When the gods of light and darkness departed from the world, leaving mankind to unworthily inherit the fruits of their labours, they did so in the name of choice. They had agreed that man, whom they agreed in what I can only describe as a kind of mutual insanity to be the pinnacle of their creation, should be free to choose. To forge his own path in the world unfettered by gods or fate, free to make of himself what he would…if he could survive the creatures of grimm, that is.

But, the perils posed by demons out of legend aside, mankind is free to choose. Of the four relics which the gods left behind them one of them even embodies the power of choice. How ironic, then, that you seem so eager to reject the power of choice that is your birthright. You cling to the so-called wisdom of ancient wizards, you look to virtuous maidens to lead and inspire you, you raise up kings and generals and enter into voluntary servitude beneath their banners. Do you do this because you are afraid? Do you wish to avoid taking the blame for the consequences of your own poor decisions? Do you simply want the heavy burden to pass from your shoulders and onto another? Are you, perhaps, so blinded by power that you feel you have no…no choice but to abase yourself before it.

In truth, what I find even stranger is that you do not only give away your choices but seek to deny that you ever had choices to begin with. Consider destiny, this grand notion that you have created: a being of great power overseeing the world, spinning out the threads of fate, determining the inexorable futures of kings and empires. Well, I do my best, but I’m afraid you give me too much credit. Although I make my plans and send my agents, I am not responsible for the majority of the failures that you experience; frankly, you cause your own travails well enough on your own through your folly, your hubris, and, yes, your belief that all was pre-ordained. There are no lessons to be learned from your mistakes for they were inevitable from the moment of creation. How much more you could be if you were willing to take off the blindfold and see the truth but no, you cling to the lie that is destiny like an old friend or a child’s comfort blanket. Some people run and run, chasing a destiny that is always just out of reach, turning their backs on everything they have and all who love them in pursuit of…what? A restless emptiness, a feeling they can’t explain, a refusal to admit that, in the end, life cannot measure up to their expectations.

This is not my choice, Sunset.

You rule here, everything that happens here is by your choice.

Sunset Shimmer stood just outside of Canterlot Combat School, looking at a mirror set into the base of the Wondercolt Statue.

No one knew that it was a mirror but her. Everyone else just looked at it and – when they bothered to look at the base at all, and not the noble stallion on top of it – they saw only a marble plinth, perhaps with some particularly reflective surfaces.

Sunset saw a way home. A way that, although dormant, might one day open up and carry her back to Equestria.

Back to a home that she had left behind.

A home that had nothing to offer her any more.

It was your choice to make me love you, but it was my choice to believe that you loved me in return.

A home which called to her nonetheless.

The night was cold, as most nights in Atlas were, and Sunset shivered at the chill carried by the breeze as it bit through her leather jacket. She flinched as it nipped at her face. She could go back. Not right now, but when the portal opened she could go back. She could wait, and watch, and when the time was right she could step right through and she would be in Equestria again.

Equestria where she wouldn’t have to watch where she sat down in a restaurant in case she’d strayed into the humans only section; Equestria where she wouldn’t ‘confess to being in the White Fang’ just by loitering in a public library; Equestria where it wasn’t an insult to be called pony but a name that she could wear with, if not pride, then equanimity.

Equestria where she would be equal…and, in being equal, then be nothing.

Sunset scowled. As if she was more than nothing in this place. It was no great life being a faunus in Atlas. In fact it was a pretty terrible life all things considered. She’d been arrested twice; she had more detentions and demerits than any other student in the school; kids who ought to have been old enough to know better pulled her tail on the street, and the one time she’d yelled at the for it a pair of fearless white knights had beaten her up (this was before she’d unlocked her aura). Sunset had come through the mirror chasing dreams of glory, but what she’d found was a world where she had to walk small and keep her head down if she wanted to stay alive.

I have a great destiny, and if you deny me I’ll just take it for myself!

Sunset cringed at the memory of her youthful arrogance. She hated it here. She hated this place, she hated these people, she hated that she had come through the mirror looking like this. She hated her stupid tail and her stupid pony ears, why couldn’t she have come through the mirror looking human? If she had, then she had no doubt that with her self-evident qualities of intellect and leadership she’d have been on top by now.

She hated the other faunus who just seemed to accept this as their lot in life.

Sunset reached out, and brushed her fingertips against the cold, smooth base of the statue. She could go home, if she wanted to. She could wait for the mirror to open up again and go back to Equestria where no one was discriminated against for what they were born as.

She could go back, and crawl to the base of Celestia’s throne and confess that she had failed – in her destiny, and at everything else – and could she please have a room and a place at school to finish her education? No. No, she would not do that. Even the thought of doing that made her shudder. She would not humiliate herself in that fashion. Her pride would not allow it. Her back would not bend so far, nor her knees descend so low as to permit it.

The humans of this world might mock her, insult her, arrest here, assault her, threaten her, degrade her on a daily basis but in so doing they only revealed their own smallness of character. They could do all those things and worse, but they could not take away her knowledge of her own worth, they could not strip her of her self-respect nor her awareness of what she was truly due. She had a destiny, a great and tremendous destiny; that knowledge had sustained her through her years at Canterlot and it sustained her now against the temptation to admit defeat and leave it all behind.

She had a destiny, and though it was not to be found in Atlas it still existed in this world. She just had to hold her nerve and remember that she was Sunset Shimmer, born and raised and groomed for greatness. Vale would be different. Beacon would be different. There, she would find what she was looking for.

“I will not go back,” she whispered to the mirror, and to the Wondercolt statue and the shattered moon above. “I won’t fail. My destiny is here. And I’m going to grab it with both hands.”

Then you’ll see how wrong you were.

I wish that that was not the answer that you gave me, and yet as you are Sunset Shimmer I suppose it was the only answer you could give.

Sunset picked up Sol Invictus from where she’d rested it against the statue base, and slung it over her shoulder. Across the other shoulder she slung her backpack.

With one last lingering look, at the door to home that she would be leaving behind a continent away from where she was going, Sunset turned away and began to walk towards the docks.

Destiny is a crutch, you see. A crutch that, since it cannot be seen, allows you to pretend if only for a moment that your feeble legs can sustain your weight. Even when it ought to be obvious that that is not so, you refuse to face the reality of your situation. You refuse to choose more wisely, or to take any kind of responsibility for your predicament. Instead, you put your faith in destiny and dreams. Arrogance. There is nothing extraordinary about your life and existence. There is no special providence guiding you on an elevated path towards power or wealth or glory. You are not marked out to be set higher than the others. To be a man is to be nothing more than a grain of sand amongst multitudes, and you are no different.

Jaune Arc crept through his house with only a torch to light his way, passing through the rooms and corridors like a burglar in his own home.

It might not stay his home for much longer, not once Dad found the note and realised that Crocea Mors was missing from its place on the mantelpiece.

He told himself that it wasn’t really stealing. It was a family blade, it didn’t belong to any specific member of the family but to all of them, and he was as much a member of the family as anyone else so he had a right to take the sword.

Yeah, that didn’t sound terribly convincing, even to him. But he needed a weapon and it wasn’t as though anyone else was using it, right? The sword had just been gathering dust since his great-grandfather’s time.

Jaune crept into the living room, where Crocea Mors waited right where it always was: on the mantle above the fireplace, sheathed and sitting upon an ornate cast iron stand.

His hand trembled just a little at the idea of – he could lie to everyone else, but it was harder to lie to himself – stealing it, but he didn’t have a choice. He couldn’t train to be a Huntsman at Beacon without some kind of weapon, and he didn’t have the money to buy one or the skill to make one so Crocea Mors it was. Sure, it was kind of old and a little out of date but a sword was a sword, right? It wasn’t as if it wouldn’t work any more.

He had to do this. He’d come too far to turn back now. He’d forged the transcripts and the exam results, he’d hidden his acceptance letter from Professor Ozpin, he’d kept his plans a secret from seven nosy sisters. He wouldn’t get another shot at this. If he didn’t go now he’d never go.

And he needed to go. If he didn’t get out of here then he was going to…this was his only dream, since he’d been six years old and had torn through every issue of My Huntsman Academia that he could get his hands on. To be the hero just like in the stories, to be the knight who saved everyone, that was what he’d always wanted to be. It didn’t matter that his mom didn’t want her baby boy to risk his life in some field somewhere; it didn’t matter that his sisters told him he was too soft to make it through a huntsman academy, let alone as a pro huntsman; it didn’t matter that his dad thought that the very idea of huntsmen was ridiculous, he knew what he wanted. This was his life, not his mom’s or his dad’s or any of his sisters and this was what he’d always wanted to be. He could do this, no matter what they thought.

After all, the guys in the comics made it look easy.

Gently, quietly, Jaune lifted Crocea Mors off the mantelpiece and strapped it to his belt. He might be stealing it but at least he was going to put it to good use.

He could do this. He would do this. This was his dream, this was what he’d always wanted to be.

This was his destiny.

He was descended from a hero. Sure, his dad was an accountant and his mom was a housewife and grandpa had collected taxes for the Vale Council but these things – heroic qualities inherited from your ancestors – often skipped a generation or two at a time, everybody knew that.

As he stole out of the house, Jaune vowed to himself that he was going to make his dreams come true and become one of the most famous huntsmen to ever live.

He had left a note explaining everything to his folks. He wasn’t sure what would be worse: that they came to drag him back home…or that they didn’t, because they just didn’t care enough to bother.

Some of you run from your destiny, telling yourself how much you hate it, how much you want to escape from it and its baleful influence upon your life, not realising that your very belief in destiny holds you captive. For you see, you cannot escape something that doesn’t exist, and so long as you can blame a conveniently external force for all your troubles and misfortunes you will never have to confront the fact that you have nothing to blame but your own weakness.

“Young mistress, everything has been packed for your journey.”

“Thank you.” Pyrrha murmured, although she could have done her own packing. In many ways she would rather have done so.

It would have meant that the final decision on what to take with her to Beacon rested with her and not her mother.

Still, that was not the maid’s fault, and so Pyrrha smiled at her and hoped that it reached her eyes as the other girl left. Her name, Pyrrha thought, was Iris, but she wasn’t sure. The staff here never seemed to stand still long enough for her to learn their names. She was aware that they had a job to do, and that that job wasn’t to befriend her, but it would have been nice if one or two of them could have seen her as something other than the ‘young mistress’.

She slid the door to her bedroom closed behind her, and sighed softly as she leaned across the wall. She was the young mistress to the servants; she was the Invincible Girl to the crowds who flocked to see her tournament fights; to her mother she was a sword, an instrument for the fulfilling of dreams from a generation ago. In a very real sense Pyrrha Nikos did not exist, not as a person. Nobody knew her. Nobody cared to know. They wanted their Invincible Girl; what the girl wanted was of no importance by comparison.

Pyrrha crossed the room, ignoring the suitcase neatly packed on top of her bed for a moment as she walked lightly and gracefully across the wooden floor to the trophy cabinet on the far wall. The major trophies, her regional tournament cups and the like, were not here: they were on display in the great hall where her mother could show them off to visitors and talk about what a prodigious talent her daughter was. But the lesser trophies, the ones from when she was younger, or simply from the less prestigious events, were up here. Her mother wanted them present to remind her of how far she’d come, and to not falter in her determination.

Too late for that, mother.

Pyrrha’s eyes passed over most of the trophies, lingering on a very small statuette near the bottom corner of the cabinet. It was a brass statuette of a ballerina, feet crossed, hands in the air; she had won it when she was five years old, and come third in a junior ballet competition. The next year her mother had told her that she was no longer doing ballet any more; Pyrrha wasn’t talented enough to make it worthwhile, better to devote all her efforts to combat training where she showed more aptitude. Third place, for a Nikos, was most definitely not good enough.

She had cried when that decision had been made, because she have loved ballet. She remembered loving it more than she had ever loved the fight.

She could, she thought, have been perfectly happy as a third rate dancer; and maybe, just maybe, Pyrrha Nikos wouldn’t have gotten lost amidst everything else if she had taken that path instead.

Of course, it was not to be. Fate had decreed it otherwise. Her destiny lay elsewhere.

And in any event, she couldn’t have saved anyone merely by being a passably good dancer.

Pyrrha closed her eyes and bowed her head in prayer that she might achieve the destiny that she had vowed for herself when two things had become inescapably clear to her: first, that she might be one of the greatest warriors of her generation, perhaps more; second, that she would never be allowed to be anything but a warrior.

That being the case, she would be the greatest warrior, and she would protect the world from all the terrors of the dark. That was the destiny to which she had dedicated herself with…she could not quite say that she had dedicated herself to it with all her heart, but at least with most of it.

That last, uncommitted part of her heart still hoped for more.

Pyrrha heard the door slide open behind her.

“Are you ready?”

“Almost,” Pyrrha said. “Thank you for having my things packed for me, mother, it was very helpful.”

“I still question the need for this. Professor Lionheart is a fine headmaster, and Mistral Academy is as old and prestigious as Beacon. Frankly, I question what you will gain from this move across the world.”

I’m hoping that my reputation won’t follow me halfway across the world. “With respect, mother, the fact that you don’t understand my reasons does not invalidate them.”

“Look at me, child.”

Pyrrha turned around to face her mother, who stood in the doorway as if it was her intent to block the way in or out.

“You think that I don’t see through you?” Mother demanded. “All that I have done I have done for your own good.”

“I’m not ungrateful.”

“You don’t show much gratitude,” Mother said. “I will be monitoring your grades; if you don’t keep up the performance of which I know that you’re capable I will bring you straight back here.”

“Straight As, I suppose.”

“Do you expect me to settle for anything less?”

They’re not your grades. “No, mother.”

Her mother shook her head disdainfully. “What do you hope to achieve by this? What do you think is waiting for you there?”

“I just want…” Pyrrha hesitated for a moment. “I want four years with friends, four years of fun and laughter and being a normal person-“

“You are not normal,” Mother snapped. “You are the Invincible Girl, a prodigy! Friendship, fun, laughter? Pah! These things are meant for mere mortals, not for you. The brightest stars burn all alone, for their light eclipses all around them; and I will not have you dim your light for the sake of others, for the sake of friends. To burn brightly, for however brief a moment, that is where glory lies.”

“For it is in passing that we achieve immortality,” Pyrrha murmured.

“Indeed,” Mother said. “Pyrrha Nikos may be forgotten, but the Invincible Girl will live forever in the hearts of men.”

But I don’t want to be the Invincible Girl. I want to be Pyrrha.

But that was a battle the Invincible Girl had lost a long time ago.

And then there are the simpler ones, the smaller and more honest souls, those whom you trust to light the way for all the rest to follow. True, they are less burdened by self-hatred than some, less plagued by doubt, less gnawed upon by the emptiness within themselves that no amount of accomplishment can assuaged. But in the end they are no less lost, no less alone, no less touched by melancholy. And, as you have spun so many lies before their eyes that they are quite blinded by them, they are no less incapable of seeing the truth about the world around them, or of making any choice to affect that world…for good.

The rose is no less touched by frost than any other flower in this garden of yours.

Ruby stood before her mother’s gravestone.

It was not where Summer Rose was buried; nobody knew where that was or if there was even…Ruby didn’t finish that unpleasant thought. She focussed on the marker, the white stone with the rose engraved upon it.

“Hey, Mom,” Ruby whispered to the wintry air. It was snowing all around her, and she had the hood of her red cloak pulled up to keep it off her face and out of her hair. If anyone had been watching they wouldn’t have been able to see her face at all.

Ruby hesitated for a moment, clutching her combat skirt with her hands. “I…I just wanted to tell you that I won’t be around much any more. Well, not for a while I mean. You see…I kinda went to Vale to look for Yang, and on the way I stopped in this dust shop, and then I got distracted reading this gun magazine, and this guy named Roman Torchwick tried to rob the place and I was hwah! Hiyah! Kah! And then Torchwick was all ‘End of the line, Red’ and then Glinda Goodwitch showed up to save my life and then Professor Ozpin offered to let me into Beacon two years early!” Ruby balled her hands up into fists beneath her chin. “Yang and I are going to be first years together that’s so cool! It’s so awesome and I can’t wait…but it means I’m not going to be around so much for a while. I’ll still come home on break and I’ll visit you I promise, I just…”

Ruby trailed off. Her memories of Summer Rose were few and vague. Mom had died when she was just a toddler. Yang remembered more, and had told her that Mom had been a supermom ‘baking cookies and killing monsters’, even though Yang wouldn’t call her mom any more. But for herself, leaving aside Yang’s stories, Ruby couldn’t remember much more than fragments and echoes: a gentle voice, a pair of arms holding her, a flash of silver.

“I don’t know if you’d be proud of me or not,” she said, as her hands fell down to her sides. “I don’t know if you’d want this for me, or for Yang. But it’s what I want, Mom. I want to help people, I want to keep them safe, I want to make the world better for everyone!

“And I want to find out what happened to you. What really happened, the things that Yang won’t tell me, the things that even Uncle Qrow won’t tell me. I don’t know what I’ll find, or even what I’m looking for, but I know that it started at Beacon. So it starts there for me too.”

Ruby smiled down at the only memorial to her mother. “But don’t worry, I’ll be careful, I promise. And Yang will be there too, so we can look out for one another. Next time I’m here I’ll be on my way to becoming a fully fledged huntress, saving people with a fearless smile!

“I love you, Mom.”

Ruby turned away and began to walk home. Rose petals trailed behind her, mingling with the falling snow.

So these are your guardians: lost and lonely creatures broken by their own poor choices which, too proud to admit to their mistakes, they ascribe instead to the malevolence of destiny. Neither of us are strangers to such as they, we both of us have made use of the lost and the lonely in the past. Pathetic as they are they make excellent pawns; and, if their eyes can be opened up to the truth about the world in which they live, then it is always possible that they can become so much more.

Which is where we differ, you and I. You use such poor creatures as they as your instruments, and yet because you seek to keep them in the confinement in which they languish those that do not perish in your war inevitably betray and abandon you. Either they seek to quit the struggle altogether and eke out their days in a state of miserable existence, or else they come to me, and in my warm embrace they find the home and purpose that you could never give.

You may call me wicked. You may even call me evil. You may say that I’m a monster, but at least I am an honest monster. Is it any less monstrous to manipulate all those around you, to twist their minds and fill them with lies, to use and abuse and cast them aside when they are of no more use to you? At least I offer even my worst enemies an honest choice: join me, or die.

We have both known the likes of these before, but the difference between us is that I can offer them respite from all their struggles. Love, home, power, respect, companionship, answers, I can offer all these things, and what can you offer them but the illusion of a free will that you have never respected, and lies about destiny that will only bring them tears.

So you may train your guardians, you may move your pawns upon the board, you may even seek to make a Maiden to raise up against me; you may put your hopes in a lost girl far from home, in a boy with a head full of dreams, in a princess who thinks herself chosen by fate, even in a simple soul.

But in the end they all shall fall, to darkness…and to me.

Sunset Shimmer stood in a corner of the great hall and watched her competition as they filed in.

Or she tried to, anyway. She had chosen a good vantage point in the back, equally far from the doors and the front, so that she could observe everybody without herself being observed. But this hall was so dimly lit, illuminated only by green lines around certain sections of the floor and wall, that most of the other aspiring hunters and huntresses walking in seemed more like shadows than people to her eyes. Seriously, couldn’t they turn up the lights a little? She couldn’t see a thing, just vague silhouettes in the half-light, and the occasional flash of bright colour: red, yellow, white, shining bronze.

And then he walked in. She recognised him, even in the dark. She’d recognise that blue hair anywhere, combined with that stupid clueless grin and the walk of someone who thought he was much cooler than he actually was. Sunset’s breath caught in her throat as he started to come towards her. She both did and didn’t want him to spot her. Did she really want to do this now? But wasn’t it better to get it over with rather than spend four years looking over her shoulder for the other shoe to drop? Anger and apprehension warred within her like dragons of fire and ice, lighting her stomach up with righteous wrath and freezing it with fear in cycles of ebb and flow.

He didn’t recognise. Or perhaps he was just as blind as everyone else in this dimly lit hall and he couldn’t see her properly. Whatever, he turned his back on her.

“You.” the word leapt from between Sunset’s lips before she could stop it; the affront – unintentional or not – of him showing her his back was too much to stand for. By Celestia, there was no way she was going to let him go his way in blissful ignorance while she had to feel awkward about this! If she was going to feel awkward then so we he!

Flash Sentry turned around, his initial look of puzzlement transforming into one of shock which Sunset could appreciate more. “Sunset, uh, hi,” he said in a tone that sounded less ‘cool’ and more ‘desperately trying to play it cool’; the way he was scratching the back of his head didn’t help in that regard. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

Sunset folded her arms. “Yeah? I bet you weren’t.”

Flash scowled. “For your information, Sunset, not everyone is obsessed with what you do or don’t do.”

“What did you think I was going to go to Atlas?” Sunset demanded. “Why didn’t you go to Atlas? You could join the military and spend your days announcing VIPs at state occasions.”

Flash’s expression was as flat as an anvil. “I’m training to become a huntsman because I want to help people, not be a glorified doorman.”

Sunset snorted. “Whatever.” She looked away, casting her green eyes downwards towards the dark floor. “Just stay out of my way, okay? I’m not going to let anyone screw this up for me.” My destiny is here. My entire life has been building to this place, this moment. If I can’t make it here…then it was all a lie and Celestia was right and I was nothing more than a fool believing in fairy tales I should have outgrown a long time ago.

I won’t let that happen. I won’t let that be my fate.

I will succeed. I will shine. And I won’t let my jackass ex-boyfriend get in my way.

Flash’s tone simulated tenderness, as if he wanted her to believe that he cared or something. “Sunset…do we have to do this?”

“Do what?”

“Fight like this? Can’t we start over?”

Sunset’s eyebrows rose as she waited for the punchline. There wasn’t one. He was serious, or he wanted her to think that he was serious. She scoffed. “Really? Are you…really?”

“It’s going to be pretty awkward otherwise, don’t you think?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, am I making you uncomfortable?” Sunset demanded. “You dumped me because your friends told you that dating a faunus was bad for your image, you ass, and now you want to start over!” She was halfway to shouting now, and a few people were starting to stare at them. Sunset didn’t care. Let them stare, she had nothing to be ashamed of.

Flash, on the other hand, did look embarrassed; as well he might since he had plenty to be ashamed of. “Sunset, please, don’t do this. You know that’s now how it went down.”

Sunset was full of righteous indignation. She had so much that she wanted to say that the words were clogging up her throat and getting stuck there in their jostling to escape. Should she tell him that he’d been the one person in that school that she thought that she could trust, the one person who’d stand up for her against the bullies and the bigots? Should she tell him that she had allowed herself to believe, for the second time in her life, that someone was unequivocally on her side and had for the second time been disappointed and betrayed? Should she tell him that when he told her that he didn’t see her ears or tail or membership of the faunus race she’d trusted his word? Should she just tell him that when he dumped her like garbage she’d lost what little shreds of status she’d possessed and become garbage in the eyes of the rest of the student body?

So many things that she burned to say, and she didn’t even care if she said them where the whole of Beacon could hear her…but then the fire within her burned itself out and she was left with nothing but ashes and exhaustion. What did it matter? He wasn’t going to change, and did she really want to get a reputation as an angry faunus on her first day at Beacon? She’d already caught people staring at her, or even giving her side-eye, on the airship ride over here. She didn’t care what they thought, except inasmuch as it might inhibit her progress towards the success she deserved.

Sunset let out a deep sigh. “Thank you, Flash.”

“Huh?”

“For reminding me why trusting other people is a bad idea,” Sunset whispered.

Flash stared at her for a moment, his face a tempest of warring emotions battling for mastery of his expression. “I didn’t break up with you because you were a faunus, Sunset,” he said. “I…never mind. It’s probably best if we stay out of each other’s way.”

“Don’t say that,” Sunset muttered.

Flash paused in the act of turning away. A frown creased his brow. “Why not?”

“Because now that you’ve said it irony will dictate that we’re bound to end up on the same team together.”

Flash’s eyes widened with horror, before a chuckle escaped him.

Sunset sniggered too, and for a moment she remembered why she’d kinda liked hanging out with him, why she’d even let her guard down enough to start to care about him in the first place: the way he’d laugh at her jokes, the way he’d take her cruising in his car, the way he’d let her sit on the roof of said car while he went into stores that wouldn’t serve faunus and bought the things they wouldn’t sell to her.

But that was all gone now. He’d destroyed it.

Which was why she straightened her back and pointedly looked away from him, even if her eyes kept flickering back to see if he was still there.

He didn’t say another word as he turned away from her and walked into the dark of the hall, probably in search of a cute, quirky girl to talk to somewhere else.

Sunset tried to resume her reconnaissance of her fellow students – who were the ones to watch out for, who were the ones who could be dismissed as non-entities – but she’d missed a lot of people coming in while she’d been distracted with Flash, and it was still dark in here.

Rumour said that there were two students she had to be especially wary of: a peerless warrior who had never lost a battle, and a genius prodigy who had been admitted two years early on the strength of her incredible skills. Either was a worry to Sunset, but to face both of them at once had her cursing her bad luck. She would have to work twice as hard, at least, to shine in competition with the likes of them.

But if there was one thing that being Celestia’s student had taught her – besides not to trust those who claimed to have your best interests at heart but really just wanted to hold you back – it was how to work hard; and if there was one thing that being a faunus in Atlas had taught her – besides hammering home the lesson not to trust – it was the necessity of working twice as hard for half as much credit. She could and she would do this, and she would do it splendidly no matter how many peerless prodigies tried to get in her way.

Sunset cast her eyes over the crowd – those whose distinguishing features she could make out anyway – and tried to spot either of these two paragons in the mass of students. Doubtless they were both cool and aloof, as befit their elite status, standing apart from the chattering children around them; but she couldn’t make out anybody like that at first glance.

But they have to be here somewhere, unless the rumour mill was completely mistaken.

The lights rose, and the whine of a microphone attracted the attention of all present. Professor Ozpin stood on the stage, with Professor Goodwitch standing just behind and to his side. He cleared his throat.

Sunset peeled herself off the wall and straightened up. She had only met Professor Ozpin once, during the interviews as part of the entrance exams. She wasn’t sure what to make of him yet. He had a great reputation, to be sure, the youngest man to ever be appointed a headmaster in the history of the four Huntsman Academies, and before that his achievements in the field…but there was something about him. When he looked into her eyes Sunset felt as though he was staring into her soul. Just the memory of it made her shiver.

His speech didn’t do much to reassure her. It wasn’t that it was a bad speech, per se; in fact when you boiled it down to the spirit of what he was saying it wasn’t that much different from the kind of speeches that Princess Celestia gave every year to the new students at her School for Gifted Unicorns: school can only help you find your path, you have to do the hard work yourself, take your future into your own hands and all the other lies that she had fed to Sunset and who knew how many other unicorns to make them docile instruments. But it was the way Ozpin said it that was…off, somehow. She’d never known Celestia start off one of her speeches by insulting the student body.

Wasted energy? You talked to each and every one of us before you let us in here, if you thought we were useless why did you extend offers?

Is this supposed to motivate us to surpass your expectations?

If it is…it’s kind of working on me. Few things, Sunset had discovered, motivated her more than being counted out.

Ozpin didn’t stick around long after his remarkably unwelcoming welcome speech, and it was left to Professor Goodwitch to direct them all towards the ballroom – how many parties did this school have that it needed a purpose-built ballroom? – before their initiation on the morrow.

Sunset trailed at the back of the ground on their way to the ballroom, continuing to observe without putting herself in a position to be observed in turn. She chose a rear-corner spot in the spacious ballroom, and watched as most of the students got changed for bed. It was interesting; when she'd first come to this world she'd been surprised by the cultural taboos surrounding nakedness, as well as the way in which viewing someone - especially someone of the opposite sex - in any kind of state of undress was practically forbidden except in cases of great intimacy. And yet here they were, stripping down without a care in the world: half-naked boys wrestled playfully, and the two sexes ogled each other without a trace of shame. It almost reminded her of home, where only the most stuck-up bothered to dress in any but the most formal of settings.

Sunset turned her mind away from these fascinating anthropological observations and continued to try and spy out the competition. There was a subdued, dark-haired girl with a black bow in her hair who was certainly acting aloof from everyone around her, Sunset watched as she stonewalled all attempts at interaction with other people in favour of the book she was reading. Could she be the young prodigy? Sunset wasn't good at judging people's ages, but the way she was dressed might be an attempt to make herself look older.

And then there was the boy closer to her, with a pink streak in his otherwise black hair, who was being harassed by a motormouth in white and pink but who was bearing it with a stoicism that would have done credit to the royal guard. Could he be the undefeated warrior of whom the rumour mill whispered?

Sunset furrowed her brow a little. The truth was it was impossible to say on the basis of interactions in this setting. At the moment all she had was speculation, and speculation was - as she had been taught - the enemy of fact-based scholarship. It wasn't enough to think or believe things to be true unless she could prove it.

Except why am I here, if not chasing a belief that has no basis in proof or fact?

