The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Too Little, Late

Valey appeared in a burst of light on the deck of the Immortal Dream, surrounded by swirling storm winds and driving rain that were forcefully repelled by the harmony comet's pink, shimmering aura. She had just enough time to register that it hadn't been a trap after all before her unicorn teleported away again, leaving no time for thanks.

"Big brother!" Gwendolyn let out a frustrated yell, held in Gazelle's paws nearby. "I was going to stay at Stormhoof!"

"Shan't," Gazelle chided, holding the filly firmly. "I told you, that castle tonight is no place for children. You would get hurt."

Gwendolyn gave him a fiery stare. "That's the point. Whatever you've stirred up there tonight has no more right to endanger my constituents than it does me. You're supposed to call it off, not take me away."

Before Gazelle could reply, two more flashes deposited Felicity and Senescey, and then their unicorns were gone as well. "Uhh..." Valey blinked, unsure who to approach first or even what to say. The comet kept them safe and dry on the deck, but the storm was loud enough no one would have heard them arrive. She kind of wanted to get below...

"Well. Here... Here we are, then." Felicity apprehensively looked at the ground. "Valey, I'm... About all that, we're..."

Valey decided to ignore the feuding sphinxes in favor of her real friends, striding over and putting a wing around both other mares. "Hey," she said. "Look, you... survived. I lost Starlight's sword coming to get you, and now we've got to deal with Gazelle being back on the boat, but it's gonna be over soon. Let Stormhoof burn for all I care. I've been run around one too many times for anything happening there to be my problem. It's gonna be okay."

"Hah. Yes. Foalnapped and daringly rescued, that's what happened..." Felicity sagged slightly. "I wish. Valey, we need to talk."

Senescey frowned disapprovingly, but Valey shook her head. "How important is it? I know you're pretty shaken, but if you're feeling up to doing anything other than resting, there's a mare down below who's kind of having a kid..."

Felicity smiled sadly. "I'm afraid you might not want my help there, after I've said my piece. But if you do, she'll be doing that all night long. We need to talk, right now."

"Uhh... Here?" Valey frowned at the deck, crashing thunder drowning out bits and pieces of her friend's voice and forcing her to lean in closer to listen.

Felicity took a deep breath. "Gyre. Izvaldi. Stormhoof. Everlaste. The first consumed our foalhoods with lawlessness and struggle for survival. The second ravaged our bodies with contaminated drinking water and stole our mother. The last two are today's two provinces who have it out the hardest for sarosiankind, and are close allies as well. We hate all of them. All three of us. Badly. For decades, it's been our first and only goal to make them pay."

Valey blinked. "Wait, say that again?"

"She's telling the truth," Senescey sighed, staring out at the storm and looking upset.

"This is everything we didn't tell you all those months ago," Felicity continued, "when we thought you would be sympathetic to us, yet you asked to be friends without knowing dangerous things or getting involved. Lord Gyre's demise? We've been working for him for years. He was easily manipulatable, and it wasn't hard for us to nudge him into a situation without his realizing where we would be forced to off him in a way that didn't look like premeditated murder. The fall of Izvaldi? They took themselves down before we could do anything, but we had a very extensive plan to tarnish their old administration's legacy beyond even what it had been, enshrining Percival's father in infamy that would be remembered for generations. The lords of Stormhoof and Everlaste? Presently in a tower with no standing army, courtesy of you, because I... played the damsel in distress."

Valey folded her ears. "Wait, what?"

Senescey winced. "You remember that party you accidentally walked in on early in the tournament, where you found me and a bunch of other low-level fighters? Those were... friends. I didn't want them thinking we were close, since I hadn't told them we were leaving you out of things. But they're the ones who are presently heading up the tower we... had you clear out for us. They know their things. And in the morning, the royal families of Stormhoof and Everlaste will be gone."

Valey slowly tilted her head. "But you..." She furrowed her brows. "Wait, on the ship just earlier-"

"Staged." Felicity's tail pressed downward, almost tucked between her legs. "With Gazelle's help. A Varsidelian stun ray from him. Some dramatizations from me preventing any of you from checking the body. Larceny stalling for time so you couldn't intercept us before we reached the castle. I'm so sorry. We did think hard about our priorities, but revenge had to win out."

