The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

The Jig Is Up

Some time later, after the stars had come out and late night moved into early morning, Valey crept from the dorm with an irrepressible bounce in her step, Felicity following heavily behind. Maple and Starlight were waiting, accompanied by the Equestrian guards and Doctor Lost.

"So the deal is this," Valey began, making sure Felicity was still with her. "I've got a good idea who the culprit is, and I know they're gonna come back tonight." She kept her voice low, the lounge's fireplaces dim. "So, we're gonna hide in the archives and catch them red-hoofed. And be gentle." She glanced at the guards. "This is civil mischief, not military stuff. The first pony to escalate anything gets suplexed through a window."

The guards frowned, but saluted.

With that, everyone nodded and dispersed, even Maple and Felicity choosing to help. Doctor Lost led the way into the archives, helping Maple and vanishing with effortless ease into the maze of shelves. Valey and Felicity sank into the shadows, shooting each other looks that made Starlight wonder just what had happened between them. And Starlight herself?

She drew up the hood on her poncho, stepping in a direction she hadn't seen anyone else go. She had something new to try.

When she was confident she was alone, Starlight opened her poncho and pulled out her stick. Swallowing, she tapped a knot on the haft against her flank, right where the triangular hole should have been. There was a tingle of energy as the connection activated, and she quickly used her poncho to hide the two rings of runic light.

While Valey had been sleeping, she had been thinking all day about her conversations with Valey and Caballeron. It had involved a lot of struggle and going back and forth, but by the time the two batponies had awakened, she had finally built up her determination around a conclusion: she couldn't choose not to use an option in her power to get what she wanted if she didn't know how to use it in the first place.

To her, a filly who had killed windigoes and fought Chrysalis, anything she couldn't do? There was a worryingly high chance it was just something she couldn't do yet. Especially if Glimmer and her visions were right about what she could do in the future. If Starlight was going to willingly give up and let the world take its course, she had to know what it was she was choosing not to use. She couldn't give up because she wasn't strong enough, then become stronger and be forced to question her decision. She had to stop hiding from finding out what she could do.

"Felicity said you're infused with sadness," Starlight whispered, putting a hoof against the stick. "Powerful enough that our bodies get paralyzed by it just by touching you. Nightmare Moon said she used you to create the Nightmare Modules and use them before she could use them herself. You can cast Nightmare Modules. How?"

As if in answer, the stick shifted faintly, creating the illusion that something was glowing blue deep within it. Starlight felt her heart speed up. Was this it? Could it somehow react to her wishes and intentions all on its own, just like when it had joined her in the first place in the Mistvale sea cave?

Silently, Starlight willed the stick to shadow cloak her.

Her vision twisted, the darkness reaching up and wrapping around her body. It felt different from every time she had cast it before, which was good: it was a more intense equivalent to pulling her hood up or holding still against a wall, not a feeling of being shielded from existence. There was no need to see or be near her friends, yet as she held a hoof up, it took a moment for her to realize her hoof was there at all.

With this stick and a cutie mark, she could cast Nightmare Modules without going gray.

"Okay, Starlight," she whispered to herself, her voice echoing in the way words only could when nobody could be bothered to hear them. Now time for the hard part: setting boundaries she wouldn't cross. Points at which she would choose to give up rather than pushing herself further.

The memory module? She had already seen its contents; there wasn't much point in restricting it to herself. Moon glass? That module created hazardous waste as a byproduct, which would be dangerous to her as well if she didn't want to turn gray. She would never use that one unless she had to.

What about the module that erased memories? That was a good line never to cross, even though she hadn't planned on ever using it in the first place. Where would that even be useful?

That left only the Tyranny Module, the shadow cloak, and the shield. The former, she didn't even understand well enough to make a proper decision on, so she wouldn't use it until she had time to test it when the stakes were zero. The shadow cloak was the first one she had gotten and her personal favorite, so... maybe she would keep using that. She had to let herself use some so there would be a contrast around the ones she didn't use, right? And the shield was important. It could do the same.

Starlight blinked, standing obscured in the middle of the archives, realizing she had reached for a new power with the intention of setting boundaries and then not setting any new boundaries at all.

She swallowed. No. She had to make herself do this. She had to limit something she knew she would do...

A shuffling sounded in the entrance. Too late. She'd have to think about this later.

An outline was visible against the light filtering through Doctor Lost's office. Lavender Curtain, Valey had briefed her while they were flying. But the figure sure was slouching. Either Lavender was deeply nervous or ashamed, or she wasn't alright.

