//------------------------------//
// With Some Exceptions 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Saffron Sunflower shook her head. "Trying to hike in those mountains would be a fool's errand. And how would you even decide when to turn back?"

"Yeah, but hypothetically, if we really wanted to go..." Valey tapped her hooves together. "I guess someone would have tried it and found out for sure it was impossible? Are you saying everyone who has kicked the bucket, or that nobody tried in the first place?"

"What even makes you think walking the mountains would be more successful than flying?" Pierre queried. "You have wings, do you not? And an airship. Why would the mountains' magic care whether your hooves left the ground?"

Valey shrugged, slowing down. "I dunno..."

"In answer to your question, no one's fool enough to try it," Saffron said. "Even just scaling the initial wall is a fool's errand when a storm can come down halfway up and blow you away, and that first step technically is possible! Grandbell has a gondola that'll get you up to the pass if you have a writ to get you through, but it isn't for tourists."

"What about Sosa the Explorer?" Starlight asked, sitting beside Valey's chair. "He went up there."

Everyone blinked at her. "Aww, shucks, you know about him?" Saffron's ears fell.

Diego chuckled. "They are from Ironridge, after all."

Shill giggled, and Saffron blushed, embarrassed. "Right. Must have slipped my mind..." She shook her head violently. "Sosa traveled the mountains eight hundred years ago. He was a unicorn from Yakyakistan who was downright obsessed with them, always having crazy ideas. Most people just think he thought they were pretty. He definitely thought there would be something special about the halfway point between Infinite Glacier and Grandbell here, and whether there was or wasn't, that's where he founded Ironridge."

"His cartography was startlingly exact, too," Shill added with a murmur. "Ironridge is surrounded by wilderness, and would have been even more remote then. He had no modern technology at all, but by the best possible measurements we can make today, the true halfway point is within a mile of the city's crater. Sosa might have been eccentric, but he was either lucky beyond belief, or knew something no one else has discovered for eight hundred years."

Starlight bit her lip, and Valey glanced at her, certain both of them were thinking of Ironridge's crystal palace.

Shill blinked. "Did I say something?"

"Uh... yeah, just thinking." Valey shook her head. "Nah, we're good. Just thinking, you all are being pretty cool to us, so maybe we should invite you to drop by our ship sometime? We could use more visitors who aren't sphinxes coming to mess with us."

"That is not what you were thinking, sugarcube," Saffron chuckled. "I know the look of someone who knows something and isn't sure whether to say it. And everyone knows something majorly magical went down in Ironridge that you all were a part of. For all I know, it could be related to whatever Sosa saw in the place. But sure! I love hearing rare things and buried tales few others are in on. It's part of the lure of adventuring for me."

"I would not mind dropping by your ship as well," Pierre mused. "In fact, if you were interested, it could even be quite profitable. Word of your restaurant in Stormhoof reached my ears, and if you are thinking of expanding your business here, I have a set of skills that may be worth your while to hire."

Valey pursed her lips. "Huh, that might be a good idea... I dunno if we're doing that yet, but yeah, you're welcome to drop by!"

"Sounds like you're ready to be somewhere else," Saffron remarked with a smirk. "We'll see you around, I hope. Headed back to your ship for the night? Or are you going to see what Grandpapa wanted?"

Valey's ears fell. "Oh yeah. Right. Yeah, it's really best if I go figure out what he wants with me before he gets in my face about it again. Or my friends' faces." She glanced to the table, where Shinespark was diligently poring over the tournament diagrams, head held in thought. "See you later, I guess?"

"See you!" Saffron and Randorf sent her off with a rousing cheer, with polite waves from Shill and Pierre and a salute from Diego.

As Valey stepped through the slightly-emptier room, fighters trickling out as the night grew later, Amber and Starlight stepped up by her side. "Looks like most of our friends have left," Amber remarked, nodding at the door. "Probably gone to figure out where Gerardo left out ship. I have the sound stone, so we can stay in touch." She tossed the crystal, lodging it safely in her mane. "They seemed really friendly."

Valey nodded, scanning the room for Grandpapa and detecting him in a distant corner. "Yeah. Especially when two of them are dudes I just beat. I kinda want to spar with Saffron to be sure, but I think they're legit and just are here because they really like fighting."

