"Looks like she's coming to!"
The first thing Valey felt was numb. There was a stiff, immobilizing presence around one foreleg, and none of her muscles responded when she tried to move. Her eyes registered light, but weren't yet in focus, and she wasn't sure she was aware enough to put names to colors. "Unnngh..."
"Easy," a comforting voice said. "You pushed yourself way too far out there. There's no hurry now. You're safe, so focus on resting."
Valey's lungs didn't feel like powering a whine, so she just listened, letting her body sit and restart at its own rate. After a minute, her vision came together, and she could finally use her eyes. Her own state was pathetic yet coddled; a cast entombed her foreleg, and a thick bandage was wrapped around her midsection that also pinned one of her wings to her side. Most of her muscles felt battered and weary, especially her spine, and she had a headache. But her room had chairs at the sides, and in them were Maple, Gerardo, Shinespark, Starlight, Slipstream, even Nyala... Everyone but Jamjars was there.
"Ow," she managed, trying a feeble grin. "Hey, girls."
Gerardo grinned back, though everyone else looked concerned. "You look almost as bad as when you fought Herman! But you, well..." His beak worked uselessly for a second. "How lucid were you when... Err... Are you aware what happened?"
Valey's ears went back. "I dunno. I think I might have overdone it... I don't remember stopping."
"More importantly, are you in pain?" Maple got up, stepping over to Valey's bedside. The walls around them were stone and the lighting only provided by a window; they must have been somewhere in Stormhoof. "You got badly injured..."
Valey was quiet again, mentally checking herself over. "Maybe," she eventually guessed. "Not the 'ow it burns' kind. But everything feels really uncomfortable and sorta wrong."
Maple closed her eyes. "We've been talking to Wallace. He wants to talk to you, too, but doesn't fit in this room. We found out... another disadvantage of entering the tournament with a Regent."
"Oh?" Valey's ears flicked, half-listening. She was slightly more preoccupied with her own state than things like business or winning...
"Mhm." Maple nodded. "When you get injured in the tournament, which happens a lot because there are always losers and a lot of close fights, medical care is expensive. The fighters who are sponsored to enter by houses, especially if those houses think they have a chance, will usually be covered by those houses to get the best treatment available. But the ones who aren't... Well, they're on their own."
"Oh." Valey suddenly sank, the intricacies of her situation starting to return to mind. "Bananas. When's my next fight?"
"Two days," Gerardo announced, standing as well. "And needless to say, you're in no condition to throw yourself out there like this. That said, you have several options, and we wanted to wait for you to awaken so you could choose for yourself."
Maple nodded, using her cutie mark and producing a jar of red liquid. "Our healing potions, first off. The ones we got from the mercenaries in Ironridge. Although..." Her ears folded. "We're kind of running out. This is our second-to-last one, and as badly as you're hurt, you probably need all of it."
Valey eyed the potion as Gerardo continued. "Another option is Chauncey. If you remember, on our tour of Izvaldi's facilities, the hospital there had a machine designed to emulate the effects of Varsidelian healing magic like what empowers the potions. He reached out to us while you were unconscious and invited us to use it free of charge, but..."
Shinespark cleared her throat from her chair by the wall. "But Izvaldi is a long enough flight from here that you'd miss your next match if we just took Wallace's airship. So not only would it involve getting more indebted to Izvaldi when there's already awkwardness between them and us, you'd have to either get money for the teleportation guild, which likely involves asking Gazelle for a favor, too... or forfeit your next match through not being there."
"Bananas." Valey swallowed. "That means I'd be out, though, right? Because if it's two losses in a row..."
"Then you'd be at one loss," Maple finished. "Wallace hasn't explained it to us, but you won. The audience doesn't get to hear what's said between the fighters, but he stepped down. You were both wounded, and, well..." Her eyes shifted to the side. "That's what he wants to talk to you about. But either way, if you missed a match to get healed in Izvaldi, it would be just like if you had lost to Wallace in the first place before you got so hurt."