Sunset scowled at the mental reproof. She had proof. Her power was the proof, all the proof that she required. Her actions would soon be all the proof the world required.

And the actions of those around her would be the proof of what they were. It was pointless to guess with whom she needed to be concerned, better to keep her eyes open and mark those whose behaviour ought to concern her.

Sunset laid down, rolled over, closed her eyes and tried to ignore the chattering of the red-head not far away.

"WAKE UP, LAZY BUD!"

Sunset's eyes snapped open and she started to sit up before she realised that the command was not directed at her. Rather, the redhead was at it again with regards to her stoic companion with the streak of pink hair. Nevertheless, as the aforementioned redhead started singing about how it was morning (yes, we know, give it a rest already) Sunset got up because if it was time to roll over then it was time to roll out and do something productive with your time.

Besides, she wasn't wholly ungrateful to the other girl. She'd woken her from dreams about Celestia that Sunset didn't particularly want to have.

Sunset showered, dressed, and ate in silence and in solitude, head bowed so as not to attract attention but not bent so low that she couldn't see everything going on around her. A couple of people glanced at her, and a big guy with some kind of bird embossed upon his cuirass loudly wondered why they allowed animals to attend Beacon. So much for the progressive and enlightened Kingdom of Vale, but as long as the teachers themselves weren't down on her it would be nothing she couldn't handle.

Even if the teachers were down on her it would be nothing she couldn't handle after Canterlot.

After breakfast it was time to head to the lockers, where Sunset wouldn't say that she lurked so much as she would say that she happened to be standing in a relatively secluded part of the locker room where she took her time chambering rounds - after some debate she'd decided on the solid steel armour-piercing rounds, as they were cheaper than dust rounds and more useful against armoured targets - into Sol Invictus, and as she slowly slid her six shots into the cylinder she just so happened to be in a good position to listen to what was going on around her.

Most of what she heard was inconsequential nonsense. She learned that the chatty redhead - who went by Nora - really wanted to go out with the stoic boy - name of Ren - but didn't have the guts to admit it straight up and he was either too clueless or too disinterested to pick up on the hints that she was giving off. She learned that someone named Yang didn't want to be on a team with her sister, who drank milk and didn't like other people very much; Sunset knew the feeling well. About the only useful thing she learned was the name of the undefeated fighter who had joined the freshman class: Pyrrha Nikos, a girl of few words who seemed content to let others do the talking as they fawned all over her. Sunset fought to control her feelings of resentment, revelation of which would do her no good at this early stage. Later, when she had taken from Pyrrha all the things that rightfully belonged to Sunset - fame, glory, the acclaim of peers and strangers alike, fawning adulation, a reputation that echoed far and wide, her face on a box of obesity-inducing breakfast cereal - then would be the time to revel in her triumph and reveal just what had driven Sunset on. But not yet. For now, all that she could do was smoulder in silence as Pyrrha revelled in the attentions paid to her by her admirers.

One day, Sunset vowed. One day it will be my turn.

She waited until the locker room was clear before leaving, trailing after the other students as they made their to a cliff edge on the boundary of the school grounds. Said cliffs looked over a vast and wild expanse of woodland appropriately named the Emerald Forest.

Professor Ozpin, with Professor Goodwitch once more at his side, explained the test: they were going to be launched through the air into a monster infested forest where they had to find 'relics' and get back in one piece.

Am I the only one who wonders, if we survive this, what the point of spending four years at this academy is? Sunset thought.

There was also the question of teammates: whomever they locked eyes with in the forest first would be their partner for the next four years. The utter randomness of the process was frustrating, but at the same time it spared Sunset having to actually make up her mind about what kind of partner she wanted. Her thoughts oscillated back and forth between desiring a weak-willed sap whom she could dominate with her strength of will and bend to her own purposes, or else someone who be an asset in her progression through the school. She didn't want to have her grades dragged down by being shackled to a dolt.

I've come here to find my destiny; I suppose that means I should be willing to leave a few things in the hands of fate.

And then the pad beneath her feet exploded and Sunset was flung upwards and through the air.

The world spun around her. Her ears were filled with the whistling of the wind and the screaming of at least one other person in a similar position to herself. Sunset's hair flew all around her and she had to grab the sling of Sol Invictus and hold on tight to keep from losing her weapon on only her second day.

Sunset would have been lying if she'd said that she enjoyed the sensation, what with her face being squashed by the air pressure and all, but she was not afraid. This was the first test, after all, and she was not about to disappoint.

You want a landing strategy, professor? I'll show you a landing strategy.

Sunset forced her eyes open, kept them fixed on the ground that was rushing towards her, and reached for magic.

The magic of Remnant was not as omnipresent as it was in Equestria; the air did not hum with it, the land did not bask in it, the trees did not drink deep of it but it was here and it was within her and she could draw it out. She was not so strong as she had been in Equestria but - and to Tartarus with false modesty - considering that she'd had more raw power and magical potential than any unicorn since Starswirl's day that drop didn't handicap her as much as it could have done.

For instance, she could still teleport just fine.

And in a flash of bright green light, that's exactly what she did.

Sunset experienced a momentary sensation of being squeezed through the eye of a needle, her whole body compressing in on itself in some eldritch dark dimension, before she emerged in a second flash of light with her feet on the floor of the Emerald Forest.

Sunset's breath came fast and deep, her chest rising and falling like the undulations of a hilly country. Some acts of magic cost more than others, and even in Equestria teleportation was one of the most demanding. It wasn't something she could keep doing thoughtlessly.

Nevertheless, if the world had been just to someone with bestial features Sunset would have been feted and admired for having a semblance as versatile as her command of magic (it wasn't actually her semblance, in fact Sunset hadn't unlocked her semblance yet, but magic in this seemed to be something nobody was quite aware of so Sunset had found it easiest to couch her abilities in terms the locals could understand). But the world was not fair, and so some girl who could run fast had been the darling of the school while she languished in contempt. Not that she was bitter about it or anything, but if she came across that speedster again...

Sunset was pulled out of her thoughts by the sounds of running feet approaching her at great speed.

She looked. She could see nothing but the bushes and trees of the forest that surrounded her, but those feet were definitely getting closer.

The tread is too light to be an ursa, but a beowolf? Maybe a boarbatusk?

Sunset unslung Sol Invictus from over her shoulder, and raised it. She pressed the stock firmly against her shoulder, and aimed down the sights.

Those pitter-pattering feet were getting closer and closer.

Sunset's finger went to cold metallic trigger.

A girl in a red hood burst out of the bushes and, with a startled squeak as she realised she was literally staring down the barrel of a gun, skidded to a halt.

Sunset's expression as stony and inscrutable as she lowered the barrel.

The girl in the hood stared at her for a second, before she held out her hand, offering it to Sunset along with the nervous smile on her face. "Uh, hi there, partner?"

Sunset studied the small girl in front of her. She was dressed in black, trimmed with a red like blood, the exact same shed of her cape. A slightly darker red streaked through her otherwise black hair, concentrated at the tips.

She had silver eyes. They gleamed in an otherwise unremarkable face. Sunset had never seen anything quite like them in this world or, for that matter, in Equestria either.

I wonder what’s up with that?

It was probably just some kind of genetic mutation, the kind of thing that Sunset had been passing off her unusual possession of two animal traits as the result of for years. Some people were just born weird.

So, this is my partner.

She didn’t look particularly impressive. And it wasn’t just her small stature either, or that wannabe-hero cape. The goofy grin on her face as she held out her hand towards Sunset had a lot to do with it as well.

Sunset considered just flat-out denying that she’d seen the other girl. But if said girl decided to push the issue it would only make things very awkward with trying to find another, better partner. And besides, well…she wasn’t completely devoid of self-awareness; she had just enough of it to know that that was kind of crap that a lot of people would pull on a faunus in order to avoid being partnered with one.

I suppose I should be grateful that she doesn’t seem to care that I’m a faunus. Or that I look like one.

“Yeah,” Sunset said. “I guess we’re partners now. For the next four years, so you’d better not slow me down.” She didn’t take the offered hand.

The girl in the red hood laughed nervously as she withdrew her hand. “Well, I guess, I, uh…” her eyes widened before she completely disappeared in a shower of rose petals.

Sunset blinked. Is that-

“Nope, definitely will not slow you down!” the girl declared eagerly as she reappeared in another shower of rose petals that began to descend on Sunset’s shoulders and get stuck in her hair. The girl grinned eagerly. “Get it, see, cause I’m…really…fast?” The grin slid off her face like rain running down a window. “Okay, I don’t really know how to deal with people but I OH MY GOSH!”

Sunset took a step away from the sudden look of manic eagerness on the other girl’s face. “What?”

“Is that a revolving rifle?”

Sunset’s eyes narrowed. She shifted her grip on Sol Invictus a little. “Yes,” she said, drawing out the word just a little more than it warranted.

“That is so cool! You almost never see that any more! Six shots in the cylinder or five?

“Six.”

“Double action or single?”

“Double, of course.”

The other girl closed the distance between the two of them so quickly that she might as well be a teleporter herself; she ran her small, pale hands over the walnut stock. “Why did you use wood for the stock?”

“Because I wanted something heavy enough to brain a grimm with if I needed to,” Sunset replied. “Plus…I kinda like the classic look.” Her thumb ran over the image of her cutie-mark that she had carved into the wood before varnishing it

“Oh. Yeah, totally, not enough people appreciate the classics,” the other girl said with a nervous laugh, as though she were suddenly afraid that she’d caused offence. Then she spotted the compressed air canister mounted just in front of the trigger guard. “Hey, what does this do?”

Sunset yanked the gun away before she could set it off. “That causes the bayonet to extend outwards an additional four feet so that-“

“So you can use it as a spear! Obviously!” the other girl squealed. “And that means there’s gas in the canister, right?”

“Compressed air.”

“And I guess that there’s some kind of locking mechanism in place to prevent it being pushed back in when it hits something.”

“Of course.”

“That is so cool! What’s her name? Did you make it yourself? How long have you had her?”

It took Sunset a moment to work out that the other girl was talking about her weapon as a she. “It’s name is Sol Invictus, and I’ve had it for a couple of years now. I…had the parts made to my specifications then I assembled them personally.”

“Aww,” the other girl sighed in disappointment. “I kind of feel as though you ought to craft all the parts yourself, you know?” She produced something from behind her back, something red and rectangular that, with much hissing of hydraulics and snapping of mechanisms, unfolded into a crimson-and-black scythe that was bigger than its owner – a little bigger than Sunset, probably – and, judging by the trigger mechanism, magazine and sights, also included a gun.

“Meet my Crescent Rose,” the other girl declared proudly. “A high-impact sniper rifle with a twelve round magazine…and it’s also a scythe, obviously.”

Sunset’s eyebrows scaled her head. “You…you machined all the parts for that yourself?”

“Yup. All students at Signal forge their own weapons.”

“Signal should throw in the towel for combat training and focus on producing engineers,” Sunset muttered.

“Well, they’re not all…I did kind of…I’m kind of a dork when it comes to weapons.” She held out her hand once more. “I’m Ruby, Ruby Rose.”

Sunset still didn’t take the hand, but she did say, “Sunset Shimmer.” She slung Sol Invictus over her shoulder and turned away. “We should find these ruins quickly. There’s no sense in dawdling around out in these woods.”

“Right,” Ruby said. “Find the ruins, get the relic, and get out.”

“Exactly,” Sunset said as she started to push through the bushes. “I hope you know how to use that overgrown monster you designed.”

Ruby appeared at Sunset’s side, and tried to put arm around her shoulder. It was a little difficult because of the difference in their respective heights. “Do I know how to use my Crescent Rose? Trust me, Sunset, by the time we’re done you’re going to say to yourself ‘That Ruby girl is pretty cool, and I want to be her friend.’”

Sunset shrugged off Ruby’s hand. “I’m not here to make friends.”

“Well, no, we’re here to learn how to fight monsters and protect humanity,” Ruby cried as Sunset started walking again. “But there’s no rule saying that we can’t be friends, right? I mean we are teammates. We’re going to be spending a lot of time together over the next four years.”

“Lots of people spend lots of time together but it doesn’t make them friends,” Sunset said as she continued to walk through the undergrowth. “Why don’t we keep our relationship professional? You can hang out with your other friends.”

Ruby mumbled something indistinct.

Sunset looked back over her shoulder. “What was that?”

Ruby looked down at her feet. She was playing with her hands. “I don’t…have any other friends. Not here, anyway.”

“You’re not missing out, trust me,” Sunset said. It was clear from the look on Ruby’s face that she didn’t find that response particularly helpful, so Sunset continued, “What, were you the only student from Signal to get in here?”

“They’re all still at Signal.”

Sunset frowned. “They’re…wait. Wait just a minute. Are you…you’re the prodigy who got admitted to Beacon two years early?”

Ruby seemed to shrink into herself a little. “You…you heard about that. Great.”

“Gotta be honest, you’re not what I was expecting.”

“Uh, thanks?”

“Don’t thank me, that wasn’t a compliment,” Sunset said as she turned away. Great. Just great. I know that part of me wanted a partner with talent to help me succeed but this is ridiculous! I’m going to be stuck with the child prodigy for the next four years! How am I supposed to get out from under that?

She could see now exactly how it was going to go. Nothing that she could do would matter because everyone would be too busy cooing over Ruby Rose and how young she is and isn’t a marvel to be such a talent at her age. Sunset would never escape, never have the opportunity to escape, that kind of shadow.

Breathe. Deep breaths. Twice as hard for half as much reward just means you have to work four times as hard. No, make that eight times. Sunset glanced back at Ruby, who smiled and waved. She doesn’t look like a prodigy. She didn’t honestly look as though she had much of anything about her at all. But she would have no reason to lie about something like that. She didn’t look especially proud. That part in particular was a complete mystery to Sunset. If she had been admitted to Beacon two years early on the strength of her awesome skills she would have made sure that the whole school knew it.

She’d done exactly that when she was admitted to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns early on the strength of her magical prowess. She’d worn her youth like a badge of honour, and told herself that all those who sniggered at her small stature were merely jealous of her power and potential.

Sunset continued to push through the bushes until her attention was drawn by the noise of something struggling and groaning up in one of the trees in front of her.

It turned out not to be a grimm but a boy with a mop of untidy blond hair. Someone had used a spear to pin him to the tree by his hoodie and he was, in spite of his best efforts, unable to extricate himself from the predicament.

Once he noticed Sunset down below, he offered her a stupid grin and a wave of his hand.

Sunset folded her arms. The defenders of humanity.

I suppose things could be worse. I could be stuck with this loser for a partner.

“Jaune?” Ruby cried as she stumbled out of the bushes in Sunset’s wake.

“Ruby, hi,” the boy – Jaune – said unhappily. “I, uh, nice to see you again!”

“What are you doing up there?”

“Well, I-“

“Jaune?” Another girl emerged from out of the shadows of the trees. She was tall, and probably would have been so even if she weren’t wearing wedge heels, with fiery red hair falling down past her waist. She was armoured in bronze – where she was armoured at all – with a gleaming circlet set upon her brow.

The girl’s eyes were on Jaune as she emerged into view, and only then did she notice Sunset and Ruby already at the foot of the tree. “Oh.” The disappointment in her voice was as palpable as it was inexplicable.

“Don’t worry,” Sunset said, gesturing to Ruby with one hand before gesturing to Jaune with a jab of one thumb. “He’s all yours.”

Weiss Schnee stood in a perfect fencing pose straight out of an Atlasian master’s treatise on the art: back straight, head up, feet well space, rapier held at eye height.

By contrast, the ursa confronting her had incredibly sloppy form, paws lazily held at its sides as it reared up onto its hind legs and growled at her.

Weiss stood as still as one of the suits of armour in the Schnee mansion, and stared into those burning red eyes.

Then she attacked.

Weiss swept her Myrtenmaster across her front in a wide arc. Fire erupted from the blade in a blast that struck the ursa square in its shaggy black chest. The demon roared in pain as Weiss charged forward, switching from fire to ice dust as she did so.

The ursa, still bellowing in fury, swung wildly at her with his paws, but Weiss ducked the clumsy and ill-aimed strike, her braid flying about her head as she did so.

She fired again, and with ice dust this time she froze the ursa’s foot to the ground.

Weiss was deaf and blind to everything but the monster in front of her. It was small than the Arma, and far less intimidating. She felt no fear as she drove hard at the immobilised creature, thrusting with Myrtenmaster in a series of perfectly controlled thrusts into its chest: one, two, three, four, eight, sixteen. The grimm was no match for her speed, its ferocity could not contest with her training. Weiss’ face was a frozen mask of determination, her blue eyes shone with the fire of her determination as she skewered the grimm on the end of her blade.

Another blast of fire dust confirmed the kill, and the grimm turned to ashes before her eyes.

Weiss closed her eyes for a moment, and breathed deeply. With a flourish, she swept any grimm residue off her blade.

It was only then that she heard the roar of the second ursa behind her.

She turned with a gasp, only to hear the roar of the grimm answered by the boom of a shotgun. The grimm staggered forwards as the shotgun fired again, before collapsing at Weiss’ feet.

It was clearly dead even before it started to disintegrate.

It’s killer turned out to be a boy clad in shining gilded armour, with a tall blue crest atop his helmet, a gunblade in one hand and a shield in the other.

He smiled. “Hey there, you need some help?”

Weiss’s eyebrows rose. Well, she certainly wasn’t going to admit it now if he was going to take that tone.

She placed one hand on her hip. “Hmph.”

The smile on his face didn’t change. “So…I guess we’re team-mates now.”

“So it seems,” Weiss said, turning around and beginning. “Well, you’d better follow me then, hadn’t you.”

“I’m Flash Sentry by the way.”

“Hmph,” Weiss said. If he didn’t know who she was she wasn’t about to tell him.

Yang was still pissed. Killing the ursa that had damaged her hair – her hair, dammit! Didn’t they realise how much work it took to get hair this long and thick looking this good – wasn’t enough. Killing it’s friend wasn’t enough. Her eyes still burned red as she rounded on the third ursa that had just wandered out of the undergrowth.

“Oh yeah! You want some too!”

And she wouldn’t have given some to it, as well, if some kill-stealing scrublord hadn’t chosen that moment to shoot it in the back.

Yang scowled at the scrub in question who was, it seemed her new partner.

He wasn’t Ruby. He was a he for a start. A he in tan armour, squinting at her just a little bit as though he was having trouble seeing.

I suppose I did say that being on someone else’s team might help her to break out of her shell.

But whoever she does end up on a team with better take care of her, or they’re going to answer to me.

Despite there only being a single boarbatusk, it had become clear to Blake that the boy with the long blue hair was going to die if he was left to fight it unaided. He was strong enough, as he proved when he managed to split a rock in half with a stroke of his halberd, but that was the problem: he hit the rock and not the grimm.

The fact that he appeared to be rapidly losing his composure wasn’t helping him much either.

Blake was under no illusions. If she leapt down from this tree and saved this guy then he would be her partner. A partner who was more than a little bit useless, and with whom she would be stuck for the next four years.

But it wasn’t as if she’d come to Beacon to get top grades or make a name for herself. She’d come to Beacon because she had to go somewhere and after so long in the White Fang, fighting was all that she really knew how to do.

She’d come to Beacon because she couldn’t face going home to her parents and admitting that she’d been wrong, and she couldn’t bear the idea of putting them in danger if Adam decided to come after her.

She’d come to Beacon to find another way of living, and she couldn’t start this new phase of her life by letting someone die at the hands of the grimm.

Adam would have watched the boy flail around with amusement, but she wasn’t Adam. His path was not hers, not any more.

So she leapt down from out of the tree and started shooting.

The shots from Gambol Shroud didn’t seem to hurt the boarbatusk, but they did get its attention. It snorted as it charged towards her, its black hooves churning up the forest.

Wait for it.

The grimm got closer. Its tusks gleamed wickedly in the morning light.

Wait for it.

The grimm was almost on her now. The boy was staring at her as though she was crazy.

Now.

Blake lashed out with her whip, wrapping it around the foreleg of the boarbatusk. With a hard yank she threw it up into the air, squealing in panic, its legs waving frantically in the air as its soft underbelly was exposed.

Blake leapt, firing into the air as she did so. The boarbatusk screeched in agony as her bullets stroke home. Gambol Shroud transformed in her hand to blade configuration and she slit it from throat to rear as the coup de grace.

She landed gracefully in front of the boy and regarded him without emotion.

“Thanks,” he muttered. “The name’s Sky Lark.”

“Blake,” Blake said evenly.

“Hey,” Sky said, as he picked himself up off the ground. “I guess that makes us teammates.”

“Yes,” Blake said, because what else was there to say.

Lie Ren stood in the remains of the dead King Taijitu, when his attention was drawn by someone cawing in the tree above him.

Ren raised his arms and let his Stormflowers slide down his sleeves. He looked up just in time to see Nora drop down from out of the trees, dangling by her legs in front of him.

“Carraw!”

“I still don’t think that’s what sloths sound like,” he observed, with a slight hint of a smile that only broadened when Nora bopped him on the nose.

“Boop.”

It was good to know that some things didn’t change, and never would.

Professor Ozpin stood on the edge of Beacon Cliffs, monitoring the students via his scroll.

“Hmm, it looks our last pair has assembled,” Glinda said, from a short distance away. “Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie. Poor boy. I can’t imagine those two getting along.”

Ozpin said nothing. The secrets of Mister Ren and Miss Valkyrie’s shared past were there own, in all their sorrow. It wasn’t his place to divulge them, not even to his closest friend and collaborator. He sipped his coffee – black, and extra strong – as he continued to watch the feeds.

“Although I daresay he’ll be better off than Miss Nikos,” Glinda continued. “I don’t care what his transcripts say, that Jaune fellow is not ready for this level of combat.”

Which of us is ever ready? Ozpin thought. He had been nine years old when he had been…called to serve. There were times when he couldn’t remember his parents faces, and not because he was so old or so senile. Had he been ready? Probably not. In the end, none of them were ever ready for the moment when destiny came calling.

That was why he had turned a blind eye to the – expertly done, he had to admit – forged transcripts and decided to give Jaune Arc his chance. Perhaps he wasn’t ready, but since no one was ever really ready it was surely better that he was at least willing to do his part.

That and he remembered the boy’s great-grandfather with a degree of fondness. He had been a great fighter. Time would tell if Jaune was made of the same stuff.

For the moment, however, he was more interested in the companions that young Jaune had acquired. Ozpin’s scroll showed the four of them moving through the forest: Sunset Shimmer in the lead, then Ruby Rose, then Pyrrha Nikos just ahead of Mister Arc. How strange that the three of them should meet so early. What a coincidence that the three students he had been intending to keep an eye on more than any others should all come to the same place at the same time, where he could watch them all together.

He had intended to keep an eye on Miss Nikos from the moment he had received her surprising application to attend Beacon. He – and Lionheart – had both been preparing to receive her at Haven. They had need of a new guardian for the vault there, someone who could – in due time – seek out the lost Spring Maiden and take the power for herself. But it seemed that Miss Nikos had other plans, plans that might serve Ozpin and their cause even better. His thoughts turned briefly to the vault beneath the CCT. It was certainly a possibility, although he needed to observe Miss Nikos in action and in life before he could be certain that she was worthy.

Miss Shimmer was interesting to him in her own right. Another Equestrian refugee. He still wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing here, although he was almost certain that she was not yet another monster or criminal banished by the inhabitants of that other world who used Remnant as a dumping ground for their problems. No, it was a more personal need that had driven Miss Shimmer here, Ozpin could tell. He would get to the heart of the mystery, and when he did…that would depend on what he found there.

She had power. Magic. That could be dangerous, in the wrong hands. But in the right hands, properly controlled, it could be incredibly useful. What might Miss Shimmer be able to do for their cause, if she would be content to serve him? She bore quite careful watching.

And then there was Miss Rose. Ruby. Summer’s daughter. There were many within his organisation, or on the fringes of it, who thought that he was making a mistake allowing her to attend Beacon early, or else they feared that he was not entirely to be trusted with Summer’s little girl. Taiyang had called him, begging him not to get either of his daughters involved in the clandestine work that had terrified Tai’s first wife and claimed the life of his second. Qrow had paid him a visit to bluster at him about Summer’s last wishes and Miss Rose’s youth.

“I still don’t understand,” Glinda said softly.

“What?” Ozpin replied.

“Why you brought Miss Rose here early,” Glinda said.

“Because I think that she’s ready.”

“She’s a child,” Glinda said. “Summer’s child. Couldn’t you at least have waited two more years until she was grown up before you got her involved in this?”

“There is no time,” Ozpin muttered. None of them understood. None of them had the perspective that he had acquired through his long years of immortality. Qrow was brave and loyal but, blinded by love, even he wasn’t capable of seeing the bigger picture.

The enemy was already on the move. They had nearly killed Amber and were halfway to stealing the Fall Maiden powers for themselves. In all likelihood the other Maidens were in danger as well, and the vaults, and the schools. Their long years of peace were coming to an end, Salem was coming for all of them and if he did not wield every weapon available to him then no one would be spared the embrace of the darkness. Ironwood’s armies, his ships and his mechanical toys, none of it would be enough. Only he could see with sufficiently clear eyes to know what had to be done to protect humanity. Only he was willing to take up that burden, that sacrifice upon his many souls.

Yes, Miss R- Ruby was Summer’s daughter. Yes, she was still a child. But she was also the first Silvereye that he had found since Summer herself and so he would throw her into the fire again and again if that was what it took. He would throw them all: silver-eyed Ruby, Sunset so strong in magic, Pyrrha Nikos full of virtue; he would throw all into the fire until they burned. Or until victory was won.

So heavy was the task of protecting the human race.

As she led the way through the woods, Sunset wondered if she could have possibly done something to offend some kind of deity of this world that had responded by cursing her with some absolutely rotten luck.

The champion and the prodigy, both at once. It was appalling.

Or at least, it had the potential to be.

Although…there was a part of Sunset that was starting to wonder if she might not be able to turn this to her advantage somehow.

It would be hard, it would be a narrow path for sure, but if she could pull it off then she might well be golden.

The risks were obvious: surrounded by two such paragons she was in grave danger of being outshone. But, since she was already stuck with one of them then the risks were not so much greater with the other as well. And the prize: if she could lead these two, then a share of their successes and their honours would accrue to her by right as their leader. She would be credited as the guiding brain, the decisive mind that had shaped and conceived of all their triumphs. She would be the one who had guided them to the pinnacle of success. If Pyrrha won the Vytal Festival then, well, she couldn’t have done it without the help of her team leader, Sunset Shimmer, and her brilliant strategies. When their names were mentioned, that of Sunset Shimmer would be mentioned first.

It would be tricky, she wouldn’t be able to just sit back and bask in their reflected glory, she would have to show that she was fit and deserving of a share in their light, but if she could do it…it was a far better path by far than standing in their shadow and raging impotently at the darkness that would consume her there.

It certainly helped that Pyrrha was so…docile was perhaps the best word that Sunset could come up with, for all that it made her seem like a farm animal. But Sunset had been surprised; she had expected Pyrrha to take the lead, or try to; her achievements fitted her for leadership. But she seemed to content to follow, and without any way of knowing that Sunset was even better suited to lead than she was! She had said nothing when Sunset had taken control of the foursome – she had done it by the simple process of acting like she had been put in charge, issuing instructions to the others without room for them to demur or question. Ruby hadn’t given her any trouble either.

If they both keep up this obedient attitude then I might actually be able to swing this.

Jaune yelped in pain as the branch that Pyrrha had just pushed out of her way snapped back and smacked him in the face.

Which brought Sunset to the fourth member of their little group. To say that he wasn’t on the same level as the three of them appeared to be something of an understatement. She turned around to see that he was flat on his back. How someone like him intended to defend his world from monsters Sunset couldn’t even begin to fathom.

“Jaune! Are you alright?” Ruby asked.

“I’m sorry,” Pyrrha said apologetically.

Why do either of you care what happens to this guy? Sunset wondered.

“It’s just a scratch,” Jaune said as he picked himself up off the ground. Literally, he had a scratch on his cheek just below his eye. Which was pretty weird, really. Why didn’t his aura-

“Why didn’t you activate your aura?” Pyrrha asked, voicing what Sunset had been thinking.

“Huh?”

“Your aura?” she repeated.

“Gesundheit.”

Sunset’s eyes narrowed. Seriously?

“Jaune,” Pyrrha said, sounding as confused as Sunset felt about this. “You do know what aura is.”

Jaune scoffed. “Of course I do. Do you know what aura is?”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “How do you not know what aura is? Where did you go to Combat School?”

“I, uh, didn’t,” Jaune said. “I was homeschooled. But I passed all the tests! And I have the transcripts to prove it.”

“Wow, you passed all of the graduation and entrance exams without aura!” Ruby gasped. “That’s amazing! You must be really, really strong!”

Yeah, really strong. Sunset managed to keep her scepticism off her face with a small degree of effort. But her eyes remained narrowed as Pyrrha explained to Jaune what aura was, albeit in a slightly more mystical and numinous way than Sunset would have tackled the same approach. Aura, even magic itself could – and to Sunset’s mind, should – be approached scientifically; if you surrounded it with too much ceremony and reverence and made it seem like something so much more mysterious than it really was then you only served to cloud understanding, even amongst those who most needed to understand.

