The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Kinmari On The Rocks

Something about the way Valey carried herself drew stares.

It wasn't her wings, or her tufted ears and slitted eyes. Though rare, she had spotted other batponies among the students, and none of them seemed to receive special treatment. It might have been her hat; though she stopped to use the infirmary's showers, she hadn't been willing to surrender it for cleaning. Amber had kept it in good shape anyway, and she doubted some of these students had ever seen a military beret before.

"Looking good, sister!" a stallion was bold enough to call. Valey tipped her hat in return.

It wasn't the smell of the sea, either. Though it felt like her coat would be infused with salt forever, the island breeze held nothing but the same, and these students looked like they were better-accustomed to the water than she was. And as she came up on a field where two groups of ponies were batting a ball back and forth over a net, jumping around and showing off moves that were pointless and flashy for the sake of being pointless and flashy, she figured her general fitness couldn't be it either... though she giggled internally at the memory of the infirmary staff clearing her to go, boggled by how much better shape she was in than her friends. It had actually taken some effort to convince them she hadn't been keeping all the best food for herself. But now she was cleared to wander, and there was a whole day to make the most of.

She sat down beside the field with the players, watching and wondering if she would be noticed. After a stallion leapt high and spiked the ball with his chest, and the two mares that dove to save it crashed into each other, the ball rolled away and the ponies seemed to take it as time to break. "Hey, there!" the stallion who had last launched the ball greeted, wiping sweat from his brow and strolling over with a group of friends.

"Hey, yourself." Valey stood again.

The stallion nodded. "I see someone looking a little lost, a little confused... and not bothered in the slightest." He flashed a grin that had likely been put together by a professional, and offered a meaty hoof. "Name's Big Shot. Hoof wrestle me!"

Valey sized him up. He couldn't have been past his early twenties, but clearly worked out. "That's one way to say hello," she replied, offering a hoof of her own. "I'm down."

One of Big Shot's friends pulled over a crate that had been left by a roadside, offering it as a table. Big Shot nodded, locking hooves with Valey. "Three... two... one..."

His muscles tensed with impossible force, and Valey didn't fight it, throwing herself into a sharp flip using his momentum. She landed with her hind legs against the ground and didn't stop, locking the limb he had pinned her with and rolling backwards, lifting him into a mighty suplex. "Yaaaaa!"

Big Shot crashed to the ground a short ways behind her, his friends all jumping back in surprise as Valey landed and adjusted her hat. "You alright?" she asked, offering a hoof to help him up.

The stallion gaped at her, recovering quickly but not trying to get up. "You're insane," he said, eyes shining with unabashed respect. "I thought you were some visiting sailor! Sailors are tough, but I've never seen that before..."

"Who are you?" one of the mares who had crashed asked, head tilted so far sideways it was nearly vertical.

"Good question," Valey replied, pleased to have read the situation correctly. "I'm new around these parts, you've got that right. But let's say I feel like being mysterious for a while." She winked at the mare. "So what stuff is cool to do around here? I'm looking to enjoy a vacation."

Big Shot climbed to his hooves. "Not to toot my own horn, but if you can do that, the answer is probably 'me'. Let me reintroduce myself: Big Shot, captain of half the sports teams in the Loyalty house. You want to have fun with skills like that, you just made the right friends, friend."

He offered a hoof again, this time to bump, and Valey took it. "Loyalty house?"

"New, aren't you?" Big Shot chuckled, catching the ball as one of his friends threw it at him. "Kinmari students are divided into five houses, partly by interest and mostly so we can compete." He raised an eyebrow. "Not to guess ages, but you aren't a transfer student, are you?"

"Nah." Valey shrugged. "You're not asking me to help your team win or anything, are you?"

Big Shot instantly grinned a slightly-too-big grin and shook his head, a faint undercurrent of nervousness rippling through his friends. "An outsider, play for house Loyalty? Naw. We couldn't do that to the other houses, not with someone like you. These things get heated. We're all friends again afterward, but this is the time of year for friendlies. Just come play with everyone!"

"Please?" one of the mares who had dropped the ball at the end asked. "There's no score, but we could use a hoof."

Valey waved a hoof. "Aah, don't worry. I'm not feeling like being competitive or picking sides." She surveyed the group, hiding a prickle of curiosity as they all returned to their completely relaxed demeanors. "Anyway, why not? I'm game to kick a ball around."