Valey grimaced, initial shock blending into a swirl of memories as the fight's end and aftermath stitched itself back together in her head. "Bananas. I did, didn't I..." She frowned harder. "Did he give up even when he'd won?"
Gerardo shrugged. "Like we've been saying, he wants to talk to you. I have a great feeling this is what about."
"Alright..." Valey groaned, trying to budge and being rewarded with pain. "Ironflanks, I think I'm gonna need that potion. Can I have, like, half of it? Or enough that I feel like I can move?"
Maple gave the potion a look, then carefully held the bottle to Valey's lips. "You're the one who was likely to need them. We were waiting for your decision."
Valey drank slowly, pausing and testing herself several times and stopping when the bottle was a little more than half full. "Wait," she said, brushing it away with the tip of her better wing. "Lemme see how this feels."
She tried to move her back, and it was still badly sore but not quite so intense. The pain when she stretched her belly the wrong way was dialed down a notch, and her casted leg felt a lot less wrong inside, though she could still feel her hoof half-shattered at the end. That would have to stay on for a while.
"Alright. Sitting up, maybe gonna try to get up. Can I get a shoulder to lean on?"
Shinespark's telekinesis cushioned her back, and eventually she was sitting again, testing her legs one by one. Every muscle in her hips hurt, and she had to be careful not to tense the wrong way, but... "Okay. Managing so far. Standing up?"
Again, Shinespark's aura lifted her out of the bed, and at last she was upright, Maple close nearby and all three hooves on the ground. She tested her legs, finding her hind legs complaining stiffly and her free foreleg mostly good. Her cast was a bizarre affair; it was significantly longer than her leg should have been to cover for the broken hoof, and when she tried to put weight on it, it gripped the sides of her leg rather than pressing on the end like she was used to.
"Bananas." She wobbled a little, then snapped her wing over Maple's back. "Yeah, definitely gonna need a little help, here. But I think I'm good. Like, relatively good given the situation? Ow." She winced as her belly wound twinged, repressing the urge to arch her back in response. "Bananaaas, being laid up stinks. Where's Wallace?"
"Out here," Gerardo announced, leading the way.
"Well, hello there, little Valey," Wallace grunted, standing with his head bowed in a low-ceilinged corridor, a bandage the size of a table covering his flayed side. "It seems you're finally up and about."
"Yeah, I don't really enjoy being cooped up," Valey answered, the aftertaste of the potion strong in her mouth. "Ow. Kinda hurting, right now."
"I'll say you are," Morena remarked, stepping out from behind Wallace's bulk. "You asked for and then lived through quite a beating. Both of you are idiots."
Valey winced. "Look, I didn't realize that the harder I punched his face, the harder he would..."
Wallace nodded, cutting her off. "Come," he beckoned. "Let us retreat to somewhere more private to exchange words. Decisions have been made that will affect all of us, and a frank discussion is in order about what to do."
Valey's ears folded, and she followed along with Maple, starting to get the feeling she had no idea what this was about.
"So," Wallace began as they crossed a colosseum rampart, exiting a tower against which the Sky Goat was moored. "Our airship ought to serve as well as any other place. Now that we're here, how would you describe our bout down there, young Valey? If speaking is painful right now, say the word, and I'll be more to the point."
"Nah, I'm good." Valey coughed weakly, her hips starting to limber more as she used them but still keenly feeling the effects of being slammed against the ground. "Dunno what to say, though. I kinda got mad and kept fighting, and we both wound up getting really hurt, I guess. There's a billion ways you could make that a lesson, though. But I thought you wanted me to give a hundred and ten percent?"
"Hmmm," Wallace rumbled.
Morena chuckled humorlessly. "I've seen Wallace shrug off five times that much sticking out of him and keep fighting. Real weapons, too, not improvised boards. He'll be fine with a few days to walk it off."
Maple grimaced a little at that, while Gerardo only looked like his admiration was stoked further. Wallace returned the chuckle more warmly. "Yes, don't worry for my sake, young Valey. I'm more interested in your tactics, your understanding of the situation and above all, your motives. Do you want to win in the tournament?"
