The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Not Like Anyone

Starlight sat still as Felicity's hooves tingled against her fur. She could tell there was some sort of magic involved, but it slowly ceased, Felicity ending her work and just holding her in front of herself with concerned, fascinated eyes. Starlight started to grow self-conscious. "What?"

"...Darling," Felicity said, taking a moment to get her words together. "This may not come as a surprise, given your present... unusual appearance, but I'm not entirely sure you're a unicorn. At least, not the kind of unicorn ponies usually associate with the word."

Starlight's nose scrunched in confusion. "I have a horn, don't I? What are you talking about?"

"...Your muscle structure. Not even something anyone well-versed in pony anatomy would need magic to understand." Felicity's hooves moved to the sides of Starlight's barrel. "Your sides are very distinctly built like a pegasus, sphinx or sarosian as opposed to a unicorn or an earth pony."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Starlight blinked, twisting her neck. "They don't look any different to me..."

Felicity nodded. "Anatomically speaking, ponies who can fly need different muscles to support their wings. These aren't just ornaments, you realize." She lifted a leathery wing for emphasis. "Ponies who only walk are laid out differently inside, around their sides, for more of a focus on leg strength. Since they don't need to waste room on wings, so to speak. And you, despite being a unicorn, are built like a sarosian or pegasus."

Starlight blinked again. "Are you saying I have wings?"

Felicity chuckled tensely. "Ha! No, you definitely don't, darling. And your skeleton is completely normal, too. But you have the muscle layout and structure of someone who would, even though it isn't attached to anything." She bit her lip. "It's very strange. I can't say I've ever seen anything like this before."

"What does that mean?" Starlight frowned, confused. "Does it even mean anything?"

"Well... It's just..." Felicity fidgeted. "I, err... This may seem like an unrelated question, but is there any chance Maple isn't your biological mother? Or that something among your parentage is unknown? I hate to make far-flung hypotheses, but in the realm of common knowledge, I'm sadly drawing a blank."

Starlight bit her lip. "I was adopted when I was little. In my old home. Before I met Maple. She adopted me too."

Felicity sighed gratefully. "Well. That's a relief. I never commented on your relative ages because it would have been in dreadfully poor taste, but I'm glad... Well. Never mind." She swallowed, hesitated, and started again. "You have things in common with the Night Mother, you know? And I've been politely not pointing it out, but your eyes look like mine now. Slitted, darling. I'm not going to make you tell me how you can shift from the little lilac filly I've been traveling with up until now, though it would be very helpful, but... at least right now, you seem to be... a little more similar to a sarosian than most unicorns I've seen. And this should go without saying, but no child of a unicorn and a sarosian would ever go on record in the Empire stating their parentage and allowing themselves to be researched. So if this was what that kind of union's result looks like... You see what I'm saying? It's a guess, darling."

Starlight blinked. "You think one of my parents was a batpony, and that's why I'm different?" She tilted her head. "I didn't even know batponies could have foals with other ponies. I thought..."

"You thought since Garsheeva and the Night Mother ban it so rigorously, it wasn't worth considering?" Felicity gave a rueful smile. "It's very possible, Starlight. As someone with a lot of secrets, I can tell you an excellent way to hide them is to always leave lesser secrets to throw off anyone hunting you and make them think they've found all there is to find."

Starlight slowly nodded. It was a simpler explanation for why she could do what she could than she was expecting, but maybe that made it likely? It wasn't like she knew any other half-batponies...

"I can't say for certain," Felicity sighed, seeing her uncertainty, "but it makes a lot of sense."

Starlight looked at her hooves. "I wonder what the hospital would have done when I was getting checked. Do you think they would have seen this and guessed that? I wasn't moon glassed when I went there, so my eyes would have been normal..."

Felicity blinked in interest. "That's a very good question, darling. Quite possibly, they would have... done the same thing they did already. The fruits of heresy are hardly much more welcome than the acts themselves..." She trailed off, blinking again. "If that's a coincidence, it's very strange. But what's this about moon glass?"

Starlight hesitated, realizing she had said more than Felicity knew... but if Felicity could go around telling ponies she might be half-batpony, whether it was true or not, she already had no choice but to trust her. "I'm trusting you, you know," she warned, staring straight at the older mare.

"I know. Hard to have much of a choice, isn't it?" Felicity smiled apologetically. "But for what it's worth, darling, my motives are laid bare for you to see. I want my body fixed, and my sisters', too. Even if I abandoned all pretense of being able to live with myself after all was said and done, helping you helps us. And if we ever were to abandon our quest and decide it would cause us to go too far, you and your friends are without question who we'd side with instead."

Slowly, Starlight nodded, Felicity's brightness intense before her. She wanted more than anything to trust this mare, and the possibility of them being friends was worth any risk. "I turn like this when I touch moon glass. It doesn't take my cutie mark like normal batponies. I think it changes how I see things, and it lets me use Nightmare Modules."

Felicity took a little breath. "Nightmare Modules? As in the treasure that..." Her eyes drifted to the window. "Oh my..." She looked back to Starlight, and her eyes narrowed.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Starlight felt her heartbeat speed up.

"Your friends know you can do this?" Felicity asked, a little bit too casual for Starlight's comfort.

"Yes...?" Starlight's ears pressed back. "Sort of? I mostly talk about it with Maple and Valey..."

Felicity watched her intensely. "And we're supposedly here, having accidentally stumbled upon the sealing place of Monk Lord Yanavan, infamous for stealing the Nightmare Modules. Implying they can be stolen."

The unspoken question of whether Starlight had them lingered in the air, and Starlight didn't want to answer. She had said she could use them, which gave away that she had at least one. "I-I..." She had a bad feeling riding up her spine, but knew there was no way she could lie convincingly right now. "Look, I don't like them!" Her voice cracked slightly, falling back onto her haunches in fear. "I don't want Nightmare Modules, I don't want to be a half-batpony, I don't want anything to do with Yanavan! I want to have friends and protect my friends and other than that just be normal!" She felt her lip tremble. "You're scaring me."

"And you think I'm any less terrified?" Felicity breathed, a hoof staying with Starlight's shoulder. "I'm sorry about this."

Suddenly, there was a tingle, and Starlight's entire body couldn't move.

Comments

[Zapdroid]

And then Starlight died. The end.

[Mini-Joe]

oh come on.

[blankity-blank]

I wonder if she was using her cutie mark on Starlight for that whole conversation.

[sploopy slooder]

awww shit, here we go again.....