Honestly, Pyrrha might have seemed exasperatedly amused when Jaune declared that aura was like a forcefield, but it was probably a more useful descriptor than all of her fine speechifying about light and darkness.

When Pyrrha offered to unlock Jaune’s aura with her own, Ruby threw up her hands in excitement. “Oh, this is going to be so great. When my Uncle Qrow unlocked my aura for me I felt as though I could run all the way across Patch and back without stopping, you’re going to love this.”

Sunset was still trying to figure out exactly how Jaune had gotten this far without knowing about aura. This was first year combat school stuff, and the explanation that he hadn’t been to a combat school only answered so many questions. He would have still had to take the standardised tests in order to prove that he deserved a shot at Beacon, not to mention Beacon’s own entrance exams. Sunset would never have gotten through the practicals without her aura. So unless Jaune really was an absolute badass – and Sunset was sceptical of that possibility – he ought to have been unable to do so, right?

How had he done it? Aura was…everything. Sunset probably could have replicated some of the effects with magic, but the drain of keeping a passive shield up would have been immense compared to using aura to accomplish the same thing. And without magic…without magic she would have been terrified in a place like this.

I suppose I have to give him credit for bravery, if nothing else.

Pyrrha cupped Jaune’s cheek with one hand. “For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee.”

Ruby gasped in awe as Jaune began to glow like a blazing sun – his aura was tremendous – and then rushed over to help Pyrrha as she doubled over from the exertion of what she’d just done. Sunset stayed where she was, watching, pondering the words that Pyrrha had spoken. Ritualistic, as she might have expected. A little ominous. And wrong, too.

In passing we achieve immortality? No. The dead are dead and none recall their names. And even if they did, even if you are one of those lucky few whose fame will outlast them, so what? What use has a dead man for glory? What good will do me in the grave to be remembered, even to be spoken of in awe? Let me win far fame while I live, and spread my legend as much by my own mouth as by my deeds.

Let me be forgotten when I am dead, so long as I am held in awe while I am living.

Bluntly put, you couldn’t ascend when you were dead.

Ruby patted Pyrrha on the back. “Are you okay?”

“Did I do something wrong?” Jaune demanded, sounding notably panicked at the protest. “Are you hurt?”

Pyrrha shook her head. “I spent some of my aura to unlock yours…it took more out of me than I’d expected. You have a lot of aura.”

“Take a minute to rest,” Sunset said. “We’re not in that much of a hurry.” As much as Celestia had used, betrayed and abandoned her, she had nevertheless taught Sunset a great many things. More things, perhaps, than she had intended to, teaching Sunset as she had done not only by her lessons but by her example. One of the things that Sunset had learned from said example was that, when you took leadership upon yourself, you not only shared in the successes of your minions but also in their failures. If Pyrrha was hurt under Sunset’s direction, whether it was because of her own foolishness or not, then the blame would accrue to Sunset’s leadership; especially when Pyrrha’s own reputation gleamed so brightly.

So there was really no need for the grateful looks that Jaune and Sunset gave her. She was simply practicing prudence.

Her ears twitched as she heard something rustling in the nearby bushes.

Of course, nothing says the enemy has to give us a minute.

“Guys,” Sunset called, pressing the stock of Sol Invictus to her shoulder even if, for the moment, she kept the barrel down. “Get ready. Back to back. Pyrrha, can you fight.”

“Yes.”

Sunset frowned. She didn’t sound that bad, but even so. “Jaune, cover her anyway.”

“R-right,” Jaune said. He sounded nervous, but that was understandable. Sunset was pretty nervous herself, for all that she wouldn’t show it. That was something else Celestia had taught her: no matter how much ice there is in your stomach, no matter how your heart pounds, keep an expression of serenity on your face and don’t let them see you troubled.

They stood back to back in the modest clearing. The rustling sounds were coming from all around them now, getting closer and closer. It belatedly occurred to Sunset that she didn’t really know much about Jaune or Pyrrha’s weapons, or their capabilities beyond the fact that Jaune had a lot of aura that he hadn’t even know existed until thirty seconds ago. But Pyrrha had a great reputation, as did Ruby, so it was probably safe to put a little trust in them.

As safe as it was to trust anybody in this selfish world.

Sunset could see a pair of red eyes in one of the bushes; then she could see another, and another, and by the looks of it there were upwards of a dozen of them all around them.

Sunset rested her finger on the trigger.

A beowolf stuck its head out of the bush as it started to slink into view.

Sunset squeezed the trigger, and Sol Invictus erupted with a flash and a crack as her first shot took the beowolf’s head off. It’s body remained standing for a moment, headless and bloody, before it keeled over onto the ground and started to dissolve.

The grimm howled in anger. They howled in rage. They howled in bloodlust. The howl rose in an awful cacophony from all their throats filling the sky and echoing in all four of Sunset’s ears, jarring down her spine and making it shiver.

Vice-Principal Luna had said that beowolves were the worst grimm; they weren’t the strongest, or the fastest, but they were the meanest and their howl…the vice-principal had said that if any huntsman claimed to have heard the howling of a pack of beowolves and not been frightened then they hadn’t actually heard it.

In this moment, at this place, Sunset believed her.

They charged out of the thicket in a black mass like tar with teeth, snarling and baring their fangs as they ran on four legs or two, claws ready and red eyes gleaming.

Sunset fired. She could hear other shots from behind her, shots coming from two different weapons; she guessed that one was Ruby with that ludicrous Crescent Rose of hers and the other would have to be either Pyrrha or Jaune, unless some stranger had come to their aid.

I don’t need to be rescued on my first test.

Crack!

Sunset’s second shot hit a beowolf in the shoulder, it staggered by did not fall.

Crack!

That shot did for it, it hit the ground and started to dissolve.

Crack!

Another one down but they were all getting so close.

Crack!

Sunset turned and shot one that was trying to get at Pyrrha from the flank.

Crack!

Her shot caught a beowolf in mid-flight before it could leap on her. Its momentum carried the smoke and ashes right into her face. Sunset took aim at another beowolf.

Click.

And she’d had her six.

There was no time to use magic. She needed at least a little concentration for that and it was hard to come by right now. The beowolves sensed weakness – Ruby and whoever else it was were still shooting – and came for her, roaring in their lust for blood.

An answering yell rose from Sunset’s throat. She bellowed angrily because she would not die, not here, not now, not before she had accomplished anything. She would not die, and she roared out her desire to live as she reversed her grip on the gun in her hand and swung wildly as though it were a bat, clubbing the closest beowolf across its bone mask with the heavy wooden stock. The grimm shuddered, the mask cracked, but it did not fall. Sunset hit it again, and again, still shouting until the demon was dead, and then she twisted away just in time to avoid another beowolf charging for her. She impaled it on her bayonet.

She wasn’t quick enough to do anything about the beowolf that slammed into her, bearing her to the ground. She tried to fend it off with Sol Invictus but its jaws snapped and snarled at her, barely an inch away from her face as its claws slashed at her aura, stripping it away piece by piece.

There was a flash of bronze, and the beowolf was hurled away as Pyrrha struck it with her shield so powerfully that it was thrown clean off of Sunset. With the second stroke of her shield Pyrrha eviscerated the grimm, while with her spear she impaled another.

And in the next few moments Sunset began to see where her reputation came from. Gone was the quiet girl who had been content to follow where Sunset led; in her place was a warrior grim of face, an artist on the battlefield, her every movement both graceful and deadly. Grimm fell by her hand like leaves until she cut down the big alpha in a flurry of swift slashes of her sword and the survivors fled, their howls of bloodlust turned to howls of panic and terror.

Sunset picked herself up quickly off the ground, and hoped that Ruby and Jaune hadn’t noticed that she’d been knocked down. Thankfully Pyrrha didn’t see to want to be thanked, and as the grimm retreated her face softened once more, as if something had been switched off in her head once the danger was passed.

Jaune had also been knocked onto his back, he looked chastened as he climbed to his feet. Ruby didn’t say anything, but gave him a pat on the shoulder as though he needed to be reassured about something.

Sunset said nothing as she started to reload. I need to get stronger. Clearly I’m not up to their level yet.

I may never get there.

But I can get closer than I am now if I work at it.

But there’s no way that they’re going to accept my leadership now. I wouldn’t, if I was in their position.

“Which way would you suggest now?” Pyrrha asked.

“Whuh?” the sound fell out of Sunset’s mouth. “You’re asking me?”

Pyrrha shrugged. “You seem confident in your sense of direction.”

Sunset glanced at Ruby, who nodded.

Sunset’s pride felt a little less dented. My training in leadership shining through, I suppose.

She had just put the fourth round into the cylinder when she heard a tree falling in front of her.

And then another, and then a third after that.

“That…that sounds bigger than a beowolf,” Jaune said.

Sunset was inclined to agree, which was why she hurried up reloading. She had just – just – put the sixth round into the cylinder when a deathstalker crashed through the forest, trampling trees and bushes beneath its legs.

It made no sound, it did not raw or howl, but it did snap its claws aggressively at them as it came on.

Ruby charged, she swung her scythe in a wide arc that glanced off the deathstalker’s bleached white armour.

A single swipe of the deathstalker’s claw was enough to send Ruby flying backwards.

Sunset didn’t bother to fire. Instead she teleported the distance between Ruby and herself and threw up a shield of blue green energy around the two of them.

The claws and stinger of the deathstalker beat fruitlessly against it. For now.

“Sunset, how are you-“

“Pyrrha!” Sunset yelled, cutting Ruby off. “We need a distraction!”

“Right,” Pyrrha answered, and she dashed forward with a swift, loping gait culminating in a flying leapt that carried her onto the deathstalker’s back. She drove her spear downwards, but had no more luck penetrating its armoured carapace than Ruby had. Her spear turned into a rifle – so she was the third shooter – and she fired to as little effect. She had got the grimm’s attention, though, and as Pyrrha leapt off its back it turned all of its malicious attention on her. But, though Pyrrha could not harm the grimm for all that she leapt at it and slashed and thrust and fired, she was too swift-footed for the demonic scorpion to harm her, either. It simply couldn’t keep up with her as she danced out of the way of its claws, closing and retreating, her red hair moving like fire as she wove in and out of the grimm’s guard.

Sunset dropped her shield – keeping it up was a drain, and the plan that was starting to formulate in her mind would require every bit of magic she could lay her hands on – and pointed in the other direction from that in which Pyrrha was currently leading the deathstalker. “Ruby, get over there, get up a tree, and catch that thing in a crossfire.”

“But his armour-“

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t hurt him, I just want him to notice,” Sunset said. “Believe me, this is going to work.”

Ruby hesitated for a moment, before she nodded. “Okay.” She sped forward, firing her gunscythe and using the recoil to carry her into the low branches of a nearby tree.

“What should I do?” Jaune asked as he jogged up to Sunset.

“You…you stay here,” Sunset said. “And wait for my instructions.”

Jaune didn’t look too happy about that, but Sunset didn’t have time to pay too much attention to him right now. Ruby had just started laying down fire on the deathstalker from above. The grimm stopped, half turning towards her. Pyrrha attacked again, her blade shining as she slashed furiously at the deathstalker’s carapace. For its part, the grimm appeared confused, torn between its two assailants. It turned first one way, and then the other. Its claws chattered furiously as it turned, never quite settling on an assailant. It spread its legs out, and scuttled into just the right position.

And then Sunset teleported again. She emerged in a flash of green light underneath the deathstalker, flat on her back in the space between its legs and gathered the last of her magic in the palm of her hands in a blast upwards into the soft underbelly of the scorpion. The grimm shuddered in pain, and then collapsed.

Right on top of Sunset. Fortunately it dissolved a moment later.

Ruby cheered as she leapt down from the tree. “That was awesome!”

“You have quite a versatile semblance,” Pyrrha said.

“Semblance?” Jaune asked.

“She can explain later,” Sunset said. “For now, let’s just get our relics and get back to Beacon without any more trouble.”

They were back in the hall where they had started from the day before, the hall where Professor Ozpin had given them his interesting address. Now, in groups of four, they were called up onto the stage as their images appeared on the two giant screens that hung above the hall.

Sunset waited impatiently, her tail twitching as four by four all other students except her were called up onto the stage by the headmaster.

Currently on stage where the silent, reading girl with the black bow in her equally black hair that Sunset had observed the night before; a tall boy with dark blue hair and grey armour; a girl whose hair was equally divided between blue and pink; and another girl with white hair streaked with mint-green, wearing a cloak of pink and red and blue that completely obscured everything below her face.

Professor Ozpin announced their names. “Blake Belladonna, Sky Lark, Bonnie Bonaventure and Lyra Heartstrings, the four of you retrieved the black knight pieces and will continue your studies as Team Bluebell, led by Blake Belladonna.”

Sunset joined in the polite applause as the initials BLBL flashed up under the pictures of the respective students. Blake Belladonna seemed more resigned than anything else as she led her new team off the stage.

“Weiss Schnee, Flash Sentry, Russell Thrush, Cardin Winchester,” Professor Ozpin called, waiting a moment for the four of them to join him on stage: a pale girl with hair as white as snow who might be even shorter than Ruby, the big guy with the bird on his armour who had mocked Sunset earlier, some punk with a sleeveless hoodie and a grey mohawk, and Flash. Sunset’s lip curled in contempt at the sight of Flash, in that gaudy, shining armour of his, standing up there with his chest puffed out with pride. “You four retrieved the black rook pieces. You will be known as Team Wisteria, led by Weiss Schnee.” The letters WSTW flashed up beneath their portraits.

Sunset didn’t join in the applause. As Miss Schnee led the way off the stage – managing to look both proud, and at the same time as though this was nothing unexpected – Flash glanced Sunset’s way. Sunset glared at him until he looked away again, and made his way off the stage with the others.

“Yang Xiao-Long, Lie Ren, Dove Bronzewing, Nora Valkyrie.”

Ruby whistled, and a girl with long blonde hair turned to give her a wink and a wave as she led the serious boy with the pink streak in his hair Sunset had noticed earlier, and the redhead who had woken them both up, and a nondescript looking guy in tan armour up onto the stage.

“The four of you,” Ozpin said. “Retrieved the white rook pieces. You will continue your studies here as Team Iron, led by Yang Xiao-Long”

Ruby started cheering enthusiastically as the letters YRDN appeared beneath the portraits of the four members of the newly formed team. The blonde – Yang – gave her a thumbs up before she made her way off the stage with the others.

“Sunset Shimmer, Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos and Ruby Rose.”

Sunset kept her expression pleasantly neutral as she led the other three out of the crowd and up onto the stage. The lights on them were bright, but Sunset didn’t mind the glare. She didn’t mind the eyes upon her. In fact, she positively enjoyed them both.

“The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces,” Professor Ozpin reminded the audience. “You will therefore be known as Team Sapphire, led by Sunset Shimmer.”

Well of course, Sunset thought, and let the applause roll over her.

As the only girl on a team with three boys, Weiss went into the bathroom to get changed for bed.

She shut the door, and removed the icicle tiara from her hair, letting her braid collapse and fall down around her shoulders.

And as her snowy hair fell down so Weiss leaned against the bathroom wall and sighed.

She was the team leader. On the one hand, it was really nothing that couldn’t have been anticipated; she had spent her entire life being groomed for leadership.

Perhaps that was part of the reason it felt so unexpected to her.

Not that her team, or the world, would ever realise that. But, after spending so long as the recipient of her father’s criticism, his disappointment, his stern judgement that seemingly could never be assuaged by anything she did or accomplished, to be trusted like this was…honestly a little surprising.

Why could Professor Ozpin, who barely knew her, trust her more than her own father did?

And could she be worthy of the trust that he had placed in her?

Does Winter ever feel unequal to the task?

Not that she would dare ask her sister to find out. No, she had to be like Winter: stern and in control at all times. The world must never see beneath the icy mask of a true Schnee.

Her scroll buzzed. Weiss pulled it out and was gladly surprised to see that it was a text from Winter.

Are you still alive?

Weiss smirked as she texted back. Yes.

How did it go?

I made team leader.

Of course you did.

Weiss wasn’t sure whether to be comforted by her sister’s faith in her or to be affronted that there wasn’t any more effusive reaction forthcoming. Thank you.

What are they like?

Weiss’ thumb was halfway to the first letter of her reply when she heard the boys talking in the bedroom next door.

“So, on a scale of one of hot,” came the voice of Russell Thrush. “How would you guys rate our team leader?”

“Come on, guys, do you really think that’s appropriate?” asked Flash Sentry.

“Don’t be a cuck, dude,” Russell said. “Nobody likes a white knight.”

“I rate her out of your league, Russell,” Cardin declared.

“But not yours, right?”

“Of course not, look at me.”

“Really, guys? Really?” Flash said.

“Dude,” Russell said. “Are you really telling us you don’t think she’s hot? Cause she’s an eight and a half on the Russell scale.”

“No, I’m not saying that she isn’t gorgeous, I’m just saying that-“

Weiss stopped listening. Honestly. She wasn’t sure if it was them…or if she’d been naïve to hope for anything better.

Perhaps I should just be grateful that they find me attractive and not my father’s money.

She stared down at the scroll in her hands. What were her team like? A bunch of boorish jerks, apparently.

They’ll do, Weiss replied, and then snapped her scroll shut. That was probably all that Winter wanted to hear. They might be jerks but she would manage them. She had seen Winter reduce Atlasian soldiers to silence by her mere presence, and she would do the same.

Though a part of her might have liked to not have to.

Weiss sighed again, and as she pulled off her bolero she turned to face the mirror. Her face, her scarred face, her eight and a half face, stared back at her.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall, tell me who’s the loneliest of all?

As the only guy in a team with three girls, Sky Lark had been banished to the bathroom to change for bed, while Blake, Lyra and Bonnie (or Bon Bon, as she had been emphatic about being referred to by everyone) used the bedroom.

Blake had changed quickly, and now sat on her bed observing Lyra and Bon Bon as they, with a degree of chattiness that was only partially explained for Blake by the fact that they were old friends, got undressed in a far more lackadaisical manner marked by frequent paused for involved conversation.

Blake let what they were actually saying wash over her as she studied them. Her troops, her team-mates. Hers to lead and to protect.

She was no stranger to leading. She had led White Fang missions more than once before, but this…this was different. Her authority over the White Fang troops she had commanded her come from Adam and the fact that she was his; to question her was to question Adam, and no one questioned Adam who wished to live long after doing so.

From whence did her authority over Team Bluebell derive? From Professor Ozpin? Perhaps, in the abstract, but it wasn’t the same; Professor Ozpin wasn’t going to impale anybody on the end of Wilt for questioning his decisions, which was a good thing beyond doubt, but it meant that Blake would have to establish her fitness for command some other way. She’d have to earn the right to lead this team, at least in the eyes of the team itself.

It wasn’t something that she’d expected she would have to do. She had come to Beacon expecting to follow orders, not to give them.

She had come to Beacon expecting – hoping – to be anonymous. Now three pairs of eyes would be turned towards her at all times.

Did she want it? No.

Would she do it? Did she have a choice?

Could she do it? Yes. She had seen her father lead, she had seen Sienna lead. She had led, though she might not have led anyone like Lyra or Bon Bon or Sky.

There were three kinds of people in the White Fang: there were the idealists, the ones who believed passionately in Faunus equality and had joined the organisation because they genuinely believed that it was the way to be the change they wished to see in the world; Blake hoped that she had fallen into that category, and certainly they were the ones most likely to try and get out sooner or later; then there were the gangster wannabes, the idiots who thought it would be cool to dress up in a grimm mask and wave a gun around; and then there were the ones like Adam, though Blake hadn’t realised it at first, the ones who liked the killing, and terrified their allies almost as much as their enemies.

Her team-mates could not be the first, and Blake very much hoped that they were not the second or the third.

So she would have to find another way to lead them. She could not lead as she had led in the White Fang. She wasn’t sure if she’d want to.

She might not stay at Beacon. Something might happen, Adam might find her, she might find a reason to run from here just as she had run to here. But until then she would lead.

They were her responsibility now.

As they were a team with two guys and two girls, the members of Team YRDN were taking turns to get changed in the bathroom. It was currently Dove's turn, Nora having gone first. Ren sat on his bed doing maintenance on his weapons; Nora was bouncing up and down on the bed, while Yang looked out of the window, seeing nothing, lost in thought.

I did say that being on different teams would be good for her, I guess.

That doesn't mean I have to like it now that it's actually happened, though.

It would probably be good for Ruby, to make friends with other people. Break out of her shell. And that Jaune guy seemed nice, although if he tried to get too friendly with Ruby then Yang would make sure they'd never be able to identify the remains. As for Ruby's other two team-mates, on the other hand...they seemed kind of stand-offish, and Yang would have preferred that Ruby's new friends seemed more...friendly. But she didn't know them all that well. Of course she was going to make it a point to get to know them, and to make sure that they knew her (and what she was capable of) but she probably get too down on the basis of rushed judgement.

Ruby would be fine, probably. She took down Roman Torchwick's whole gang single-handed, after all.

But whenever Yang looked at her little sister there was a part of her that still saw the little girl who used to crawl into Yang's bed when she was scared or having nightmares.

I will stay with you, all our days.

Yang smiled. It was probably stupid to expect a school like Beacon to abide by a kid's promise like that...but that didn't stop her wanting to bust down the door to Team SAPR's room and lay down the law.

She'll be fine. It's fine. Everything's fine.

It better be.

This was a good thing. Ruby needed to make new friends. She needed to find people she could rely on because...well, Yang wasn't going to be around forever for her to lean on. Ruby thought that she could do anything as long as she had Crescent Rose in hand, but sometimes you needed someone to have your back and Yang wasn't always going to be there for that. It was good that she was going to find other people who would have her back when her big sister couldn't.

But, as Ruby's big sister, that didn't make it any easier to leave her behind.

Accepting her offer at Beacon had been hard enough knowing that Ruby would be stuck on Patch without her for the next two years; Dad and Uncle Qrow had had to sit her down and promise to look after Ruby while she was gone. And when Ruby had gotten her offer to attend Beacon two years early, while Dad had seemed kind of anxious about it Yang had just felt so relieved that Ruby was going to be where she, Yang, could keep an eye on her.

She would just have to accept that she wouldn't be able to keep an eye on Ruby all the time.

It was for the best. It would make things easier in the long run...for both of them.

Goodnight, Ruby.

I love you.

Sunset had never had to share a room before, but on the other hand this dorm room was a lot nicer than the place she had been living before this - a boarded up old dust shop that had been put out of business by the Schnee Dust Company - even if it was a little smaller than the room that she'd enjoyed all to herself when she was Celestia's personal student. She'd had a lot of time to get used ot the fact that she was no one's personal student any more.

And it's not as if I've got anything like as much stuff as I had back then. Sunset had left most of her Equestrian possessions behind in Equestria, and she hadn't acquired very many replacements since coming to Remnant. Everything she had was in her back, which she started to unpack while Jaune was in bathroom.

The room was devoid of conversation as she worked, both Pyrrha and Ruby were cleaning their weapons in silence, with only the ambient clicks and rattles of their work to disturb the room. Sunset would get to that with her own weapon, but she wanted to unpack first so that she didn't have to worry about it later.

Plus, with Jaune in the bathroom and the two girls fully occupied with their work, no one was going to spy on her stuff.

At the top of her bag, the first thing that confronted her when she unclipped it and opened it up, was a big stuffed unicorn with glass eyes and a smile sewn onto its face. It was white, with a golden horn and a pink mane. It smiled benevolently up at Sunset from out of the bag.

Sunset stared down at it. She wasn't entirely sure why she still had this. Flash had won it for her at the fairgrounds of the Vytal Festival before last, she'd found it amusing at the time. She probably ought to have gotten rid of it after they broke up but...she hadn't. She'd never quite gotten around to it and when the time came to leave it behind...she'd found that she couldn't quite do that, either. Stupid, right?

Nevertheless, she plucked the unicorn out of the bag and set it up on her bed near the pillow.

"Aww, that's so cute!"

Sunset looked up and over her shoulder. Ruby was staring at the stuffed unicorn with a big smile on her face. Sunset looked away without saying anything; as far as she was concerned there was nothing to be said.

"Is it a memento from home?" Pyrrha asked.

If only you knew, Sunset thought. "No. My ex-boyfriend gave it to me."

"I see," Pyrrha murmured. "You still care for him, then?"

"Pfft, no!" Sunset said, more loudly than the situation perhaps warranted. But her cheeks were starting to heat up and it was hard to keep the requisite handle on her volume control. She let slip a disdainful snort. She stood up, turned round, and planted her hands on her hips as she glared at Pyrrha. "As a matter of fact, I'll have you know that I broke up with him, and I could care less about that stupid jackass now. I just..." her mouth twisted with annoyance as she realised that there was nothing she could say to explain why she still had that stupid cuddly toy. So she went on the attack as a distraction. "Anyway, what about you? I bet you've got a shelf full of trophies to unpack, don't you?"

"Ooh, you have trophies?" Ruby cried.

Pyrrha's already fair face had gone as pale as alabaster. She looked away and at the nearest wall. "I didn't bring them with me."

"But what do you have trophies for?"

"Pyrrha's a big tournament champion from Mistral," Sunset declared.

Pyrrha looked embarrassed about it, for all that Sunset couldn't imagine why any more than she could imagine why Pyrrha wouldn't have brought at least some of her trophies with her. Didn't she realise how lucky she was? If Sunset had any trophies she'd have put them up for the whole world to see. But, as Pyrrha started fielding questions from Ruby about her illustrious career, Sunset turned away and got back to her unpacking.

That'll teach her to poke her nose where it isn't wanted.

She returned to unpacking the rest of her stuff. There wasn't much: a second-hand chess set that had seen better days, a cheap fold-up board, a couple of changes of cloths and a few cheap, dog-eared paperback books. And then, at the very bottom of Sunset's pack, there was the journal.

Something else I'm not sure why I kept, Sunset thought, as she nevertheless lifted out the handsome, leatherbound book - embossed with her cutie mark - with a slowness that suggested reverence. The magical journal that Celestia had given her so that they could keep in touch. Sunset hadn't used it since she came to this world, for all that this seemed like exactly the sort of situation that it had been designed for. She hadn't written a single word to her old teacher from this brave new world. She had been afraid of what Celestia might write back to her...and even more afraid that Celestia might not reply at all.

What would I have said to her, anyway? That I ran away in search of greatness and instead I found a world where I was treated like dirt on a boot-heel? That I was a victim of racism? That because of what I looked like I couldn't make it in this new world? That I was just a failure after all?

She would have pitied me, and out of pity she might even have invited me to come home.

But that kind of mercy would have made me smaller than any amount of anti-faunus prejudice could do. They could beat her, they could mock her, they could call her names, they could even arrest her, but they could not take her pride away from her. Only Sunset could surrender it, and that she would not do. She had no need to do so now, nor even to consider it. She was the team leader, she was a leader of men. She was on her way to a glorious future. She had only to lead, and to lead well, and all would be well in the garden of her ambitions.

Thankfully, no one had any need to teach Sunset Shimmer how to lead people. She had studied at the feet of Princess Celestia, who for one thousand years had ruled over the three races of ponykind wisely and well, and whatever Celestia's faults as a liar and a misleader of youth Sunset would never deny that she, Celestia, was a great leader. All Sunset had to do was emulate her teacher - which, as her former student, she was uniquely positioned to do - and everything would work out fine.

Admittedly, Celestia probably wouldn't have reacted to being embarrassed by embarrassing someone else, but give her a break it wasn't as though Celestia ever got embarrassed about anything. She didn't have anything to be embarrassed about, while Sunset did. But, in the main and starting now, Sunset would rule these creatures like a princess, with a firm hand and an air of detached serenity about her always.

She could tell Celestia that. She could write in the magical journal and let her old teacher know what Sunset Shimmer had made of herself. For I am a mare set under authority, having warriors under me, and to Ruby Rose I say 'Go' and she goes, and to Pyrrha Nikos I say 'Come' and she comes, and to Jaune Arc I do 'Do this' and he does it. Sunset could tell her that, and Celestia would reply to tell Sunset how proud she was, how glad that she had found her path.

Or she might not. She might respond with vitriol and shame. She might not reply at all.

No, Sunset would not write to Celestia; she couldn't bear to speak first only to be met with silence.

Sunset angrily shoved the journal under the bed.

"Aww, that's so cute!"

Ruby's excited squeal made Pyrrha look up from cleaning the chamber of Akouo to see what had caused. Sunset had seemingly decided to unpack her things before she maintaind her weapon - if she decided to maintain it, although it was far too early to say that she wouldn't - and had just deposited a stuffed unicorn toy at the head of her bed. Sunset looked at Ruby over her shoulder, and then looked away without a word.

