• Published 23rd Jun 2017
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The Olden World - Czar_Yoshi



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

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Checking In On Friends

After lunch, Valey and Gerardo parted ways, and Valey took a different tack with her explorations. She wheeled above the school, ascending and descending, hovering past windows and trying to familiarize herself with which building was what when seen from the air. It took several hours, but there were so many ponies and so much variety she never got bored, and her wings were glad for the workout.

Eventually, she started growing confident in her feel for the campus. The island was hardly circular, with a broad cove to the east, a peninsula on the northeastern edge and a broad, flat field to the south that was surrounded by a running track. The west shore was entirely residential, with a town clustered between the field and the beach she was reasonably sure was the heart of Kinmari College Town, while the north held the heart of the institution, all the departments built into building clusters that made up quadrants of a sprawling, open, castle-like structure. It spilled down a hill to the south, where the residence halls and dining halls were hemmed between the school buildings and the field.

The cove itself seemed dedicated to sports and swimming, boasting the best beaches of the island, and she definitely didn't stop for a while to watch the students play and compete. But the northern end was roped off by buoys, and there Valey found herself hovering before a tight cluster of sheltered docks and ocean warehouses, one of which housed the submarine she had sailed back on. From there, it was only a short flight to the north of the island, where there was a building she had flown past all day and never quite decided to stop and enter: the hospital where her other friends were being treated.

But now the sun was midway to evening, and she figured it was time for a visit.

"Yo," Valey greeted, touching down and strolling through spacious doors to the reception desk.

The mare at the desk, who was probably a student, looked up from a stack of papers she was straightening with an expression of clear recognition. "You! You're looking for your friends?"

"Yep." Valey adjusted her beret. "You know where they are?"

The reception nurse-in-training sighed. "Hard not to when I've been thinking about them all day. Today had to fall on my front desk rotation week... Please, come with me."

She rang a bell for someone to cover for her, and trotted off as another pony stepped out of a back room. Valey followed, ignoring the swishing tail and noticing instead how empty the hospital seemed. "Doesn't seem all that busy," she remarked.

"It's one town," the mare replied. "How many illnesses or injuries are you going to have at once? This is a school hospital, for learning to work at busier facilities on the mainland or researching cures for advanced illnesses and disabilities."

Valey scratched her head. "Yeah, probably need a decent overflow sick bay in case everyone gets food poisoning at once, or something..."

"Your friends are here," the receptionist eventually said, a short walk to the second floor later. She pointed to a trio of rooms, two of which were open and one closed, with windows facing out over the front entrance.

The two open doors led to the same room, separated by a curtain that had been drawn far back. "Darling!" Felicity greeted happily, reclining in a bed that looked far more comfortable than what Valey expected to see in a hospital.

"Valey, you're back," Maple called from the opposite bed, Starlight sitting in her poncho and reading a book with her back to the bed like a guard.

"Yep!" Valey thanked the receptionist and strolled inside, looking for a place to put her legs up as well. "How are you two? Been having a day I haven't had for a while..."

Felicity swooned, making a show of nuzzling her bed. "Oh, you wouldn't believe how accommodating they've been. Most of the nurses may be students, but the amount of care and attention they show makes Chauncey's hospital in Izvaldi look like a prison, darling. And you'll never believe this, but they completely agreed with my diagnosis that rest and good conditions were what I needed most, so there."

"Yeah, that's probably because it really was a prison." Valey winked, then turned to Maple. "And you, Ironflanks?"

Maple sighed. "I'm... good. It's good here. I want everyone else to make it here too, but once they do, I think we'll really be able to relax. Most of us, at least."

Valey raised an eyebrow. "Like not who?"

Maple's gaze drifted to her cutie mark. "I've been asking, and I don't think we got lucky enough to have this island be on top of a crystal palace. I don't even know if I can hold onto her forever. It makes it hard to use my cutie mark for other things. Someday, I'm going to have to decide what to do."

Valey stepped over to Maple's bed, getting a glance from Starlight. "How urgent is this? Be honest, here."

