The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

A Foggy Road Sideways

"I gotta say," Valey belched, holding a half-eaten sandwich with her wings, "this place's food isn't half bad. Good portions, too. Hope the chef's ego is as big as they deserve."

Starlight was staring intently around the room, watching something no one else could see, but the others had decided to have a lunch conversation anyway. "I'm almost surprised you like it," Fishy admitted, chewing on a sandwich of her own. "Fish sandwiches. Around here, it's far easier to get food from the sea than it is to grow or trade for greens, so sea life is a staple of surviving. But most of Equestria doesn't care for things that used to move around and the like." She swallowed and straightened her back. "Where are you from, anyhow? Can't be that far, if Starlight was able to find her way to you and your airship."

"Ah, the wild blue yonder," Gerardo replied, gesturing with his own sandwich. "I don't think I've had a place to say I'm from in over a decade. That would involve resisting the allure of a life lived on the road."

Valey nodded. "Yeah, we move around a lot. And by a lot, I mean like the far corners of existence."

Fishy pursed her lips. "Doesn't really sound like the life for a filly, if you'll excuse me saying..." She stared at Starlight. "She's a good kid, but I can't say she's gotten any better since I last saw her. Nicer and less combative, maybe, but now she's bordering on too nice. She doesn't do or react to anything. Not even things she has every right to be upset about, like what I told her down by the river. What right does she have to brush it off and say she forgives me when she's still obviously not okay?"

"It's that obvious, is it?" Maple sighed. "I've heard from her what happened here, mostly when we first met, and I've been there for a lot of the things that have kept happening. She's been through a lot more than losing her best friend... Look at her. She isn't even listening."

"You said you adopted her, right?" Fishy asked, swiveling from side to side on her rotating stool. "You're her caretaker now?"

Maple shook her head. "Yes. Well, I try to be. I'm not sure how effective I am, or if she even thinks of me as a mother, but I always put her first and am always thinking of how I can do better for her. It's been a lot of growing for me, honestly, and I'm still not sure I have what it takes, but... we care about each other. If there's anything I can do for her, I will." She lowered her voice. "She's not usually this... you know."

"I'm listening," Starlight said absently, not breaking her stare. "Sort of. I'm distracted."

Maple looked up at Fishy hopefully.

Fishy shrugged. "I don't have kids, and I chose not to have any for a reason. My idea of watching over ponies involves putting food on the table, making sure the money doesn't run dry, saying no to bad ideas and blowing off steam with my friends when I need it. I don't even know enough to say if that's what she needs, or the opposite. What I do know is that I feel like I failed her once, so if there's anything I can do to help, say the word and I'll be in your corner. That offer lasts for however long you have your layover here. I assume she's staying with you and you're not intending to stay here forever."

The look on Starlight's face said she was paying attention, even if her focus was still elsewhere.

Maple shrank slightly, and Valey nudged her. "Your court, Ironflanks."

"Well..." Maple took a breath. "We haven't actually decided. Most of us are going on, but I'm doing what's best for Starlight. If that means we all stay together and leave on the airship, then we do that. But if it means she and I stay behind here, then that's also what it means." She folded her ears. "I just have no idea how to tell what would be better."

Fishy's eyes scanned Valey and Gerardo. "But you lot said you didn't have a home except for the horizon. I can't imagine you aren't a tight-knit bunch."

Valey chuckled. "Lady, you have no idea."

Gerardo bobbed his head, and Maple took a breath. "Yes... we are tight-knit. And believe me, this isn't a decision I take lightly. I've been considering the possibility ever since we started flying here, but I just can't know without seeing how this village is for Starlight. It seems nice enough for me, and I believe I could make some friends and build a happy life here, but she's what matters most. And I haven't seen a reaction like this at all from her before. I don't know what to make of this at all."

"I wish I could tell you," Starlight said.

Everyone turned to regard her. "You don't know either, huh?" Valey guessed.