"Is it a memento from home?" Pyrrha asked. She would be the first to admit that she was not good at smalltalk, but she very much hoped that that was merely the result of a lack of practice on her part. If she was to be more than the Invincible Girl, if she was to be Pyrrha Nikos during her four years at Beacon, then she would need to practice, and this seemed an innocuous thing to start a conversation over.

"No. My ex-boyfriend gave it to me."

"I see," Pyrrha murmured, even though she really didn't. She'd never had a boyfriend, and she suspected that even if she had found someone who could see the girl beneath the fearsome reputation her mother wouldn't have allowed her to date anyway. In truth she felt a little jealous of Sunset Shimmer in that moment: to have been seen for herself, valued for herself more than for her accomplishments. No one had ever given Pyrrha a silly stuffed animal. She didn't have gifts from old boyfriends or mementos from home to personalise the room with. To distract herself from the certain sense of melancholy that she could feel within her, Pyrrha cast about for something else to say. "You still care for him, then?"

"Pfft, no!" Sunset said so loudly that she was practically shouting. Pyrrha knew that she had said the wrong thing even before Sunset physically rounded on her, cheeks flushed and hands on her hips, although she didn't exactly why what she had said was so wrong and so frustrating to the other girl. "As a matter of fact, I'll have you know that I broke up with him, and I could care less about that stupid jackass now. I just...Anyway, what about you? I bet you've got a shelf full of trophies to unpack, don't you?"

"Ooh, you have trophies?" Ruby cried.

No. No, no, please no, not like this, not already. Pyrrha could feel her face, and her entire body, turning cold and pale. It had been going so well and now it was all going go wrong so quickly. Jaune had been unaware of her reputation, and Ruby had seemed the same way and she had been so, so glad of that. She'd accepted that they would find out eventually but she'd hoped that it wouldn't be until after they had gotten used to seeing her as a person, not a celebrity, and now it was all happening too fast and why had Sunset had to say that? Pyrrha looked away in embarassment. "I didn't bring them with me." She hadn't actually brought anything with her from home that she didn't strictly need to attend Beacon, but even if she'd had the choice her tournament trophies were the last things in the world she would have taken with her.

"But what do you have trophies for?" Ruby demanded, with an eagerness that Pyrrha could not help but resent.

"Pyrrha's a big tournament champion from Mistral," Sunset announced, and with that announcement turned away as though her work was done.

Pyrrha flinched. Now it would come, as it always did: the fawning, the adulation, the talking to her as though she were no more than an Atlasian robot designed to win battles. Was coming here pointless after all? She had hoped, given that the Mistral Regional Tournament was only widely reported on in Mistral, and outside that kingdom was only available on pay-per-view on the specialised sports channels, that she might find people who were ignorant and uncaring of her prowess and reputation. Now, as Ruby's luminous silver eyes widened, that seemed a vain and childish hope.

"Oh my gosh, I knew I'd seen those weapons before!" Ruby cried. "They were featured in issue four-oh-eight of Weapons and Armour! They did a whole feature on them, right? Milo and Akuou!"

Pyrrha's expression froze. That was honestly not the response that she'd been expecting. As a matter of fact she had done a feature for Weapons and Armour shortly after her third tournament victory, or rather she'd taken Milo and Akuou down to a studio where a professional photographer had taken a lot of pictures of them and intern had asked her a few questions. It had been probably the most relaxing press visit she'd ever had to do, they'd even hired a professional model to pose with the weapons rather than her. Pyrrha wasn't even sure that any of her quotes had appeared in the article itself.

She was surpised. Demographically speaking Ruby Rose was...not the target audience for Weapons and Armour magazine. "You read that?"

Ruby nodded excitedly. "And now that I've seen it in action I've got to tell you that the transformations are amazingly fluid! Did you design it yourself? Did you build it yourself? How long did it take?"

"I can't claim complete credit for the design," Pyrrha murmured. "My mother had some input. But I assisted with every stage of the manufacture, even if I didn't do all the work." She ran her gloved fingers across the flat of Akuou's blade form. "Our weapons are conduits for our aura, and for that reason I believe it's important that they have a little piece of our soul inside them."

"I know, right!" Ruby yelled. "I mean, I didn't come up with my Crescent Rose out of nowhere, I saw my uncle Qrow's Harbinger and it was a big inspiration, but I still built it because not building my baby would have been like...I don't know. That's why I named her Crescent Rose, because she's a part of my family."

Pyrrha smiled. She couldn't claim to know exactly what Ruby meant, but she understood the sentiments and there was nothing wrong with them. And she couldn't help but be grateful that Ruby, in her focus on Pyrrha's weapons, hadn't yet asked about Pyrrha's tournament triumphs.

In fact she didn't seem to care.

Perhaps...it was very early days, and impossible to say for certain but perhaps...perhaps this might just work out after all.

Jaune emerged from the bathroom to find everyone else in his new team hard at work. Sunset was silently cleaning out the cylinder of her gun, while Pyrrha seemed to be letting their hands work on autopilot while they carried on a conversation.

"So why do you only have five rounds for your rifle, it doesn't seem like a lot. Even Sunset has more than that."

"We experimented with more, but we found that any more than five rounds affects the balance in sword or spear form; and, honestly, I mainly use the rifle mode as a back-up of last resort. I prefer to close with my opponents, and no arena is too large to make that practicable."

"Ah, so that's why you don't use dust rounds either."

"Precisely."

"But don't you think that when fighting grimm it's good to be able to do as much damage as possible before they get close?"

"I admit that I don't have a huge amount of experience fighting grimm, but from what I saw in the Emerald Forest they don't let you see them coming if they can avoid it."

Ruby cocked her head to one side as though she were considering the point. "I suppose that you've got a- oh, hey Ja-" she paused, stared at him for a moment, and then burst out laughing so hard that she fell back onto her bed clutching her sides.

"What?" Sunset looked up, with an expression on her face as though she suspected someone might be laughing at her. "What's going on?"

"What are you wearing?" Ruby demanded in between high-pitched cackles of laughter.

Jaune sighed. It was the onesie. Of course it was the onesie. He honestly should have seen this coming, given that it had Pumpkin Pete's face on it and it was, well, a onesie, but all the same - "It's really comfortable!" he protested.

"It has bunny slippers!"

Jaune shuffled in discomfort. Pyrrha's expression was as inscrutable as she was silent, while Sunset was giving him a look that reminded him uncomfortably of his sisters.

And then she pulled out her scroll and took a picture of him.

Jaune recoiled from the flash of her scroll. "What was that for?"

"I want to immortalise these halcyon days of our youth," Sunset said, in a voice that couldn't have sounded more insincere if she'd stuck a /s tag on the end of her sentence. "So who's the bunny?"

"That's Pumpkin Pete!" Jaune cried. How could anyone not know who Pumpkin Pete was, where had seen been living? "You know, like the cereal?"

"I buy the store brand because I'm cheap," Sunset said. "But I'll take your word for it."

Jaune made his way over to his bed and sat down heavily upon it. Ruby's laughter was starting to die down now, but it rang in his ears all the same. He looked at her, and at Pyrrha, and then looked over his shoulder Sunset.

Do I really belong here? Do I really belong with them? Ruby and Pyrrha were both awesome, and even Sunset was pretty cool even if she wasn't in their league, but he was just...he was just Jaune. How could he so much as help them, let alone by the hero straight out of his dreams?

Look at how dedicated they are. "How can you guys work on your weapons at a time like this?" he asked. "Aren't you tired?"

"The first thing Uncle Qrow taught me after I got Crescent Rose was how to take care of her," Ruby said. "He told me 'You have to look after your weapon, kid, or she'll let you down when you need her the most.' Like, the scythe might not unfold properly, or the gun might jam."

"Oh," Jaune said. "Should I...I don't know, sharpen my sword or something?"

"I wouldn't advise doing that wantonly," Pyrrha said, calmly and patiently. "You'll wear out the blade if you sharpen it unnecessarily. I...don't think that you wore out the blade today."

There was no malice in what she said, but her words pricked him nonetheless with a reminder of his general uselessness. That feeling only lingered as he sat, pointless, as the girls worked around him.

He was grateful when they were all done and Sunset turned out the lights.

Tomorrow was another day, after all, and things could only get better.

Ruby lay on her side in the bed, with the silk of her grimm-eyed sleep mask pressing against her face and blocking out all the light that might have gotten in through the crack in the curtains. She had no idea if the others were asleep or not. It had only been a little while since the lights went out.

Despite being in a room with four other people, Ruby felt lonelier than she had ever been in her life. That was nothing against her new roommates, her new teammates, she was sure that they were all great people and she hoped that they'd all become friends, but...this was only the second night that she'd spent away from home in her life, without Yang and Dad and Zwei all within yelling distance. This was the first night that she'd spent without Yang nearby. Even though her big sister was in the same school as her, with their teams split up they were she might as well be on the other side of anima when curfew hit.

She'd wanted this. She'd wanted it so badly but now that it was actually here, she...she missed home. She missed Dad, she missed her stuffed grimm on the walls - maybe he could mail them to her? After all Sunset had a stuffed unicorn - she missed her room, she missed having Yang next door, she missed Zwei, she missed...she missed home. She missed her friends from Signal, and she hadn't even written to them today! She'd do it tomorrow, she promised. Because she missed them, she missed all of it.

Maybe this was what Yang meant when she said Ruby needed to break out of her shell: that she needed to stop being such a baby about this stuff? But Ruby couldn't help feeling homesick and if she did then so what? Why was that a bad thing? Maybe - hopefully - Beacon would start to feel like home eventually but right now home was home. And she missed it.

Goodnight, Yang. Goodnight Dad. Night, Mom.

Ruby's arm hung out over the bed, and as Ruby shuffled under the covers her fingertips brushed against the wall. She frowned under her sleep-mask; something didn't feel quite right. There was something...carved into the wall? Ruby pulled off her mask and squinted into the dark where her fingers had found the disturbance. The broken moonlight slipping past the scarlet curtain was too dim for her to properly see what it was.

"Guys, can I put the lights back on for a second?"

"Why?" Sunset demanded.

"Because I need to see something, it will only take a second."

Sunset grumbled wordlessly for a moment. "Okay, I'll do it." Ruby heard the sounds of someone getting out of bed and padding across the floor before the lights flicked on.

Ruby blinked against the sudden brightness for a second. Then she saw what it was that she'd felt on the wall. "Whoa," she gasped. "Guys, come on, check this out."

Pyrrha was out of bed much faster than Jaune, but eventually they all crowded around Ruby's bed, standing over her and looking down at the wall beside her, into which had been carved the initials S T R Q, and above the letters the symbols of a rose, a fiery heart, a raven and a crow.

A smile blossomed across Ruby's face. "This is amazing." I can't wait to tell Yang about this.

"Uh...I kinda feel like I'm missing something here," Jaune said.

"Former students, one would assume," Pyrrha said. "Occupants of this room before us."

"Not just any former students," Ruby said, as she ran her fingers over the letters. "This S, that's for Summer Rose, my mom. The T is for Taiyang Xiao-Long, my dad. And that's uncle Qrow, right there." This was Mom's room, and Dad's too and they shared it with Uncle Qrow, and with Raven, Yang's... Ruby wasn't entirely sure how to think about Raven. It felt wrong to think of her as Yang's mom; apart from anything it made them sound less like sisters and besides, Mom was Yang's mom. Ruby pushed the unanswerable question out of her mind. This was Mom and Dad's room. They had slept here, where Ruby was sleeping now. It felt more homely and less alien to her already, as though her parents and her uncle had each left a piece of themselves behind here to comfort her.

She beamed up at her teammates, until her smile faded upon the abrupt realisation that this discovery so fascinating and important to her meant less than nothing to them. "I...I'm sorry, guys, I just-"

"Hey," Jaune said, with an easy smile. "We get it. And you know what? I think it's pretty cool. I bet they're all badass huntsmen and huntresses now, right?"

"Yeah," Ruby said. "Uncle Qrow's one of the best. My Dad mainly teaches at Signal now, but he's still really strong."

Jaune nodded. "And your mom?"

"Mom...mom's not around any more."

Jaune's face fell so quickly it was as though a bottomless pit had opened up beneath it. "Oh. Oh, Ruby, I am so sorry, I'm such a-"

"It's okay, really," Ruby said quickly, before things got awkward. "You didn't know, so it's all good, right?"

"The dead are not departed while their memory endures," Pyrrha said softly. "Your mother lives in you, and all who loved her. For it is in passing that we achieve immortality."

"Uh, thanks."

Sunset turned away. "Nobody move," she said peremptorily, even as she herself went back to her bed. She grabbed her Sol Invictus, but with her back to Ruby it was impossible to see exactly what she was doing until she turned back around, sword bayonet in hand.

"Okay, make some room," Sunset commanded, as she walked down the room and jumped onto Ruby's bed.

"What are you doing?" Jaune asked.

Sunset rolled her eyes. "You mean to say it isn't obvious? Come on, guys, what do you think I'm doing?" She jabbed her bayonet into the wall and began to work it, until over the STRQ emblems she had carved the letters S A P R, and over the S in SAPR she had carved a blazing sun divided down the middle.

Sunset passed the bayonet to Jaune. "Make your mark, bunny boy."

Jaune got onto Ruby's bed, and into the wall he carved the mark of a double crescent. Pyrrha went next, and over her initial she delicately carved a spearhead striking upwards. Ruby was the last to be handed the bayonet, and with a slightly trembling hand she carved a rose identical to the one her other had left before her.

Silently, she handed the sword bayonet back to Sunset.

"There," Sunset said, as their shadows fell upon the wall and the initials and the marks that they had made. "Now, when we four are all badass huntsmen and huntresses, whoever has this room then will be in awe that we used to sleep in this room."

"And we'll stay friends, like Dad and Uncle Qrow," Ruby said.

"Yeah," Jaune said.

"Let's not go nuts," Sunset muttered. "We should get to bed." She turned away.

Ruby lay on her side, staring at the marks that her parents had made, and the marks that her team had made, as the others returned to their own beds. The lights went out, and the bedroom was plunged into darkness once more.

A smile lingered on Ruby's face. "Goodnight, Jaune."

"Goodnight, Ruby."

"Goodnight Pyrrha."

"Goodnight Ruby," Pyrrha said. "Goodnight, Jaune."

"'Night, Pyrrha."

"Goodnight, Sunset."

Silence.

"Godnight, Sunset."

Silence.

"Psst!" Jaune hissed. "Sunset!"

Sunset's voice came lazily and slowly. "Seriously? We're really doing this?"

"Come on, don't be like that."

Sunset sighed. "Goodnight, Ruby."

Goodnight, Mom.

Sunset lay on her bed, hands crossed beneath her head, staring up at the dark ceiling above her.

Goodnight, my little Sunbeam. Sweet dreams.

Sunset scowled. She was a grown woman now, she didn't need Mommy to wish her good night or tuck her in or make her hot chocolate with marshmallows in.

You're not my mother. And I was a fool to ever forget that.

She needed to look to the future now, not the past. Celestia was behind her, her team was the future.

If Celestia is behind me then why does she yet loom so large in my mind?

Sunset rolled over onto her side. Because I'm here because of her, in the end. Because all that I have done and sought to do has been because of her influence. Sunset's youth had been a lingering for the crown. All her studies, all her accomplishments, all of it had been designed to bring her to the point where she would ascend and be exalted amongst ponies. And in the end it had happened to someone else, to Cadance that insipid, soppy mare, and Celestia had confessed to her that all of it, her dreams, her future, her glorious destiny...it had all been a lie.

I refuse to accept that. Sunset knew that Celestia was wrong, she knew that she had greatness in her even if her mentor would not acknowledge. So she had run and run, through the mirror to a new world, in search of glory.

She hadn't found it yet. Sunset still lingered for a crown to rest its burnished laurels on her brow, but it would come. It would come as sure as spring to chase away the cold that gnawed at her, and when it came the crowds would cheer out her name as sweet as nectar and ambrosia of the gods of Remnant: Sunset! Sunset! Sunset! Would that not fill up the emptiness that dogged her? Would it not fill the empty vessel of her spirit to overflowing. It must, for if it did not...what would?

Sunset turned her mind from this uncomfortable topic of self-reflection to reflect instead upon the characters of her new team-mates. Ruby and Pyrrha had much potential to be her instruments, strong and swift and skilled with their array of weapons. Sunset was far less convinced of the usefulness of Jaune Arc, but she was stuck with him now so doubtless she would find some use to make of him. They would all serve her purposes for she would allow none of them to get in her way.

They were her team, and like a team of pegasi they would pull her chariot and carry her to glory.

Pyrrha had risen early out of habit; slug-abeds would win no acclaim, as her mother used to put it, and so from her early youth she had been accustomed to rise with the lark on the wing and the snail on the thorn.

Jaune and Ruby had still been asleep, though Sunset had been awake and reading something on her scroll; the light from the screen illuminated her face in an expression of stern intensity.

Pyrrha padded lightly across the floor, and cleared her throat mildly enough to attract the attention of her team leader, but not loudly enough to wake their slumbering companions. She gestured towards the bathroom.

Sunset waved one hand, which Pyrrha took to indicate that she was free to use the shower first. She nodded in thanks, and proceeded inside. She placed the folded pile of her clothes neatly in one corner – covered with a towel for protection from any steam that might escape the shower – and undressed in the privacy of the enclosed space.

Once inside the shower, Pyrrha allowed herself one brief moment of stillness, letting the hot water cascade down her back and limbs, washing away all weariness and tension, washing away what had come before and opening up the new day to new possibilities.

I have three team-mates now. Will I have three friends?

She hoped so, but it was so early to say. At least Jaune and Ruby didn’t seem to care very much about her reputation as the Invincible Girl: Ruby was more interested in Milo and Akuou than in her, and Jaune only recognised her as a girl on the cereal box. There was a chance – no more than a chance, not yet, but better than she had been given in a long time – that they might see Pyrrha Nikos, and appreciate her for whatever she was, as a friend and not merely a warrior and a winner of trophies.

If there is anything beyond my skill at arms to be appreciated.

Pyrrha shuddered. That was her darkest and most secret fear: that the reason no one could see her, see beyond the legend of the Invincible Girl, the reason why nobody could treat her like a person was that there was nobody there at all. Nothing to like, nothing to love, nothing to appreciate or befriend: just an empty suit of armour and a powerful semblance.

She hoped she was wrong. She hoped so very much that she was wrong.

But she couldn’t be sure.

But, if there was anything to Pyrrha Nikos besides the reputation carefully cultivated by her mother, then Jaune and Ruby had come closer to seeing it than most others.

As for Sunset Shimmer…Pyrrha wasn’t sure what to make of her. She seemed more aware of Pyrrha’s reputation than the other two, but she did not seem in awe of it. Rather…

I’m sure she didn’t mean anything by it. I hope she didn’t mean anything by it.

Pyrrha shoved the thought to one side. She had used up her moment. Time to get to work. She showered quickly, dressed almost as fast, and was out the bathroom again within twenty minutes, her appearance immaculate and her hair smelling of ylang ylang – which was supposed to enhance feelings of confidence and peace – blended with lemon and grapefruit oil.

Jaune and Ruby were still asleep, as she saw when she left the bathroom. She glanced at her watch: it was not quite six-thirty. The cafeteria didn’t open until seven. “I’ll see you all at breakfast,” Pyrrha whispered to Sunset as she started for the door.

Sunset said nothing, which Pyrrha took to mean that she had no objections to her leaving.

Pyrrha left their dorm and strode quickly but quietly across the corridor and down the stairs. It was early autumn, and the days had not yet begun to darken. The sun had been up for a few hours before her, and the curtains could not hold back all of the golden light. She liked this time of year, when the days were bright but the world was empty, when she could walk in the sun but not be troubled by people who saw only a celebrity over whose life they had some claim, to treat as if she were a friend but without the consideration of her feelings paid to friendship, to demand affirmation of, to treat as an object belonging to them.

At this time of day she could walk through the school and not be followed by whispers or glances, she could have no photographs taken of her, no selfies demanded with her. She could walk completely undisturbed.

Although she couldn’t say she liked the fact that she could only do this was because there was no one around at this hour.

Pyrrha’s feet carried her to the fountain, and to the statue of the two hunters above the Beowulf that sat in the centre of it. And before that statue, before the two warriors who had gone before her in defending humanity from the monsters that prowled the wilds, Pyrrha closed her eyes and meditated. Here, in the peace of the early morning, beneath and the sun and in the presence of those who had walked this honoured path before her, she sought to elevate her mind and soul alike.

She breathed deeply. She could feel her aura burning within her, fully recovered after yesterday. It was light, a light within to burn away the darkness that lay all around her.

They are the darkness, and we are the light.

The brightness of my soul will burn away all shadows.

I will burn until all darkness has been cleansed by the illumination of my light, even though the struggle should consume me.

For it is in passing that we achieve immortality.

By my shoulder I will guard the world.

It had never been about the tournaments, for her. Perhaps for her mother it had been different, for she who had failed to achieve tournament success in her own youth the trophies and the acclaim had been ends in themselves but for Pyrrha…her destiny, the road which she meant to walk to its conclusion was a higher path. A harder one, perhaps, but more worthy all the same. She would take the skills that she had learned for the aggrandisement of her name and she would use them to defend the world.

She might not have the life that she desired, she might not be seen as anything more than a title, but she had been blessed with speed and strength and – she hoped – courage and she would use those gifts to defend humanity from the demons that threatened it.

For good or ill or a mix of both it was her destiny.

Pyrrha remained there, meditating upon higher things, for some time, until she began to hear the first few footsteps of students making their way to the cafeteria for breakfast.

She joined them, they were not a crowd yet – too few were early risers for that – but there were enough of them that she could hear them whispering about her as she made her way into the dining hall.

“Is that Pyrrha Nikos?”

“Yeah, that’s the Invincible Girl from Mistral.”

“I heard that she’s never even taken a hit.”

“She’s sure to come top in her year.”

“Whoever got her on their team really lucked out.”

“And she’s gorgeous too.”

Pyrrha frowned. None of these people knew her, none of these people even cared to know her but they felt free to whisper about her, to gossip about her, to say whatever they felt like about her as though she had neither ears nor feelings of her own. She was public property, and no more real to them than a picture in a magazine.

She glanced at the cold counter: her own face stared back at her from a box of Pumpkin Pete’s Marshmallow Flakes. Pyrrha’s dismay at her own fame was momentarily overshadowed by concern at the fact that such an unhealthy breakfast option was being offered at an elite academy for training the finest warriors.

She got herself a mixture of meat (sausage and bacon) and fruit, plus a glass of orange juice, and sat down at one of the many empty tables.

She was just about to make a start when-

“Is this seat taken?”

Pyrrha looked up to see Yang Xiao-Long, the expansively-haired leader of Team YRDN, looking down at her.

“Be my guest,” Pyrrha said softly.

“Don’t mind if I do,” the other girl said, as she set her tray down – she had a stack of pancakes with seemingly every available topping piled on them - with a thump and seated herself. “Pyrrha Nikos, right?”

Pyrrha was fairly certain that Yang knew that already, but she nodded gently all the same. “That’s right.”

Yang held out her hand. “Yang Xiao-Long, good to meet you; I’m Ruby’s sister.”

Pyrrha’s eyebrows rose a fraction. “Really?” She never would have guessed, although perhaps she should have now that she recalled the way that Ruby cheered when Yang was made team leader, and the way that Yang had acknowledged Ruby on her way off the stage. At the time, she had thought that they were old friends.

Yang grinned. “Yeah, don’t let the names fool you.” She wiggled her fingers. “You gonna leave me hanging out here.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Pyrrha said quickly, taking Yang’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Yang.”

Yang’s grip was firm. “Don’t worry about it, any friend of Ruby’s is a friend of mine.” The grin on Yang’s face didn’t falter, but it did recede from her eyes just a little. “Of course the reverse is also true.”

Pyrrha stared blankly at the other young woman. Was Yang threatening her? It was quite a novel experience; nobody had threatened Pyrrha for the last three years. It had been two years since anyone had so much as trash-talked her in the arena.

It was rather refreshing; for all that it was in this instance undeserved. Pyrrha smiled. “I give you my word, I have no ill intentions towards Ruby.”

Yang’s eyebrows rose, and her overall expression was more bemused than anything else. “You give me your word? Okay. You’d better mean it though, because-“ She leaned forwards. “You wouldn’t like me when I’m yangry.”

Pyrrha stared at her.

“Yangry?” Yang said. “Get it, because my name is- oh, forget it.” She cut a piece off her stack of pancakes and shoved it into her mouth. She mumbled something, but due to all the food in her mouth Pyrrha had no idea what she was trying to say.

“Excuse me?”

Yang swallowed. “Do you know where Rubes is?”

“She was still in bed when I left,” Pyrrha replied. “I got up early, but our team leader was about to wake the others when I left.”

Yang nodded. “Right. Well, I’m kinda glad we had the chance to have this little talk before she showed up. I mean I came down early in case I could catch one of you. Hey, guys, over here!” She stood up and waved to the other three members of team YRDN, who quickly grabbed their breakfasts and sat down on either side of Yang, all facing Pyrrha as though they were interviewing her for a job of some kind.

“So, this is my team,” Yang said, spreading her arms wide to encompass the three new arrivals at the table. “Dove, Nora, Ren. Guys, this is-“

“Pyrrha Nikos,” Dove said, holding out his hand. He was the only one sitting on Yang’s right, with Nora and Ren upon her left. “Dove Bronzewing, it’s a great honour to meet you in person.”

Of course it is. “Likewise,” Pyrrha said quietly, and took his hand.

“I saw you defeat Hector in the final round of last year’s regional tournament,” Dove went on, oblivious to Pyrrha’s mounting discomfort. “It was a great fight; he never stood a chance.”

Pyrrha said nothing. Personally, the fact that Hector had never stood a chance against her was the reason it didn’t stand out for her as a particularly great fight, but she wasn’t sure how to explain that to a stranger. Frankly, she would rather change the subject to something – anything – else.

Fortunately, she was somewhat rescued at that moment by the arrival of Ruby and Jaune, who sat down on either side of her facing the members of YRDN.

“Hey, Yang,” Ruby said as she sat down. Pyrrha saw that she was still wearing her red cloak over her uniform. “I see you met Pyrrha already.”

“Yup,” Yang said. “I was just laying down the law for her before you showed up.”

“Yang!” Ruby whined.

Yang laughed as she reached across the table and ruffled Ruby’s red-tinged hair. “You may be on a different team from me, but I’m still your big sister.” She looked at Jaune. “And you…Jaune, right?”

“Jaune Arc, yeah.”

“You got a girlfriend, Jaune?”

“Yang!”

Pyrrha hesitated, finding herself to be genuinely curious as to the answer. Jaune was comely, with a handsome face and a disarming manner; she found it hard to believe that he didn’t have a girlfriend, or that he would have trouble finding one if he did not.

But there was a part of her, a part that she had not expected, that wished that he didn’t.

She had never had a boyfriend, she had never been on a date; it might be nice to try it at least once. An image of a mystery man, faceless and unknown, taking her dancing flashed through Pyrrha’s mind. For a moment, his face became that of Jaune Arc.

“Well, I mean, not exactly, but- Weiss!” Jaune called out, waving to Weiss Schnee who had just entered the cafeteria. Her team surrounded her like bodyguards, Cardin Winchester in particular looming over her with a particular presence. Flash Sentry looked at the YRDN-SAPR table with a frown of disquiet. Miss Schnee herself glance at Jaune, and then turned away with her nose in the air, leading her team to a different table some distance away.

Jaune let out a dispirited sigh.

“Oh, right, the initiation, yeah,” Yang said apologetically. “I, uh…” she stared at Jaune for a moment, with his head bowed and his face crestfallen. “So, yeah.” Pyrrha was left wondering why Yang had raised the subject if she wasn’t going to pursue it further, and why Ruby looked so relieved.

Although a part of her felt a surge of pity for Jaune, another part of her was…almost glad.

“Hey, Yang,” Ruby yelled. “You’ll never guess what I found in our dorm last night.”

“What?”

“It used to be Mom’s room!” Ruby cried. “We found their initials and symbols carved into the wall: STRQ, that’s Mom and Dad and Uncle Qrow and...“ Ruby trailed off, her excited expression suddenly turning embarassed, possibly a little nervous for reasons that Pyrrha's couldn't begin to guess at. Who was this R, and what was it about her that had this effect on Ruby?

Yang frowned for just a moment, and a shadow passed over her face. “Yeah, and I can guess. But that…that’s amazing, Rubes. Like it was meant to be or something.”

“You should come by and check it out after classes. We carved our own names up there too, you know, for the future.”

Yang grinned. “Sounds cool. I’ll swing by and take a look.” She reached out and ruffled Ruby’s hair again, ignoring her little sister’s protest. “I’m proud of you, little sis.” She glanced at Pyrrha, and at Jaune. “So…where’s your fearless leader got to?”

Sunset was in the bathroom, putting on her face while she considered the question of expectation.

Having woken up before Jaune or Ruby or even early-riser Pyrrha, Sunset had taken the opportunity to do a little research on her team-mates. What she had found was both encouraging and challenging. She had known that she had been blessed – for a certain value of the word - with two talented teammates (the jury was still out on Jaune Arc), but a cursory amount of research had made clear what she had not quite comprehended before, not only how talented they were but also how high profile as well.

