My name is Ashley, or Willow Almondstar. I use she/they pronouns, and you can you use the same for my character :) I'm currently level 25, and I'm 23 years old. I'm in love with Linda and Ydris, Valedale is my favorite spot, and I don't trust that little blue squirrel. I started playing SSO in 2015.
I've been on the server Meringue Cloud for a while; it's a nice, quiet server.
Please feel free to send asks/dms or friend request me! I'm also open to a riding club.
My SSO short stories:
Elizabeth Sunbeam
Anger
Sunday Morning
South Hoof
Northern Observatory
It was gradual, then all at once; like everything on Jorvik, you knew it was coming, and when it did, you could never return to the way things were. The enchanting light of fireflies, treasures hidden in the undergrowth, even Birdie’s flashing bright red feathers - all different in the loaded space between one breath and the next.
Valedale’s people came together quickly. When there’s magical science to be done, they’re the first to answer the call. It’s why, of course, Aideen’s druids settled there. Groups of specialized individuals were formed, and they sent you down path after path to solve the mystery of why the Hollow Woods changed, and why now. Something about Birkir, and Hanami, and - honestly, you couldn’t remember. It all mixed together in the frantic chase of knowledge and the exhausting length of history. The only thing you could remember was the familiar, burning-strong kindness behind Wynna Sunbeam’s eyes.
The Hollow Woods used to be quiet and peaceful. Now it’s full, and you feel every piece of Aideen’s light as it floats through the air. No matter how quick you and your horse are, you can’t collect them all; some sink into the river or get caught in tall branches before fading away in the filtered sunlight.
And you wonder - why is nature coming back if Garnok is growing stronger?
HELLO ANON!! I am so sorry it took me six months to write this . . . and it is unbeta'd, but I hope it brings you joy nonethless. I used my character's name a couple times, but feel free to ignore that and mentally insert your own character's.
At the moment, you aren’t really fit for company.
Scratches and bruises pepper your skin, old and new. The other Star Riders got away fine this time, which you're happy about - everyone has to take their turn doing the risky work in a mission - but it doesn’t make the stinging and aching go away completely. Lisa had offered to help, but you waved her away. You’re equally capable of star-granted healing magic on this small level, but instead of actively working on a spell, you lay in front of the Northern Observatory. Normally, you found refuge in the Epona Observatory or the Firgrove mountains, since there was little chance of being disturbed, but you couldn’t make it that far this time.
And unfortunately, if the sound of the creaking wooden door right behind you means what you think it means, then -
“Willow?”
“Hi, Mario,” you reply. Since you have been laying here for hours, speaking doesn’t cause a pounding headache anymore.
“Are you . . . stargazing?” Mario asks tentatively.
“I think the stars are gazing at me, technically,” you murmur, and reach your worse-off hand toward the sky. Your thumb might be broken from a bad fall.
Mario comes to sit next to you, his feet inches from dangling off the cliff edge. “Are you okay?”
“Oh, yes, thank you. This is just as close as I can get to the stars.”
It takes him a moment to shake off that statement. “You look . . . what’s the phrase? Worse for wear?”
“I’m fine. Give it a few more hours here, and I’ll be good as new.” You slide your wand out of your pocket and point it at him. “Do you feel okay?”
He flinches out of the wand’s path. “No, no, I’m fine! No need for that.”
You frown. “You don’t like magic?”
“Ah, no. I like science.”
“But you’re an astronomer. You study the stars all night.”
“. . . Yes? Are they not science?” You put your wand away and show him your palm just as a cut closes up. He shivers. “The stars don’t do that for me, cheri. I discover them as they are, and I don’t ask anything of them.”
“Well, they ask a lot of me,” you mutter, and sit up. “So, what? You live on Jorvik and you don’t like magic?”
“Magic tends to leave me alone.”
“Lucky you,” you laugh. “Well, magic tends to follow me, and I’m here now.”
“And I’m happy you are,” he says.
“Are you? Happy, I mean. In general.” The question falls from you awkwardly, but you’re curious. Mario never fails to greet you with a kind word and a willingness to chat, but he closes himself away up in the observatory and keeps a nocturnal schedule. He seems to order everything he needs, never coming down to shop or socialize. Most others you’ve met on the island are easy to read, but Mario’s always been something else.
He gives you a confused look, but doesn’t hesitate. “Yes, I am. Are you?”
You laugh, looking back up at the stars. “As a kid, I really liked astronomy. I thought I’d be a scientist someday. I planned my whole future out; I wanted to get a PhD and be a professor. A great one - one that really helps their students and does amazing research that helps the world. I just came here as a gap year before college.” Lisa was impressed when she first found out you know the name and type of every star in the sky; she assumed it was from your constant Soul Rider study sessions with Linda, and you didn’t correct her. You try not to think about your life before Jorvik; you aren’t sure why you were spilling all this to Mario, or why now.
Mario is quiet for a moment. You know that, at some point, someone told him enough about the Soul Riders for him to understand what your life was like. Maybe Elizabeth, maybe one of the other Soul Riders, though you’d never seen them up here - maybe even a wild card like Ydris; you could imagine him up here, finding the stars as fascinating and unique as any other facet of this universe. “You still have a future, no?” he says. “You can leave someday.”