Valey tried to meet her eyes. "So you were lying about being done and wanting to join us."

"Well, it was a half-truth." Felicity swallowed. "We are done now. Just, not because we walked away. Because we finished. We undid every one of the provinces we..."

"What about the Night Mother?" Valey frowned. "Having you work for Gazelle? I thought you wanted to get a wish to have your bodies restored, or something."

"It was an arranged partnership she set up that would be beneficial to us both." Felicity looked down. "Our goals were compatible enough that we could easily work side by side, and that's what the Night Mother asked us to do. I'm afraid I can't tell you what Gazelle is really after. His stated goals and actions are too self-contradictory to make any sense of. But I can say that what he planned for tonight was to become the new Lord Everlaste."

"Look, just... forget about him. Forget it." Valey waved a hoof at her, then sat down with a thump, shoulders sagging. "So what you're telling me is, you had some beefs with some dudes who didn't like batponies, asked me if I wanted to know the details, and because I said no you tricked me into helping instead by staging your own murder on my ship. Is that it?"

Felicity's voice shrank. "Yes. It is."

Valey slowly groaned. "Well, hey. Thanks for taking me that seriously when I said I'd be happier not knowing."

Both of the other mares fidgeted. Eventually, Felicity said, "I... can't tell whether you're being sarcastic, darling."

"Totally depends on whether you're actually serious." Valey raised an eyebrow. "Because right now, either you're still lying or are really, really dumb. All those conversations we had, Felicity? You and me? Where you told me you were pouring your heart out to me, and we were talking about you guys maybe quitting with the Night Mother and changing to our side instead? Tell me how real those were."

Felicity smiled regretfully. "Look at it this way. Were we interested in fooling you, it would have been easy to pretend Senescey survived by chance and we really were rescued victims. There's no benefit to us telling you all this. Quite a bit of loss, in fact, from a material perspective."

Valey frowned. "I don't get it. Are you saying you want to apologize? And regret, like, traumatizing half my friends?"

Felicity slowly nodded, and Senescey followed her lead.

"Right..." Valey scratched one foreleg with the other. "So you had some sort of epiphany up there waiting for me? Or if things got rewound several hours, would you do everything the same all over again?"

"...I was hoping you wouldn't ask that." Felicity winced, looking away. "Please don't force me to answer. There's no way for me to respond without being unfair to everything we've been through, or to you. You killed Herman, after all. We're trying to take out our own corrupt leaders. Only, our skills lie in getting others to do work for us ourselves rather than doing it on our own power. And working with Gazelle means he gets a share of input in the plans... not that this wasn't on us, of course."

"Yeah, I did kill Herman," Valey admitted. "And... look. I'm ticked about this. I'm ticked to hear you were messing with me after all I did to trust you. You know how many times my friends told me I knew you better than they did and they were trusting you because of my judgement? You know that Wallace Whitewing warned me about you, and I stuck up for you because I thought you would be better?"

Felicity finally met her gaze. "Better in what regard? Do you mean less-damaged, perhaps? Less angry at this Empire and its treatment of our kind? Better at being the bigger mares, not fighting back and being kind and peaceful to our enemies even when we live under the cover of darkness and can't come out into the light?"

"Better like how I turned around and saved Ironridge when they owed me less than nothing." Valey's ears briefly pressed back, then came forward again. "What do you think is going to happen to the Empire if half its leadership just disappears? Will everyone go, 'Oh, hey, maybe we shouldn't have messed with batponies,' and completely rethink their lives? Or are they going to blame us? Are new fanatics going to show up and lead the provinces in their place?"

"We don't know," Senescey answered. "There was an iteration in our plans where we thought we would die for this, so that wouldn't be our problem. And another where we thought we could stay on good terms with you, and not have to worry about it either."

Valey stared. "You really are idiots."

"And what would you have done instead?" Felicity softened her eyes. "You're wearing a dress, darling. Something tells me you spent at least a little time trying to humiliate Stormhoof and Everlaste yourself on your way up, rather than coming straight for us. They've hurt you, too. You wanted to make them pay just like we did. Didn't you?"