Pyrrha Nikos was not just a tournament champion; she wasn’t just a girl with her face on a cereal box. She had literally never lost a fight in her life, not even in the kiddie leagues. She was a celebrity in her home country, and her decision to attend Beacon rather than Mistral’s own Haven Academy had made the news; great things would be expected of her at Beacon beyond doubt. Sunset knew a little bit about that herself from her time under Celestia’s wing and personal tuition, knew what it was like to have those expectations riding on your back, to be in a position where to be average was to be considered a failure because the personal bar for your success had been raised so much higher. But Sunset’s own concerns were too immediate for her to spare much empathy for Pyrrha Nikos. The point was that if those expectations were not met, if Pyrrha did not exhibit the expected greatness and live up to the accolade of being the most gifted student to grace the hallowed halls of Beacon in its history, then there would be no shortage of apologists willing to blame her conveniently faunus team leader for squandering her potential.

And then there was Ruby Rose. Ruby’s profile was not so high as Pyrrha’s, not by a long shot, but nevertheless her early admission into Beacon had made the local news in the island backwater she called home, and the news that a fifteen year-old would be attending Beacon had warranted a modest article in Vale’s leading newspaper. Ruby also had expectations riding on her, Ruby could also not be average if she wanted to prove that she deserved her place at this academy.

There might not be so many apologists ready to blame Sunset’s leadership if Ruby screwed up, but Sunset had no doubt that they would be there.

It was the dark flipside of being leader: if your team succeeded, you got (some of) the credit; if your team failed you got all of the blame, especially when you’d lucked into leading a team with the Invincible Girl and the child prodigy.

All of which meant that Sunset Shimmer had work to do.

If Celestia could see me now, having to play well with others in order to get ahead, she’d probably laugh at the irony.

But I’ll make it work somehow. It isn’t like I have much choice.

She finished applying her eyeshadow and examined herself in the mirror. Was it the face of a leader: yes it was, for all that the school uniform didn’t do much for her.

One day they won’t be able to talk about Pyrrha Nikos without mentioning Sunset Shimmer in the same breath.

By the time that Sunset arrived at breakfast, Pyrrha was finished and Ruby and Jaune were halfway there, but they all waited for her – as did Team YRDN, led by Ruby’s sister – while she ate her fruit quickly and in silence. Sunset wasn’t sure about the wisdom of fraternising too much with their rivals, but with Yang and Ruby being sisters there wasn’t much that she could say against it at this stage.

Sunset said nothing while she ate, but cast her gaze across Yang Xiao-Long and her team-mates. Nora Valkyrie talked too loudly and said too much, while Dove Bronzewing seemed a bit of a stuffed shirt; Lie Ren said nothing at all. And Yang…was there some way that she and Ruby could be separated from one another, emotionally? Could she turn them against one another and ensure that Ruby’s loyalty was only with the team and not with her sister? Possibly, but was the reward worth the risk? Quite probably not. If Sunset got caught then it would shatter the team, not to mention what Yang might do. Sunset didn’t know her well enough to say whether picking a fight with her would be a wise idea or not.

She would let it lie for now, and see how things played out. If the sororal closeness started to damage the team she would act, but for now she would simply observe.

Grimm Studies was the first class of the day, taught by a man who felt the need to have a gleaming gold bust of himself in his own classroom and who had managed to send half the class to sleep by the time he had finished his introduction.

Sunset nudged Ruby with her elbow, perhaps a little harder than she had intended, in order to wake her up before her snoring became too obvious. Just because the professor was restating the obvious – yes, Vale and the other three kingdoms are safe havens of humanity, we know, we live in them, get on with it – didn’t mean that they weren’t going to get on to the meat of the subject soon.

“But first,” Professor Port declared. “A story.”

Jaune groaned. Ruby bowed her head. Even Pyrrha, though she present the image of a model student, seemed to be somewhat disheartened by what she heard.

Sunset gripped her pen a little tighter – she still got hand cramps from the weird way in which humans held their writing instruments, but using her telekinesis instead was a drain on her magic that she couldn’t always afford – and prepared to take notes.

“A story of a brave, handsome man,” Professort Port continued. “Me. When I was a boy…”

Sunset scribbled away as he talked, using a shorthand that she had developed in order to keep up with Princess Celestia’s lectures. She glanced at her team, seated to her right, out of the corner of her eye: Ruby was doodling some kind of picture; Pyrrha was taking notes half-heartedly, and sparsely; Jaune looked like he’d fallen asleep.

Sunset rolled her eyes. Didn’t they get it? Hadn’t they ever had a teacher who conveyed their lessons through stories before? Celestia used to do it all the time. Admittedly, Port wasn’t telling his story very well, and Sunset couldn’t say for certain what the lessons that he was trying to convey were, but that was why she was taking notes on everything that he seemed to focus on: so that she could read it back later and get the point.

If she had to guess, right now Sunset would have said that it had something to do with the grimm rattling around in the cage in the corner of the classroom.

He’s telling a story about a beowolf, and then he’s going to let a beowolf out into the classroom and we’re going to have to use the knowledge from his story to kill it.

That makes sense.

She gave Ruby another hard nudge and gestured angrily for her to pay attention.

Ruby just grinned as she showed off a stick figure drawing of Professor Port, complete with smell lines.

Sunset let out a faint groan. This is going to be hard work, isn’t it?

“The moral of the story,” Professor Port said.

Ah, here we go.

“A true huntsman must be honourable.”

Honour? We’re fighting monsters not other people, and even if we were other people then what matter honour so long as we win? Are we supposed to be bow to the creatures of grimm and offer them the chance to take the first shot?

This isn’t going to be like all of those times when Celestia would tell a story and then finish up by telling me the importance of friendship even though that made no sense at all, is it?

“A true huntsman must be dependable.”

Weiss Schnee sniffed, and when Sunset glanced at her she saw the white-haired girl was looking sceptically down upon Team SAPR.

Oh, like your team is so much better? You’ve got a guy who wouldn’t even stand up for his girlfriend on your team, what gives you any right to talk about dependable?

“A true huntsman must be strategic, well-educated and wise.”

Sunset smirked at Weiss, just to pay her back for that little sniff. Judging by the scowl on her face, Weiss didn’t appreciate it too much.

“So, who among you believe yourselves to be the embodiment of these traits?”

Sunset’s and Weiss’ hands shot up into the air at the exact same time. “I do, sir!”

The two of them looked at one another. Weiss’ expression, from where she sat high up in the back of the classroom, looking down on Sunset, seemed to suggest that she ought to back down in favour of the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company.

Bite my tail, princess. This is my first chance to show what I can do and I’m not going to yield place to you.

“Oho, eagerness!” Professor Port declared jovially. “Always a pleasure to see that the future huntresses who will defend our kingdom rearing to go. Alright, Miss Shimmer, step forward and face your opponent.”

Better luck next time, Weiss.

One quick change later and Sunset was out of that uniform and back into her leather jacket and jeans, with Sol Invictus in her hands as she stood facing the cage with the beowolf inside.

It was definitely a beowolf. The professor’s story had been about beowolves, so it only made sense for the monster they had to face at the end to be a beowolf.

And beowolves were easy to take care of.

Someone neighed at her. Sunset ignored them; greatness attracted envy, but the jealousy of lesser creatures was something that she had dealt with from her earliest youth.

“Go Sunset!” Ruby cheered. “Represent Team Sapphire!”

“I plan to,” Sunset murmured. And in so doing represent myself.

Professor Port smashed the lock with a single swing of his axe, and from out of the darkness of the cage burst…a boarbatusk?

“What the-“ Sunset had no time to wonder on what in Tartarus the point of the story about beowolves had been when the boarbatusk charged at her, snarling and snorting.

No time to shoot. Sunset dropped to one knee, resting the stock of Sol Invictus on the ground, keep the bayonet pointed at the swiftly onrushing boarbatusk.

The grimm was almost upon her, all four of its eyes gleaming as it leapt.

Sunset flicked the switch that extended the bayonet outwards like a spear, the blade shooting out on the end of eight feet of steel pole. The boarbatusk was struck in mid-leap, and though the blow didn’t break through the armoured mask that covered its face it did knock it back, squealing as its trotters kicked at the air.

Sunset grabbed it, enveloping it with a soft green glow and holding it in place with telekinesis, keeping the soft underbelly of the beast presented as she drove her spear into its guts.

“Bravo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true huntress in training.”

Of course you are, was there ever any doubt? Actually, Sunset did have some doubts, but not about her own performance: if you were always going to let out a boarbatusk, what was the relevance of a story about a beowolf?

Over the course of the first week or so at Beacon, Sunset had learned a few things about her team and about the other teams that made up this year’s first year class.

The first was that she did not like Weiss Schnee and Team WSTW one bit. And it wasn’t just because it was the team that her ex was on, either; in fact that had absolutely nothing to do with it, not one bit. The sight of Flash hanging around with little Miss Schnee, rich and beautiful and privileged, left her absolutely cold. It filled Sunset with resentment not at all.

No, her problem with WSTW started and finished with the fact that they were awful.

This was first demonstrated in the first combat class, when Professor Goodwitch was explaining the purpose and uses of the rocket-propelled lockers for summoning equipment in the heat of the moment.

A series of panicked, spluttering cries drew her attention to Jaune, who was being stuffed into his locker by Cardin Winchester.

“No! Wait! Get me out of here!” Jaune yelled as Cardin entered a six-digit code into the holographic display. “Don’t do it!”

Cardin stepped back with a smug look on his face as Jaune’s locker started to take off. Trailing blue smoke, the locker ascended – about a foot up off the ground where it stopped, enveloped in a glow of green energy.

Sunset scowled as he stretched out her magic to hold the locker in place. She could feel the locker straining against her, she didn’t need to see the blue smoke expanding across the floor to be able to feel the pressure on it to move, to ascend upwards as commanded. It was taking a lot of power to hold it steady, telekinesis was one thing but matching magic against kinetic energy was something else altogether. Sunset could already feel a headache coming on, a throbbing in her head from keeping Jaune in place against the full force of the rocket trying to carry him away.

“Pyrrha! Ruby!” the pain in her head sharpened her voice like her bayonet. “Get him out of there!”

Pyrrha was the first one to reach the locker, shoving Cardin roughly aside as he held up her spear, Milo. “Jaune, is your aura activated?”

“…yes?”

“I’m sorry,” Pyrrha said, as with a single strong thrust she jammed Milo into the locker door and used it like a crowbar to lever said door open. She and Ruby pulled Jaune out at which point Sunset could stop holding it still and let the locker fly off to wherever Cardin had sent it.

Jaune’s spare gear fell out of it as it fell, but it would only be scattered across school grounds. Hopefully.

Sunset clutched at her head with one hand, while Jaune coughed from the blue smoke that had pooled on the floor as a result of the rocket.

“Would have been more fun to watch him fly,” Cardin muttered, before flinching away in the face of Pyrrha’s furious glare.

Sunset stalked forwards, the headache from how she’d just exerted herself making her feel even fouler than the act itself and lending greater pronouncement to her scowl. Celestia had lied to her, and a lot of what she’d tried to teach Sunset had been complete and utter nonsense, but she had taught Sunset a little about noblesse oblige, you had to protect your servants or they wouldn’t serve you for very long.

And besides, she hated letting other people mess with her stuff.

Her hands clenched into fists. “If you-“

“That’s quite enough,” the voice of Professor Goodwitch was not loud, but it was firm enough to reduce all others to silence. “Mister Winchester, perhaps a detention will give you time to think about why your unprovoked attack on a fellow student was unbecoming of a student at this academy.”

Cardin growled wordlessly.

“Team Sapphire,” Goodwitch continued. “You would do very well to build upon the level of teamwork that you just displayed.”

Cardin looked even more incensed than he had seemed before. “Professor-“

“Yes, Mister Winchester?” Professor Goodwitch demanded, staring at him from over the top of her spectacles.

“Nothing,” he muttered.

“The pony probably wants a sugar lump,” Russell said.

“Russell! Cardin! That’s enough out of both of you!” Weiss snapped, in a voice that cracked like a whip. Sunset had to concede that she was impressed at the way that Weiss managed the difficult feat of looking down at someone who was nearly twice her height. “Need I remind you that your actions reflect not only upon yourself, but also on this team?” She glared at them both, as if daring them to speak. When they did not, she turned away and advanced primly across the locker room towards sunset and SAPR.

The cold blue eyes of the Schnee heiress swept over Ruby and Jaune, and lingered for a moment on Pyrrha. She looked Sunset, and her nose wrinkled in distaste. Her jaw clenched for a moment before she held out her hand. “On behalf of my primeval team-mates I apologise,” she said, and if she had left it there then it might have ended, except that she also added. “However, I must say that if your team-mate is so weak that he can be treated in such a way then perhaps he should reconsider his place at Beacon.”

Jaune looked shame-faced, and it was Ruby who spoke for him, crying, “That’s not fair, Jaune was taken by surprise and-“

“And do you expect the grimm to announce their presence before attacking?” Weiss asked. “You should have been more vigilant.”

“Vigilance is one thing, but that is not the kind of behaviour one should expect from comrades in arms,” Pyrrha declared.

“Of course not, but-“

“Look, if you want to apologise then apologise,” Sunset snapped. “But I’m not interested in hearing this and I doubt anyone else is either.”

Weiss recoiled. “Who are you to- fine.” She folded her arms. “I feel sorry for you, Pyrrha, to be held back by team like this. It’s such a shame.” She walked away before anyone from SAPR could respond.

“Don’t listen to her, Jaune,” Ruby said encouragingly.

“Anyone can be taken by surprise,” Pyrrha said.

Jaune didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t argue the point. He just stood there looking crestfallen for the rest of the day, although whether it was due to his perceived weakness or because his crush had just burned him Sunset could not have said.

It started to seem as though if Cardin had the opportunity to do something petty, then he would – so long as Weiss wasn’t around. When she was, he stayed on something approaching his best behaviour, or as much as a lout like him could manage, but when she wasn’t then there was no act so low he wouldn’t stoop to, no prank too petty for him to pull – sometimes literally, like the times when he grabbed her tail and yanked on it so hard she nearly lost her balance.

“I told you it was real.”

Sunset would have thrown him across the room, except that she knew from bitter experience that she would get blamed for starting a fight far more than he would get blamed for provoking one. So she smouldered and seethed and waited for the opportunity to get him back for it.

Jaune was the other target of Cardin’s malice, against which he seemed thoroughly helpless. Which brought Sunset on to the second thing that she had learned in the first few days at Beacon: Jaune Arc sucked at absolutely everything and it was making Sunset absolutely furious.

He couldn’t fight, he got his ass handed to him every time he stepped into the arena against absolutely any opponent in Professor Goodwitch’s combat class. The fact that he was an absolutely wretched fighter who could barely hold his sword without chipping away at his own aura might have been forgiven if he’d displayed a brilliant grasp of the academics but no: he was failing Professor Oobleck’s history class and he wasn’t much better in any of their other classes either. The only class so far that Sunset had seem him display so much as basic competence was in Professor Peach’s wilderness survival class, where he did know how to set up a camp, make a fire and various other things that Sunset didn’t. But that was not, in Sunset’s view, enough to compensate for is inadequacies elsewhere.

The fact that he was useless at almost every aspect of the Beacon curriculum might, in itself, have been forgivable if he was applying himself but simply running up against the limits of his ability. Sunset might have not actually forgiven him for this given how her future was riding on the success of the team, but someone might have found it in their hearts to forgive him regardless. But no, the guy was as lazy as a toad and on any given night he was more likely to be found reading a stupid comic book than doing the homework.

It didn’t help that, in Sunset’s opinion, Ruby and Pyrrha mothered him relentlessly, offering encouragement when he needed criticism, smoothing away the hard edges of his failure and inadequacy. He might have been their baby brother instead of their team-mate.

Or perhaps they both just had a crush on him.

“Why do you two both coddle him so much?” Sunset demanded on the morning of the first Monday since initiation, when Jaune was in the shower. “He’s dead weight and he’ll drag us all down if we let him. I don’t get why he’s even here.”

“Because he wants to be!” Ruby yelled. “Because I bet that this has been his dream as long as he knew what it meant to have a dream. So what if he isn’t a great warrior right now, that’s what we’re here to learn, isn’t it? We just have to work hard and get stronger together!”

“Oh, come on,” Sunset said disdainfully. “You need to get real about this; the power of friendship isn’t going to compensate for the fact that he barely knows how to hold that sword of his.”

“Maybe not now, but he can learn,” Ruby said.

“Can he?” Sunset demanded. “Pyrrha, back me up on this: he has too far to go and there isn’t enough time.”

Pyrrha sat on her bed, hands folded in her lap, her head bowed slightly, not looking at either Ruby or Sunset. “I…I’d like to believe that, so long as we’re prepared to put our hearts and souls into working towards our final goals, there are no limits to the destiny that we can achieve.”

“That’s not how destiny works.”

“That’s the destiny that I believe in,” Pyrrha replied firmly. “And I believe in Jaune. I felt his aura when I activated it, he has so much potential; more than anyone I’ve ever met.”

I remember when I had more potential than anyone Celestia had ever met. Much good it did me and I was prepared to work hard. And what is the deal with him not knowing anything about aura, anyway? How could he be so ignorant and still get through the admissions process?

Sunset folded her arms. “Potential is all very well, but he’s not using it.”

“Neither was I,” Ruby said. She hugged her red cloak tight about her as though it were a blanket. “When I started at Signal, I was a mess. I hadn’t discovered my semblance, I couldn’t fight. People told me that I should give up on my dream of becoming a huntress. They told me that I just wasn’t cut out to it. But my Uncle Qrow…he believed in me. He told me what I needed to hear: that I could become a huntress. And because he took me under his wing, here I am: I got into Beacon early because my uncle believed in me, and now we have to believe in Jaune and help him to be the best he can be.”

Just because you have a dream doesn’t mean it will come true, Sunset thought bitterly. Although…wasn’t that why she was here, in the end? Wasn’t that why she had crossed worlds, left home and hearth and all she knew behind, given up her very physical form and exchanged it for another, why had she done all that except to defy the unfairness of having held onto a dream in her heart for half her life only to be told one day ‘sorry, kid, it was all for nothing’? She was here to seize her destiny, key word there being ‘seize’: she would take by force what fate (and Celestia) had denied to her, raising her fist in anger at its cruel decree. If she could be drawn to Beacon for such a purpose, then why not Jaune Arc too? Perhaps, in the end, she felt a little prick of conscience, or a moment of empathy, either way she scowled and muttered. “Fine. I’ll let it go for now. But…he’d better start to show some improvement, for all our sakes.”

And then there was Ruby. Ruby Rose, the young prodigy herself. In combat she was something else, second best in the whole year easily. Watching her from the bench…well, you didn’t really watch Ruby fight, on account of her semblance. It was more like watching a succession of moments of some poor sap getting their ass kicked as Ruby slowed down enough for you to catch sight of her. A part of Sunset wondered how a fight between Ruby and Pyrrha would go, and was a little disappointed that she was unlikely to ever see such a wonder with her own eyes.

On the other hand, academically speaking she was almost as bad as Jaune; actually that was unfair to Ruby, she wasn’t quite so ignorant and – unlike Jaune – she was willing to put the effort in…some of the time. Mostly, Sunset was inclined to attribute it to having missed two years of the classes she was supposed to have taken at Signal.

But mostly…Ruby was still the team-mate of whom Sunset had the least to say, whom she felt she understood the least. She was nice…but nobody could be that nice, surely. There had to be something underneath, something that Ruby was hiding from everyone. Nobody could be that purely good, nobody could want to help people unironically enough to state it as their motivation. That kind of old-fashioned hero wasn’t around any more, if they’d ever existed in this world or any other. Ruby didn’t talk much about herself, which might indicate that she was hiding something, but at this stage Sunset couldn’t guess what that might be.

Sunset couldn’t say she had a handle on Ruby Rose just yet, in any sense. She loved her sister, and there was something going on with her Mom but apart from that…Sunset wasn’t sure. Just like she wasn’t sure that she’d be able to beat Ruby in a fight if it came to it. In fact she had some serious doubts that she was keeping to herself. The kid was just so fast. The first step to beating her would to be shut down her super-speed somehow but…how? Sunset had gone over it time and again in her head but all she could come up with was to throw a shield around herself so Ruby couldn’t hit her. And then…and then what? That wouldn’t help Sunset in the long term, since she wouldn’t be able to hit Ruby either.

Fortunately, the random match-ups in combat class didn’t seem to pick out team-mates to fight very often, but Sunset had been betrayed too often by those she trusted a good deal more than Ruby Rose to feel comfortable not having some kind of plan. Except on the basis of Ruby’s combat performance, a plan to take her down was eluding even Sunset’s great brain.

And last of all there was Pyrrha; Sunset had learned a few things about Pyrrha Nikos, starting with the fact that she was a complete badass. Every combat class with Professor Goodwitch where her name was called gave proof of that, but the moment that really hammered it home for Sunset was when she tossed Cardin Winchester up into the air like a tennis ball then proceeded to leap up after him, grabbed him by the neck and piledrove him head first back into the stage so hard that the floor cracked under the impact. Yes, Professor Goodwitch was able to repair the stage again with a wave of her riding crop but solar-powered Celestia! Sunset had been left staring, open-mouthed, and secretly feeling a sense of gratitude that the ‘random’ match-ups appeared to be tuned towards avoiding pitching members of the same team against one another.

As Ruby and Jaune cheered, Sunset was silent. Pyrrha wasn’t just good she was a battlefield force of nature. How was anyone supposed to stand against that? What possible good was it doing for anyone to have her fight in the combat class sparring matches, she couldn’t possibly be learning anything.

How could I last more than a few seconds against her?

Some people might have dismissed the question, but Sunset could not. Just because they were on the same team didn’t mean that their goals aligned, and Sunset had been betrayed too often by those who were much closer to her than Pyrrha Nikos was. And, frankly, Pyrrha was starting to get on her nerves enough that she would almost have wanted to fight her if it hadn’t been for the unavoidable and seemingly unbridgeable gulf that existed between their abilities.

As she watched, Pyrrha offered a hand to help Cardin up to his feet. The big guy refused, picking himself up without aid. Pyrrha looked mildly troubled by his poor sportsmanship, as though it was strange to her that someone who had just been so thoroughly humiliated wouldn’t particularly feel like accepting pity from the victor. In the losing position Sunset wouldn’t have wanted pity any more than she would have offered it if she’d been the victor.

“Miss Nikos, superlative work as always,” Professor Goodwitch said. Adding to Sunset’s sense that Pyrrha got less than nothing out of this class was the way that the professor never even had anything to comment on in terms of her performance and ways that it could be improved.

Sunset couldn’t be sure if Pyrrha nodded or bowed her head in shame. “Thank you, professor.”

“Mister Winchester,” Professor Goodwitch continued. “Your movements continue to be sloppy and imprecise. You would have given Miss Nikos a much harder time of it had you not left yourself open and off-balance at so many points during the bout.”

Cardin’s face twitched with irritation, but he said nothing.

“And that’s all that we have time for today,” Professor Goodwitch declared. “I’ll see you all next time.”

As Pyrrha made her way off the stage, she was mobbed by admirers congratulating her on her stellar performance. It was always like that when she was around. She really was a genuine, bona-fide celebrity. Wherever she went there was always at least one person who wanted a picture of her, or a selfie with her, or an autograph from her or just to pester her for a little bit. She took it all in stride, reminding Sunset a little of Celestia at times as she dealt, politely but distantly, with the various hangers on that she seemed to pick up like barnacles accruing to the bottom of a ship. But she clearly didn’t like it, that was clear to Sunset from the way that she held herself, from looking into her eyes, from every nonverbal cue that Pyrrha was sending off and it was driving Sunset up the wall even worse than Jaune’s general uselessness because what in Celestia’s name did Pyrrha Nikos have to be upset about?

Honestly, it was enraging. It was the main reason why Sunset had holed herself up in the library rather than going back to the dorm-room because it felt as though if she saw Pyrrha right now then she was going to scream at the ungrateful little wretch.

Seriously, what did she have to be upset about? She was talented, famous, beautiful, everybody knew her name and everybody wanted a piece of her. She was the object of rumour, whisper and desire, widely-accepted as the most talented student to grace Beacon Academy in years, if not since it’s foundation. Greatness was predicted for her from every quarter, nobody could wait to see what she would become and all they wanted was some memeto to prove that they had known her in her youth before she became even more famous than she was going to be later. And yet she had the gall, she had the utter self-centredness to mope about it? To show disquiet, to not love every single moment of it? Why in Tartarus not? Didn’t she realise what Sunset would give to have everything that Pyrrha had?

I did have everything that she had once, and it was stolen away from me, Sunset thought. I’d give my right arm to get it all back again: the fame, the glory, the adulation and the idolisation. All the things that I want and must struggle to my utmost limits to regain are the things that she has and treats as burdens to be borne with clear reluctance. Little brat. How can she not appreciate all the good things that she has?

It was bad enough that Pyrrha had the nerve to be in possession of all that Sunset desired, bad enough that she was more talented than Sunset, bad enough that the destiny that Sunset was so desperate for had pretty much dropped into her lap like a ripe plum but she didn’t even like it! It was maddening, and it was especially maddening because there was nothing that Sunset could do except stew in the unfairness of it all and marinate in her resentment at the rank ingratitude that Pyrrha displayed every single moment of her life.

She couldn’t take what Pyrrha had and make it hers, it didn’t work like that. Worse, Sunset would have to work with her, and help her gain even more acclaim that she wouldn’t treat with the respect and gravity that it deserved, while Sunset fed off the scraps from her table like a dog. It was unfair. It was monstrously unfair. It was an injustice that cried out to the heavens for redress.

Why should I, who long for the limelight to shine once more upon me, dwell in this detestable ignominy while she stands always in the light of the sun and casts disdainful looks towards it?

Why should she have what I want, when she isn’t even using it properly?

Sunset looked with a frown at the book that sat on the table in front of her. No school textbook this, but the magical journal that she had brought with her from Equestria. It was sitting in front of her because…because, honestly, she had no one else to talk to about this stuff.

No one to talk to but a magic book that a faraway princess might read.

Sunset almost hoped that she didn’t. She almost hoped that she didn’t come back to Sunset and tell her ‘I told you so’ or ‘You can come home’ or ‘You should embrace the magic of friendship’ or anything else. She just wanted – she felt as though she needed, before she blew up from trying to contain them – to pour out her thoughts and her resentments before they grew too much for her to hold in.

She wanted to bare her soul, she didn’t want her old teacher to examine it.

Did she? If she just wanted to keep a journal then she could keep a journal. Did she want to hear from Celestia again?

Did she want to be forgiven?

Did she want to be told that, after everything that had passed between them, her teacher still believed in her?

Sunset didn’t know what she wanted or didn’t want any more. All that she wanted was the destiny that she had been denied.

And to be heard.

Sunset opened the book to the first blank page and began to write. She wrote about Jaune and how annoying it was how she was afraid that he was going to negatively affect their team grade average – how could he not? She wrote about Ruby and how darn nice she was and it was weird. She wrote about how she had to lead this team, even though she didn’t like them all that much and wasn’t really a team leader kind of person but more of a loner (but you knew that, didn’t you princess?). Most of all she wrote about Pyrrha: wonderful Pyrrha, talented Pyrrha, destined for greatness Pyrrha, Pyrrha who had everything that Sunset had so longed for…and didn’t even seem to care that she had it.

Sunset poured out her frustrations upon the page, she set down all the thoughts that whirled about her brain…and then she stopped. She stared at the magical diary for a moment. Nothing happened. No word came from Celestia. No reply for good or ill.

Nothing happened except that Sunset felt a little emptied out of all her troubles, and in the emptying she felt…actually a little bit better. She actually felt as though she could go to the dorm room and not explode at Pyrrha for the way she was behaving.

Sunset put the journal back in her bag, and started to rise from her seat.

The book started to shake, which could only mean one thing: someone was replying.

Sunset swallowed. She felt a chill forming in the pit of her stomach, anticipation filling her with dread. Celestia was replying to her. The princess had something to say.

Good or bad, Sunset couldn’t say. She could only fear.

I guess there’s only one way to find out for certain.

Sunset reached gingerly for the book in her bag. She hesitated, and cursed herself for hesitation.

Come on, you can fight monsters but you can’t do this.

The worst the monster could do is kill me. Celestia could disapprove.

She probably does.

Maybe, but you won’t know until you open the stupid book, will you?

Sunset scowled as she screwed her courage to the sticking point, pulled out the book, and opened it.

Um…I don’t mean to be rude, and I’m sure that it took a lot of effort for you to write that and I don’t mean to make light of it, but…who are you?

Sunset stared at the writing in front of her, and blinked. Had…had Celestia forgotten her? Had she forgotten all about Sunset Shimmer, her prize student, her little sunbeam?

I know we kind of left things in a bad way but I thought she’d at least remember me, even if it wasn’t fondly?

