The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

I Need Answers

"...So." Valey closed her eyes and took a deep breath, sitting in the middle of Wallace's airship with Maple, Starlight, Gerardo, Amber and Slipstream all in attendance... Even Shinespark was there, having been carried from her room on the Immortal Dream by her friends. "I've got some stuff to say."

Morena nodded quietly, guarding the door, the only one of Wallace's team present. "We're listening," Maple promised.

"I found out," Valey began, "that apparently telling the future is a heresy here. Bananas, someone really needs to make a list of every last one of them, but whatever. And, uh, you all basically know what my cutie mark does."

Amber folded her ears.

"And the reason it's a heresy..." Valey glanced at Morena. "Is because apparently that's some super-special power only Garsheeva is supposed to have. Or something."

"Indeed it is." Gerardo drooped. "I do apologize for not making you more aware of that. But you seemed inclined to hide it from the Empire at large due to the tournament regardless, and it didn't feel like something you would appreciate thinking about, so I never pressed the subject..."

Valey sighed. "Thanks, Birdo. Listen, before I go further: tell me all the heresies. I wanna know all of them. No more surprises."

Gerardo nodded. "No inter-species relationships between ponies, sarosians and griffons; sphinxes are exempt. No incest. No cannibalism. No formally declaring war against Mistvale or attempting to expand the Empire onto their territory. No preventing the sarosians from placing dusk statues wherever they please. No piracy. No constructing mana generators. No attempting to foretell the future. The Night Mother also has her own set of heresies, some of which are identical to these. And that is everything of which I am aware."

"Great." Valey rubbed her forehead with a wing. "Okay, no more surprises... Bananas, some of those are common sense and others are just weird. And you're one hundred percent sure that's everything?"

Gerardo's headcrest perked. "Actually, all of them have quite sensible explanations, if you ask any politician or any of Garsheeva's most devout. The relationship prohibition is in the name of protecting national sovereignty, since otherwise things would become very tangled. Given the way the house inheritance works, outlawing incest is practically mandatory to ensure the sphinx population isn't eradicated by genetic deviancy, and-"

"Yeah, that's cool." Valey waved a wing. "I already know about the one that matters." She looked around at everyone, starting to pace on the ship's wooden floor. "I've... always not been entirely comfortable with what I am. Moon glass maybe-soul from space? I've done my best to live with it. It doesn't stop me from fighting or hanging out or being friends with you all. But the more I find, even when I'm not looking... especially now that I'm finding stuff without looking..." She took a breath. "I can't keep doing this. I just can't. And as much as I'm scared of winding up like Chauncey, looking for answers to the world's secrets so hard that I give up my morality and everything else to find them... I need to know. You get what I'm saying?"

"I'm not sure I do," Maple admitted. "That sounds like an apology, but you haven't done anything?"

"Haven't yet, but I'm gonna." Valey gave her a look. "You remember how friendly Chauncey was being when we talked with him, even though he had no right to? I kind of got distracted because he was really bad at getting to the point when doing evil speeches, but... he was talking about how he wants to make a goddess who can champion batponies better than the Night Mother, right? And he was talking about how Stanza is a machine designed to swap cutie marks around, and I just found out he was the one who sent Kero and his mercenaries to attack me in the Flame District, and now that my cutie mark is something apparently only Garsheeva is supposed to do... You see where I'm going with this, right?"

Amber's eyes widened slightly. "Chauncey wanted to make you...?"

"Still wants," Valey corrected, feeling a lump in her throat. "He even told me he could help with my whole problem of getting the old Valey back involving giving up this body. I dunno why it took me so long to put all this together, but... I don't think ignoring where I came from and pretending I'm normal is gonna work anymore."

"It probably took as long as it did because you don't want it to be true," Maple said. "So what are you going to do?"

