogaloo. Inconvenient heresy there.

Glory to Garsheeva. May her love, as deep as the Aldenfold, and her virtue, as pure as the moon, be revealed to the entire world.

Riddle me this, eh? Ok, we've got Garsheeva, the big, magic mountain range, the moon, and the whole world. We're probably looking for a location. Assuming it isn't a geography test, we have three general points. I expect "Glory to Garsheeva" references her capital, a definite point. Trace lines from there to the Aldenfold and we have an area. If this is a geocentric Equus, the Moon probably doesn't have much variation in its path. Trace that path onto the ground and I'll hazard a guess the Night Mother can be found where that path intersects the aforementioned area. Still probably a large area though, so there's something else in here that narrows it down somehow. Either that or I've taken a completely wrong approach to this puzzle.

I was. The answer is both obvious and obtuse. Well played.

[Venlinelle]

That riddle/prayer is actually quite funny, now that I think about it. I mentioned before how the moon is impure as hell from Nightmare Moon and Cosmos, and now we also know that the mountains are magic and only appear to be infinite if you try to cross them from the north.

The prayer tells you specifically that she doesn’t care. I wonder who came up with it?

[sploopy slooder]

why did valey tell her that? WHAT WAS THE POINT?! why is the plot pretty much exclusively being advanced by valey being an impulsive retard?!