"Well..." Maple thought for a moment. "It would be in terms of weeks, not hours or days. But also not months. It's not like holding onto her hurts physically, but if I'm always planning to do something to help her and we're not going to get a way... it won't make it easy to think about or plan for the rest of my life. But for now, I'm fine."

"I'll take your word for it." Valey offered a hoof. "So, other than that, how are you feeling? Relaxing? Bones doing okay?"

Maple shook her head. "I've been walking just to get myself moving. It's very uncomfortable when I move at certain angles, but not a sharp pain anymore. What Celestia did is helping. I think soon I'll just have to keep living my life again, only more carefully than usual, and wait for it to heal on its own."

"Speaking of relaxation," Felicity piped up, "I don't suppose you took the time to tour everything else this island has to offer?"

"Hold up." Valey paused her with a wing. "And the students are nice? Someone said the nurses were students?"

Maple grew a gentle smile. "They've been... a little bit timid. It's obvious this isn't a normal day for them, but they're doing a good job of being professional despite their feelings. And they've been fun to talk to. I've enjoyed it."

"Huh." Valey rubbed her mane. "Maybe I gotta meet these ones..."

"Do tell us about your own day, though?" Felicity asked, propping a hoof beneath her cheek. "With just the few of us here, I have been dying of curiosity what it's like being out and about."

Valey rolled her eyes and sighed. "Girl? If you walked into a crowd of these kids, turned up your cutie mark to full-blast intensity mode, and shouted, 'I'm eligible,' it would probably cause the entire island to sink from the force of the stampede."

Maple burst out laughing, then winced and rubbed her side.

"Hmm." Felicity pretended to contemplate this. "Utterly lacking in romance tact, but definitely a dramatic entrance. I'll remember that for later. Do go on?"

Valey shrugged hard. "I really don't know what to say. I wish Sparky was here. Every last one of the kids... which I say, even though they're probably mostly older than me... is single-mindedly obsessed with either me playing sports, dating me, or freaking out that everyone else is obsessed with that. It's kinda innocent and silly at the same time, and I may have... let loose and messed with them a little in a way I haven't done since Ironridge. You know. Before I met you." She nodded at Maple. "Like I said, I wish she could have seen it. After some of the talks we've had... Well, I felt good, and I bet it would have meant a lot to her."

"How quickly will you wear out your welcome if you do it again tomorrow?" Maple asked, folding her hooves. "Or whenever the Dream arrives?"

"Mmmmm..." Valey pursed her lips. "With the students? I definitely didn't wind up discouraging them. With the professors who have to deal with their hype? Literally who knows?"

"Well, I'm glad to see you're enjoying yourself," Maple hummed. "Like I said, I think most of us might finally be able to relax here."

Valey squinted at her. "You say that like there's more than just yourself on your mind."

Maple glanced down at Starlight with a do-you-really-want-me-to-say-aloud-I'm-talking-about-her look.

"Oh. Uh. Right." Valey rubbed her neck. "Bananas, I dunno what to even do about that." Her eyes shifted. "Hey, how's Gazelle?"

"Elsewhere," Felicity answered. "He's gotten up and left at least half a dozen times by now. They're trying to keep him in the room next to ours, but he seems to have wanderlust and just quietly leaves each and every time. Once he came back on his own, other times he's escorted... I think he's out at the moment. He certainly isn't one of the ones taking the time to relax."

"...Huh." Valey turned in a circle and sat down again, deciding the lonely prince wasn't worth thinking about. "Anyway. I dunno how up and about you're feeling, but long story short one of their houses is going to be half-empty this weekend and we've got a standing invitation to hang out. I've been poking around, and the worst deep dark secret they've got doesn't seem all that threatening, so we could totally have some fun and look for good company if you want?"

Felicity looked up eagerly. "Which house, darling? We've heard about them. This hospital seems to be mostly the domain of Kindness. I can't say I wouldn't miss the accommodations, but who wouldn't want to try for more?"

