The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

So Ends Another Chapter

Shinespark stood outside of a conference room, watching as President Kinmari walked away. That had been her talk with the stallion. She doubted whether she'd ever see him again.

Her last few nagging thoughts were put to rest. No, there wasn't a chance that staying at Kinmari herself could have led to doctors fixing her broken horn... not that she would have asked for a writ for herself if there was. It had healed to a point where it didn't hurt except when she tried to use it, and that was a disability she could live with. Plenty of earth ponies got by just fine without horns, after all. She'd be naturally slimmer and weaker, but she could work out if that ever became a problem. And she didn't think it would.

The nurse who had confirmed that was still present, acting as Felicity's escort. That was another purpose of the meeting: getting affairs settled firmly and finally in order for her less-fortunate friend.

"Well?" Shinespark turned to the sarosian. "If everything went right with the loading, we'll be leaving in about an hour. You've said what you need to to everyone you need to?"

"Ugh... Talking about farewells, darling?" Felicity stretched, relaxing in a wheelchair so she didn't have to wind herself lumbering around. "Better to rip it off like a bandage than draw it out, in my opinion. I've got my memories already, and it's not like one last sentimental moment is going to make this take any less time..."

Shinespark frowned. "I hope you're not just in denial."

"Why not?" Felicity shrugged. "It's a potent emotional painkiller. Might even get me through until something interesting happens around here. Besides, I'm used to less-than-ideal conditions. I've got enough stubbornness left in these fat old bones to tough it out until the light on the other side."

Felicity's nurse looked up from scratching notes on a clipboard. "I know it's hard being left behind, but you're not being left to languish with nothing to do. Still, you should say goodbye to your friends while you have the chance."

Shinespark nodded in agreement.

Felicity sighed. "If it makes you feel better, I did, alright? Valey stopped by at some half-existent hour of the morning, and we... well, I wouldn't want to rub it in, but it was a good note to end on. Honestly, darling, I am feeling alright at the moment, I've had two weeks to prepare for this, and I just haven't been saving putting my cards in order to the very end. But if you'd rather I much it all up with a teary last farewell, I'm more than willing to give you all what you need too. Shall we head down to the docks?"

The walk to the eastern bay was slow, and quite a few students stopped to wave goodbye. They crested the final hill and the Dream came into view, Maple and Amber and Harshwater milling around with several students and loading on bags of food and vegetables. The harmony comet shivered orange in the daylight, and to the south, dozens of students were enjoying the beach, watching the preparations from their towels and umbrellas as a slow ocean surf rolled ashore. The wind was blowing from the east, tossing Shinespark's bangs, but they didn't get in the way because she kept them short. Over a monthlong flight back to Ironridge, maybe that would change.

"Girls!" Amber spotted them first and waved. Maple quickly joined her.

Shinespark trotted closer, tempted to jump onto the deck and skip the gangplank, but she didn't want to leave Felicity behind. "How are preparations!?" she called back over the noise of the wind.

"Loading up on the freshness." Amber grinned, patting a watermelon. "I learned two of the farther islands are dedicated to farming and growing food, so it's all local and new as can be. Last thing before we leave, unless there's anything else?"

"Well, we do need our passengers assembled," Gerardo remarked, pacing out of the bridge and glancing over. "Wouldn't do to forget anyone at the last minute. Slipstream, Jamjars, Starlight and Grenada are all below, and Nyala as well. Then we've got this crew, and..." He swept a talon around at the ponies on deck, and his headcrest flopped. "I'm afraid I haven't seen hide nor hair of Valey since that shebang last night."

"Bah." Amber saved a hoof. "She's got that homing thing for Starlight, and she can fly fast. Probably just overslept like a floozy."

Felicity pursed her lips, rolling up the gangplank. "She was with me for a time last night. Sounded extremely busy with certain student obligations, but wanted to carve out time for yours truly. Ran off long before dawn, though..."

"Hey, Felicity," Maple greeted, trotting up to the wheelchair-bound mare. "Are you, umm... Are you ready?"

"Darling, there's a whole lot I'm not ready for." Felicity slumped belly-up in her chair, briefly going limp before shoring herself up. "But that hardly stops time from marching forward, does it? Making ends meet on my own, the faint possibility of motherhood, whatever this Kinmari lot subject me to in the hopes of fixing my body and then figuring out what to do with myself if they succeed... You know the drill. I may not be ready, but I've no intention of going kicking and screaming. So don't fret yourselves too much over me, alright?"

Maple bit her lip. "Well... we talked, and we want to give something to you. Something a little more than just the Writ of Harmonic Sanction."

