//------------------------------//
// Tragedy, Five Years Ago 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

"So... here we are," Valey said, standing outside a door in a stone corridor that looked like it was designed to accommodate a lot of traffic. "This is the Laughter dudes' house dorm, unless nine million different signs and students are playing me for a fool. And we've got a standing invitation, and it's supposed to be quiet around the place..."

Felicity knocked.

The doors sparkled with an enchantment, swinging open of their own accord. It was a lounge, but not the snug teacher's lounge Valey had been to earlier: this one was vast, using low, barrel-vaulted ceilings to try to replicate the feel yet hold dozens of ponies at a time. One of the walls was dedicated to a giant trophy case, with twin hearths along the other and the far side holding several doors and staircases. The room wasn't packed, but it was hardly abandoned.

Four mares looked up from a table in a corner, littered and strewn with open books and notes. "Are you the travelers?" the closest one asked.

"Yep." Valey took a step forward. "Is that Nautilus guy around? He said something about how we should come here and hang out."

The mares all got up, stepping closer and looking over Valey and her friends. "...Wow," the first one eventually said. "I have to say, you look a lot more normal than I expected." She did a double-take. "Take it as a compliment!"

One of her friends nudged her with a grin. "So much for see-through wings and rainbow manes and leaving sparkles when they walk."

"You've probably heard this a lot," the third added, "but welcome to Kinmari! We did hear you were coming, yes, so please make yourselves at home! I'm Specklefruit, and these are Waterfall, Meadowglade and Lavender Curtain. Pleased to meet you."

Valey blinked at the group, aware she was being sized up and sizing them up in return. Meadowglade and Specklefruit, the second and third to speak, looked the most cheerful, but still far more under control than the students from the dining hall. Waterfall, she decided, was more relaxed than the first two but also the most likely to try to rope her into playing sports. And Lavender Curtain...

She was noticeably older than the other three, maybe Nautilus's age. She was the least-attractive of the bunch, and looked the least enthusiastic to see them. Valey gave her a look.

"Welcome," Lavender said, staying at the back.

Felicity quickly decided that no one else had anything burning to say, and stepped up to take charge. "Well I, for one, have felt more than welcomed already. If any of you have ever tried being stranded for a month with poor conditions, poor health and a lot of work to be done to survive, you can probably sympathize, but between you and me, I dearly hope you haven't. Well met regardless. I am Felicity, and here we have Maple, Starlight and Valey."

Nods were exchanged, and Meadowglade spoke up. "Alright. Study session is over. So what can we do for you? Show you around?"

"As tempting as a tour sounds," Felicity insisted, "I honestly wouldn't mind putting my hooves up and hearing about the place instead..."

Maple nodded, carrying herself carefully. "Could we? I'm recovering from broken ribs..."

Specklefruit glanced at Meadowglade. "There's a story behind that, I'll bet," she proclaimed, heading over to a couch by a hearth that Valey realized was just enchanted to glow, and wasn't giving off any heat whatsoever.

"The way you're looking at me," Waterfall said, not even glancing at Valey as Maple, Starlight, Felicity and the other two walked to the couches, "is like a tiger that meets another tiger and starts thinking to itself, who's the bigger tiger? Is she a threat? Is she an ally? Is she strong? Or does she just like the feel of her coat when she's slinking through the grass and hiding for no other reason than because she can?" She smiled up at her. "Am I on the right track?"

Valey stared. "Uhhh..."

Waterfall burst out laughing. "Well, now I know you're not a poet. But really, you were sizing me up. Trying to get some warning on whether I'm going to bother you about sports teams like probably literally half the ponies you've met here?"

Valey's jaw hung for a second longer. "Good guess," she replied, resuming her posture and closing her mouth. "Please don't do that, by the way."

"No worries." Waterfall waved and took the nearest seat. "I'm the same. Won't play for anyone, because everyone around here thinks the whole point of getting good. They don't understand how great it feels to be your best for no other reason than being the best you can be. You know?"

"Uhh..." Valey chuckled weakly. "Maybe, but that's still sports talk. Kicking some tail was fun earlier, but literally everyone is talking about it, you know..."

Waterfall blinked, then winced. "Oh. Sorry... Not how I wanted to come across." She took a breath. "But you're here and talking to me, so... what do you want to talk about?"

"...Bananas, I have no idea." Valey sat down too. "Thanks for listening and not being completely manic about meeting someone from up north, I guess?"

"It's been hard to know what to expect." Waterfall shrugged. "I wasn't here the last time we had a visitor from so far, and you've certainly seen how many legends there are about you. Sorry for the harassment, by the way. I... heard about what happened in the dining hall."

"Hey, don't apologize for that." Valey leaned back and waved a hoof, vaguely aware that Lavender was watching her. "I had to teach them a thing or two, but they'll be fine."

Waterfall stared at her, then laughed nervously. "You're touchy about anything involving athletics because it's been mentioned too much, but just brush off that mob and tell me not even to apologize? Sorry if I'm a little confused..."

Valey tongued her cheek. "Alright, let's put it this way: I've worked for really evil bosses or owed favors to shady mad scientists just a few too many times not to be sketched when someone talks about fighting for a cause. Sports teams? Smells to me like an allegiance that's gonna get you sucked into something nasty. Nothing against your school, just lingering adventurer issues. That make more sense?"