All the time they’d spent together, all the memories they had shared…was nothing worthy of remembrance?

You’ve forgotten me. Sunset wrote in the diary. She was unsure whether to add a question mark at the end or not. It seemed fairly clear that Celestia had, indeed, forgotten. You don’t remember me at all.

Should I? Sorry, I only got this book recently. What’s your name?

She gave the book away, Sunset thought. She gave our book away. The book so that we could keep in touch and she just…what, did she throw it out? Did you hate me that much? Were you glad to be rid of me in the end?

She wrote with more force than necessary. I’m Sunset Shimmer; who are you and how did you get this book?

I was given it by Princess Celestia, as part of a large collection of books, came the reply. I’m the princess of friendship, Twilight Sparkle.

Sunset stared at the book, lying open on the table in front of her. She stared at the words written on the page.

The Princess of Friendship

Princess

Sunset's eyebrow twitched. Another princess? A princess of friendship no less, that power that she had counted for nothing? She was reminded uncomfortably of Cadance, whose sudden arrival at Celestia's court had marked the point at which things started to go wrong for Sunset Shimmer, the point at which the cosy pattern of her life had started to crack and the marked out road leading to her destiny had started to seem less certain than before. And now, it seemed, there was another princess in Equestria. This Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, who had taken the prize that ought by rights have belonged to Sunset.

Another princess in Equestria.

Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Who was she, this Twilight Sparkle who came between the crown and Sunset's hopes? Where had she come from, what had she done, why did she have Sunset's journal?

Why had Celestia given her Sunset's journal?

Did all our days mean so little to you, princess, that you would cast aside our only means of connection and bestow it on this...this interloper?

Why did you give her the book? What purpose could it serve for her? Why did you think that I'd want to talk to her instead of you?

Why would you treat me like that, cast me aside in spirit as well as in fact?

There was a part of her that wanted to run. There was a part of her that wanted to weep. There was a part of her that wanted to throw the book away and forget that this had ever happened.

There was a part of her that wanted to scream in rage because after everything that had happened to her recently this was just too much. It didn't matter that her own ambitions had been denied years before Twilight Sparkle came upon the scene, it didn't matter that Celestia had denied her destiny to her, it didn't matter that Sunset had no idea who this pony was and she in turn had never heard of Sunset because it was too much. It was much too much. Coming on top of Jaune's inadequacy and Pyrrha's ingratitude and Weiss' haughtiness and the racism of Cardin Winchester it was almost more than Sunset could stand.

Perhaps she should have expected this, that someone would seize the destiny from which she had been barred. But she had not wanted to think on that and so she had told herself that there was no one like her, that in all worlds she was unique and uniquely suited to the crown and to her glorious destiny alike. Now the world itself reminded her it was not so.

Sunset felt in that moment like the whiteface clown, humbled and humiliated for the delight of the braying creatures in the gallery.

The Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle.

Sunset wanted to run and scream and rage and fight. Wrath and melancholy blended in her soul in equal measures. With a trembling hand, fearful of what fresh shocks might break upon her but at the same time unable to escape her desire to know for certain, Sunset picked up her pen. She had to be careful not to grip it too tight, for she was in such a mood as she could have snapped it in two if she wasn't careful.

A princess, Sunset wrote. That's fascinating. Do you know Celestia well?

Oh, yes, came the reply from Twilight Sparkle. I was her personal student until I...ascended, I suppose you might call it. What about you, how do you know Princess Celestia?

Sunset didn't reply. She didn't move. She didn't speak. She didn't scream although a part of her wanted to now more than ever. Another part of her wanted to write more in the journal, to make more demands of Twilight, to find more answers. She had been Celestia's student. Another student of Celestia. Of course. Sunset knew that she hadn't been the first but she had thought...she had been vain enough to hope...but no, Celestia had taken on another pupil and she hadn't even mentioned Sunset to her, not even once. Twilight Sparkle didn't recognise her name. Princess Twilight Sparkle had no clue who she was, or that they shared the same connection to Celestia.

Did you live with her, in her palace? Sunset wanted to ask. Did she tuck you in at night, did she read you bedtime stories, did she care for you when you were sick, comfort you when you were sad, did she call you by a nickname? Did she take you in when you had no one else, did she provide for you and care for you?

Did she tell you that you were destined for greatness and for glory?

Did she love you as...did she make you think she loved you...does she love you?

And do you appreciate what a wondrous gift you have in her love?

Sunset realised that she was crying, she could barely see for the water in her eyes that was streaming down her face. She whimpered as she wept, weeping for the lost promise of her early days and all the good things she had in vain and prideful folly cast aside; things that she had not realised just how much she missed till she discovered that they had passed beyond recall and settled on another.

I have been robbed. While I have been on a journey Twilight Sparkle has not only burgled my house but taken up residence within it.

Sunset couldn't remain there. Tears in her eyes she fled, leaving her book behind and all her things as she ran for the door. Lie ren stood in her way, but with a single hand she pushed him to the ground - he landed on the floor with a startled shout - and ran on, her boots thudding like drumbeats on the floor as she ran out of the library and into the courtyard. She ran on, hoping to reach her dorm-room; she was going to lock herself in the bathroom and there hide her shameful weakness from the world.

"Look out!"

She didn't see him until it was too late, she caught a glimpse of the flash of gleaming armour, she felt the cold hard metal as she collided with it and then suddenly she and the other person had gone sprawling on the ground together in a tangled heap. Sunset wasn't hurt, her aura was more than sufficient to prevent injuries from such a fall, but as if her pride wasn't injured enough.

"Woah, watch where-Sunset?"

It was Flash. Of course it was. Of all the people that she could have run into - literally run into - it would have to be Flash Sentry wouldn't it. She had knocked his books all over the ground, and with a touch of her magic Sunset gathered them all together into a rough heap so he could pick them up more easily. She didn't want him to demand she stay and help him, she didn't want to stay here for another moment longer. She leapt to her feet and started, eyes still filled with tears, hair askew, towards her dorm-room.

"Sunset, wait!" Flash called. "I just...can't we talk for a minute?"

"What do we have to talk about?" Sunset snapped.

"Just because I'm on a team with Cardin and Russell doesn't mean I'm like them," Flash declared. "I want to apologise for the way that they've treated you and your team. It isn't right."

"I don't want to hear it, Flash, I don't have time for this!" Sunset yelled.

"You never want to hear it, that's why- Sunset, are you crying?"

Sunset flinched away from him, hiding her face behind her long, fire-streaked hair, trying to use it like a veil that concealed what he had already set eyes upon. "No."

"Sunset," Flash murmured. He sounded so concerned, and when he used that voice Sunset was reminded of how she had believed - how she had let herself believe, how she had convinced herself - that he cared about her. "What's the matter? Has something happened, maybe I can-"

"What?" Sunset yelled. "Maybe you can help me, is that what you were going to say? I don't need your help, Flash. I never needed your help, and you know that's a good thing because you never helped me anyway!" Her fury burned in her hotter than the fire in the belly of a dragon, and because she could not burn Princess Twilight Sparkle to a crisp she vented out her fire upon Flash Sentry. "I don't need you help and I don't need anything from you! Nothing at all, I never did!" Sunset's whole body shuddered, as if in pain. She was in pain, the pain of all her sorrows wracked her like cramps. "So you...you can take your pity and you can shove it! Or...or better yet, why don't you try your white knight act out on Weiss Schnee and see if she appreciates it." She turned and fled. "Leave me alone, Flash, I'm done with you!"

She ran, heedless of Flash calling her name, until she reached her dorm room. She fumbled with her scroll until the door opened and she rushed inside. It was empty. Good. She would hide from the others, from every hostile eye and ear - which was all of them - until she was herself again. Until she re-assembled the mask she wore that Twilight Sparkle had shattered with her revelation.

Sunset grabbed the pillow off her bed - knocking that stupid stuffed unicorn to the floor as she did so - and screamed into it, screaming out all the rage and frustration that she had not vented upon Flash Sentry. Robbed, replaced, usurped, humiliated...forgotten by the person who had mattered most to her in all the world, her dreams denied and her possessions given away like things of no account. She screamed her rage and her sorrow both alike, she felt such emotions and so strongly that she was probably attracting half the grimm in Remnant right now but no matter. Let them come. She'd fight them all and even if she got gobbled up by a beowolf at least she wouldn't have to feel like this any more.

And then she retreated into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her as she hid in there with her tears and her pillow and her rage for company.

Another princess in Equestria. Equestria had another princess, and no reason to think of her any longer. Celestia had a new daughter, and no reason for care for the prodigal child who had run away from home.

You're not my mother. I was a fool to ever forget that.

It was your choice to make me love you, though it was my choice to believe that you loved me in turn.

This is so unfair.

There was a knock on the door. “Sunset? Are you okay in there?”

Sunset didn’t reply. She wasn’t okay, she wasn’t anywhere close to being okay, she was so far past okay that she could barely remember what okay felt like…but she wasn’t going to admit it, not to Ruby, or to any of them.

Ruby knocked again. “Sunset…Flash found me-“

“Flash needs to mind his own business!”

“He was worried about you,” Ruby said. “He said that you were…he said that you’d been crying? Is something wrong?”

“Why do you care?” Sunset snapped.

“Because…because you’re my partner,” Ruby said. “Because we’re team-mates, and if we have problems then we should solve them together.”

You poor, dumb, naïve kid, Sunset thought. How can someone whose Mom went and left her when you were just a kid still not know how cold the world really is?

“Sunset?” Pyrrha asked nervously. “I went and brought your things from the library where you’d left them, in case you didn’t feel like getting them yourself.”

Sunset’s eyes widened. The book! Pyrrha had the book! She might even have read it and if she had…if she had then she’d know all of Sunset’s secrets, she’d know exactly why Sunset was so upset.

Sunset leapt to her feet, a cold sweat descending down her back as it attempted to douse the fresh-aroused fires of anger that leapt up within her gut. Pyrrha had the book. Pyrrha had her book. Pyrrha had taken her book, her special book, her connection to Celestia! Yes, Celestia had given away her end to Princess Twilight Sparkle but that didn’t mean it was okay for Pyrrha to go around taking Sunset’s stuff.

Sunset threw open the door and snatched the journal out of Pyrrha’s hands before she could take a step backwards. “Did you read it?” she demanded.

“Sunset-“

“Did you read it?” Sunset snarled.

“No, I-“

“Good. Don’t,” Sunset snapped, shouldering past Pyrrha and Ruby and depositing the journal under her bed. “And don’t touch any of the rest of my stuff, okay? It’s mine, it’s private. If I want to go and get it back out of library I will and if I want to leave it there then I’ll do that to!”

“Sunset, Pyrrha was just trying to help,” Ruby said reproachfully. “What’s really going on?”

Sunset took a deep breath. “What’s really going on?” she repeated. Where to even start. “What’s really going on?” She looked at Pyrrha. Everything about that Invincible Girl was enraging to Sunset right now, from the milksop look on the pretty face to the reputation that hung around her shoulders like a cape, to the circlet gleaming on her brow that far, far too much like a crown for Sunset’s liking. In Sunset’s mind she didn’t just see Pyrrha Nikos but Twilight Sparkle, too, the mare she had never heard of who had come from behind to take away everything that Sunset had ever wanted, everything that ought to have been hers, everything that had been promised to by fate: her destiny.

“You know what’s really going on?” Sunset shouted. “You know what the problem is, the problem is you! You are the most ungrateful person I have ever met, do you even realise how lucky you are?”

“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Pyrrha began.

“Oh, I bet you don’t, you really don’t get it, do you?” Sunset snarled. “You have hordes of admirers hanging off your every word, you get followed by glances and whispers wherever you go, you’re a subject of press coverage and gossip magazine speculation! You have fame, glory, celebrity, you have everything that anyone could ever wish for-“

“Oh, do I?” Pyrrha demanded, her own voice taking on a slightly aggressive tone.

“Um, guys-“ Ruby began.

“Yes, you do, of course you do,” Sunset said. “You’ve got everything that everyone wants, you’ve got everything that I want but do you appreciate it? Do you? No, you don’t, you act like it’s such a burden to be loved by so many-“

“They don’t love me,” Pyrrha cried, her voice cracking with anguish. “Is that…is that what you call love? I haven’t had a single meaningful relationship with anyone who wasn’t my mother in my entire life, I haven’t had the chance to form any because I’m constantly being put on a pedestal that separates me from the people who put me there-“

“Oh, boo fricking hoo!” Sunset said, her lips curling into a sneer. “Go cry into your trophy cabinet and take a look at the crown you stole from me while you’re at it!” She halted, if only for a moment. Why did I just…who am I talking to here?

“Sunset!” Ruby yelled.

“Do you think any of the people who ask for my autographs really know me?” Pyrrha asked. “Or that they even want to? I don’t have any friends-“

“So what?” Sunset demanded. “Friends are overrated.”

“That’s enough!” Ruby snapped. “Sunset…why are you acting like this? We’re a team. We’re your team-mates. Pyrrha’s your team-mate. What’s wrong with you?”

“There’s nothing wrong with me, it’s the world that’s wrong!” Sunset yelled. Wow, even to me that sounded arrogant. “I mean…you couldn’t possibly understand how I’m feeling right now.” She stalked over to the door. “I just hate it when great gifts are given to those who don’t want or deserve them.” She slammed the dorm room door behind her as she left.

She didn’t know where she was going, but she knew that she couldn’t stay there.

Ruby clasped her hands together. She felt so helpless right now. She didn’t know what to say to Pyrrha, and certainly not to Sunset. She looked from the door, which Sunset had just slammed behind her, to Pyrrha who sat down heavily upon her bed and sighed. She bowed her head, and she looked so sad that Ruby was desperate to do something to help her, even if she didn’t know exactly what to do or say.

“Pyrrha?” she murmured.

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. “I suppose…I was far too optimistic about coming to Beacon.”

“What do you mean?”

“I thought…I thought that maybe here was a place where I could escape my fame and find…but it seems that my reputation has followed me here, for good and bad.”

Ruby frowned. “For whatever it’s worth, what you said isn’t quite true.”

Pyrrha looked at her. “I don’t understand.”

“You said that you didn’t have any friends,” Ruby said. “But…you’ve got at least one.” She smiled tentatively.

Pyrrha looked at her for a moment. Then, slowly and just as tentatively as Ruby, she started to smile back.

The doors to Celestia's throne room creaked open. The princess herself stood at the far end of the great chamber, atop the dais and just before the throne from which she had for a thousand years ruled wisely and well over the land of Equestria. Twilight advanced down the traverse, her hoof-falls soft upon the crimson carpet, and in spite of all of her accomplishments she still felt a touch of that habitual nervousness that she had always felt in the presence of her old teacher.

Twilight's friends followed her in, slightly trailing Twilight but also surrounding her as though they were her guards as much as her friends. In Twilight's saddle-bag, the magical book - Sunset Shimmer's book - weighed heavily. Why had Celestia requested that she bring it with her, and why had she asked the six of them to come to Canterlot to see her at once? Who was Sunset Shimmer, and how did she know Princess Celestia? And why had Celestia given Twilight the book that was meant to serve as their means of contact?

"Twilight," Celestia's voice was almost maternal in it's warmth, and as Twilight approached Celestia descended from the dais with a fond smile upon her ageless face. She craned her neck down to embrace Twilight, and for a moment student and teacher nuzzled each other warmly. "It's wonderful to see you again, to see you all," she added, including Twilight's friends in her greeting. "Thank you for coming on such short notice...and for telling me that Sunset Shimmer had made contact with you."

"Of course, princess," Twilight said. "But I don't understand, who is Sunset Shimmer? And, if this book was intended to let the two of you communicate over great distances then why did you give it to me?"

Celestia raised her head, and looked over the heads of Twilight and her friends into nothing, or perhaps into the past where Twilight could not see. For a moment she seemed to age before Twilight's eyes, and her eyes filled with sadness and regret. "Sunset Shimmer was a pupil of mine, just as you were," she said. "Before I taught you, I once taught Sunset."

Pinkie gasped, and indeed continued to do so until she ran out of breath and had to gasp for air.

"Just so we're clear, your highness," Rarity murmured. "When you say that you taught her like Twilight, you mean as more than just another unicorn at your school, don't you? She was your personal student."

"Indeed," Celestia replied. "Before Twilight, Sunset Shimmer was my personal student, my protege."

"But I thought you only took Twilight on as your personal student because of how powerful her magic was?" Fluttershy asked softly.

Celestia nodded. "That is correct, Fluttershy; however, Sunset's magic was every bit as powerful at Twilight's was, or close enough."

Pinkie gasped again, in a manner even more absurdly theatrical than before if possible.

"But...if that's true then why haven't I heard of her?" Twilight said. "Why hasn't anyone heard of such a talented unicorn? Why didn't you tell me about her, that you had a student before me?"

"Sunset strayed from that path a long time ago." Celestia closed her eyes for a moment. "Please, follow me, all of you. I will explain everything as we go."

She led the way out of the throne room via the rear door, leaving the other little ponies to follow her into the recesses ofthe castle. "I did not teach Sunset exactly as I taught you, Twilight. I was...more honest with her about what I expected, and what I believed that her destiny could be."

"You told her about ascension," Twilight said. "You told her that she could become an alicorn, and a princess?"

Celestia nodded. "I told her everything; that proved to be a mistake. The knowledge that she was destined for greatness caused Sunset's pride to swell, she became ungovernable, consumed by a sense of her own destiny and impatient of anything that seemed to deny her what she considered rightfully hers."

"She sounds impossible," Rainbow Dash said, causing all the rest of Twilight's friends to stare at her with incredulity upon their faces. "What?"

"You have no idea, darling," Rarity said dryly.

Applejack said, "So what happened next, princess? I could buy that maybe there was another princess we hadn't heard of yet, but knowing all of y'all like I do this Sunset Shimmer don't seem the type to earn wings."

Celestia chuckled softly. "You are as perceptive as ever, Applejack; that was the irony of Sunset Shimmer's life: that in her heedless impatience to ascend she rendered herself unworthy of ascension and cut herself off from the destiny to which she aspired. For a time I hoped that she could learn better, that if only she would repent and open her heart up to the magic of friendship then...but it was not to be. Sunset was running from something she could not escape, consumed by an emptiness that she could never fill. When it became clear to me that she would never ascend...she took it as a betrayal, and fled. That is why, when I began to teach you, I kept you ignorant of my hopes for you Twilight; I hoped that without that burden to distort your expectations you would grow without..."

"Without becoming like her," Twilight supplied. She shivered slightly at the prospect, that she could have become - and easily, so easily - just like the Sunset Shimmer of Celestia's account: proud, vain and headstrong, impatient with others and with the world, arrogant, heartless. The Sunset that was revealed through her own account, what she had written unbidden in the magical journal, seemed cut from the same cloth: full of complaints about these strangely named people Ruby, Jaune and Pyrrha without the slightest hint that Sunset had any flaws at all.

"Oh, come on!" Pinkie cried, wrapping Twilight up in a hug. "There's no way Twilight could ever become a meaniepants like that. No way no how!" Pinkie smiled, and placed a soft hoof on Twilight's heart. "Your heart's too good for it."

Twilight smiled back. "That's very kind of you, Pinkie, and sweet; but it's your friendship more than any innate virtues of mine that keep me on the right path." She didn’t really want to consider that alternative, the some people were just born good and others were just born evil. Not only was the notion anathema to her, after all she had witnessed Discord himself reformed and redeemed by a simple act of kindness but more to the point…if Twilight herself was born good, naturally and innately so and by that quality of innate nature suited for ascension and the crown then…what did that make her predecessor? Innately wicked? But how could Celestia’s choice of student fall upon someone whose soul had from birth been black as filth? Surely her teacher could not be so fallible. No, it was not so; it could not be so. Sunset had light within her, just as Twilight had darkness within her that the light of the friendships she had made drowned out and put to flight. Sunset had no one to perform such a signal service for her.

No one, it seemed, but Twilight herself.

"Yeah it is," Rainbow declared. She paused. "It's stuff like that, isn't it?"

"Quite," Rarity said. She cleared her throat. "But, Princess Celestia, when you say that Sunset left...where did she go?"

"What I am about to show you is one of the rarest, and possibly the most dangerous treasures of Equestria," Celestia said. Her horn glowed golden as she opened a door.

"Ooh, what is it?" Rainbow asked. "Some kind of cool weapon?"

The door opened. Inside was a mirror, an antique-looking but otherwise quite unremarkable seeming mirror.

"Gotta say, that's a bit of a letdown," Rainbow said.

Applejack pushed her stetson back on her head as the six ponies followed Princess Celestia into the chamber. "You did say this was one of the most dangerous treasures in Equestria, right?"

"This is no ordinary mirror," Celestia said. "For three days every thirty moons, this mirror becomes a portal to another world."

Twilight's eyes widened. "Another...world?"

Celestia nodded. "It was through the mirror that Sunset fled, when her destiny was denied to her. She sought to find in that world what had been barred to her in this one. For a time I thought that she might return some day, but...as the time passed that hope dwindled. The diary that you have was a way for us to stay in touch, since Sunset had no dragon assistant. It has been so long that I was not expecting her to make contact."

"I don't think Sunset was expecting a reply," Twilight said.

"I...I am glad to know that she is still alive," Celestia murmured.

"Still alive?" Fluttershy said. "Why wouldn't she be?"

"Yes, I must admit that sounds a little ominous."

"I do not know exactly what lies on the other side of the mirror," Celestia said. "But...I have felt a dark presence there, probing, searching. Sometimes I have even felt it watching me. I fear whatever lies on the other side of the mirror is a cruel place. I feared for Sunset there."

Twilight hesitated a moment. "Princess Celestia...what do you want to do now? With the diary, about Sunset?"

Celestia stared into the mirror, as if instead of her own reflection she could see through it to this fearsome world that lay on the other side. "That is not for me to say," she replied. "I have failed Sunset once already."

Of course it comes to me. It always seems to, in the end. And I am the Princess of Friendship, what does that mean if not that it is my responsibility to reach people like Sunset Shimmer. "I...I'd like to keep writing to her, if you agree, princess."

"Are you sure about this, Twi?" Rainbow asked. "I mean...this mare...she seems kinda nasty."

"She can't hurt me through a book," Twilight replied. "But maybe I can help her through a book, and if I can...I think I have to try." She hesitated, knowing what she had to ask but nervous about actually doing so. “Princess Celestia…is there anything that you’d like me to say to Sunset for you?”

Celestia closed her eyes, and her face was contorted with an expression of such profound sorrow and regret that Twilight in turn regretted having raised such painful memories in one whom she loved almost as a mother. For a while, Celestia was silent, seeming to wrestle with the past she had thought banished beyond recall. “Tell her…tell Sunset I am glad that she is alive, and that more than alive I hope that she is well and content. Tell her…and tell her…please tell her how very sorry I am, for all the things that I said…and all the things that I did not say.”

The book in Sunset's bag vibrated.

Sunset ignored it, and tried to concentrate on the book that she was actually reading. But the journal in her bag just kept on vibrating, humming like a scroll signalling that she had texts and every bit as irritating. It would stop for a bit, and then it would start up again.

Sunset wasn't in Beacon. It had been a day since she blew up at Pyrrha and somehow everyone - absolutely everyone, Sunset was inclined to blame Ruby telling her sister's team and Team YRDN for spreading it all around the school. I knew I should have done something to turn Ruby against her sister - Now everyone knew that she, a mere faunus, had dared to mouth off to the great Pyrrha Nikos.

To say that the reaction had not been kind to Sunset was an understatement. The whole of Beacon seemed to have taken sides and they had not sided with Sunset. Today it had been her turn to be followed by whispers including the words impudent, impertinent and the ever popular 'who does she think she is?' Sunset had even been asked that to her face at breakfast by Cardin Winchester, who had loomed over her while his henchman with the awful haircut hovered nearby.

Sunset was eating alone, she thought it was probably best for everyone and, in any case, there was no requirement for a leader to eat with their subordinates. Celestia didn't dine with her guards after all.

So she ate, in silence and alone, and tried to ignore Cardin's shadow blocking out the light and his obnoxious voice.

Cardin growled. "Hey!" he snapped, pulling on Sunset's tail hard enough to make her wince in pain. "I'm talking to you, pony!"

Sunset looked up at him, a look of cold contempt upon her face. "Don't do that again."

"You should watch your tone, pony."

"I'm sure you'd prefer me to call you boss, but I'm afraid that's not going to happen."

"Who do you think you are?" Cardin demanded. "To talk to humans that way, to talk to your betters that way?"

"I'm Sunset Shimmer," Sunset said simply. "I don't have any betters."

Cardin's face twisted into a scowl. "Listen, pony-"

"Call me pony one more time, I dare you."

"Pony."

Sunset smirked, and with a touch of telekinesis she hurled Cardin clean across the dining hall. He soared across the cafeteria with a cry of alarm, landing on an empty table recently vacated by Team BLBL. The table broke under his impact.

Silence descended over the cafeteria. Ruby, Jaune and Pyrrha were all staring at her, Flash had his head in his hands, Yang was grinning, Russell loomed as though he was about to wet himself. Weiss's eyes narrowed as she gazed at Sunset.

Sunset looked around the room, locking gazes with all of those who stared at her, all of these little people who wanted to put a collar on her because they couldn't stand the fact that she dared things they couldn't dream of.

I know you all, Sunset thought. I know you all and I have your measure too. With a snort of disdain she turned to stalk from the hall.

"Sunset," Pyrrha called, hair-raising from her seat. "I neither intended nor asked for this. I give you my word."

Sunset looked at her. She looked apologetic, but that neither proved nor signified anything. And besides, it didn't really matter whether she had intended it to happen or not. It had happened.

So Sunset didn't bother to dignify Pyrrha's mealy-mouthed apology with a response, but turned and walked away without another word.

She left the dining hall, and passed into the courtyard, where the fountain babbled away around the statue of the heroic huntsmen and huntress. Sunset paused a moment, looking up at the two warriors, and tried to pay no attention to the hostile stares she was getting.

"Discrimination is a terrible thing. I regret that we cannot make swifter progress in eliminating it from our society," Professor Ozpin said. Sunset turned to see that he had somehow snuck up behind her unnoticed. He leaned upon his cane, and sipped coffee out of a mug bearing the double-axe emblem of Beacon Academy. "That being said, I cannot approve of the employment of unregulated violence against fellow students."

Sunset threw back her head. "You can punish me if you want to, Professor, but you won't make me apologise."

"Hmm," Professor Ozpin murmured. "Miss Shimmer, I won't pretend to understand what you're going through, but will you permit me to give you a piece of advice?"

"If you like, Professor."

"You have been blessed with the leadership of an extraordinary team, Miss Shimmer; I believe that if you can work together you can accomplish great things here and beyond the walls of this institution. You yourself have the makings of a fine team leader. It would be a terrible shame if so much potential were to go waste over a petty argument."

Sunset was silent for a moment. "You were right, sir: you don't understand what I'm going through."

With classes done, Sunset had headed into Vale to avoid the hostility. She didn't like to think of it as running away, and she certainly didn't like to think of it as having crumbled, but...look, she was willing to put up with a lot of crap to get what she wanted but Sunset didn't see that she should have to, especially after going through Canterlot.

She had ended up in a faunus-owned bookshop named Tukson's Book Trade. Tukson had proved amenable to her loitering here as long as she paid for something first. And so Sunset sat on the floor in the corner of the shop, read a history of the Kingdoms of Mantle and Atlas and tried to ignore the buzzing of the magical journal in her bag.

"Shut up," Sunset growled at the book.

The bell above the shop door twinkled lightly as a pair of anxious looking faunus, a man with drooping bloodhound ears and a woman with a fox tail, walked in. They made their way gingerly to the counter.

Tukson didn't seem in the least bit fazed by the way this pair was treating entering a bookshop as something they could get in trouble for. Perhaps he was used to it.

Perhaps there were faunus who were like this all the time, crushed by cruel human rules. Sunset vowed to herself that she would never end up like that no matter what they did to her.

Tukson's voice was genial as he said, "Hello and welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book the world has to offer. Can I help you two?"

The man leaned forwards across the counter. "Do you have, uh, Third Crusade?"

Tukson's glanced at Sunset for a moment. The he smiled at the two faunus. "Why don't you follow me into the back and we can see what I've got for you." He lifted up a portion of the counter for them and ushered them into the back room. Sunset was left alone. She could have robbed the place if she wanted to.

The journal buzzed again.

Sunset scowled, and exhaled loudly. "Fine! Okay, you win." She snapped shut the book she'd bought and pulled out the journal. Her name, and variations on 'are you there?' took up most of a page.

What? Sunset scrawled angrily onto the page. She wasn't sure if it was Twilight Sparkle or if Celestia had deigned to stoop from her Olympian detachment to speak to Sunset herself, but whoever it was had irritated Sunset enough today that she would have wrote the same regardless.

Great, you're here.

That didn't sound like something Celestial would right. Sunset's face assumed an expression of resignation.

It's Twilight Sparkle isn't it?

Hello again.

What do you want?

What time is it where you are?