Valey suddenly looked at the floor. "Yeah. And that's why I'm not half as ticked as I could be. I wouldn't have gone in there if it hadn't been for you, sure, but if you were a hostage until your kid was born, hey, I could take all the time I wanted. I figured we'd be leaving the Empire after this. We still might be. But... yeah. It felt good. Right up until I realized that everything was too easy, and I was probably making it easier for a reason."

Felicity nodded. "Gazelle has been bribing officers in Everlaste for quite some time now. When they dispatched soldiers to fortify Wilderwind to the north in expectation that Varsidel could retaliate for the seizure of merchant airships, I... may have suggested he pull some strings and have all the veterans sent up there. Got the idea from you."

"Well, that explains that." Valey shook her head. "Not the point, though. There is a big rule about messing with folks like that. One I stuck to hard in Ironridge, even when I had no qualms about being mean to everyone. I put it something like don't break your toys, but the important idea is you don't do anything someone can't recover from. Ruin someone's day? Neat. Ruin someone's life? Better draw a line. Throw the entire continent into chaos?" She raised an eyebrow. "So what if they're rulers that aren't helping batponies? They're still rulers, and power vacuums tend to attract opportunists." She sighed. "I don't care about the Empire enough to do anything about it. But for as good as you are at using your friends, you sure didn't think very far ahead."

Felicity gave a wan smile. "Nobody ever said we cared about the Empire either."

"If you had a rule like that, either you're better than we ever were or you just didn't have it as bad," Senescey added. "We've never pretended to be the good guys. Not to you or to anyone else."

Valey narrowed her eyes. "And that doesn't bother you even a little? You don't have a single dab of conscience telling you to do otherwise? I mean, I didn't, but still..."

Felicity's smile vanished. "Oh, we do. Don't mistake us for being selfish or evil, either. We are here to apologize, after all, rather than continuing a charade to try and get in good with your happy band of friends. It's too little, too late, I know. We're sorry."

"...Well, bananas." Valey sat down. "And what are you going to do now?"

"That's up to you," Felicity replied without needing to think.

"You know? I'm pretty sure it isn't." Valey gave her a hard look. "Shinespark was not happy with what went down. Everyone who saw it was shaken by it. Pretty sure the whole ship has heard by now. And since I gave you my trust and you lost it, I'm done being the one who vouches for you on this ship. If you still have any goodwill or intentions of being friendly toward us..." She took a deep breath and sighed. "Bananas, I'd love to have some sort of happy resolution come out of this thing. I won't kick you off this ship when we land in Izvaldi, but the moment we're done with Crystal, rid of Gazelle and have the ship back to ourselves, you will get to explain to everyone precisely what you just told me, answer all their questions, and let everyone decide together whether we collectively want anything to do with you. Anything to do with someone who would scare us into attacking a neutral fortress by pretending to die on our lawn."

"Understood." The sisters both bowed.

Valey flicked her ears. "Until we're rid of those two, I'll be watching you, and you can start working on my trust by doing exactly what I say. I don't trust Gazelle not to make trouble, so if he starts you're going to talk him down with whatever leverage you have, no matter how dirty of a trick you have to pull to stop him. And you're not going to draw attention to yourselves otherwise, since if Crystal needs medical help, I don't want that interrupted by an argument about your loyalty. She's not-"

She frowned and spun around, suddenly seeing an empty deck. "I thought it was too quiet. Where did they go!?"

"Well, no one can fly in this weather," Felicity sighed. "And seeing as they're not on deck and there's a rear door below, I imagine they went inside."

Comments

[RoboRed]

The first the first consumed our foalhoods

too many firsts there

[Alchemik]

I'm afraid Gazelle operates under no one's dramatic timing but his own, Valey. Inconvenient, perhaps, but should sound familiar.

[Person of Stone]

I hope Mundungus survives the battle of Stormhoof Keep

[sploopy slooder]

i cant imagine gazelle's sister is gonna be very happy when she finds out what happened, considering she seems pretty smart AND not a horrible person. just please god dont tell me gazelle was really playing 4d chess and somehow planned her reaction as well.......