The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Choose Your Own Future

Valey sat in the engine room, holding the sound stone as it went dull.

"Well, bananas," she eventually sighed. "Why did she have to go and offer a thing like that...?"

Maple and Starlight, who had been sitting quietly nearby, unannounced to the princess, finally broke their silence. "We could stay here and have everything we want," Maple whispered. "If Princess Celestia is offering to let us live however we want in safety... But could we really ask Shinespark to do that? Why would she ask one of us to make such a big sacrifice?"

Valey chewed her lip and huffed. "To be fair, one of the options is already our dream scenario. Bananas, think how perfect it would be. It's not like she's restricting us."

"But the other is something we never even considered because it should be impossible, and mostly means something to Shinespark and Grenada."

"Yeah."

The engine thrummed loudly overhead, mechanical noises mixing with a magical shimmer that wrapped around the three, making it feel like nobody else was around for hundreds of miles. Starlight tried to swallow, and found that she couldn't.

"You okay, kiddo?"

Starlight slumped. "She was wondering why we kept getting so lucky all the time. You didn't even tell her about how you got out of the moon glass sword with all the other cutie marks. But it was me who did that, me who stopped the windigoes, and me who saved you all from Chrysalis. It's me who reacts differently to all these crystal palaces and old technology. She thought it was Shinespark or everyone's friendship that was making things work out, but what if it's just me?"

"Hey." Valey gave her a look. "There's no way it can be just you, because I have an artifice and kicked Herman's rear, and Ironflanks used the windigo heart to save us all from the mercenaries in the Flame District. Maybe there is something unusual with you, sure. But you're in real good company."

"...Thanks." Starlight looked down.

Maple put a hoof around her shoulders. "Either way, how much would it change?"

Starlight took a breath. "I don't know... What if what I made myself forget is related to this somehow?"

"Related to what?" Valey shrugged. "The way we've survived way more encounters with stuff that should have killed us than is statistically reasonable? Girl... if we've got some kind of supernatural harmony luck on our side, I'd rather have it than be dead. You're worried that maybe you'll make a bad choice with bad consequences? I don't think any of the stuff that honcho was talking about affects what we choose to try for. Just how likely we are to survive if it's crazy."

Starlight looked down. "I hope so. So... what are we going to do?"

Maple shook her head. "None of us can ask Shinespark to step away from her own dream for us like that. It has to be her decision. And I think Princess Celestia said she'd be around for us to talk to her for a while more, so we won't be choosing immediately."

"Yeah... I'm trying to figure out just how hard this is actually supposed to be." Valey scratched her head. "She's giving us more than fourteen years, here. Does she expect us to use all that? On the one hoof, she's immortal, so she might not have the best sense of just how long that is... On the other, she's immortal, so she might have a really good sense of it. And just because no one's done it in a thousand years... we have a track record of doing the impossible, so does that mean we could knock it out real quick? Or just that maybe we'd stand a sliver of a chance after a decade or so?"

Maple sighed. "If we're trying to weigh the cost... you want to help Shinespark too, don't you."

"Sure am. And I bet she's torn herself between taking this chance and giving us what we want." Valey leaned against a vibrating wall. "Here's some other stuff to consider: we're a third of the way there, and assuming Yakyakistan keeps their word, we'll be halfway there in a few months. That's halfway to impossible in just one out of fifteen years. But we'll also have completely exhausted half of the world and gotten in good with the other half, so it's not like we'd have a ton of frontiers to search like after Ironridge. Bananas, without Garsheeva, Meltdown or the monarchy, what's even going to happen to the writs the Empire is supposed to receive?"

Maple nodded. "We know how we'd start. Go to Yakyakistan, follow her hint about the generator... and then I don't know what we'd do from there. At best, that would give us four, after waiting a year and a half for them to get the one after the one they already owe us, and that's if nobody else gets a bigger claim to theirs than we have."

"Well... hey." Valey shrugged. "Remember how Garsheeva had that one spare squirreled away? If these things are really untransferable, how much do you wanna bet there are other ponies in the north who have one, and have hung onto it instead of using it because they think going to Equestria is less valuable than what someone else could pay them for it?"

Maple blinked.

"I don't know a huge amount about Varsidel, but..." Valey rolled her shoulders. "Wouldn't be surprised if there was some dude somewhere up there we could find one from."

"We're really considering this, aren't we?" Maple whispered sadly. "Do you think we can take it? Even if we're physically able to get the writs, do you think we can hold together living without a home on the airship for that much longer? And that's if they can get it repaired..."

"Yeah... That's the big one." Valey averted her gaze. "I think... well... bananas. It's easy to say sure now, while we're in better spirits, but what if we get worn thin again? And it's not if, it's when. It's going to happen. That place is rough, and even if Celestia can explain why we keep surviving, she didn't mention anything about why we were ground zero for the windigoes and Chrysalis in the first place."

Starlight huffed. "We weren't the only ones there, you know. All of Ironridge and all of the Empire was in danger. And ponies like Sharpie and Brightcoil were there for both. They were probably wondering the same thing."

"But we were on the ground, though." Valey shrugged. "Not even waiting from the stands... I dunno."

"It's just because we're ambitious," Maple murmured. "All the important ponies were there, and we knew important ponies because we were trying to do big things."

"Yeah, maybe. Funny how a small-town girl and a runaway filly like you got mixed up with big-shots like me and Sparky."

Maple gave a wry smile. "As I recall it, you got mixed up with us. Poking your nose into random travelers' business, and then hunting us down when we got lost in the tunnels..."