"I mean, duh." Valey tried to shrug and gave up halfway through, her back making her wince from the effort. "You think I didn't want to win there?"
"That battle wasn't the tournament, young Valey." Wallace's voice quieted. "Tell me, what would you have lost from losing it?"
Valey blinked. "Uhhh... I'd be one fight away from getting out?"
Wallace nodded. "As everyone is throughout the third and fourth rounds. What have you gained from winning it?"
Now Valey frowned. "What do you mean? I won, right? Or..." She sagged. "In the eyes of the tournament, at least. You completely had me. But now are you saying that fight didn't matter? So just..." She paused and bit her lip. "Yeah, sorry. I got no clue where you're going with this."
Wallace's eyes narrowed with finality. "And what have you lost from winning it?"
"Buh?" Valey stopped in confusion.
"I saw you in that fight," Wallace narrated, strolling onto his ship like the wound from the fight was merely a scratch. "At first, you floundered. You were angry, but it was undirected. Felt it was unfair, perhaps, that you were matched against me, and that overrode your sense of purpose. And it was unfair!" His signature grin returned for a moment. "Unfair to everyone else! Because you had a chance to match up against a known contender for the very top, in a situation where you could absolutely afford a loss. After such a glorious and effortless win streak, it would have taken some of the eyes off your back, and you could have gained valuable knowledge on how to fight me for real. Yet..."
His eyes shadowed. "For a while, you seemed ready to give up, not as a tactical retreat but out of frustration. And then you wouldn't. No matter how much a loss would have not been a setback, the worse your odds became, the harder you pushed yourself past your body's limits... until you became like this. And your desperation lent you incredible power, at that. Most fighters grow reckless and fall to exploitable risks when they feel backed into a corner, and the best of them keep their cool and hope their opponent will grow overconfident. But with you..." He looked away. "I'm very curious as to what kept you on your hooves, even in the face of such danger and adversity when losing was of greater service to your long-term chances."
"...Uhhh." Valey's ears folded. "Bananas, when you put it that way, I don't even know. I just really, really hate losing."
"Hmm. I recall you saying as much, down there." Wallace nodded slowly. "So then what of your other compulsions? Did they fade as you realized it wasn't a battle worth winning, leaving you with only this? Or has your drive to stand victorious held this as its core all along... that you simply abhor seeing yourself defeated?"
"I, uhh..." Valey looked down. "I might have to think about that a little."
Starlight cleared her throat, frowning. "And why is that a bad thing if she hates to lose, huh? I didn't want her to lose. If she was fighting harder the more hurt she was, I was cheering for her harder, too!"
Wallace grinned wistfully at her. "Several reasons! First off, what will you wish of Garsheeva should you win?"
Valey blinked. "I mean, I've got a ton of other stuff I want, too..."
"Very well, then." Wallace nodded. "And what of your odds of victory? Everyone enters the tournament with the near-certainty they won't stand victorious at the top. Even I have rivals who can reliably stand in my way. By entering for such a reason, you would be greatly inviting everything you despise most!"
"Uhhh..." Valey winced. "Yeah, but that's why I'm not... I mean..."
"Why it's important to understand your priorities," Wallace agreed. "Third, it causes situations like this. You would not back down even when it was a decision most optimal... and so, I yielded. The win was yours. Like I said, both of us would go on either way. I can settle for a lesser seed in the brackets of the upper rounds. I have little to lose by letting you off here and now."
Valey bit her lip. "So now you're talking enough about me bailing on that fight being the smart choice... and yeah, I could have not gotten hurt, or at least not as much. But I also totally found a way to fight you! Sort of! Even if I feel kinda bad for playing like that, but seriously. You're, uhh... kinda spooking me here that winning that was a bad thing."
Wallace shrugged. "You should see what the public's eye is saying about you. Surely you've never had issues regarding unwanted attention and getting yourself into a mess you can't back out of before, hmm?"
Valey swallowed. "Oh bananas."