---

Kicking the ball, it turned out, was extremely similar to Valey's old days of throwing melons at ponies she didn't like in the Earth District. It was hard to shake her old instincts of trying to hit someone with the ball when the point of the game was to miss them, but eventually she stopped trying, figuring both teams would have more fun if they weren't getting creamed.

"So," she said as she caught and threw the ball with her hind legs in one smooth backflip, not remotely winded. "What's up with these houses?"

The mare she was playing alongside lunged, catching the returning ball with the back of her head and heaving it over the net, breathing heavy and mane plastered with sweat. "How are you... fit enough to talk while...?" she panted, the opposite team faring better but still far worse than Valey.

Valey stuck out a hoof, hitting the ball straight up, then did a front flip and kicked it over the net with both hind hooves. "'Cuz you were playing for however many hours you were before I showed up. I'm fresh. Now don't give up, you got this!"

The ball went sailing over the mare's head, and she jumped a second too early, missing it with flailing hooves.

"Oh. Uhh..." Valey winced, the other team celebrating and exchanging hoofbumps.

"It's fine. I was done anyway." The mare flopped down in the shade of a tree, panting hard. "Good game, especially since we were down..."

"Heh. Sorry about that," a stallion apologized, sitting under the tree as well and nursing a hoof he had stepped wrongly on. "I figured you'd be alright without the advantage..."

Big Shot came strolling over with the other players in tow, throwing a wink to both resting ponies. "I think we'll call it there for the day. Showers? Lunch? You're welcome to join us."

"Who, me?" Valey looked up. "Bananas, lunch sounds excellent."

"Here, I'll show you the way," the stallion who had hurt his leg volunteered. "Unless you want to follow everyone else to the showers. But the dining hall is on the way to the Loyalty dorms, and I need to head back to my room and rest."

"You do that! We'll catch up!" Big Shot shouted, heading away with a wave.

Valey nodded, setting off after the limping stallion at a leisurely pace. She offered a shoulder. "You alright, there?"

"Oh, it's nothing I haven't dealt with before," he chuckled, happy to walk on his own. "The captain will be feeling it in the morning too, the way you suplexed him back there. But that's part and parcel of playing these games. It's what I signed up for."

"That's cool," Valey agreed, not entirely sure she felt the same but glad the ponies were enjoying themselves. "You all seem like cool enough dudes."

"That's house Loyalty for you," the stallion replied. "Always trying to be the best of the best. I'm Far Field, by the way. Second-best sprinter and long-distance runner in the house, and I'm only a second-year. You mentioned something about the houses?"

Valey shrugged. "Eh, just curious. Like I said, I'm not from around here. What all am I getting myself into?"

"Well, there are five of them," Far Field began. "Honesty, Generosity, Kindness, Laughter, and yours truly. The politics are difficult to explain, but outside of sporting events, we tend to get along pretty well. Silver Shell... she was the mare on our team, by the way... is from Generosity, as were two of the others."

"Complicated politics?" Valey grinned. "Between school houses and sporting events? Compared to the stuff I've seen, I'll believe that when I see it. Try me."

Far Field grinned, sighed and rolled his eyes. "Well, you asked for it... Generosity are our allies. We have an alliance that's stood for years with them. Honesty are our biggest rivals, but mostly because they have good players. We get along surprisingly well for rivals, but Generosity doesn't think much of them. It's part of why they're allied with us. Then there's Kindness. They don't have much of a presence on the field, but they do have the strongest cheerleading and band program. Things have been a little strained between us and them before, but this year's class has gone a long way toward patching it up, so you could call them our second-best friends. It's more of a new alliance than a longstanding bond of trust, though."

Valey nodded. "You're good guys, Generosity are good guys, you fight with Honesty but they're also good guys, and Kindness are good guys too. I dunno how to break this to you, buddy, but unless there's some monumental shenanigans going on with the last one, this is so tame it's kind of adorable."

Far Field winced. "That's... one way to smash all the nuance out of it and sum it up, yes."

Valey broadly grinned. "Hey, what a coincidence! I'm great at smashing things! Now where's the plot twist?"