"About time we made some more normal friends, right?" Amber nudged her with a grin, careful to avoid any of her lingering wounds. "Anyway, want us along to talk to the old coot? You're probably really tired of elderly batponies after dealing with Chauncey."

Valey's smile returned. "You know what? That would be pretty cool. Bring it, old coot."

"Hello there, children," Grandpapa greeted as the trio drew closer. "I was almost afraid you would try to avoid me. How are you finding this effort to save our tournament?"

"Uh... hi." Valey blinked. "I mean, it's cool. But is there any particular reason you're being friendly all of a sudden?"

"Oh, I've always acted in your best interests," Grandpapa hummed. "But for today, at least, you're on a good path."

Valey moved a hoof forward. "Look, dude. You're cryptic, and I get that you enjoy doing that, but if you want something from me, you gotta straight up say it. No riddles, no jokes. What are you after?"

"Well?" Grandpapa shrugged. "If I could have truly anything, I would like to see sarosians treated as equals with the rest of the Empire. But that's a tall order, isn't it?"

Valey raised an eyebrow. "So the best way to do that is to monk me in Stormhoof and then chop my friends up in the tournament?"

Grandpapa returned the expression, and his eyebrow was hairier. "What good were you ever going to do us all, fighting out there to become the champion?"

"I dunno." Valey frowned. "I wasn't really trying to do anything. I just entered for my friends."

"Mhmmm," Grandpapa insisted, skeptical. "Firstly, you were entering in the first place. Rising in the tournament draws eyes, and I had heard what you were like in Ironridge. You were hardly a poster child for a benevolent sarosian race. Second, you had that pendant around your neck, filled with obsidian. Not a good statement to be making. Lastly, you were entering with a Regent, which is a little philosophical peeve of mine. Regents pass judgement on your defeated enemies. That is the job of a god, and Garsheeva puts them there to watch mortals like us flail around with that responsibility. And I have seen all too well what happens when sarosians think they know better than gods."

Amber blinked. "Are you talking about you-know-who in Izvaldi?"

"Mhmmm."

Valey squinted. "You knew him?"

"Better than you think." Grandpapa smirked regretfully. "We knew each other in Mistvale, but went our separate ways decades ago. It didn't stop me from seeing what he became."

"So... what?" Valey tilted her head. "Chauncey was a punk, but what does he have to do with me? Why would you monk me when we had barely even met, then wreck Shinespark and her armor?"

Grandpapa shrugged. "Because the tournament is a waste of your time. It is for showoffs and entertainers. The Griffon Empire doesn't need sarosians being that way in the public eye. If you stayed like you were in Ironridge, you would reflect poorly upon our entire race, and if you had changed, there are much better ways to help than destroying others in front of an audience."

Amber nodded skeptically. "And cheating to get Valey out of the tournament is a real great way to reflect shiningly on batponies yourself, isn't it?"

"I worked for Gyre," Grandpapa apologized. "Everyone already knew nothing good comes out of Gyre."

Valey furrowed her brow. "And you couldn't have bucked that trend? Why do you want me to be a good role model, or avoid being a bad one, if you're a cheater yourself?"

"Because you're more charismatic than I am," Grandpapa replied, not missing a beat.

"Uh. Right..." Valey shifted her eyes.

"So where do things stand now?" Amber pressed. "If Valey stays in the tournament, are you going to keep harassing her and trying to get her out?"

"Oh, no." Grandpapa shook his head. "That would be a waste of time when she has already proven undaunted. There's nothing I can do to see her removed, and I wouldn't sabotage everyone else and what they're fighting for."

Valey huffed. "I feel so special."

"Well, you are something else," Grandpapa admitted. "Instead, I'd like to talk, and take a risk that you will act in good faith. You seem different from the Valey of Ironridge. May we find somewhere more private?"

Valey rolled her eyes. "Yeah, let's talk now instead of trying that before attacking me. Great idea. Better late than never..."

"Your sarcasm is noted," Grandpapa evenly replied. "But I don't believe you would trust words to work with someone of your Ironridge reputation either. Now, there should be plenty of space somewhere over here..."