You think about those words; you think about leaving the island. You could travel, like you’ve always wanted - to Kenya and Nepal, Portugal and Uruguay. You could see the sun for its warmth and the stars for their constellations, and not the energy they hold. You could watch the moon from an airplane and lightning from a hotel room, and know that they’ll soon disappear from view. You wonder how Antarctica compares to Pandoria. You think about never setting foot on Jorvik again.
“Even without Garnok,” you say quietly, ignoring Mario’s flinch at the name, “I don’t think I could.” Selfishly, you know it is safe to admit this to Mario. He’d never tell any of this to Avalon, or the other Star Riders. “I don’t think I’d have come here if I knew, though.” If you knew any of the things that you were capable of, or that would transpire, or that you’d be responsible for. “I just know I no longer have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice,” he murmurs, and you want to argue against the empty platitude, but you’ve imposed on him enough by showing up half-alive on his property in the middle of the night.
Your bruises and scrapes are almost done fading. You’re feeling less like you just narrowly escaped death, once again, for the small prize of doing it all again tomorrow. “So,” you inquire, “what’d you want to be when you grew up?”
“An astronomer, of course,” he replies. “I applied to many places after university, and this was the first place to respond, so I came here.”
So simple, so pleasing, so unserendipitous. A dream followed to its conclusion. It’s so easy here, up by the stars, channeling the smallest amount of magic possible to heal scraped knees and a wandering heart.
“Hey,” you ask Mario, “can I come here more often?”
He shrugs, but smiles. “The stars and I aren’t going anywhere, cheri.”
finally writing a response to a prompt I got six months ago and it's turning into me thinking about how my account is ten years old tomorrow - thinking about the rider being on the island, fighting the looming threat of of complete and utter destruction while also helping the common folk around her, for ten years. god.
I drew this one a while back for my 2026 wall calendar, it will be featured as the December illustration. I only have a couple of calendars left, if you guys still wanted one before they sell out!
Yesterday I was explaining Star Stable lore to my friend, and she said that the entirety of the game’s story and plot points could be described with this image
SSO would have been way more successful and would have had way less trouble if the game was targeted to teenagers and not little kids and actually tried doing something with the old storyline (when it was more creepy and mysterious than just magical and whimical)
That was the wind y'all, a round of applause for the wind
This is my roman empire tbh, because SSO used to be for pre-teen to teenage girls.. most of the older playerbase found the game at like 10-12 years old and it was so interesting because it was a horse game that had mystery and story to it, not just: "make your horse pretty and win the competition!" 🩷🎀
Star stable featured puzzles, mystery, danger -themes of sisterhood, friendship, pressure from expectations, loss and death etc.- it was DIFFERENT! and people loved having a game focused around the animal they love with a real adventure alongside it rather than just shopping or competing -especially young girls/afab people who have never been the target audience of most games until more recent years- we always had extremely basic and stereotypical feminine games given to us
At some point they've decided they want their target audience to be younger kids, while at the same time being aware that most people keeping jorvik alive are the teens that grew up but keep coming back; so now they want to be both interesting/mysterious and dumb down challenges for convenience and so the little kids keep playing
And I hate thinking about what could have been if they just kept their focus on a slightly older target audience
Jorvik used to have mystery but not enough to scare you off; it actually made you more curious about the land... now it's all bright and colourful and it just doesn't feel the same, and I don't think the new style is an issue because they can have their new style and still create an atmosphere of magic and mystery
Presenting the prompt list for the annual SSOBLR Promptober!
Thirty-one prompts for you to interpret and execute however you wish; in the past seven years we have seen art, screenshots, edits, moodboards, stories - all is welcome!*. I am not in support of generative AI and if I catch you using it to take part in this event I will block you.
You don’t have to feel pressured to partake in every single prompt, and if you want to come back to this list after October ends you can still use the same hashtags since I keep checking them after the month has ended :)
Use the hashtags #ssopromptober and #ssopromptober2025 so other people can see what you’ve made, and for you to see what others have created! You are also welcome to tag me in your posts (either @ me or use the hashtag #feliciawolfpaw).
If you have any questions just send me a message or an ask. 💌
You will find a list in text form of all the prompts under the cut. Previous years can be found on my tags page.
*If you’re making a moodboard, please make sure you’re allowed to use the photos, websites like unsplash and pixabay are good for this.
related to the last post here's a fun fact: until you get the quest by the baroness to look at the race track, the race track will be fully upgraded. only after you get the quest (and restart your game to actually put it into effect ig) it'll look rundown and broken again.
I was so hyped as a kid when the Kallters left and there was a little storyline. I remember waiting in anticipation for it to continue, it also teased the area behind Icengate... this will have been 7 years ago in October.
the ice witch...
"from the north" (northern mountain range, the unreleased area behind Icengate, which has always had a hidden path to it blocked by invisible walls)
"it came from a place outside druid providence beyond the Icengate" ;-;
so sad it got scrapped.
I also think it is strange that the fjords were retired four years before starstable started retiring other horses.
Maybe their retirement was meant to be temporary, considering the fact that the fjords only had a three year run in total, which is by far the shortest of any breed.
