//------------------------------//
// Doing Something Stupid 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

"Okay, where is my patient?" Harshwater scowled around Valey's empty room, the stack of pillows she had used to brace the mare's injured back laying askew, like someone had clumsily gotten off them. "Amber!"

"Mmwuh?" Amber stirred in a chair, blinking out of a peaceful slumber. "Who's it time for...?"

"Valey? Did you see her?" Harshwater got right up in her face, leaving the mare no time to wake up. "I had her attended for a reason; how long have you been asleep?"

Amber's eyes focused. "Wait, Valey's not...?"

Harshwater sighed, stalking around the room and only losing her balance once. "Ugh, come on..." Her eyes fell upon the tournament schedule, left clear in the open for anyone to see it. Valey's fight had been circled, timed just after dawn, the word 'Sorry' scribbled in stiff letters next to it.

"Well." Harshwater straightened up. "The mare I'm indebted to is an idiot. Wake everybody up. We need to find her and drag her back here and tie her up if necessary. So much for my own sleep..."





"Thus far, our day has gotten off to a start of legend," Howe muttered conspiratorially, shielding his rapier-microphone with a wing as he strolled about the pit of Stormhoof's colosseum. A team of unicorns cleaned and repaired the fight platform behind him, a sizable hole smashed in its surface where a very big earth pony had body-slammed too many times. "But will fate hold out? Or will grim fortune deliver us a match so one-sided, one of the contestants will be... Grandpapa?"

He spread a wing, and an older stallion entered from a tunnel, his mane protected from the wind by the bowl of the arena. Howe moseyed over, intercepting him on his way to the platform with his microphone. "Dig the moniker, by the way. Now, care to enlighten our audience on your feelings before the fight?"

Grandpapa calmly shook his head. "No."

"Oh. Uhh..." Howe blinked, backing off and recovering. "Well, I suppose that's a pity. Because as fate would have it, I meant it would be one-sided in the other direction! Mwa ha ha haaa!"

Spreading his wings like a billowing cloak, he pounced back up to the central platform, serenading the other entrance. "Because the competition is none other than a rematch with the hero of Ironridge, Admiral Valey!" He blinked at the tunnel. "...This is your noble cue to enter, Ma'am."

The tunnel was empty.

Howe blinked in consternation. "Well... while we wait, let's give it up for the underdog? I'm sure this will be a match for the ages, as their previous bout was mangled by lowly sabotage..."

"You're a biased whippersnapper, aren't you?" Grandpapa reached the stage, swatting at him with a wing. "Let Valey's actions speak for themselves. Perhaps this time she will listen."

The pegasus opened his mouth to respond... until a voice cut him off from Valey's tunnel. "Hey! Wait up, okay? I'm a little slowed down today."

Howe's face rose and Grandpapa's fell as Valey stepped into the sunlight, a Riverfall raincoat covering her back and chest like a cloak. Her legs moved stiffly and all at once with a tiny stride, stepping carefully to keep any swaying motion out of her spine as she crossed the compound at a glacial pace.

"What are you playing at, my dear?" Grandpapa pushed Howe aside, squinting at her from the edge of the platform. "You look like you can barely move."

"Nahhh. Just feeling a little lazy today." Valey grinned viciously. "Just gonna kick your butt, then get back home for a nap before anyone notices I'm gone, easy as that. Gonna... Uhhh..." She paused at the foot of the steps leading to the platform, three short rises anyone could take with impunity. Her hoof rose to meet the first one, already accompanied by a wince. "Bananas, this is gonna stink," she hissed under her breath.

The whole arena watched, none more closely than Howe and Grandpapa as Valey struggled onto the platform. With each step, her face contorted in a wince and hiss of agony, and by the time she was at the top, her smirk was clearly plastered on over a mask of pain. "What are you looking at?" she managed, breathing shallowly.

"What did you do to yourself, my dear?" Grandpapa raised an eyebrow in concern. "You're clearly in no condition to fight."

Valey blew a feeble raspberry. "Nah, I'm good. Hey, Pancake, shoo. I really need to finish this and get off my hooves as fast as possible."

Howe furrowed his brow, but backed away with a bow. "Very well... I'll let you two work this out! Remember, there is no shame in advancing backwards!"

He left the ring, leaving Valey and Grandpapa standing paces apart. "Well?" Valey flicked her ears, the only part of her that could move without hurting something. "Have we started yet, or not?"

"If this is a ruse, I'm calling your bluff," Grandpapa said, sitting down. "Come get me."

"Uhh..." Valey winced, taking a slow step forward. "You sure about that? Look, I'm kind of messed up, so if you make me chase you around this is gonna take forever."

Grandpapa turned up his chin, taunting her closer, his limbs limber and ready.

"Stop running away!" Valey growled at the sitting stallion. "Come on, come get me!"

"You have an ambush." A smile teased across Grandpapa's face. "I'm no rookie at war. If you're playing hurt, it's to lure me in, and if you really are wounded you'd have to stoop to foul play to win. Don't you remember a word I taught you?"