"No." For a moment, Starlight actually focused on her friends. "I don't know what to think. I don't know if it's better here or not! All I know is I'm remembering all the things I left behind and that's just making me miss them even more, even though they're gone. But I don't know if it's better seeing them and not having them or not seeing them at all. Everything I see here, I can see how the old me would have reacted to it, before Sunburst. I know what I would do. I know what I should do, but I can't feel it. I can see myself being interested or excited about things but I just can't."

Fishy folded her hooves on the sandwich bar counter. "In my un-professional opinion, it sounds like you need more than just the right scenery."

"Then what do I need?" Starlight frowned. "Because I've been looking for it and I can't find it! And I can't find the right scenery, either. Everywhere I go, there keeps being bad things happening. And I'm just tired of it all."

Fishy stared for a moment. "I wish I could say."

"We've all been looking, to be honest," Maple quietly added. "Part of what keeps us together as friends is that we're all looking for something. Though... some need it more than others."

"Who isn't looking for something?" Fishy chuckled, then shrugged. "I know I am. Anyone who isn't must be the most bored pony in Equestria." She raised an eyebrow at Starlight. "Have you tried looking for any other ponies here you used to know? You didn't just live in a bubble with Sunburst and your parents. You must have had friends at the school."

Starlight rocked slightly on her stool. "Well, yes. But they weren't really that close of friends."

"Weren't close by what metric?" Fishy pressed. "Because there's a big difference between not being best friends forever, or actually disliking each other."

Starlight looked down. "I think they started to dislike me after how much I complained about cutie marks. But normal kids don't have long attention spans, so maybe they forgot. I just don't feel very excited about seeing them."

Fishy rubbed her chin. "Well, if I offered to dig up some instructions for you to track down Sunburst or your old parents here, would that excite you?"

"You can't..." Starlight trailed off. "Well, if you're the mayor, you probably can. But I don't know."

Fishy folded her forelegs on the table and set her chin on them, staring intently at Starlight. "And if I told you someone had left a time machine in my basement you could use to go back and fix everything for yourself, what would you say to being excited by that?"

Starlight's jaw hung, the filly not quite willing to say that was impossible after everything she had been through. In fact, if Fishy somehow wasn't bluffing... No, she probably was. "I just don't get excited about things," she said, eyes shifting to an unoccupied spot nearby.

"Then it sounds to me," Fishy pressed, growing a slow grin, "like if you don't have a good feeling about anything, not feeling strongly about the other kids doesn't indicate it's a worse idea than any other."

"...I guess." Starlight nodded and looked up. "It's probably time for recess soon."

Fishy looked up at a clock on the wall. "Should be in about forty minutes. Plenty of time for us to finish up here and make our leisurely way over."

Valey stood up, stretched, rubbed her stomach and belched. "Sounds like a plan. Hey, will you lot be fine without me during that, though? Speaking of staying here or moving on, either way I gotta go have a chitchat with that guard dude." She glanced at Fishy. "Anything I should know about him, by the way?"

Fishy half-groaned, half-chuckled. "Oh, you wouldn't believe it. We're at the absolute end of the line for news around here, but apparently there are countries north of the mountains no one ever talks about, and suddenly Canterlot is so worried they might try to slip ponies in or mount an invasion, they send a grand total of three guards here to 'fortify our position'. One of them thinks it's an early retirement and never even wears their uniform, another thinks they're a big shot and spends more time trying to get hitched than guarding anything, and then there's the one who came to check you out. Way too suspicious, if you ask me. Personally, I'm with the one who calls it a retirement. I didn't even know we had neighbors to the north! The mountains just go on forever, like the end of the world, or something."

Valey and Gerardo shared a glance. If nobody knew the mountains were no longer endless, all the better for everyone involved? Although there was no telling what the guards knew...

"Right! Well, that's cool." Valey hovered, doing a lazy midair flip. "Probably better if I talk to them and convince them we're not here to invade Equestria ourselves. Uhh, where can I find them?"

Fishy pointed a hoof. "Building with brown shingles instead of red. Hard to miss if you're a flier. Good luck!"