"Huh. So I did." Valey sat back. "Guess I just had a good feeling about you. But you aren't blameless either, being so stubborn about sticking with me even after I warned you again and again I was no good. Most ponies knew my reputation and needed no prodding to agree with me."

"Well..." Maple sighed. "Hopefully we have time to get back to the others and talk things over with everyone. I'll never be comfortable thinking about something like this on my own, because half of me just wants to take the risk and run right ahead and hope that it will pay off."

"Which risk?" Valey raised an eyebrow. "That if we go back north, it'll all be over soon, or that if we stay here, Sparky will still be able to save her home?"

Maple shrank, looking down at her hooves. "I... I don't know..."

---

"Well," Gerardo remarked as the split up after the meeting, going their separate ways. "That certainly was unexpected."

"Surreal every time," Slipstream replied. "Remind me how I got mixed up in this again?"

Gerardo shrugged. "Asked to take me to lunch at precisely the wrong moment."

"Or the right one." Slipstream stared down a hallway, legs still wobbly after the encounter.

"Shaken?" Harshwater asked, stepping up behind them.

Gerardo glanced at her and nodded in greeting. "It might take a moment to process..."

"I just can't believe we keep meeting ponies like this," Slipstream managed. "Sure, there are probably plenty of ponies in Equestria who see her once in their lives, but getting lucky enough for her to talk to you? Forget about it happening multiple times, or her actually being interested. I just... What am I even doing with my life? How did I get here? This can't just happen to anyone."

"Believe it or not, it's happening." Harshwater shrugged. "Sometimes, your world just gets upended for no reason like that. So what are you thinking? North, or stay here?"

"Personally, my choice is quite clear." Gerardo fiddled with the cuff on his uniform. "I do enjoy travel, and I'd be happy to keep up our camaraderie while doing it. That said, I win either way, so it's hardly fair for me to weigh in. I'm not the one with the stakes."

Slipstream nodded. "I was just planning on going with Gerardo anyway. What about you?"

Harshwater glanced around as they walked down the hall, no clear destination in mind. "Good question. I've half been sticking around because you needed me, half for Valey, and half because I had nothing better to do. Beats me if that's changed. Some of you are social butterflies, and I just don't do that. At the same time, that princess made it sound like we've got something real special going on here, and that I'd feel bad if I skipped out."

Gerardo tilted his head. "You're more thinking what you'll do, then, regardless of what we opt for as a party?"

Harshwater pouted. "Don't make me sound like a flake. I just... am just here because I am, and don't have the reasons I'd like to."

"Sounds like all of us would be fine with whatever," Gerardo remarked. "Then again, the real decision does have to go to the ones whose dreams are really in question. The Riverfall mares, Starlight, Valey and Shinespark."

"Someone was talking about Riverfall?" Amber asked, catching up as the group slowed down to chat.

"You." Harshwater fanned a wing. "We were saying you're one of the ones with a bigger say about what we wind up doing."

"...Right." Amber's ears fell. "Between taking the writs and leaving them? Well... it's complicated. One thing I would like to do with my life is see Willow again, though. I had always planned on going home to see her after this adventure was over. Harshwater, you wouldn't know this, but when Gerardo and the others left, she had just... made a sacrifice for someone she barely knew. And I stayed long enough to be sure she'd be alright before catching up, but one of the things we promised each other that I haven't really talked about is that if Maple and Valey did find their goal of a better home, I'd come back and get her. And I don't know if Princess Celestia's offer to let us stay extends to ponies who aren't here with us right now. Sure, we could go back and visit, but..."

Gerardo bowed. "It sounds like you are in favor of helping Shinespark. If we made it so that anyone could cross, so could she, as well."

Amber shrugged. "Hey, I'm not choosing anything until I've had a chance to ask for sure how that would work. And either way, it's Shinespark's decision, not mine. She's the one who has to decide whether she can give up this chance for Ironridge for us."

"Or," Harshwater corrected, "you can decide whether to give up your chance of a life in Equestria for her."

"It wouldn't be giving up." Amber firmly shook her head. "Just postponing. And most of us in this group are pretty young. Even Felicity is only in her thirties. She complains about being old, but even if we took fifteen years to get those writs, we would be able to live out our days here. We wouldn't just fail to find them after making it through so much before. I'm sure of it."

"Well..." Slipstream ruffled her feathers. "I'm sure Shinespark would be glad to know you support her, because she's probably wondering if she'd be condemning us to the impossible."

Comments

[Oberth Effect]

Everyone's pushing off the decision to someone else, and it's perfectly understandable why. This is a really really hard decision, especially for Shinespark. I wonder if this is a test for her, specifically, since Celestia seemed to be treating her as the leader of the group.

Here's hoping Shinespark holds up to the pressure in the coming chapters.

[Phoenix Kitten]

Starlight is an Equestrian Native, wouldn't she be allowed to stay without needing the writ?

There's enough evidence for all ways to work, either she went back north with them and became even more bitter because of what happened in their quest to get the other writs, or Shinespark decided to postpone her return to find a place she could relax and recuperate mentally and physically.
or... Starlight decided to stay behind, since she doesn't need a writ, and was placed into foster care again waiting for her friends to return from the North, if they ever did.

If that last one happened... we can only assume they failed.

[sploopy slooder]

this all feels extra shitty because we KNOW how it ends already. they fail. starlight is miserable. the only real big question left is why starlight leaves alone to go that shitty village. everything else left in the novel is just kinda filler before we get the answer to the question.