The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

After

Maple moved to open Arambai's door, Starlight asleep on her back and the tiniest of springs in her step. She reached a hoof out... when suddenly, it blew open of its own accord.

"Well, that didn't take long at all!" Gerardo's smiling, beaked face announced. Next to him, a smirking Amber was guarding a tied-up Hemlock, who was thrashing and probably would have been hurling insults had he not been gagged. Maple raised an eyebrow.

"You... hogtied him?" she asked dubiously.

As Amber nodded sagely, Gerardo answered, "Overkill, perhaps, though considering both of us had prior grudges to settle as well, I can't bring myself to feel bad about it in the slightest. Is, um..." He tilted his head. "Is Starlight taking a nap at this hour?"

Maple smiled awkwardly, before craning around to check on the filly. "Yeah, she is. I'm taking her back home, so hopefully you don't need either of us?" She winked forcefully.

Amber quickly got the hint. "Nah, you're good. We'll handle this crone ourselves."

Gerardo bowed in agreement. "Indeed. The dispensing of righteous justice is always a pity to miss out on, but we'll promise not to have too much fun. Please, do enjoy your nap."

"Kind of a little over the top there, buddy," Amber giggled, nudging him and getting a chuckle in return. "Yeah, have fun. See ya!"

"Thanks, you two." Maple's ears folded gratefully. "Oh, and... I was thinking of making dinner down at Willow's tonight, so you should definitely be there. I'm grilling a pineapple!"

"We'll be there!" Amber waved eagerly, keeping a smile plastered to her face as Maple and Starlight walked out of sight. The moment they were gone, however, she scowled and turned to Gerardo. "All right, now what do we do with this guy?"

"Good question," Arambai's voice remarked from the doorway. "You could start by bringing him inside."

---

In the high tower room where one wall was made entirely of curved glass, Hemlock's muzzle was finally removed. "I demand a lawyer!" he instantly screeched. "And some refreshments, too."

"Hold up, big shot," Arambai drawled, telekinetically planting him in place. "First, there's some stuff we wanted to talk to you about. Collateral damage from breaking a boat while trying to show off aside, you broke Riverfall's number one rule this morning. Any guesses what that was?"

"I was sabotaged!" Hemlock flailed helplessly, failing to break free of his bonds. "That wasn't my fault, it was hers! Oh, and I still want a lawyer!"

Arambai rolled his eyes. "Fine. Pretend I'm a lawyer. Now tell me you know what this is about?"

"Actually," Gerardo interrupted, raising a talon, "playing devil's advocate can be quite amusing at times. Might I lawyer for the crone?"

"Nah. I want to keep this semi-serious, here," Arambai answered. "Besides, the less we goof around, the faster it gets the crone out of my house."

"I am not a crone!" Hemlock bellowed. "I'm thrice the stallion you'll ever be! Now untie me and treat me with the dignity I deserve!"

Amber stuck her tongue out. "My tail thinks you're a crone. Still think it's that attractive now?"

Realizing the situation was going nowhere, Arambai put his head in his hooves and sighed. "Good grief..."

---

Starlight slowly snuffled and snorted herself awake, some part of her brain deciding it was time to begin the new day. A fuzziness clouded her head as her thoughts awakened with her, feeling vaguely like she was made of paper... but with each blink of her purple eyes, it lifted somewhat.

"Are you feeling okay?" Maple's soft voice came from beside her, where the mare was curled.

"Huh?" Starlight lit her horn. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Maple's brow creased with worry in the teal light. "You mean you don't remember what just happened?" She hesitated. "What were we doing before we went to bed?"

"Umm..." Starlight chewed her lip. "Not much? You were selling things, and I was reading, and..." Her eyes crossed. "We had oats for breakfast."

"Now that I think about it, you had trouble remembering what immediately happened last time, too, didn't you?" Maple asked, sighing. At Starlight's questioning look, she added, "Arambai wanted to try hooking you up to his machine again to see what would happen, and I let him."

"Oh." Starlight looked down and shrugged, light still streaming off her horn. "Well, I feel fine."

"Do you..." Maple hesitated. "Remember why we were at Arambai's in the first place?"

Starlight's face scrunched. "There was an annoying noise... umm... Mares?"

Swallowing, Amber said, "A mob turned up that had figured out where you were from. It was Hemlock's fault. We went to Arambai to see what he could do about it."

Starlight blinked in disbelief... and then in strange recognition. "Wow." She rubbed her head. "Maybe I don't want to remember that... Are you sure?" She looked up, pleading.

"Yes," Maple said sadly. "Though you did handle it very well. I thought so, at least. Starlight... you also said you were staying here anyway, but only because of me. That if I wasn't here to miss you, you'd leave. Do you still feel that way?"

"Now that I think about it, I can remember more and more," Starlight said glumly. "But it still feels like a dream. Did I really freeze them all in crystal?"

"Yes," Maple repeated. "It was very impressive, but they were just scared. But they were being so pushy, and I'm not really sure what else you could have done..."

"That's weird," Starlight responded, blinking in confusion. She rubbed at her forehead. "Making a crystal that big should have been really hard, but my horn doesn't hurt at all."

"It doesn't...?" Maple breathed, eyes widening. "That happened last time, too! I wonder if Arambai's machine is somehow able to heal your horn when it gets overexerted..."

"Meh." Starlight shrugged. "Maybe. But didn't you also say it makes me forget stuff?"

"And sleep for hours," Maple hummed. "It's late afternoon, almost evening. We're having dinner at Willow's tonight, and will need to get going pretty soon."

Starlight folded her ears. "Were you in here the whole time?"

"More or less, yes." Maple looked around the room, not yet getting up. "I've had some things to think about. But, about what I asked earlier... if it weren't for me... would you leave? On Arambai's night ferry to Ironridge?"

"I don't know..."

"You don't want to make me feel like I'm a burden to you," Maple said gently, putting a hoof over Starlight. The filly shook, and ever-so-faintly nodded. "Starlight..."

Starlight hugged her back. "I'll be fine here. Really. You're nice, and Willow's nice and so are the others. I can live with it if ponies won't stop treating me like I'm special as long as they don't try to take me away. You'll see. I'll be happy." She swallowed, and added, "I started reading Arambai's book."

"That's nice..." Maple stretched. "I hope it's not too dry. Anyway, we should get going. It's a ways to Willow's house, and who knows how many ponies will try to stop us to talk on the way there?"

Together, they got up and unfurled the blinds. The sunlight had turned gray, evidently due to a fresh patch of cloud cover, but it wasn't yet raining. Invigorated by the new reason to hurry, they quickly prepared themselves, grabbed a poncho just in case, and headed out the door.

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