Starlight imagined she heard an imperceptible giggle, and then two pairs of sarosian eyes briefly surfaced where Valey and Felicity had gone down earlier. Whatever those two were up to over there, this was Valey's plan, right? She was just here to help the other ponies keep watch. The figure shambled closer.

"Ah-ha!" Doctor Lost cried, leaping out from a bookcase and flanked by Equestrian guards. "What have we here, my good vandal!?"

Immediately, someone overchanneled the power to the lights, causing them to come on with a force that momentarily blinded Starlight. She preemptively blinked, partially shielding herself, and recovered as fast as she could to see Lavender-

It wasn't Lavender. Hissing and cringing at the light was a bloodshot, unkempt High Prince Gazelle.

"Woah, what? You!?" Valey immediately surfaced, her cheeks bearing remnants of redness that was quickly draining. "Bananas, why are you here?"

The guards by Doctor Lost suddenly looked very nervous to be taking an aggressive stance towards a sphinx, and the doctor blinked, uninformed on Valey and Lavender's plan. "My word. The culprit is royalty?"

Gazelle twitched. "Culprit? I heard there was a break-in... here. Someone was looking for knowledge. Old knowledge." He blinked. "Can this place tell me how to return my sister?"

"That is not a risk I wanna take," Valey instantly said, standing in his face. "Go back to the hospital, Catbreath. It's the middle of the night, and we've got an investigation going."

Gazelle's eyes flashed, and he tried to walk past her. "No. Not if there's a chance."

One of the guards took a stance as Valey moved to block him again. "You're saying the Prince ransacked this place?"

"No," Valey replied, Gazelle trying again to go around her. "He's saying he got inspired by last night to try it himself. Bananas. I didn't consider this..."

"Regardless of who came first, I think there are much more interesting questions at hoof!" Doctor Lost interrupted, trying to restrain Valey from blocking Gazelle. "First and foremost, what kind of information could drive someone to break into this place in search of it? I must know!"

Gazelle didn't look up, reaching a bookshelf, picking a book, flipping through it at random and putting it back perfectly in place. "I have a sister," he hoarsely said. "Her name is Gwendolyn. I need to get her back. I must. I have to..."

"Back from where?" the professor pressed, eager.

"She's dead, dude," Valey sternly interrupted, pulling Doctor Lost back and letting Gazelle rifle through another book. "Got zapped into dust by a laser from an evil monster. Catbreath, this library does not have any material on how to turn yourself into a sphinx necromancer or time-traveler. Let's get you back to the hospital. Let's go."

Gazelle shot her a burning look. "Don't tell me it isn't possible, sarosian. That folly killed you too, and you still stand here before me! Help me find my sister! Please!"

His eyes filled with a pleading intensity, and Doctor Lost blinked in curiosity. "You have cheated death itself?"

"Long story, very misleading." Valey waved a wing. "Does anyone have any ideas on how to get him to move? He's not gonna be happy if I try to do it by force, and by that I mean he'll probably fight us."

Starlight's horn flared with power, and Gazelle was encased in a midnight-blue crystal, a look of shock upon his feline face.

"Well... that works." Valey shrugged.

Starlight lifted his crystal in her telekinesis, dropping the shadow cloak and stepping into plain sight. Something twisted in her as she matched eyes with the desperate sphinx, and for a moment, she saw nothing but her own reflection: she would do anything to save her friends, even from death, and here she was stopping him from doing the same.

It stabbed at her resolve almost as hard as the prince was struggling against her crystal, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Felicity stare at her with a suspicious frown. "...Please tie him up or get him to the hospital," she managed, already feeling cowed. "I don't know if I can hold him for much longer."

She had a shard of moon glass containing Lyn's soul, tucked away in a pocket of her saddlebags. Gazelle desperately missed his sister, and she had one of the pieces, but with no intention of giving it to him... even though the knowledge of what it would feel like in his position was almost physically painful, a tearing in her chest. It wasn't her magic that was going to fail first.

"Is there any way you can stun him, or something?" Valey asked. "He's really unhappy in there."

Valey didn't need to remind her. Mind weighted with every bit of what she would feel if someone was doing this to her, Starlight raised Gazelle up, pointed him headfirst down, and slammed him into the ground, dropping the crystal right before he hit. It stunned the sphinx long enough for Valey and the guards to restrain him, but when he recovered, he didn't struggle. He just looked at Starlight, hurt.

"Don't look at me like that!" Starlight cried, covering her head and trying futilely to look away. "It's for your own good! You'll only hurt yourself if you try to save her..."

It didn't help either of them. Gazelle was carried away, and all Starlight could think about was Glimmer telling her much the same.

"Darling," Felicity interrupted, reaching a hoof for her. "You're extremely-"

Starlight teleported.