"Honestly, dude?" Valey gave him a cross look. "I hate to burst your bubble, but no, I don't. I have a mega-busy life, and literally all I remember you for is messing up my muscles when you pretended to help me under the city. Aside from the fact that you sucker-punched me, then carved up my best friend with a sword and smashed some priceless armor when she stepped in to fight you, I have no idea who you are or what your deal is. But I sure would love to shove a durian in your face. So come get me and hurry this up!"

Grandpapa shook his head. "No. I don't want to fight, and I don't want you to fight either. You waste your prestige from Ironridge, getting pulled into sides and fighting and making enemies in this tournament. All you accomplish is adding one more name to the list of sarosians whom the Empire holds against our kind. Why fight, my dear?"

"Because I've got some really cool friends to prove a point to!" Valey took another step forward, but it was too fast and she winced. "And I'm sure I could think of a good wish if I wanted. And I'm pretty stubborn, too. Now please hurry this up? I swam most of the way here, and walking really hurts!"

"Far easier for you to surrender," Grandpapa urged. "If you're truly injured, you think it will recover by the next fight should you win? Please, do not prolong your suffering."

Valey glared harder. "Yeah, right. Look, come here, you-" Something cracked beneath her coat. "Owowow! Bandage slipped! Owww, I think I tore a scab..."

"I can taste your pain on the air from here," Grandpapa remarked, lifting his nose and taking several steps closer. "You really are injured, aren't you? What are you hiding beneath that coat?"

"Just a scratch!" Valey grinned fiercely. "Yeah, that's right... Come here..."

Grandpapa stepped again, making to rush at her, but pulled into a feint right as Valey struck out. It was a single punch, whistling feebly through air, and the motion nearly caused Valey to topple, biting her tongue to keep from crying out in pain. "Aaaugh! Aah! Bananas...!"

"This is upsetting." Grandpapa shook his head, stepping closer. "You really are hurting yourself, aren't you? Surrender, for both of our sakes. You are in no condition to be fighting."

He reached forward, coming at Valey with a jab she knew to be laden with paralysis... Valey shifted right before his blow connected, striking something hard on her chest beneath the cloak. At the same time, Valey counterattacked with a swing of her own, putting as much force into her punch as her crippled body would allow. "Screw you!"

Grandpapa stepped backwards and out of the way.

Valey's momentum carried her forward, no flexibility in her legs to keep her balance. With a battle cry that turned to a scream of pain, her raincoat was carried by her momentum, flipping up along her back to reveal a painstaking network of bandages and cotton, red at the edges with dried blood and starting to peel where her motions had disturbed it. It was bound to her barrel with careful loops, and she landed with teeth gritted, whimpering a shrill note and unable to move.

"Hey, uh, I think I need to referee this right here..." Howe stepped into the ring, raising a wing for the action to halt. "Look, it's not the end of the world! We have a five-star medical team, and losers get free lodging at a hotel, and..."





Earlier, as Harshwater was rousing the ship, Maple poked her head outside the room she shared with Starlight. "What's going on out here?"

"Valey is missing," Harshwater seethed, "she probably snuck off, she's definitely doing something stupid..."

"Girls?" Grenada appeared at the opposite end of the hall, beckoning with a hoof. "You need to look in the cargo hold."

Harshwater groaned and started stumbling down the hallway. "She had better be in there and just have gotten herself stuck trying to do something with no significance when she's supposed to be resting..."

The lights were already on in the hold, most of its supplies spread out or neatly categorized from Shinespark's attempts to improve Nyala and make something out of the scrapped Braen armor. Much of the space was also taken up by trade goods from Mistvale, offered as gifts by the sarosians. But along the sides were several crates that had been in deep storage nearly forever. Maple couldn't recall them ever being moved... and one was stuck open now, dark, hoof-sized chunks of glass littered all around its base.

Harshwater raised a dubious eyebrow. "There had better be a good reason why you're carrying around..." Her eyes narrowed. "Oh. Right. My old boss."

"Kero's moon glass supply we took out of Ironridge," Maple whispered. "I forgot that was still here. But why is it open?"





Valey tried to rebuke Howe, but only gritted her teeth, eyes glistening up at Grandpapa as he stood over her. "I will make this painless," he offered, lifting a hoof. "You really are here out of desperation, aren't you...?"

He struck. Valey's cutie mark activated, slowing time and letting her watch her encroaching fate... and by the time her reaction was up, an emerald light was flaring inside the chest of her coat. Valey's hoof pushed through the pain to brush along her back, and suddenly, momentarily, she could move again. With one eyelid held firmly closed, hiding the off-colored pupil beneath, Valey felt a second presence in her mind as she wrapped the startled stallion's foreleg in one hoof, slammed herself upright against him, and threw all her momentum into a punch to the jaw that sent his lightweight form flying clear off the platform.

Howe gaped. Valey collapsed again as her body rebelled and failed to stick a landing, and she numbly felt more of the bandages failing along her spine. "Thanks, Doc," she coughed as her pendant's connection closed. "Yeah, don't worry, I'll return the favor. Ugh. Think I'm gonna need more than pain relief to be alright after that stunt..."