"Are you cleared to leave?" Maple asked. "I know they told me I could be on my hooves if I was feeling like it..."

Felicity coughed. "Technically, they did a blood sample and a physical, and I'm still waiting to hear what the former was all about. But I think it should be obvious what I really could use."

Valey thought for a moment. "Eh... Well, maybe I could go check it out myself beforehoof just to make sure we don't get mobbed. Or we could go in blind, if you're feeling like some fun. Or hey, maybe I should hang out with the kids here if they're more chill than the others..."

"If I were you?" Felicity winked. "I can tell when a mare is enjoying herself. Get out there and frolic, darling! You look much happier than you have for the last week, and especially since I knew you in the Empire."

Valey gave her a look. "You don't even know me that well. Bananas..." She sighed. "I still owe you a talk about the last talk we had on the ship, don't I? Right after I got back...?"

Felicity shrugged. "I think you made it clear enough where things stand. If I'm ever anything but helpful or supportive enough, please let me know, because I'm really not feeling well enough to go above and beyond just for the sake of paranoia. I trust you."

Valey blinked. "...Yeah, I owe you a talk."

"Suit yourself." Felicity nuzzled her bed. "So, are we touring? I suppose I could coax myself out of this luxury in the spirit of a little fun..."

"You're enjoying being in a hospital too much," Maple sighed, gingerly getting to her hooves. "Come on, Valey, Starlight. I need to walk around if nothing else. Get some fresh air. The doctors said it would be good for me."

Valey offered a wing to help her up. "Good thinking. Just, uh, stick by me so I can own any bozos if they swarm us too hard." She glanced down at Starlight. "Hey, so, uh... do you think you could lose the coat?" She lowered her voice. "It's gonna make you stand out. We're already going to be popular, and literally everyone here has a cutie mark so it's not like anyone will bother to ask about or even notice your new one."

Starlight looked up at her and shook her head. "I'm not wearing this to hide the cutie mark."

"Huh?" Valey tilted her head.

Maple put a careful hoof on Starlight's shoulder. "You should show her," she whispered.

Starlight folded her ears, glancing across at Felicity.

"Fine," Felicity huffed, tossing her mane and rolling out of bed. "I'll get a head start. See you all in the lobby!"

Eventually, she was gone, and Starlight went and closed both doors by hoof, not using her magic.

"Horn still bothering you?" Valey asked, looking quizzically at her.

Starlight carefully struggled out of the poncho, revealing a glowing disk of white runes hovering around her barrel.

Valey's jaw dropped, and she stared at the lights. "What the...?"

"It's because of this," Starlight muttered, the poncho shifting on the ground beside her. Slowly, an object floated out: the black sword, only somehow shrunk to about half its usual size, held by a similar light ring floating around its hilt, a flickering image of Starlight's cutie mark hovering in its triangular hole.

"Yeah, but how...?" Valey pointed and stared. "I mean, what?"

Starlight's face fell. "Neither of you remember it, and it's hard to explain why, but I learned this from a stallion who stole it for a while. He figured out that if you tap this part to your cutie mark..." The sword's hilt floated up, Starlight's horn doing nothing to levitate it. "It does this. And you can break the connection the same way, and it's hard to see in bright sun..." She looked away. "It lets you move it around and things. And change how it looks, I guess. I wish there was a way to get the light to go away, because if I keep it tied to myself, no one can steal it and make trouble. It's safer this way."

Valey continued to stare. "So you can... change how it looks, but not the weird light thing?"

Starlight nodded.

"And if you change it and turn the lights off, which you said you can do..." Valey scratched her head in thought. "What happens? Does it turn back to normal?"

Starlight took the blade carefully in her teeth and tapped it again. The rings disappeared, but its size didn't revert.

"Hah!" Valey shrugged and held up her forelegs. "So just turn it into something nobody would ever steal, like a stick or something. Then carry it around that way. Tell them it's a patented adventuring stick and they won't look twice when you carry it around, either. Easy peasy!"

Starlight stared at the sword, looking for all the world like she wished she had thought of that a week ago.

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