"I'm not adverse to goodbye gifts, darling, but don't make me cry right when I'll have to do it on my own."

Maple stepped forward, put a hoof on Felicity's lap, and unpocketed Valey's flash club, still wired to a sound stone. She drew back, leaving it behind.

"They're a pretty important tactical advantage," Amber admitted, stepping up beside her. "But, you know... friends are important too. I know you prefer the touchy-feely kind of hanging out, and there's nothing we can do there. You'll have to make do with the locals for that." She winked unapologetically at the nurse. "But we still wanna be a part of your life."

"Darling, this isn't..." Felicity stared at the flash club, cradling it against her womb. "But you need this! For coordinating whenever someone leaves the ship, or..."

"Or not having to say goodbye," Maple finished for her. "Felicity... listen. I know we haven't been the closest mares on the ship, and a big part of that is my fault, for being uneasy with... you know. But I'm somewhat okay at reading ponies, and you're very easy to read, and I know you're not okay with being left behind and are resigned to it because you don't think it's possible for us to do anything else, or if it is, you aren't worth fighting for, or... I know that feeling, okay? And we're not leaving you completely on your own without anything to help, especially since none of the rest of us are staying at Kinmari. So, here. You need it, and we're not taking no for an answer."

"I just told you not to make me cry," Felicity sniffed. "I-I..."

Amber squeezed her in a careful hug, and Maple joined in too, Shinespark standing several steps behind.

"You want to repay us?" Amber said. "Keep us posted on your kiddo. Valey says we're gonna speedrun this thing and get enough writs on our own to get back to you before this kid even meets the world." She patted Felicity's rounded belly. "And between you and me, Valey's crazy enough that I believe her... but no matter how you slice it, it's still going to be months. I know how you feel about this, and I don't want them to be a thing you work through alone. So you keep your complaints and your worries about them coming our direction, and share the good times when they come, too. We're keeping you in our lives, so keep us in yours."

Maple nodded solemnly. "And... tell me about them too. If anything happens, I'll be there for you."

For a moment, the three embraced, and Shinespark stepped back, watching. "Seems like it was well-appreciated," Gerardo whispered beside her.

"Yes." Shinespark nodded. "I'm expecting not to have any detours where we'll need it before we reach Ironridge, but if we do, we'll improvise. Gerardo?"

"At your service," he replied with a bow.

Shinespark took a breath. "How many long-term traveling companions have you ever parted ways with?"

Gerardo raised an eyebrow. "That's a very difficult metric to compute."

"Explain."

The griffon nodded. "During my years abroad, especially in Varsidel, I had more than one acquaintance with whom I crossed paths multiple times, quite by accident, and often after we had agreed previously to go our separate ways. If you remember Miss Sunflower's tales, she had the right of it: wander enough, and the world is a small place. So I've had quite a few former traveling buddies, but I'd call the odds laughable if you asked me to bet on never running into any of them again. So really, it depends entirely on your definition of parting ways."

"Hm."

A sweaty Harshwater walked up from the side, her feathers scruffy and her mane plastered to her neck and face. "Hey! While all of you are making out with sarosians and complaining about the weather, I finished loading the vegetables. All of them. By myself. You're welcome. The shower is mine for the next hour and a half."

"Are we finished already?" Amber blinked, looking up. "Well... Valey aside, what are we waiting for?"

Shinespark glanced around the deck, running a hoof along the smooth, replaced railing. Its woodwork was noticeably less intricate than the old version, but smooth and solid... "I think it's just Valey."

"I'll... be sure to stay in touch," Felicity interjected, rolling past. "Thank you all again, I really wasn't expecting this and wish I knew better what to say..."

"Say whatever you want, and do it through the sound stone." Amber gave her a last shoulder squeeze, and stepped back onto the deck.

"I love you all!" Felicity called in return, reaching the dock with her nurse.

Maple and Amber worked together to haul up the gangplank, waving when they were done. Gerardo cleared his throat again. "Might I recommend hovering over the island for a spell? Perhaps it will serve to get our resident banana-eater's attention. And if nothing else, it would be a good vantage for us to serenade the island with the view."

"Good idea. I'll take first pilot shift. You go find Slipstream and relax." Shinespark waved a hoof and stepped toward the bridge, dismissing her copilot griffon.

The console was half-new, the same old metal plating affixed over a gleaming array of dials and switches, their glass fronts not bearing a scratch. Someone had decided to leave the old captain's chair in place... It was a little worn, visually, but was perfectly broken in to the shape of Shinespark's body, and didn't change no matter how many times Gerardo or another took a shift. Probably because she had been sitting in this chair for years in Sosa, dreaming of the day she could flip the power switch and...