"Try to get more answers. I need answers," Valey sighed, straightening up. "I have no idea how deep this rabbit hole goes, but somewhere, somehow, there has to be an explanation for who I am, what I am, and why I'm here. And even if it's one I don't like, it's no longer worth not knowing." She glanced around at everyone. "And I've got a pretty decent idea where to start. You remember how back on the pirate ship, it was like I flipped a switch and all those batponies suddenly started treating me like I was holy? I just rolled with it at the time because it was majorly convenient, but now I think I must have bragged or something and mentioned how my cutie mark works. I bet they know. I bet someone in Mistvale has a pretty good idea what my deal is."

"If Chauncey wants to be nice to you so badly, you could also just ask him," Starlight offered.

"Yeah, that's... Ugh." Valey rubbed her face. "But he's weird! And... yeah, I probably should ask him before I go do anything else..."

Starlight nodded. "I'll come too, if it helps."

"No, look, hold on." Valey held out a wing, interrupting her. "This is my problem, and... I mean... thanks."

"So is that it, then?" Amber smiled uncertainly. "We're flying to Mistvale? Do you have any place to start, or... even a map? We do have a month until the tournament with nothing better to do."

"Slow down, slow down." Valey waved a wing for quiet. "First off, it's totally up to you guys whether you want to-"

"Not even in question," Gerardo interrupted, everyone else nodding along. "Splitting the party would be a ridiculous notion when there's adventure to be had, Shinespark is injured, you're the most capable of us in combat and we only have one ship with most of the world neutral toward us at best."

Valey feebly grinned. "Heh. Sure thing, Birdo..." She glanced over at Morena. "What about you guys? Sounds like a good idea, bad idea... I don't suppose you'd want to come too?"

Morena hesitated. "I don't want to speak for Wallace, but it's not impossible. We might also want to keep an eye on Izvaldi. If you're really thinking of going to Mistvale, though, you won't want to go without a guide and a goal. Tell me why you want to go, and don't do it unless you can give me a very certain answer."

"I wanna go because I wanna know what my deal is," Valey replied. "I'm going to talk to Chauncey first, but unless I get a perfect answer out of him... and we all know that's not happening... those Mistvale pirates revered me, or something. Someone there has to know something about my cutie mark. About the stuff from space. I'll go straight to their high council or whatever if I have to. I'm going because I'm tired of having this hanging over my head and once I know what's up with who I am and where I come from, I can finally figure out how to live with it in peace."

"...Don't go without a guide," Morena repeated. "And good luck."

For a moment, the room was silent, Valey having had her say. Eventually, Gerardo spoke up. "Now we just have to figure out how to tell the Prince his new vacation spot is being commandeered for an adventure..."

"Leave that to me!" Amber promised, slapping a hoof against her chest. "I've got a way with these things. How soon are we thinking?"

Valey shrugged. "How long is the flight?"

Morena glanced at her. "From here to the border? One or two days. Depends on your ship. You flew to Gyre. It's a shorter trip than that, since you don't have to go as far east."

"Bananas, the Empire's tiny compared to the rest of the world." Valey rubbed the back of her head. "It took us like a whole month to fly here from Ironridge. Someday I'm gonna get a proper geography lesson and it'll blow my mind..." She shook it off and got to her hooves. "So, uh, I guess I'm gonna go bother Chauncey and see if there's anything more I can learn? I'm not really in a mood to wait."

"I'm coming too," Starlight volunteered. "To talk to Chauncey."

"You sure?" Valey raised a dubious eyebrow. "I mean, I'm not gonna stop you, but he's kind of..."

"Shady?" Starlight shrugged. "I have something I want to ask him too. We won't take too long."

Maple gave a hesitant smile. "Well, alright... I feel like there's a lot more to this than what you've said, and that's okay because we trust you. But I would like to talk with you about this before we fly too far, okay?"

"Yeah, I would too, Ironflanks," Valey sighed, beckoning for Starlight to climb onto her damp back for the flight to the hospital. "I would too..."

Comments

[Mini-Joe]

wrestle with chauncy, i wanna see him be wrassled to the frickin floor and forced to puke up the modules

[Boopers]

Garsheeva is still pissed that Celestia won't give her back her cutie mark that lets her see into the future and now she will take it out on cute Valey instead whenever she finds out.

[Venlinelle]

I support Valey being made a god, honestly. She’d do a better job than Garsheeva, at least.