---

It wasn't a long teleport. She appeared in a burst in the Laughter lounge, running past a confused Lavender Curtain and into the dorm area where she and Maple had slept. Her saddlebags... where were her saddlebags? There they were.

Minutes ago, she had been experimenting with magic she never wanted to use again, just to prove she could use it responsibly and draw lines for herself and try to get Glimmer's mythical happily ever after that was free of ashen futures. She hadn't turned back to the Nightmare Modules as a last resort. She had done it because... why? Wasn't the point to make herself a better future without them?

She was so strong, she was treating a goddess's personal weapons as toys. And right next to her was Gazelle, broken and struggling to exactly the same end, only he didn't even have his sister safe so he could afford to work on his own state of mind. What gave her the right to treat him like that? This was exactly the kind of carelessness that would bring about that future...

Starlight found what she was looking for. Tightening her poncho, she slipped Lyn's moon glass into an internal pocket, nodding to herself as she felt its weight. She felt disgusted, sickened, both by empathy as well as her own actions. Somewhere, a voice screamed that her thoughts were beginning to race, that she needed to calm down, that she had been here before, but she smashed it aside with the ruthlessness of a closet door. Gazelle was the hero to his sister, and she was the villain who was incalculably more powerful than him and brushed his efforts aside without even caring. And he would be like her, and surpass all limits to try to protect what he loved despite her obstacle, just like what she had done to the windigoes and Chrysalis until he was powerful enough to cause his own ash-filled future. Well, she couldn't let that happen.

"Starlight-!" Felicity burst into the dorm, panting heavily.

Starlight didn't even look over her shoulder, lighting her horn and teleporting for the hospital.

Comments

[Phoenix Kitten]

So that's why he was hovering over Starlight after she was retrieved.
he could somehow sense his sister on her.

What is she planning now?
... a thought, she has the sword.. or her stick now, couldn't she have just jabbed him with it to paralyze him? Said that in his current state the blow made him freeze up for some reason?

[KMCA]

9964202
I mean, I wouldn't use that sword Staff on ANYTHING if I could help it...

[Oberth Effect]

Well that was unexpected --- both the sword being able to enable Nightmare Module functionality without their other side effects and Gazelle taking a look around.

Some interesting logic Starlight has there. Hope the decision to explore what she is capable of doesn't come back to bite her, especially if her potential is as high as it may seem; after all, even if she explores now, it doesn't mean that she still can't get stronger later. At some point she's going to have to decide to stop regardless of whether she knows she can handle the problem or not.

Curious what the sword stuff entails. Does it mean the Nightmare Modules basically duplicated the sword's existing functionality, but with the flaw of suppressing emotion? Or were the Nightmare Modules supposed to be an improvement? Would the memory module (or something similar) even exist in the sword, since the sword was used to create that module with its memory?

"Don't look at me like that!" Starlight cried, covering her head and trying futilely to look away. "It's for your own good! You'll only hurt yourself if you try to save her..."

Starlight starting to sound a bit like Glimmer there, as she noticed. Wonder what this is going to mean for her interactions with Gazelle in the future. Perhaps she is going to try to help him?

9964202

Wasn't Lyn's moon glass in Starlight's bags, and not on her person (pony?). And Gazelle got dropped on his head with some extra momentum, I'd be surprised if it didn't stun him at least a little.

[Phoenix Kitten]

9964332
You uh... recall that in one of the interludes she used it to activate the memory module to show Twilight and Dash, right?
Even if she made them turn around while she did it, Luna confirmed that it had such capabilities in another interlude later.
Not exactly a new revelation.

[Oberth Effect]

9964343

Starlight's wording of "You can cast Nightmare Modules" implied to me that the sword has innate Nightmare Module powers that it can bestow on others, and that Luna modeled her Nightmare Modules on the powers from the sword. If that were the case, then it could make sense that the sword's equivalent of the memory module contains a different memory, since the sword existed before the memory module did.

Or perhaps I'm just reading too far into things (or just reading things incorrectly, period). Luna saying "Our own emotions have become sufficient to power [the Nightmare Modules]" seems to imply that the sword is more a catalyst for activating the modules, which probably makes more sense.

[Workable Goblin]

Considering Valey could be brought back only because they happened to have her body and a pendant designed to let a moon glass soul ride a sarosian body, in addition to the moon glass containing her soul, I'm not sure there is anything Starlight could do to bring Lyn back.

[Czar_Yoshi]

9964778
This is a chapter regarding the workings of the sword that could potentially be worth remembering.

[Oberth Effect]

9965414

So it looks like I'm attributing much more to the sword than it seems? It's just just sorrow, as opposed to an object containing something (or things) more complex.