• Published 23rd Jun 2017
  • 8,247 Views, 4,585 Comments

The Olden World - Czar_Yoshi



Equestrian culture loves cutie marks. Filly Starlight Glimmer hates them and never wants one. So, she leaves Equestria.

  • ...
21
 4,585
 8,247

PreviousChapters Next
Everyone Doing Their Part

Grenada and Jamjars sat in the Immortal Dream's cargo bay, busying themselves with parts and magic. "Unscrew this," Grenada instructed, passing a small sealed box that looked like it had been pulled from a bigger part. "We need the crystal filament cable inside to safely insulate the extraction prong unifier. Otherwise there will be an uneven distribution of power that wastes energy to heat and could eventually warp the metal."

Jamjars stuck out her tongue in concentration, taking the box and working it apart with a screwdriver. "There," she said, prying it open. "I know. No need to tell me how skilled I am."

"However skilled at mechanics you are, you will always be the filly who stole questionable posters from the Spirit hideout to me," Grenada muttered, her horn sparking brightly as she welded together thin parts on a frame. "Stop trying to live that down and concentrate on your project."

Jamjars rolled her eyes, passing back the successfully-retrieved filament cable. "If you're jealous, my room is second from stern on the left. I'll let you see it for free if we're friends."

"I am already helping you with this," Grenada sighed, capping together some loose wires. "Stop pushing your luck."

"What are they doing?" Starlight whispered from a platform high above, the door to the deck at her back.

"Trying to restore mana power to the ship," Glimmer replied next to her. "It's probably complicated."

Suddenly, the door opened behind them, an orange unicorn with a broken horn standing against the sky. "I was told I was needed," Shinespark said, not coming in.

"Sister!" Grenada looked up from the floor below. "You came off the bridge."

Starlight and Glimmer moved aside, and Shinespark descended to the floor. "Don't worry about making this quick," she warned. "It's not like I have anything better to do with my time. Is that a prototype Black Box?"

"Prototype?" Jamjars struck a pose. "Oh, this one's new and improved."

"It is a prototype," Grenada droned, cutting her off. "This is the design for a bigger one before we shrunk it down, so we have room to work with it."

Shinespark gave it a disinterested glance. "Where's your input stabilizer chip?"

Grenada shook her head. "We lack one big enough, so I was improvising with a matrix of..."

"Best to leave the mechanics to the mechanics," Glimmer murmured, tapping Starlight's shoulder and walking away. "There's not much either of us can help with here."


"The good news is, your hoof is healing nicely," Harshwater commented, expediently changing Maple's bandages. The old ones were thrown into a bucket to be washed, and the new ones, made from a torn-up sheet, were quickly reapplied. "The bad news is, there's still nothing I can do for your ribs. Fortunately, they're all cracks instead of clean breaks, so they'll eventually heal on their own. But you'll have to be careful walking around or doing anything involving twists and turns."

Maple's ears folded, and she smiled. "I don't think I feel like walking on this hoof anyway. But what's been happening for the last day? Everyone's been so much more active than usual."

"Preparations for getting the griffons off our tail," Harshwater replied. "Starlight said it was the kind of thing that would stress you out, so we've got it under control ourselves."

Maple shook her head, testing her new bandages. "That's not very reassuring. Ugh, Saffron is up and walking around..."

Harshwater made a wavery face. "Ehh, if you count walking on three hooves. Recoveries take different times. She's just lucky." She glanced over at Meltdown, whose fur was still damp from her swim, and Gazelle, who remained in his perpetual state of shock. "You're not the unluckiest, rest assured."

"I'm not worried about myself," Maple replied. "I'm worried about everyone else. I haven't seen Shinespark at all, and Amber has spent all her time with Valey's shell. She's been through everything I have right alongside me, and I don't want to see this be the thing that finally breaks her."

Harshwater tilted her head. "Well, I know I said you'd make a full recovery within months... probably. But not even a little more concerned for yourself than your friends? You're a tougher small-town mare than I give you credit for."

Maple smiled faintly. "It happens when you've been where I have. I've been emotionally beaten up so many times, I guess I'm getting harder to knock down... though I don't know if that's really strength or just being desensitized."

"Where I come from, there's not much of a difference." Harshwater shrugged, seating herself and resolving to wash the bandages later. "What's it mean to you?"