"There is none," Far Field sighed. "We had an incident five years ago that majorly soured things between us and Laughter. I couldn't tell you all that much about it, but it's why Kindness was on rocky terms with us, and... Never mind. Why don't you just hang out with the other four houses for a while, though? Given your affiliations, there's no need to put stress on old wounds."

Valey's brow furrowed, and she filed this away as interesting. Did it have anything to do with whatever had spooked the players earlier? She wished she could remember that better... or maybe she didn't care. Honestly, whatever drama a college sports program could kick up would be nothing to live with next to the Empire's anti-sarosian sentiments and Ironridge's militia warfare.

"Ah, here we are," Far Field interrupted, indicating a broad double-door that was propped open on both sides. "The dining hall is right through that foyer. Feel free to wait for Big Shot, or follow your nose and mingle. I'll be off, myself. Hopefully we meet again during your stay!"

"See ya." Valey threw him a salute, then wandered inside and set about lounging against a wall. Her nose definitely did want to be followed, heavy aromas of food wafting from the next room in, but she amused herself with a small newspaper stand instead, having forgotten to bring money and not about to shadow sneak past the lunch money mare when she could just wait for a student to impress and get them to buy her legitimate passage. Hopefully that would come soon. As welcoming as Big Shot and his friends had been, there had to be more to this school than sports. Maybe someone who looked like an egghead...

"Valey!?" a familiar, drawn-out voice gasped.

"Buh?" Valey sat up, her eyes registering the yellow ribbon before the rest of the pony. It was Flow.

The unicorn immediately clutched her head, her eyes unfocusing in impending panic. "Urrrgh! Are you out here alone!? Please don't tell me Ebb was being a bad host, I promise he's just excited! I can fix this. You can fix this, Flow, haha, your guest is panicking-"

"Nope." Valey slapped a wing over her back, shocking her out of her reverie. "Beats me where he is, but I've been wandering around and exploring and having a blast. Hey, you wanna treat me to lunch?"

Flow sagged in incredible relief, and Valey let her go. "Sorry... I mean, sure! Lunch!" Within seconds, she had gone from a near meltdown to a confident, can-do grin. "I will show you the dining hall! After meee..."

Comments

[Phoenix Kitten]

Pony Emblem: Five Houses.

[radiation_pony]

been wondering for the last few chapters, what would happen if Valey and Nyla were to meet a pony with Valey's original cutie mark, it was placed on moon glass after all, idk something about the university has me thinking

[alamais]

Aw. It'll be really sad when this cute little school and all its bright young minds are obliterated by whatever doomy dooms of doom Starlight and co. bring down upon them all.

[Oberth Effect]

Who introduces themselves with a hoof wrestling challenge? And only Valey would respond to that with a suplex.

That reaction to the offer of help is definitely not ominous or anything.

"Who are you?" one of the mares who had crashed asked, head tilted so far sideways it was nearly vertical.

Aren't heads normally held vertically?

Not sure if the game is volleyball or takraw. Valey makes it seem like the latter, but that's probably because she's just showing off.

"Well, there are five of them," Far Field began. "Honesty, Generosity, Kindness, Laughter, and yours truly.

No Magic house?

"We had an incident five years ago that majorly soured things between us and Laughter. I couldn't tell you all that much about it, but it's why Kindness was on rocky terms with us, and...

Either this is going to be something pretty bad or something that Valey is going to laugh off as also tame in the grand scheme of things.

And how long do people stay in university here? If it's less than four years normally, do grudges tend to last across cohorts?

[ZanyZapper]

9938507
Re: the grudges - wouldn't surprise me for upperclassmen to install the rivalry into younger students as they come along. Kind of how the Hoofields and McColts kept their feud going so long they had forgotten what it was even about by the time Twilight and Fluttershy showed up. And if this was only five years ago, wouldn't be hard to keep it alive.

[Venlinelle]

It’s really nice to see Valey in such a low-stress environment. She might be very mature, but she does only technically have eight years of memories. It can’t hurt for her to spend time with ponies who care about things on a smaller scale.

[sploopy slooder]

these chapters just feel weird and completely out of touch with the rest of the novel. like cool worldbuilding i guess, but this stuff seems even more irrelevant that usual. Theres like 120 chapters left and im not really sure where the story can go from here. Is it just gonna be slice of life stuff until the inevitable breakdown of team starlight? or is this just a bit of fluff to give us time to emotionally prepare for another massive sucker punch like chrysalis?