With a small spark of connecting mana, the Immortal Dream began to rise.

Shinespark smiled and leaned back in her chair, hooves on the dashboard. She had missed her ship's inaugural flight. The first flight she did take on it, she was unconscious from pain. The second, she was catatonic from the loss of Sosa. But this time, she was back where she belonged.

Ironridge... She angled the boat west by northwest, feeling in her heart which was the best direction to start. A lever slid smoothly under the pressure from her hoof, and they rose and drifted forward, the shore hill falling away below and the eastern sports field coming into view. Every single pony in the verdant square stopped what they were doing, the ball bouncing uselessly away as players and fans alike turned to behold the comet rising over the island.

Shinespark was a comet. She had burned bright, crashed and gone out, left herself with less than nothing. But she made a minute adjustment to their facing, knowing that this time, she was going back home for a second pass. Maybe one day, she and her friends would find the perfect land they all dreamed of. Maybe they'd build it, or maybe it would be waiting for them over the horizon. But that journey was far from over yet. And the next place they were going was a place she had been running from ever since her airship set sail in the sky.

She was ready. Ready to try again and make things right, meet Ironridge wherever it was at and become whatever it needed. There was just one more thing she needed... and right on cue, that thing hit the deck with a thud, staggering through the door to the bridge and loudly complaining.

"Bananas, why did you make me fly to get up here!? Were you gonna leave without me?" Valey lurched forward, collapsed on the floor, and belched. "I had... bananas..."

"Well, we are leaving." Shinespark reached down a hoof to her, though Valey would have to crawl to reach it. "I thought you'd be back hours ago. Oversleep with a student?"

"Hey." Valey gave her a groggy look, her eyes very sleepless and her mane not quite frazzled enough beneath her beret for her just to have woken up. "For your information, I have been on fifteen dates since we last talked. Ten plus five. Fifteen." She hauled herself to her hooves. "Half counting a thing with Felicity. Do you know how many kids took me up on my offer?" She belched again. "And I didn't slack off. A whole uninterrupted romantic candlelit hour for each of them. And that means I ate dinner fifteen times... bananas..." She staggered forward. "I feel like a balloon. But hey, I said I'd see this through before I fell asleep, so... heya... All yours, girl."

She almost collapsed again against the pilot's chair, and Shinespark caught her, suspecting it was at least partly and act but willing to believe Valey could pack away fifteen meals at once if she really said so. "Ready to fly?"

"You handle that," Valey mumbled, arranging herself in the chair like a cute rug. "I gotta catch some Z's. Keep watch for me, mmkay?"

Shinespark turned slightly red from Valey's aggressive pilot chair cuddling, but it became immediately apparent that the sarosian wasn't going anywhere. Soon enough, Valey's breathing steadied, curled up against and on top of Shinespark like a gigantic cat.

"Sure." Shinespark sighed, then started caressing an ear as she turned up the throttle and left Kinmari behind. "I'll keep watch while we fly."

Comments

[Phoenix Kitten]

I'm half dreading a Lerris scenario here.

[Boopers]

10056051
I'm dreading Lerris might be nothing compared to what might happen next.

[ZanyZapper]

10056243
Oh Celestia, that's a possibility I did NOT want to be thinking about!

[KMCA]

10056051 10056243
I swear to Celestia, Garsheeva and a buch of crystal twigs. . . Actually I don't think there's anything left behind for that level of devastation.

[Oberth Effect]

Can't wait to see what has happened in Ironridge and Riverfall in the meantime.

I suppose technically there's a way for a Lerris-alike to happen, since we know Chrysalis is still up and about and that the Aldenfold barrier isn't working. Not sure what it would take to fly to KMRA, though, since it's a decent distance over water. There's also the faint possibility that she hitched a ride out in Meadowglade's cutie mark, but there's no known mechanism for that to happen as far as I know.

[Workable Goblin]

I don’t understand what a “Lerris scenario” would mean in this context.

[Oberth Effect]

10057335

It’s a reference to a certain notable event from the Austraeoh series.

[Venlinelle]

What a beautiful chapter; I must’ve reread the ending six times. Shinespark really has gotten better, and even though Starlight is definitely not having a good time- and probably not going to for a while- it’s comforting seeing these two together and happy.

[sploopy slooder]

man everyone's gonna get a "happy" ending except starlight arnt they? or at the very least a hopeful ending. starlights the only one we KNOW gets completely shat on by the world. im not sure if that makes me feel good or not. either that or were about to speedrun trauma for the crew and leave everyone ruined.