"Well..." Maple bowed her head in thought. "Sometimes, I just feel like I'm doing nothing. Back in Riverfall, I actually did nothing, and then in Ironridge I mostly took compulsive risks. For personal reasons. I used to have so many goals for my life, back when I was a filly, so I suppose if I was desensitized, that would just look like me going along with the world. But every once in a while, I just get this urge to... I don't know, go do something. Especially now that I'm bedridden in the Plains of Harmony. And I want to, just so I can prove I'm not so beaten down that I can't enjoy doing my own thing."

Harshwater licked her lips. "Have fun with that. I know it's hard to think about anything else when you're physically stuck in place, but thinking that much about how beaten-down you are isn't healthy."

Maple closed her eyes and sighed. "I know... I just have to get out of this bed."


"And there's that tangle out," Amber said, standing on Felicity's back and working the mare's muscles with her hooves as she picked through her mane with a comb. She passed the comb to Valey's shell, which was standing nearby like a trained equipment rack with several different sizes of combs in its insectoid mouth. "Now let's start on this side..."

"Oh, I can already tell this is going to be the best plan everrr," Felicity happily hummed. "I'm enjoying it so much already..."

"You do that, girl." Amber rolled her eyes. "But this isn't a party, you know. We have to get these griffons where we want them. I know Harshwater and Saffron have their fears, but this is a whole new world we're in. If they could trade us for something that could help bring back Valey..."

Felicity giggled. "Oh, please. This is merely how I mentally prepare myself for a proper performance, darling. Just you watch, and I'll have those griffons wrapped around the tip of my wing in no time."

"To get rid of them, I hope," Nyala interrupted, poking her head around the corner as she traveled the hallway with the aid of her roller.

Felicity raised an eyebrow. "A neutralized threat is a neutralized threat, is it not? We might as well see if there's any way to capitalize on our success."

Nyala looked her up and down. "Are you saying that because you want to bring back Valey, or because you want Amber to keep pushing your reset button so you don't have to think about losing your own sisters?"

Amber stopped coming and frowned. "What kind of a question is that?"

"Ahem. Darling." Felicity politely cleared her throat, then gave Nyala a look. "You too have a lost sister standing right here, do you not? That was tactless to the point of being vaguely hostile, if you don't mind me saying. And don't question my fondness for Valey, either."

Nyala shook her head. "I do, and my sister disappeared from that body eight years ago. Not that I don't care for Valey, but she was... someone else. I've been where both of you are, and I'm vaguely worried one of you will do something stupid or dangerous to bring her back. You might not even get what you're after."

Amber and Felicity shared a look.

"You're both in denial." Nyala turned to leave. "Try not to deal with it in the worst way possible."

When she was gone, both mares stared. "What was she talking about?" Amber shook her head. "The worst way possible? I think that was supposed to be rhetorical, but I have no idea what she means. And we won't even need to deal with it, because we're getting her back."

"She has her own issues regarding the subject, I think," Felicity replied. "Not surprising, given that she was recently injected with the memories of her past self after spending months as a machine. I wouldn't be surprised if that has something to do with it. Now would you mind continuing? I really need to ensure I'm properly unwound..."


One by one, Starlight, Felicity, Harshwater, Howe and Neon Nova arrayed themselves on the deck, the materials they needed spread before them.

"It's about that time, isn't it?" Saffron looked at the sky and sighed. "Good luck, you all. Reasonably sure everything is in place?"

Amber nodded, standing with Grenada, Jamjars and the team that was staying. "I still think you should bring Valey. She can fly, and she has to remember something about how to fight."

Jamjars adamantly shook her head. "She stays here. Just in case."

"We have the sound stone," Harshwater announced, "so they'll be communicating with us if need be. Neon will light it. Won't you, slacker?"

Neon Nova winced, adjusting his tape-repaired shades. "You know, that thing was originally mine..."

"Finders, keepers, as Valey would say." Amber shrugged and tipped her beret.

Starlight held Gerardo's old sword across her back, occasionally fidgeting from the lack of her moon glass one. "Are you sure you need me to leave my moon glass here?"

Jamjars huffed. "Why would you have an attachment to a bunch of moon glass? You can just make more."

"You know why." Starlight glared, remembering Glimmer had told her that Jamjars knew.

"Well, see if you can live without it." Jamjars nodded toward the cargo bay. "We're trying to test it with Grenada's machine while you're gone. And this is for actual science, not using it as a comfort toy."

Starlight bristled... but Glimmer held up a hoof for her to calm. "I'll keep things under control here. Good luck with those griffons."

Everyone else who was there to see the others off nodded. "Good luck."

PreviousChapters Next