Sunset stared at the inane and nonsensical words that had appeared on the page before her.

Have you seriously been bugging me all day so that you can find out what time of day it is? Seriously?

No, I want to talk. There was a pause between the first sentence and the next, as though Twilight were pondering what ought to come next. But I would kind of like to know if our world's are chronologically in parallel or on some kind of time differential.

Sunset stared at the page. A noise that was one part snort and one part despairing groan escaped her lips.

I've been replaced by a nerd. Celestial replaced me with a giant dork.

I am not a dork. I'm intellectually curious.

Sunset smirked, for all that Twilight couldn't see it. Yeah, sure. For what it's worth I'm intellectually curious too. She checked her watch. It's four-thirty.

Okay, it's five-thirty where I am.

Sunset blinked. Where are you?

Ponyville, it's a little town outside of-

What time zone?

Canterlot Mean Time.

Sunset checked her scroll. Where I am now is one hour behind the time zone in this world's Canterlot.

So we are in parallel based on the location of the mirror! That is so cool!

Nerd.

Hey.

I never said it was an insult, you have to own what you got. I've always been curious about that myself but I didn't have any way of checking, Sunset paused, and her pen hovered over the page. Now, what do you really want and why are you being so persistent about it?

I want to talk.

Why?

Because Celestia told me who you were, and I want to help you.

Sunset's face crumpled into a scowl. I don't need your help.

I disagree.

Oh, you do, huh? What makes you think you know anything about me?

Because you told me a lot about yourself when you didn't know I was there.

Sunset facepalmed. Yes, she had, of course she had. She cursed under her breath. She'd told Twilight...not everything, but more than enough.

That still doesn't mean you know me, she wrote, not really believing it herself. And besides, you should worry more about yourself than trying to play therapist to me.

What's that supposed to mean?

Do you trust Celestia?

Of course.

Don't. She lies, she uses ponies, manipulates them to get what she wants. She used me-

Let me stop you right there before you waste any more effort. This isn't going to work.

Sunset's eyes narrowed. I don't know what you mean.

Yes, you do. And it won't work. I trust Celestia.

So did I, once, Sunset thought. She scribbled in the diary. You're a fool then. You're a fool and you're just a replacement me! You'll only ever be Celestia's second choice and you'll never have the kind of connection that we had! Sunset believed that. Sunset had to believe that for the sake of her sanity and her self-respect. Bad enough that she could be replaced at all but to be replaced in Celestia's love, in the heart of her affections...it would be too much. Her heart would not withstand it.

Celestia asked me to tell you that she's sorry, for everything she said and didn't say.

Well that's pretty vague, and mighty big of her as well. Is she too good to write to me herself?

I think that talking to you is something that I have to do.

Because you're the princess of friendship?

You know, I can feel the contempt dripping off your pen but yes, because I am the princess of friendship.

If you live where I do then you'd think it was stupid too. Almost as bad as the princess of love.

You knew Cadence?

You know her too?

She used to be my foalsitter.

Sunset rubbed her brows in frustration Of course she was. How do you become a princess of friendship anyway?

Well, it's kind of a funny story, but the short version is that I completed Starswirl the Bearded's unfinished spell and-

You what?

It was only on the second time of trying.

Sunset stared at the book. Twilight had completed Starswirl's spell? It didn't matter that Sunset couldn't see what that had to do with friendship because it was...as much as Sunset might not like to admit it it was impressive stuff. Sunset...It was like pulling teeth from her mind to concede this, but she wasn't sure that she would have been able to do that. Sunset had been hailed as the most gifted unicorn since Starswirl, but Twight Sparkle...She might be better.

Just admitting that filled Sunset with resentment, but also with a kind of curiosity that prevented her from simply slamming the book shut. If Twilight had been here in Remnant then Sunset would have despaired - not more rivals, didn't she have enough already? - but Twilight was in Equestria, the land Sunset had left behind. She could not impede Sunset's chances here.

And Sunset had been starved not only of the company of other Equestrians but also of an intellectual equal. And, in truth it was...flattering, to be sought out thus by someone of Twilight Sparkle's position and status, to be thought sufficiently important to be worth whatever it was that Twilight sought to accomplish. After years of being dismissed and trampled on, it was like rain upon parched flowers.

And, who knew, Twilight might not prove so immune to Sunset's corruptions as she believed.

I concede, you interest me, Twilight Sparkle. We should talk again. But when I choose, not you. Don't contact me again, I'll write you when it's safe to do so.

Agreed.

Sunset smiled. At present she would take whatever power she could get in their relationship. Good. Then it's settled. Goodbye for now, princess. She shut the book, and not before time either as the door to the bookshop opened and Blake Belladonna sauntered in, her black hair waving behind her.

She looked around the empty shop, and Sunset just had time to stuff the journal into her bag before the golden eyes alighted upon her.

"Hey," Blake murmured.

"Hey," Sunset replied.

Blake looked around. "I take it the store isn't closed?"

"He's in the back with a couple of customers," Sunset said. "Though he has been in there a while."

"Some books take a lot of finding," Blake replied. She turned to go.

"You're not going to wait for him?"

"No," Blake replied. "It's best if I come back later."

She walked straight back out again, leaving Sunset to wonder why the quiet girl had come down here in the first place.

Blake, having only gone as far as a rooftop vantage point across the street, did come back later: as soon as she'd seen Sunset Shimmer and the two faunus leave.

As soon as they were out of sight, Blake leapt down, crossed the street, and re-entered the bookshop.

This time, as the bell above the door announced her arrival, Tukson was behind the counter. His face lit up with a smile as soon as he saw her.

"Blake!"

Blake smiled back. It was not a wide smile, but no less warm for being small and soft. "Hey. Is this a good time?"

"It's always a good time when you come round, Blake, you know that." Tukson declared genially. "How's huntsmen academy?"

"Oh, you know," Blake said. She looked away, and played with her hair with one hand. "They made me a team leader."

Tukson chuckled. "Yeah, I'll bet they did. How's that going?"

"Too soon to say, although my team seems have walked in out of a larping session, which is...weird." Blake shrugged. "We'll see how it goes."

Tukson leaned on the counter. "I bet your dad would like to know you're a team leader now."

Blake's eyes narrowed. "You know why I can't contact them."

"You think you're the only one who feels ashamed of what they did for the White Fang?" Tukson asked rhetorically. "You're not the only one looking to make things right. If Ghira and Kali are anything like the good people I used to know, they wouldn't hold it against."

"That's not why," Blake said. It was, sort of, but there were other reasons why she had to remain out of contact and incognito, better reasons. "I can't risk them getting hurt."

Tukson nodded. "Yeah, I suppose not. You won't hear any more about it from me."

"Thanks," Blake said. "So, how's business?"

"Business is just about ticking by," Tukson replied, gesturing to the bookshelves around him. "Business, on the other hand, is picking up. More and more people want to get out; the Fang isn't the same as back when they joined."

"No, it isn't," Blake agreed softly. "If you ever need help getting them out-"

"I wouldn't do that to you," Tukson said. "I can manage just fine on my own."

"If you're sure," Blake murmured. "You're taking a lot of risks. Only one person needs to talk and-"

"Like I said, we've all got things we need to make right," Tuckson said. His smile returned. "But don't worry about me. You just study hard up at Beacon; and maybe buy a book, I could use the custom."

Blake shook her head. "You got anything new?"

"Every book the world has to offer," Tukson said.

Blake rolled her eyes. "I saw one of my classmates in here earlier, Sunset Shimmer?"

"She didn't tell me her name, but it suits her if that's what is," Tukson said. "She bought a book and I let her read it here." He shrugged. "I can't resist a faunus looking down on her luck, I guess."

"She's not exactly blameless in her circumstances."

"Who among us is?" Tukson asked.

Blake hesitated for a moment, before she nodded to acknowledge the truth of what the older man said. Yes, Sunset Shimmer was abrasive and obnoxious, but plenty of humans were abrasive and obnoxious without being ostracized for it, or worse. Humans were permitted to enjoy the full spectrum of behaviours and emotions, while faunus were expected to exist on a binary between pleasant and docile or dangerous radicals like Adam. The fact that Sunset Shimmer was the personification of the word arrogance was only a grievous mark against her because she had ears and a tail.

Although Blake wouldn't want anything to do with the other faunus girl if she could avoid it, in a way the right for the likes of Sunset Shimmer to be jerks without being judged any more harshly for it than a human would be was what the White Fang had been founded to fight for.

Blake derived a moment of wry internal amusement from imagining how Adam would react to hearing the glorious mission of the White Fang reduced to such terms. Then she thought of how violent he might become in his wrath, and it didn't seem so funny any more.

She picked up a book entitled Dragonwyck off the shelf.

"That one might be a little gothic for you, Blake," Tukson said.

Blake turned it over and read the blurb on the back. It was indeed a gothic: poor young girl goes to live in a creepy house with a handsome, rich man with a dark side.

"I'll take it," she said.

"You sure?" Tukson asked. "I thought it might...hit a little close to home, maybe."

Blake shook her head. "Stuff like this may get dark but it has a happy ending. It's nice to think that might be possible."

Pyrrha Nikos did not consider herself to be a short tempered individual. Quite the opposite, in fact, she strove to be patient to a fault. From an early age her tutors had drilled into her that, as she had been gifted with the ability to cause immense harm to people if she wished so too she had a responsibility to be circumspect about how she used that gift. A normal child could throw a punch in the knowledge that little harm would be done; if Pyrrha had been so reckless, even as a child, she could have broken someone's bones or worse.

And, when her fame had started to take off in a big way, her mother had made it clear to her that displays of temper or sorrow or any unattractive emotion were not what the public wanted to see from their idol; if she could not wear a smile for the adoring masses she could at least wear a mask of impenetrable serenity. So Pyrrha had learned to hide her emotions, and by hiding them she had become somewhat numb to some of them: she had little need to hide her anger now because it took so much to make her angry. With all due modesty she was almost as calm as she pretended to be almost constantly for the world, and it was generally melancholy, and nothing stronger, that touched her like a frost.

All of which being said it was quite an achievement on the part of Sunset Shimmer that she was managing to fray Pyrrha's nerves the way she was.

It wasn't just that she had gotten a rise out of Pyrrha when no one else had in years, it wasn't even what she'd said to get that rise, ignorant and pig-headed though her words had been; it was the fact that she wouldn't let it go. It was as though she was constitutionally incapable of admitting that she was wrong even if she could only assert that she was correct with no proof at all.

It was infuriating and disappointing in equal measure that her team leader was turning out to be as loud-mouthed and boorish in her own way as Cardin Winchester, but

Pyrrha had not intended for word of their argument to spread all around the school like this. She hadn't appealed for white knights to defend her from the ogreish Sunset. She certainly hadn't asked anyone to steal one of Sunset's tops from the laundry room and use it for something absolutely disgusting, but when Sunset had stormed into the dorm room brandishing her top with that sticky white stain upon it it was clear whom she held responsible.

And Pyrrha was getting a little tired of it. She had come to Beacon to escape her pedestal but, leaving aside the fact that she had largely failed to do so, she hadn't come here in order to be sneered at, glared at, muttered about or generally blamed for things that were not her fault.

The atmosphere in the dorm room tonight, for example, was terrible. Sunset seemed to gave a dark cloud hovering around her shoulders blacker than her jacket. It felt as though she had turned the floor to glass, and the slightest thing would set her off again.

Pyrrha pursed her lips together. It wasn't fair, the way that Sunset was behaving. It wasn't fair on her and it wasn't fair on Ruby and Jaune either, both of whom looked as though they had been dropped into the middle of a mine field with no map of the way out, if such a thing existed.

Pyrrha put her history homework - she had already completed the essay for Doctor Oobleck on the beginning of the Faunus Rights Rebellion - to one side and cleared her throat. "Sunset?"

Sunset ignored her. She was acting as though she was working, but considering that Sunset got better grades than Pyrrha did Pyrrha couldn't believe that Sunset was actually still doing the essay. She was just behaving childishly by ignoring Pyrrha.

"Sunset," Pyrrha repeated, louder this time. Ruby and Jaune both looked up and towards her.

Sunset sighed. "What?"

"Would you mind stepping outside with me for a moment?" Pyrrha asked. "We can talk without disturbing Ruby and Jaune."

Sunset stared at her for a moment, with a face like stone. "I have nothing to say." She turned her back ostentatiously.

"That's a first," Jaune muttered.

Sunset's hands slammed down on the table. "What did you say, you little-"

Pyrrha rose to her feet. "Leave him be, Sunset, your quarrel is with me."

"I don't have to take that from the likes of him, even if he is a human!" Sunset snapped.

"No one in this room has a problem with you being a faunus," Pyrrha said. "My problem is wholly with the way that you've been behaving."

"That's right!" Ruby cried. "I'm sorry that all of this happened after I told Team Iron what had happened, and I don't know who it was who decided to spread the word like that, but I didn't mean it! None of us did, and Pyrrha especially."

Pyrrha said nothing, but she thought that Ruby was being extraordinarily generous in refusing to point fingers amongst the members of YRDN. It seemed clear to Pyrrha that Dove Bronzewing was the culprit, if only because Yang, Ren and Nora didn't seem the type to engage in such behaviour.

Sunset's lips curled into a contemptuous sneer. "So you expect me to believe...what? That, completely unprompted, the entire academy decided to rise up in your defence?"

"That is the truth as far as I know," Pyrrha replied softly.

Sunset snorted. "I don't believe you."

Pyrrha took a deep breath. "You don't have to like me, Sunset; but I won't be called a liar and I won't follow someone who questions my integrity."

"Too bad for you, you're stuck with me."

Am I, Pyrrha thought. Am I indeed. Perhaps I am stuck on this team, but that doesn't mean that I have to follow your commands like an Atlasian robot.

"What?" Sunset demanded. "Did I hurt your feelings?"

Pyrrha found with a guilty start that her hands had clenched into fists. There was a part of her - small, but it was surprising to come across it at all - that wanted to hit Sunset, and wipe that look off her face.

Pyrrha reached for calm, putting her meditation exercises to good use as she unclenched her fists. Her strength was not for such low uses, and displays of temper were not for her. Her voice, when she spoke, was softly spoken but every bit as brittle as Sunset's temper.

"When you're ready to apologise," she said. "I will listen."

"You'll wait a long time," Sunset growled. "For I have nothing to apologise for."

Pyrrha said nothing further to Sunset. There was nothing further to be said. She glanced apologetically at Jaune and Ruby. "Excuse me," she said, as she strode out of the room.

She spent the rest of the evening in the library, returning to the dorm only to sleep - she and Sunset said not a word to one another as they undressed for bed, and the atmosphere in the room was nauseating.

The next morning she went to see Professor Goodwitch and asked her about team reassignments.

Professor Goodwitch stared at her over the top of her spectacles. "May I ask why you wish to be moved, Miss Nikos?"

"I...I'm afraid that Sunset and I have had an irreconcilable difference of opinion, Professor."

Professor Goodwitch was silent for a moment. "Teams, once formed, are very rarely altered, Miss Nikos, and certainly not because of mere arguments between members."

"There's nothing mere about this, ma'am," Pyrrha replied. She would not fight for a leader she held in contempt. For her destiny she was willing to endure much, bear much, suffer much, but not follow someone she despised, and who despised her in turn.

But it was hard to explain that to Professor Goodwitch, or to anyone really, without sounding melodramatic. Mistralian concepts of honour did not carry quite the same weight in the Kingdom of Vale.

"That, Miss Nikos, remains to be seen, by me," Professor Goodwitch replied. "Good day, Miss Nikos."

"Professor, I apologise for disturbing you," Pyrrha said, as she bowed her head respectfully. She turned on her heel, and walked out of the office.

Unfortunately, Ruby was waiting for her outside.

"You wanted to leave us?" Ruby asked, looking as stricken and betrayed as she sounded.

Pyrrha winced. "No, Ruby, I-"

"She wasn't trying to leave," Sunset sneered, and Pyrrha saw her half-hidden around the corner. She was leaning against the wall with her arms folded. "She was trying to get rid of me, weren't you?"

Pyrrha didn't dignify that with a response. She turned away without another word, and walked away.

Sunset felt almost as though she was getting a divorce, and she and Pyrrha were stuck sharing the house while they worked out custody of the kids, their over-achieving daughter and disappointing son.

They had managed, without saying a word to one another, managed to work out a system of alternating who could spend time in the dorm room and who had to find somewhere else to be. Nights were about as fun all around as root canal surgery, but there was no getting around it since there was nowhere else that either of them could sleep.

You could try apologising and putting this whole thing behind you.

Sunset made a face at the diary, open on the table in front of her, that contained elements of scowl, sneer, grimace and snarl. I've done nothing that I should apologise for.

You called Pyrrha a liar.

Because she lied!

What if she didn't?

I'm the victim here! Who's side are you on anyway?

Sunset, I don't doubt that a lot of what you've told me about the world you've found yourself in is accurate-

Only a lot?

But have you ever considered that your problems are not entirely the result of prejudice?

Sunset squinted suspiciously down at the page. What are you saying?

That by your own account you've behaved pretty obnoxiously.

Sunset stared down at the words. They were wrong. They were ridiculous. They were absurd. She wasn't the one who had roused the whole academy in anger, she wasn't the one who had tried to get Pyrrha kicked off the team, she wasn't the one who had flaunted her ungrateful nature in Sunset's face.

Shut up. Do you really not see where I'm coming from with this? How would you like it if someone else had something that you wanted badly, desperately, more than anything else in the world, and this other person that has this incredible thing didn't appreciate it at all? Wouldn't that make you so mad?

Maybe, depending on what the thing in question was, but I'd hope that I wouldn't let it affect my behaviour. After all, it's my problem, not theirs.

And we're done. I'm not going to sit here and be insulted like that. Goodnight, princess. She slammed the book shut.

She was wrong. Twilight Sparkle was absutely wrong. This wasn't her problem, she was reacting perfectly normally, it was Pyrrha who...She was the one who ought to apologise. Sunset had nothing to apologise for.

Sunset was too proud to apologise, even if she was in the wrong.

Especially if she was in the wrong.

Professor Goodwitch's voice was crisp and clear, cutting across the casual chatter in the hall. "The match will be Team Sapphire versus Team Iron. Please make your way to the arena."

Pyrrha was on her feet at once, making her way quickly up onto the stage. Ruby and Jaune followed, and Sunset joined them from a different part of the hall.

Sunset could see their opponents making their way up onto the stage together. They were huddled close, whispering amongst themselves. Yang Xiao-Long, easily her hair shining like a beacon in the dimly lit hall, was pointing at Team SAPR, gesticulating with one hand. Dove said something that earned him scowl from Yang and Nora, before the former started talking again.

Sunset ran through the options in her head. Team YRDN was tough; in fact they probably had the most punch of any of the first year teams, possessing the two strongest first years and Dove Bronzewing, who was probably the strongest boy in the year. On the other hand, when it came to speed they only had Lie Ren, and he wasn't anywhere close to Ruby or Pyrrha. So, she would send Pyrrha forward to interrupt whatever strategy they where cooking up over there, while Sunset and Ruby provided covering fire. Once they'd used up their shots, Ruby would back up Pyrrha in close quarters while Sunset provided support with magic. Jaune she would use as a speed bump to keep either Yang or Nora just for a bit with his absurd quantities of aura. That should give Pyrrha and Ruby time to mop up the rest of the opposition with Sunset's help.

"Okay," Sunset said. "Here's what we're going to do."

Pyrrha turned away.

"Oh, great, real mature," Sunset muttered. "Pyrrha!"

Pyrrha did not reply.

"Guys, I have an idea-" Jaune began.

"You look at me when I'm talking to you!" Sunset growled.

"I was thinking that-"

"Jaune's trying to say something."

"You are the most spoiled, ungrateful, stubborn brat that I have-"

"Guys!" Jaune yelled. "Listen, we-"

"Begin!" Professor Goodwitch declared.

Nora Valkyrie grinned, and with a mighty swing she...hit Yang with her hammer?

Sunset gaped in astonishment. She was still gaping, her amazement only deepening as it became clear that this had been absolutely deliberate.

Yang descended like a comet from the heavens, trailing fire in her wake. She was grinning like a maniac, and a wild warrior's laugh issued from her lips as she ploughed into Jaune, bearing him backwards with a squawk of pained alarm. Yang yelled as she started to pummel him, both fist flying as explosions issued from her gauntlets. Jaune, staggered, taken by surprise and, honestly, no great shakes to begin with, was unable to do more than soak it up as his aura level started to slowly descend.

Thank you for accommodating my plan, Yang. Sunset grinned. YRDN had taken the initiative but there was still all to fight for. "Pyrrha, get up there and hit them! Ruby-"

They both ignored her, choosing to go to Jaune's aid instead. They converged on Yang from opposite directions, weapons scythe and sword alike shining under the spotlights focussed on the stage.

It might not have been so bad except Ruby was also blocking Sunset's shots.

A grenade flew through the air, trailing pink smoke behind it, before landing in front of Ruby and exploding in a blast of even more pink. Ruby was knocked backwards, her aura dropping but remaining in the green even as she was tossed across the stage.

The next moment Ren was on top of her, Stormflowers blazing.

Nora fired another grenade, this time at Pyrrha, who deftly knocked it aside with her shield; in the time it took her to do that Nora had already begun to charge, hammer drawn back for a mighty swing. She, too, was beaming wildly as though this was the most fun she'd ever had in her life.

A series of sharp bangs reminded Sunset that she wasn't a bystander in this fight. Dove had levelled his gunblade are at her and was firing a stream of shots in her direction. Sunset threw up a shield, too late to stop the first few rounds biting off a chunk of her aura.

Dove stopped shooting when it became clear that his shotscweren't getting through her shield. He glared at her. The look of contempt on his face was palpable.

Sunset's face contorted with a sneer as a surge of anger ignited within her. So, it was like that, but? Well, she'd-

"Dove!" Nora yelled.

Dove and Sunset both looked around. Nora was struggling against Pyrrha's superior speed, unable to land the solid hits she needed even as Pyrrha tore off chunks of her aura like a beowolf tearing off chunks of flesh. Pyrrha really was somewhere between magnificent and uncanny, even when Nora appeared to have her dead to rights she just seemed to avoid the hits.

Dove didn't spare Sunset a second glance as he ran to her aid.

It took Sunset a split second to decide not to follow. Instead, she teleported the short distance to where Ren was trying - It took Sunset a split second to decide not to follow. Instead, she teleported the short distance to where Ren was trying - with limited success, his aura was in the yellow already, and while the same was true of Ruby she had the excuse of having been hit with a grenade - to content with Ruby's speed as she flitted around him in bursts of rose petals; the sharp crack of Crescent Rose echoed repeatedly in the hall.

Sunset took a more direct approach: she teleported right in front of Ren, shot him twice at point blank range, and swung the butt of Sol Invictus at his face.

"Ruby, help Jaune!" Sunset yelled before the blow connected. At least Ruby listened to her this time.

Ren rolled with the blow, and as he rolled he grabbed the butt of Sunset's gun and used it to pull her forward, throwing her to the ground before him with a yelp. Sunset winced as Ren shot her in the face, chipping rapidly away at her aura. Sunset growled as she raised one hand and a blast of green energy erupted from her palm, striking Ren in the chest and hurling him back across the stage, A buzzer sounded, and then another. A glance at the board told Sunset that Jaune and Ren were both out. Dove was duelling Pyrrha, their blades clashing furiously in motions faster than Sunset's eyes could follow. Dove was almost fast enough to keep up with the Invincible Girl...but almost didn't quite cut it and his aura was dropping as Pyrrha chipped away at it. Ruby was having less luck against Yang while Nora...Nora was charging straight towards Sunset with absolute murder in her eyes.

Sunset shot from the hip, emptying all four remaining chambers in quick succession. It didn't stop Nora, and Sunset couldn't check the board to see how much aura she had left. Sunset started to raise a shield, but Nora's hammer went threw it like glass and struck Sunset square on the midriff.

Sunset had a feeling of being compressed and deformed as the world whirled around her, before she was dumped on the floor with a painful smack on the face. A buzzer confirmed what she already knew: her aura was down.

Sunset didn't know exactly what was up with Ruby: either Yang knew her moves too well, or it was messing with her head to try and fight her big sister, but either way a fight that should have been easy for her was going very badly. It wasn't long before she was eliminated.

It was three against one at that point, but that one was Pyrrha Nikos. Perhaps if they'd all been starting with their aura intact they would have been a match for her, but all their aura were some level of frayed and yellow, while hers was nearly intact. Though the three remaining members of YRDN attacked together, though they were coordinated and cohesive, they simply weren't a match for Pyrrha's speed and shining sword. One by one she took them down and left them prone and beaten at her feet.

"Team Sapphire wins," Professor Goodwitch's tone was, as always, professional and without even the suggestion of favouritism, but she didn't sound particularly pleased with the result. Sunset could understand why: this wasn't a victory for Team Sapphire, who by all measures had been out thought and out fought, but for Pyrrha Nikos. Team YRDN deserved the victory, and had missed only by dint of having the bad luck to go up against the Invincible Girl.

Sunset's face burned with humiliation as she lined up alongside her team mates. If she'd just been given a chance to explain her plan then they could have won in a deserving fashion. As it was, today would simply serve to burnish up the legend of Pyrrha, the legend that she didn't even want.

"Team Iron," Goodwitch said. "Although I wouldn't personally recommend your choice of opening gambit-" Yang and Nora both grinned, the former sheepishly and the latter unapologetically. "You exhibited forethought and teamwork. That said, by leaving your strongest opponent to last you ran the risk of not having enough aura left, as proved to be the case. Team Sapphire," Goodwitch's stern gaze swept over them. "You were fortunate."

Sunset's jaw clenched with frustration.

"That's all we have time for," Goodwitch continued. "Class dismissed. Miss Shimmer, please remain for a moment."

Sunset clasped her hands behind her back as the rest of the class filed out. Yang stared at her for a moment, her expression curious, before she turned away like all the rest.

Soon they were alone, student and teacher upon the stage in an otherwise dark and empty room.

Professor Goodwitch clasped her riding crop with both hands. "Miss Shimmer, what do you think went wrong today?"

"My team wouldn't listen to my instructions."

"And why should they listen go you, Miss Shimmer?" Professor Goodwitch asked.

Sunset blinked. This wasn't a turn that she'd expected the conversation to take. "Because I'm their leader."

"Yes, you are," Goodwitch said. "But your team-mates are not automatons programmed to obey you, you need to give them a reason to trust you to make the right decisions, not only in the field but constantly. Do you think that you have done so?"

Sunset didn't reply. What was there to say?

"You, in turn, must trust your team-mates also," Goodwitch continued. "I am sorry if you're going through a hard time, Miss Shimmer, and I won't pretend to understand what has happened between you and Miss Nikos, but you've already proven that your team can work together effectively. It would be a shame to waste a promising start."

Sunset was silent for a moment. "Is that all, Professor?"

Goodwithch stared into Sunset's eyes. "That's all for now, Miss Shimmer."

Sunset started for the locker room. Professor Goodwitch meant well, but she didn't understand. Sunset couldn't apologise, not even if it was her fault.

Especially if it was her fault.

Twelve years earlier…

The last of the beowolves dissolved into smoke. Uncle Qrow didn’t turn around, not yet. He stood, with his back to Yang, his sword half-buried in the ground, staring at the ruined and abandoned cabin before them.

The cabin that Yang had come so far to find.

The cabin where she and Ruby had nearly died.

Yang shivered, and not only from the cold.

Qrow hefted his greatsword, and rested it on his shoulder as he – finally – turned around to face Yang. His expression was grave.

“This was a pretty dumb move, kid; I thought you were smarter than that.”

“I…I…” Yang stammered. “I thought that-“

“Yeah, I know what you were looking for. How do you think I knew where to look for you?” Qrow growled. “Come on, let’s get you both home before your Dad finds out your gone. Or else he’ll worry so much it’ll make even more grimm show up.”

“Why isn’t she here?” Yang asked, her voice small and quiet. She was supposed to be here. Her mother was supposed to be here, or if not her then at least some clue to where she was. That was why she’d come all this way, dragging Ruby in a wagon behind her for hours to this cabin in the middle of nowhere, to find neither mother nor answers but only those beowolves. Was…was her mother dead just like Summer? “Why isn’t my mom here?”

Qrow muttered something under his breath as he took a swig from his hip flask. “Your mom’s name was Summer Rose, kid. And she’s dead. It ain’t pretty, but there it is.”

“You know what I’m talking about-“

“Yeah, I do,” Uncle Qrow agreed. “And because I know I can tell you that she’s not worth it.”

“My mom is out there-“

“Then who was Summer, some random lady who changed your diapers?” Qrow demanded. “Are you going to tell me that Ruby’s not your sister too?”

“That’s what not what I said and I’d never-“

“Yang?”

Yang’s eyes widened at the sound of Ruby’s voice, sleepy and soft, coming from the wagon behind her.

She turned, forcing herself to smile for Ruby. “Ruby. You’re awake.”

Ruby sat up, rubbing her eyes sleepily. “You were yelling.”