"Whatever swear you want to use, kid," Morena sighed. "It's your problem now, though. You were attracting significant attention for having such an easy run up through the rounds. Before Wallace, no one had ever landed a hit on you, let alone beat you. A loss now, when you could have taken it, would have done a lot to teach people you weren't invincible, and that was an excellent chance for it. Did you know that the best of the best at stacking the game will actually enter through Regents, precisely so they can take calculated losses to make themselves look less interesting? But now you beat Wallace, so you have a fan club. You also beat Wallace, so you have a hate club. And Wallace surrendered to you when you were on your last legs, and you don't even want to know what kind of speculation that's fueling. If you were trying to become one of the most-talked-about combatants in the tournament? Congratulations, kid. Because you are."
Valey went pale.
"Hey!" Shinespark frowned, glancing from Wallace to Morena and back again. "Did you know this would happen when you backed down? And if so, you did it anyway?"
"Without a shadow of a doubt." Wallace solemnly nodded. "And yes, I did do it anyway, because you must learn: the tournament has more facets than stubbornly refusing to yield before every obstacle in your way. Could I have plucked her out of the sky ang gently held her into submission? I had her grappled. It would have been easy to end things there. But that battle was primarily for me to impart a lesson, and had I straight-up defeated her, it wouldn't have stuck: you must pay attention. Now you will have additional hardships to deal with on your road to the top. It's best you learn to deal with them now, while all the attention and commentators can take solace in the fact that this actually changes nothing, as shocking as it was. Now is the time for learning, both in how to avoid attention and how to handle it, and you needed a push."
Valey trembled, shuddered, and then sighed.
"...Well?" Maple folded her ears. "What do we do now?"
"Heal up for your next match," Morena replied. "You probably heard, but Chauncey is trying to extend a hoof of friendship again if you want to return to Izvaldi. He's also involved in the tournament organization, and this is off the record and just between us..." She moved closer, whispering in Valey's ear. "Your next opponent might have weaknesses that will play to your strengths. The tournament is all about playing dirty behind the scenes, and you apparently have allies who are willing to do that for you. If you're serious about winning, you'll want to keep them, and make the most of them whether you keep them or not."
"...Okay, then." Valey swallowed. "That's cool. Do I need to hide out, or something? I mean, I've got friends. If I need to disappear off the map for a while..."
Wallace shrugged. "Two days separate us from your next match, young Valey. You'll have to face the limelight again there no matter what. Failing to show your face would merely put you at a loss, but more importantly would ever thicken the mystery and intrigue you are surrounded by. If I were you, I would consider my options closely."
"Cool." Valey nodded, very much feeling that it wasn't. "So what are my options, even? Do I just have to roll with this? My friends won't be in danger, will they?"
"Options? You've got a few." Morena nodded. "Pretend nothing's happening. You'll probably get jumped... or maybe you'll be lucky. Withdraw and run away. There are a lot of places around the Empire that ask no questions, just for situations like this. Or you could go all in, and play the game for yourself. You'd probably want a propaganda team, maybe to hire some bodyguards for people who are likely to be used against you... though that rarely happens until late into the third round. Get a more secure living space, either way. How are you doing for friends and connections in the Empire?"
Valey grimaced. "Chauncey, but don't trust him. Gazelle, but don't trust him. I suppose I could throw in my money all the way with either of them and just play their game, but eh... I've also got some batpony friends who seem to know their way around Stormhoof's underground. No idea what the scene is like down there, and I'd imagine it's dicey, but I'm pretty sure I trust them. And then I've got you guys, for whatever you're willing to do."
"I can actually think of another who might be pressured into helping you..." Wallace mused, stroking his chin. "We'll keep our eyes and ears open and look out for you behind the scenes, as much as we're able. After all, it was my decision that placed you in such hot water in the first place! But ultimately, consider that we are rivals in the tournament, and next time one of us meets you in the ring, we may not have the luxury of holding back. Young Valey... we bid you good luck."
"Yeah. Thanks," Valey whispered, looking hollowly at the city below them. "We're gonna need it."