"Thanks!" Valey tipped her beret. "Hope I don't need it."

---

The Equestrian Guard 'base of operations' was just as easy to find as Fishy made it out to be. It also looked far more like a house that had been converted for official purposes than a proper military building. Valey strolled straight up to the door and knocked, discovering the bolt was broken when it swung freely open.

She stepped into a living room-turned-reception room reminiscent of the front rooms in the Defense Force base, with a table with an unfinished card game and an open window to the kitchen, which looked to have been converted into a snack parlor. A sparsely-populated weapons rack sat by one wall, the small hoofful of blades having protective coverings on their edges for the sake of storage. There were three armor stands, two of which were fully suited, and a rack of heavy, tailored raincoat uniforms. One corner also had a rocking chair, where the armored stallion from the docks was waiting patiently, a weathered look on his face.

"You again," the old guard greeted. "Glad you came. Good to see travelers with honor, these days."

"Yeah, I'm here." Valey nodded, stealing a chair from the card table. "Got a pretty decent guess why you want to see me, too."

The helmeted guard raised an eyebrow. "Really? Run into any checkpoints on your way here, have you?"

"Eh... we've ran into a little more than that." Valey shrugged. "Just to be sure we're on the same page, you guys are here because of some recent... uhh... stuff with the northern border?"

The guard squinted. "That we are. And how much are you in the know on?"

Valey lifted her hat and slid out Celestia's letter. "Before we get on any tangents or miscommunications, read this."

"What's this?" The guard took it, inspecting the scroll with wide eyes. "The Princess's seal? Whatever are you doing with a thing like..."

Slowly, he slit it, and began to read. His eyes bugged slightly as he parsed the text, and he read it over twice once he reached the bottom. "Well, I'll be," he eventually said, passing back the scroll. "Never expected to have anything actually happen all the way out here."

Valey watched him tensely. "So, are we cool? No trouble? I haven't really opened that before, but I assume it says who we are and what we're doing."

"Oh, I'm not here to make trouble." The guard stretched. "Just to report back about everything I see, so it can be someone else's trouble if need be. And hopefully not alert anyone by being conspicuously silenced. But if this letter is truthful, I'm sure you'll have nothing to fear from my reporting having seen you? It'll make its way all the way to the Princess..."

Valey nodded. "Yeah, if you've got a direct line to her and can let her know we made it this far safely, that would be pretty cool. She didn't want to lose track of us."

"Seems you're legitimate." The guard nodded, looking perfectly comfortable seated in full armor. "Now, this doesn't mean I don't still want a talk, of course. Go upstairs and rouse my lazy associate for me. They'll call me a crackpot if I hear about this all by myself."

"Lazy associate, huh?" Valey trotted for the staircase, wondering if that was the retiree or the philanderer... or if she was wrong, and this one was already the retiree. "Yeah, sure. I've got a few minutes. Bananas, for guards who are actually chill and don't freak out and start fighting at the drop of a hat, I've got all day."

Comments

[Phoenix Kitten]

And so it continues.
I'd like to see Fishy's reaction to Starlight's companions revealing they're from over the mountain range, and that Starlight crossed the mountain range.

Recess huh? Starlight gonna be mobbed by the other foals.
Bits on Jamjars somehow snuck off the Dream and is being Jamjars.

The return of Admiral Valey, talking to fellow guardsponies.

9.

[KMCA]

10071072
Oh no... Jamjars is going to "assert dominance" on those poor foals isn't she?
Jamjars, they aren't your family, you don't need to do it.

Hopefully Jamjars learned from her time at the college.

[Oberth Effect]

I know what I would do. I know what I should do, but I can't feel it. I can see myself being interested or excited about things but I just can't.

That sounds vaguely like one of the symptoms of depression. I'd be surprised if it were just that, though.

And if I told you someone had left a time machine in my basement you could use to go back and fix everything for yourself, what would you say to being excited by that?

I suppose that's the seed for Starlight's time travel shenanigans later? Or was that seed planted with Glimmer?