Waterfall whistled. "I get it. Sounds like quite the story." She hesitated. "Not to tread, but you've been in fights for real, then."

"Hey, you were sizing me up too," Valey replied. "You know I'm strong. And yeah, fighting for my life is what I do." At Waterfall's look, she waved a hoof. "Ask away. I just didn't wanna talk about literally nothing but helping your underdog house win. You don't strike me as a single-minded goon."

In her peripheral vision, Lavender's look turned disapproving.

Waterfall's lips grew tight. "Thanks, but even though I sympathize, I do it a little more politely. Like it or not, sports are a way of life at Kinmari, and something every last pony feels strongly about."

"Get up," Lavender sighed, voice stern. "And follow me."

Valey looked to Waterfall. Waterfall rose and beckoned. "Let's go."

They passed Maple and the others, who seemed to be finding much more success at their conversation than Valey was. Lavender stopped at the far left edge of the trophy case, which spanned an entire wall. "Look at this," she said, tapping it with a hoof. "What do you see?"

Valey squinted, willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. "It's a timeline," she remarked. "Bananas, this goes back nearly a hundred and thirty years."

"To the founding of the houses," Lavender said, her voice sounding like she was unable to swallow. "This collection has moved twice as we've changed buildings. It's that old. Look what happens as we go along."

Valey paced down the wall. It wasn't at all homogenized; there were spans of two decades or more when the colors would be predominantly silver or gold, mixed, or bronze or empty. She stopped to read some of the trophies, names of players etched in their bases, along with the house they had been won for and won against. After a point, photos of player teams started appearing as well, with jersey or swimsuit designs that updated every few years yet always looked slightly the same. The photos showed generation after generation of young ponies with soaked manes and sparkling eyes, and for a moment, Valey felt a stirring of secondhand pride from seeing so many creatures on the best day of their lives.

Eventually, she reached the end. It was dominated by bronze and nothing.

"What do you see?" Lavender asked.

Valey thought for a moment. It would be sacrilegious to try to sum this up, she could clearly tell. And while that was usually her modus operandi, it really didn't seem like the best way to get on this mare's good side...

Lavender sighed. "Look who all the recent trophies have been won against."

Valey looked. There were a scattering of bronzes for different events, each one listing the final opponent as Generosity. Six years back was a single silver won against Honesty, and she had to go back a whole twenty-three years before she found a gold.

"Yeah... alright. I'm guessing this is a sore spot," Valey admitted. "For the record, I hope you win, but please don't ask me to help."

Waterfall folded her ears at the gold trophy. "My father was on the team that won that," she admitted. "There's maybe a little bit of family tension because I don't play. Like I said, everyone has strong feelings about this, like it or not."

"There's been a whole generation of us fighting Generosity for the leftovers from the two champs, and being good sports about it and holding true to our ideals, even when all the good athletes know to join the winning houses." Lavender could have rolled her eyes, but her voice was perfectly serious. "And we keep trying. So before you have an irreverent I-don't-care party, please consider that we aren't the underdog house because we want to be and some of us want to change that. Thank you."

Valey winced as she turned her back and stepped a short distance away. "Okay... Look, can I just settle for cheering you guys on and being friends with everyone? I'm really not looking to make enemies on any side of the competition. Which is why I'd rather have nothing to do with this. Even though it's awesome that you have a goal that can bring your house together, and stuff."

"Look at five years ago," Lavender grunted, "and tell me what you think happened."

Valey had deliberately not paid much attention to that one. "Here we go..."

They were bronze trophies, just like all the others. One was for a track event, and one a swimming event. The only abnormality she could see was small, but once she spotted it, her eyes wouldn't let it go: the photo of the swim team had been carefully torn, as if one pony was very deliberately removed. The number of remaining ponies matched the number of names on the trophy.

"What happened here?" Valey asked, tapping the glass, deciding she was going to learn the horrific mystery surrounding the adventurer from five years ago whether she liked it or not.

"There was another traveler," Lavender sighed, her voice dry. "He was helping Loyalty. We stood a chance at beating them. And then he took our star player and eloped."

It was the hardest task of Valey's life, preventing herself from destroying her relationship with Laughter by bursting out laughing. When she realized the irony, she failed anyway.

"Thanks," Lavender said, trotting unhappily up a staircase.

"What happened, darling?" Felicity looked up from her couch, the others glancing over as well.

"Bananas... sorry... Don't ask..." Valey wiped her eyes, having a sinking feeling she had just made an enemy. She lowered her voice, glancing at Waterfall, who looked both concerned and amused. "So, uh... if your house was crazy upset by this, which I assume is the thing that happened back then, why convince all your newbies that we're good for hitting on?"

Waterfall shrugged. "It wasn't my plan. I just signed off because I didn't care. Some ponies thought if we expected it, it wouldn't be a surprise. Others thought if it happened again, we'd think of it as a good thing. Most of them were just tired of us holding a grudge and wanted to go far, far in the other direction."

"Well, at least it's not ghosts or an evil chancellor or something that will cause danger." Valey rubbed at her eyes. "Bananas, having problems like this is weird..."