Yang laughed nervously. “No I wasn’t. I was just…I’m sorry for waking you up, okay. I’m really sorry.”

“I’m tired,” Ruby complained.

“I know, Rubes,” Yang said. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for…I’m sorry.”

“Yang? Are you okay?”

Yang nodded a little too enthusiastically. “Yeah, of course.”

“You’re acting kind of not-okay.”

“I’m fine,” Yang insisted. “Do you want to go back to sleep? I won’t wake you up this time.”

“I want to go home.”

“We’re going back right now, kiddo,” Qrow said.

Ruby looked up. “Uncle Qrow?”

Qrow nodded. He grinned. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you two scamps, now I gotta make sure you get home safe. Go back to sleep, and when you wake up you’ll be home, all cosy and warm.”

Ruby smiled, a small but adorable smile, as she lay down in the wagon with her red cloak as a blanket. Within just a few moments she was asleep again.

Qrow laid a hand upon Yang’s shoulder, and gently but firmly drew her closer to the wagon, until they were both looking down upon the slumbering Ruby.

“Look,” he said.

Yang looked away instead. She’d almost gotten Ruby killed. Ruby had almost died and it would have been her fault. If Uncle Qrow hadn’t shown up…Ruby deserved better.

“Look,” Qrow repeated.

“I know that I almost-“

“That’s not the point,” Qrow said, his voice surprisingly soft. “Look at her.”

Yang looked down at the tiny, slumbering form of her baby sister, swaddled in her cloak in the back of a wagon, sleeping peacefully in the midst of this grimm-infested wood. Looking down at her, the idea of denying that they were family was not only foolish but impossible.

Summer Rose might not be Yang’s mom, but Ruby was her sister. Her family.

“You got a good thing going here, Yang,” Qrwo said. “Do you really want to throw all that away for…what? So you can tell Ruby that she’s not your real family?”

“I never said that,” Yang whispered. “Ruby is my sister.” She reached down, and tucked Ruby in a little better. “Don’t worry, Ruby,” she said. “I’m going to do better. I’m going to make everything better for you.”

Present Day…

Nora Valkyrie was a fount of stories. Any meal or evening that was lacking in sufficiently lively conversation would enlivened by a story from Nora to hold the world - or at least Ruby and Jaune whenever they were around listen - in rapture.

Judging by the way that Ren was a fount of corrections to all of Nora's stories it was clear to Yang that these incidents - of battling grimm in isolated forests, following river's through perilous wilderness, hustling pool and cheating at cards for money in rough frontier towns and taking on odd and hazardous jobs in embattled rural villages - had not all happened precisely as Nora told them, but at the same time Ren never outright called Nora a liar either, so something like all of these stories must have happened to them. Which was pretty amazing, they were only Yang's age and yet already they'd gone so far and done so much. And yet, at the same time, if you thought about it too much it was really kind of sad, too. Nora never mentioned her parents, or how she and Ren met; her stories always began with the two of them travelling together and ended the same way. But it wasn't hard to guess what had happened, although Yang had no intention of asking for confirmation.

It was a little humbling to imagine. She'd thought that she'd had it bad having to take care of Ruby after Mom died and Dad sunk into grief, but having to do it without Dad, without a home, without any place to go...Yang didn't know if she could have kept herself alive in that kind of situation, let alone Ruby.

It was the kind of life she'd been setting herself up for with her obsession with Raven, if Uncle Qrow hadn't called her on it...

But she was older now, stronger and wiser...she just needed to know that Ruby would be safe and cared for when she left.

Which would be a lot easier if her team wasn't disintegrating around her.

Yang realised that in her thoughts she had lost track of Nora's latest story, which involved a lost temple and a whole bunch of beringels (creeps, according to Ren) who lived there and...something about a gem in an idol? If she'd been paying attention she would have had the context, but it didn't really matter because Nora was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Coming," Yang called as she leapt off the bed and crossed the floor in three brisk strides. She opened the door to find Ruby on the other side, head bowed and pressing her fingers nervously together.

"Hey Yang," Ruby murmured. "Can I come in? That is, if you're not too busy or anything?"

Yang smiled with quasi-maternal fondness down upon her little sister. "I'm never too busy for you, Rubes. Come on in."

She put an arm round Ruby's shoulder, and steered her into the dorm and towards Yang's bed.

"Heya Ruby!" Nora called, waving from the far end of the room. "Great fight today, huh?"

"Yeah," Ruby agreed nervously. "You guys were really unlucky."

"You win some, you lose some," Nora said.

"You lose when you fight Nikos, anyway," Dove declared.

Ren finished cleaning his Stormflowers and began reassembling them. "You fought very well also, Ruby. You had me completely outclassed."

"Yeah!" Yang cried, slapping Ruby on the back. "If I didn't know you so well you would have torn me apart, so don't sweat it."

"Right," Ruby agreed, though it was clear by her subdued tone that she hadn't been cheered up by this.

But then, Yang hadn't seriously expected that the fight was the problem.

"Sit down, sis," she said, gesturing to the bed. "I'll get you some hot chocolate." It was too late for coffee, Ruby wouldn't sleep and it was nearly bed-time.

"Okay," Ruby said meekly as she sat down.

It didn't take Yang long to get back from the kitchen, but when she did she found that Nora (and Ren) had started her story again. Ruby's eyes were wide and her mouth was agape as she leaned forwards, hands balled up under her chin, whole body enraptured by Nora's tale of daring against the odds.

Yang stood in the doorway, watching, not wanting to disturb Ruby's pleasure by dragging her back to the issue at hand. She waited for a lull in the story to carry the steaming mugs across the room and press one of them - topped with whipped cream and marshmallows - into Ruby's hands. Yang smiled gratefully at Nora as she sat down beside Ruby and waited for her to say something.

Ruby sipped her hot chocolate, and licked the cream around her mouth. "What am I supposed to do, Yang? It was bad enough when Sunset was being all cranky and stuff, but now Pyrrha's mad at Sunset and they won't even speak to each other!"

Yang nodded sympathetically. "Yeah, it sure is a pity someone had to spread the word of what was going on in your team across the whole of Beacon isn't it, Dove?"

Dove yelped. "I, uh, that is-"

"That was you!" Ruby cried.

Dove's mouth worked furiously but silently for a moment, before he seemed to recover a little, enough to say, "Look, a faunus like he has no right to take that kind of an attitude towards a human, especially not one as accomplished as Pyrrha Nikos. I don't know what Ozpin was thinking making that thing team leader."

"Dove," Yang said, with steel beneath her affable tone. "Every time you say something racist, you have to play a penalty game with Nora, remember?" She got to her feet. She preferred to lead her team by charm: she wanted to be followed by people who wanted to follow her because they liked her. But she wasn't afraid to steer by main force if she had to, and now might be one of those times. "Of course, in this case you also upset my little sister so stand up."

Dove knew what was coming. He whimpered.

Yang gestured impatiently with one hand. "Take it like a man, Dove, come on."

Dove got to his feet and squared up against her, back straight.

Yang punched him in the stomach hard enough to knock him to the ground. His aura was up, so there was no real harm done, but he'd remember it before he did something stupid again.

Unfortunately, Yang didn't know how to stop Dove being anti-faunus, or to convince him he was wrong, and Nora and Ren didn't have the answer to that either. All they could do was give him incentives not to act on his worst impulses but to be the honestly-pretty-okay guy he was the rest of the time.

"Are things that Ruby says going to stay in the room from now on or am I going to have to throw you out every time my sister comes to visit?"

"I can keep my mouth shut," Dove said.

"Good answer," Yang said cheerily as she back down next to Ruby. "I really am sorry about this, sis; it made a bad situation worse for you."

"But what am I supposed to do now?" Ruby asked. "I mean...I understand weapons, not people! If one of their weapons had a fault I could fix it, or just help Sunday for Pyrrha to fix it, but it's Sunset and Pyrrha that are broken! How am I supposed to fix them? Where do I even start?"

Yang had a couple of ideas, but they weren't notions that she would be able to just hand over to Ruby for her weapon-obsessed, slightly anti-social sister to put into practice. Yang looked down at Ruby, and for a moment she saw not the fifteen year old badass who had already defeated Roman Torchwick, but the little toddler in the back of a wagon on a cold day.

Ruby was in trouble, and it was up to her big sister to fix it, just like she'd promised that she always would.

"Don't worry about it," Yang said. "I'll talk to Sunset and...hey, Nora, can you have a word with Pyrrha?"

"Absolutely!"

"Uh, Yang?" Ruby murmured. “Are you sure that-"

"Don't worry, Nora's only crazy in battle," Yang reassured her. "Out of it she really gets people." She pulled Ruby into a hug. "Don't worry, Rubes, I promise I'm going to make everything better for you."

The next day found Pyrrha in the library, researching for her dust studies homework. The essay was due in a couple of days time, and while she had the bulk of it written to an acceptable standard, she was here researching anything that she might be able to slot in before the conclusion for extra credit.

She needed to get high grades in the midterms if she didn't want to get an irate call from her mother, after all, and although she didn't use dust rounds herself - she preferred to use Milo up close, in sword or spear form; with the rifle only a backup it just wasn't worth the trouble of carrying a lot of different ammunition types - she genuinely enjoyed the theory behind use of dust.

It would have been easier to concentrate if people hadn't been whispering about her from the shelves behind where she was sitting.

Pyrrha frowned. Whatever Sunset might think, she wasn't enjoying the current state of affairs any more than her deplorable team leader was. Now, in addition to the usual expressions of awe and desires for mementos and favours that she had had to put up with for many years now, she was also being offered sympathy, which was more novel but no less unwelcome to her. She didn't want complete strangers to come up to her and tell her how sorry they were for what she had to put up with any more than she wanted to be told what an honour it was to meet her.

None of these people knew what had started the fight with Sunset, or else they wouldn't have been in such a hurry to press their unwanted condolences upon her as a new way of inserting themselves into her life and claiming a part of her for themselves. Pyrrha strongly suspected that when these well-wishers talked of her troubles what they really meant was 'having to live with a faunus, and be led by one.'

It made Pyrrha uncomfortable, truth to tell. She wouldn't be so bold as to call herself a faunus ally - the fact was that she didn't do enough to earn the name - but she wasn't a bigot either, and as someone who had used her Sanctum valedictorian speeches to call for compassion towards faunus students, and who tried to behave with courtesy towards her faunus opponents, it galled at her to be used as a cause celebre for bigots like Cardin as though she were one of those poor girls killed by faunus who had their memories appropriated by the worst elements of the press.

The fact that she was being used in exactly such a fashion made Pyrrha's hands itch, and it was enough to make her consider apologising to Sunset if only to put a stop to this...but she had an uncomfortable feeling that Sunset would take any apology from her as a kind of vindication, one that she was not willing to give the other girl. She could see the smug, slightly sneering smile now in her mind's eye, and she had no desire to see it in real life too.

Not yet, at least. If things went much further she might have to swallow her pride much as she didn't want. The alternative would be to perpetuate injustice to an unforgivable extent.

Pyrrha raised her head. The whispering that she could hear from the shelves behind her desk had stopped. She had been left alone it seemed. Finally, she thought with a quiet such of relief.

"You'd be amazed at how fast people can run once you point a grenade launcher at them," Nora Valkyrie declared cheerfully as she sat down at Pyrrha's table, propping her weapon - now in hammer form - up beside her. "I mean, you'd think they'd never heard of aura!"

Pyrrha stared at Miss Valkyrie, unsure of what she ought to say in reply. It was terrible, she ate with this girl every day and yet now they were alone Pyrrha found that she didn't know her at all. All she could recall was that Nora told some wild stories and was very close to her partner. There was nothing else.

She had come to Beacon hoping to make friends but could she really say that she had put all the effort into it that she might have done? She could have reached out to people like Nora if she'd only thought to if, she'd only known how. Not for the first time, Pyrrha wished that socialising came with a guide to follow.

Nevertheless she needed to say something or Nora would think she was rude. "Did you, um, really threaten anyone with your grenade launcher?"

"Only the ones who deserved it, spying on you like that," Nora said. "You didn't want them around, did you?"

"Oh, no," Pyrrha said quickly. "I just...perhaps they didn't want any of the books to suffer damage. Some of them are quite old."

"I guess that must be it. The alternative is that all those trainee huntsmen were a bunch of cowards and that's terrifying!" Nora cried, with more humour in her tone than fear. She paused. "Good fight yesterday. You're something else, a couple of times I was sure I had you but nope! You're good."

Pyrrha made a wordless noise that might mean anything. As a matter of fact Nora had had her, more than once, but Pyrrha had been able use her semblance to subtly redirect the hammer away from her so that it appeared to just miss by a fraction.

But of course she couldn't say that because her semblance was a secret.

"You fought well," she said. It was generic and probably sounded insincere, but it was all that she could think to say to move the conversation along.

Nora folded her arms underneath her breasts. "So, you don't like being famous, huh?

Pyrrha blinked. Where had...of course. "Ruby told you, didn't she?"

"She tried to," Nora said. She produced a bag of chips from somewhere and popped one into her mouth before offering the bag to Pyrrha.

Pyrrha waved it away. "Thank you, but I don't think we're supposed to eat in the library."

Nora ate another chip, but this time she chewed quietly.

"Like I was saying," she said with her mouth full. She swallowed, and carried on speaking. "Ruby tried to explain it, but I don't think she got all of the details. Point is, you don't like being famous?"

Pyrrha frowned. "No," she said. "I can't say that I do."

"Do you get hand cramp from the autographs?"

"No, it's not that."

"Does your voice wear out from talking to so many people?"

"I get a slightly soar throat sometimes, but no."

"Then what's the problem?"

"The problem...the problem is that I feel as though I've spent my entire life being what other people want me to be: a great fighter, a tournament champion, a symbol. I've never been allowed to be myself, or even to find out who I am, let alone do any of the things that ordinary girls take for granted."

"Like what?"

Pyrrha paused. "I...I don't really know, that's how bad it is, I don't know what it is that I missed because I missed all of it, I just know that there must have been more to life than training and fighting and press appearances."

Nora leaned back in her chair. "I really wish that I could help you, Pyrrha; only I missed out on all that stuff too."

Pyrrha bowed her head. She didn't have to be particularly intelligent to work out why Nora had been denied an ordinary childhood, you just had to pay attention to her stories. "Are you telling me that I should get over myself, because I had it so much better than you?"

Nora snorted derisively. "No," she said with what seemed to Pyrrha to be absolute sincerity. "I'm saying we should start a club together! We'll find out all the girl stuff we missed and do it now. We should have slumber parties!"

Pyrrha couldn't help but laugh at that, even if - out of respect for the sanctity of the library - she kept it to a low chuckle. "That would be a lot of fun, I'm sure."

Nora grinned, if only for a moment. "But, you know, I get it. I mean, I didn't know who you were because we didn't have TV, or a house to put one in but the point is it must suck to have everyone think they know who you are...and to not have any friends...if I hadn't had Ren I don't know what I would have become. What she said wasn't right."

"No," Pyrrha said. "Although, as boorish and upsetting as it was...that wasn't the last straw."

Nora cocked her to one side like a curious bird.

"It was when she accused me of having orchestrated this whole business, even after I denied it," Pyrrha said. "She called me a liar to my face."

Nora stared at her, a look on her face that suggested she was struggling to keep something bottled up. Then she cracked up. "Really? That's what you're upset about?"

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "Is that wrong?"

"I didn't have a normal childhood either," Nora said. "But even I know it's normal to get called a liar, especially by people who don't like you very much."

"Really?"

"Yes!" Nora yelled. "How do you think people used to react to my stories - you're a great audience, by the way - they told me to stop making things up! That's what upset you?"

Pyrrha looked down at the table, at her hands and the boom on dust that lay open before her. If Nora was right - and Pyrrha had no reason to believe that she wasn't - Then she'd been very foolish, and behaved very badly.

Sunset had too, of course, but all the same...

"So, what Sunset said, that was normal?"

"Welcome to the real world!" Nora yelled, slapping Pyrrha on the back hard enough to make her lurch forwards. "It sucks, you're going to love it."

"What should I do now?"

"Now you try and put your team back together," Nora said. She leaned in to whisper conspiratorially. "And see if you can deserve to beat us next time."

"Yo, Baconhair!"

Sunset stopped, as much out of surprise at being addressed as Baconhair as anything else. Honestly, if she hadn't been the only one in the corridor then she would probably have assumed that it was someone else being hailed by that nickname and carried on.

But she was the only person could see, and she hadn't passed anybody on the way either, and so Sunset turned around slowly, her eyes narrow and her face set in a scowl, to see Yang Xiao-Long lounging against the wall with her arms folded.

The smirk on her face told Sunset that she was enjoying Sunset's reaction to the nickname.

Sunset glared. Yang didn't even blink.

"Baconhair?"

"Yeah. You know, the streaks."

"My hair does not look anything like bacon."

"It looks an itty bitty bit like bacon," Yang said. She peeled herself off the wall and sauntered down the corridor in Sunset's direction. Her hips swayed as she walked. "We need to talk."

"I'm a little busy right now."

"I'm busy too, everyone's busy," Yang said, closing in on Sunset. "But I'm making time for you, buddy. Come on, Oobleck's classroom should be empty."

"I don't-" Sunset began, and then stopped when Yang clasped her by the shoulder. Her grip was firm, with the promise of more firmness to come if necessary to carry that grip into painful territory.

"Listen," Yang said. "There are things that I will tolerate and things that I won't, and when it comes to my little sister one of those lists is very short and the other one is very long." Her eyes changed colour turning from blue to a fiery red that seemed in the shadowy corridor to be almost demonic. "So either you come with me and we can talk, or else we can 'talk', understand?"

Sunset nodded silently.

Yang's eyes returned to their normal blue. "Great. Ruby said you were smart. Follow me." Sunset wasn't given the chance to follow as Yang bodily hauled her off down the corridor and into Oobleck's deserted history classroom.

Yang let go of Sunset long enough to hop onto Oobleck's desk, crossing her legs hide her panties from Sunset's eyes.

Sunset sat down herself, on one of the long desks used by the students. "Okay, we're here. What do you want?"

"I want to talk about how you're going to be the team leader that my sister deserves."

"I don't need lessons in leadership," Sunset said, and it was only the memory of those red eyes that prevented her from adding 'from the likes of you'. She knew how to lead, she had sat at the feet of Celestia and watched her do it. Now, yes, Sunset hadn't been acting in a very Celestia-like fashion lately bit that was because she hadn't been given the chance. If people would just pay attention to her-

"Yeah, because you're doing such a great job right now."

"It isn't my fault that she doesn't listen!"

There was pity in Yang's eyes. "Yeah, it is."

The pity was what called Sunset most. She scowled, before a smirk crossed her face. "So, let me guess, little Ruby came crying to her big sis asking you to do something about me. Doesn't that get old? Wouldn't you like to be able to live your own life without her constantly tugging on your apron strings like a nuisance?"

Yang laughed. "You don't know me very well so I'll let you have that for free, but add a warning: try to get between me and my sister and I'll punch you so hard they'll be looking for your head for months, understand? Ruby is the most important person in my life, she's the best thing that ever happened to me, and there is absolutely nothing you could say that would ever change that."

Privately, Sunset wasn't so sure about that. There would be something. There was always something. But she wasn't so lacking in self-preservation instinct as to say so out loud.

Yang rested her hands on her knees. "You know, even though she got here early, Ruby's still waited a long time to come to Beacon. She's dreamed of this her whole life, ever since I used to read her-" she stopped abruptly. "She's dreamed of coming here her whole life, I'm not going to let you screw this up for her or make her four years here miserable because of your issues."

Sunset regarded the other girl evenly. In truth, what she hadn't said - what she had stopped herself from saying - was more interesting to Sunset than what Yang had actually said. Sunset had known since that first night that Ruby's mom, Summer Rose the S in STRQ, was dead. What she hadn't known until Yang gave it away was that their dad was a deadbeat and the elder sister had been forced to step up and play mom to the younger. No wonder she was so devoted, and no wonder that Sunset's first attempt at discord-sowing had gone nowhere. Their relationship was not what Sunset had first taken it for.

Still, some sort of reply was necessary, and so Sunset said. "You should be giving this talk to Jaune, maybe get him to do his homework once in a while."

"Jaune isn't the one Ruby's worried about," Yang said. "You are."

Sunset snorted. "Do you think I'm doing this on purpose? Your sister isn't the only one who wants to be here at Beacon. I've waited for this too."

"You've got a funny way of showing it."

"Stop sitting there so righteous and put yourself in my position for five seconds!" Sunset snapped. She got to her feet. "Have you ever wanted something so badly that longing for it consumes you? That getting it is all that you think about?"

Yang's expression was impassive. "Maybe."

"What would you do if you let someone who had that thing you want so badly, but who didn't appreciate it one damn bit?" Sunset asked. "Wouldn't that infuriate you?"

"Nope."

Sunset snorted. "Easy to say."

"It happens to me all the time," Yang said, in such a way as gave nothing away as to what it was she wanted except that it was commonplace. "You won't see me blowing up about it."

"That only means that you don't really want it that badly."

Yang smirked. "You have no idea." She looked at Sunset. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I don't want it as badly as I used to. But I did, once. I wanted it so badly that I did something stupid. Stupid like you probably wouldn't believe. And then I took a look around and I stopped thinking about what I wanted for a moment and started thinking about what I had: Ruby, my little sister, my beautiful, kind...and now you've got her too and I'm going to need you to take better care of her or you and I are going to have problems. Look at what you've got, Sunset; look around and ask yourself if it's worth fighting with Pyrrha over what you want."

"Ruby isn't my sister."

"No, but she'll save you if you let her," Yang said. "That's just who she is. She'll save you like...like she saved me."

Sunset pursed her lips together until she was almost pouting. While she didn't buy into the whole pedestal that Yang was putting her sister on...that didn't change the fact that she was talking a lot of sense. Twilight, Goodwitch, Yang, all telling her the same thing, all playing variations on the same melody. Sunset didn't like it but...but like she'd told Yang, Ruby wasn't the only one for whom Beacon was important. This was her last chance before that destiny train pulled away from the station. She could feel ignominious anonymity stalking her like a creature of grimm. Was she really willing to throw away her shot over this, for Pyrrha's sake?

Sunset sighed. "Apologies don't come easily to someone like me. Making...friends comes even harder."

"You don't have to make friends with Pyrrha, you just have to get by for Ruby's sake," Yang said. "And maybe you don't have to apologise either, provided you understand. You and Pyrrha...Maybe it would be better if you talked in something other than words."

Pyrrha was waiting in the dorm room as Sunset strode in, back straight and head held high, with an expression as proud as a queen upon her face.

Pyrrha got slowly to her feet. The dorm was empty apart from the two of them, which was honestly how she preferred it for this. She had over-reacted, she could see that now; she had allowed her unfamiliarity with the way that…more ordinary people did things to lead her astray. Sunset was not blameless, but after what Nora had helped her to realise, and in light of the way that the situation had been allowed to escalate…Pyrrha had decided that it would be best to be the bigger person and apologise. If they could only put this business behind them then perhaps they could go back to how things had been before, to the way they had almost been pleasant immediately after being put on the same team together.

“Sunset-“ she began.

Sunset held up one hand for quiet.

Pyrrha hesitated, unsure of where this was going. What did Sunset intend to say to her in turn? Had she some fresh invective to pour on Pyrrha’s head. How much would she have to endure?

Sunset took pause awhile, and in her pause her regal pride seemed to crack, and crumble. She folded her arms, and her chin descended, and she looked less self-assured and more surly than anything else.

She snorted out of her nose like a bull, and for a few moments longer she said nothing.

“I don’t know why you came here, to Beacon,” Sunset said. “Not surprising, we haven’t talked much.”

It took Pyrrha a moment to realise that Sunset was asking the question in expectation of an answer from her. “I…I came here to learn how to protect the world.”

Sunset snorted, sounding very much like a horse as she did so. “I came here for fame.”

“I see,” Pyrrha murmured.

Sunset stared at her for a moment, before a smirk crossed her lips. “It’s kind of funny when you think about it: I’d love to be you, and you probably wouldn’t mind being me…actually, maybe not. I suppose…”

Pyrrha took a deep breath. “Sunset, I-“

“No.”

Pyrrha blinked. “No?”

“No, I’m not going to mouth some apology, kiss and make up and pretend that everything’s okay and neither are you, that doesn’t…” Sunset trailed off again. Her jaw tightened, and her head rose as she pointed at Pyrrha. “Pyrrha Nikos, I challenge you to a duel.”

Pyrrha’s eyebrows rose. “A duel?”

“Yes, it’s in the school rules, I checked,” Sunset declared. “I need to get this out of my system, and so do you.”

Pyrrha was not so sure of that, but what concerned her more was that if she and Sunset fought then there was absolutely no way that Sunset could win. She wasn’t bad, but she wasn’t great either and certainly nowhere near Pyrrha’s own level of prowess. What did she hope to gain, then, by this? Wouldn’t this just make her resent Pyrrha all the more?

“I’m not sure that-“

“Hey!” Sunset snapped. “Don’t pity me and don’t take me lightly. I’ll give you good run for it, I swear. There’s a lot of me you haven’t seen yet.”

Pyrrha’s eyes narrowed. She could believe that, if only because there was a lot of Pyrrha that the world hadn’t seen yet either. Was Sunset, like her, hiding a particularly powerful semblance? Was she holding back in Professor Goodwitch’s class in order to surprise her opponents at the Vytal Festival?

Of course, there was also the possibility that Sunset was lying about this but Pyrrha doubted it. It wouldn’t avail her anything to make herself out to be more powerful than she was when the proof of it would be easy to see in the arena. If she really was hiding something then Pyrrha had to confess that a part of her, the part of her that had once thrilled to the arena, that had considered it a world entire and to itself, was intrigued at the possibility. Perhaps Sunset was hiding gifts so great that she might actually challenge Pyrrha.

Certainly there was a look in Sunset’s eyes, a warrior look, a look that was proud but not boastful, confident but from good reason. It was the look of someone who honestly expected that they could win.

A look that Pyrrha hadn’t seen in the eyes of her opponents for some time. She didn’t realise how much she’d missed it until she saw it again.

That would be something to look forward. No one had seriously challenged her in quite some time.

She smiled. “Very well. I accept your challenge, Sunset Shimmer. I look forward to meeting you in more straightforward circumstances.”

Sunset’s smirk broadened. “Oh, it’s going to be great, I promise.”

Pyrrha finished strapping on her greaves, the last piece of her armour to be applied. She was armed now, and well prepared for anything that Sunset might throw at her. The weight of armour and weapons alike was reassuring. She didn’t have to worry about her lack of skill with words, or her lack of understanding of so many things that others took for granted. Here she could speak with Milo, and listen with Akuou, and be well understood by all who witnessed it.

She stood up. Her mother, who had been a great tournament fighter herself before an injury had ended her career – and forced her to pin all her hopes upon her daughter instead – had told her that passing from the locker room into the arena was like being born: you began in darkness, alone, unknown, unnoticed, and then you walked out of the dark corridor and into the light, where a whole world was waiting to receive you and acclaim you.

As Pyrrha walked through the dark corridor, she thought to herself that she would rather have been ‘born’ alone and unnoticed. She would have liked for this contest between Sunset and herself to have remained a private matter, watched only by Ruby and Jaune. But that was impossible, not least because they needed to get permission from a professor to use the hall outside of class time, and they also needed a professor – or at least a qualified referee – to supervise the fight.

That role was generously being filled by Professor Goodwitch, who was not given to gossip, but nevertheless the fact that they had booked the hall was not a secret, and word had gotten around. Word about a Pyrrha Nikos always seemed to get around; Pyrrha was sure that she could have gone to an illicit fighting den in Vale’s seediest district and there would have been a reporter waiting for her when she got there. And so, as Pyrrha walked out of the dark corridor and into the light, as she was figuratively born in armour clad and armed for war, she was greeted by a great cheer from people watching from the bleachers, waves of upon waves of applause descending upon her head.

When she was young – when she was younger than she was now – that acclaim had delighted her. She had revelled in it, and in the revelling known herself to be almost as alive as when she fought.

It did not delight her now. It felt like a long time since she had truly earned it. So many effortless victories, so many opponents who could barely touch her without the use of her semblance. If Sunset had something up her sleeve…Pyrrha found that she hoped the other girl did.

She hoped - a vain hope perhaps, but nonetheless – that this bout might give her cause to recall why she had once loved this.

In the other locker room, Sunset was not alone. Ruby was with her, fidgeting with her hands and looking wildly this way and that as Sunset got dressed.

Sunset pulled on her jacket. “Do you have something to say to me, Ruby?”

“I just…I’m sorry about the fight,” Ruby murmured. “But Jaune was in trouble, and I couldn’t just leave him there.” She smiled, or tried to. “I know how tough Yang can be, and I know how she never lets up.”

“Your sister…” Sunset trailed off, because the truth was that Yang scared the crap out of her a little bit, but she wasn’t willing to admit that. Not least because it would probably get back to Yang and Sunset wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction. “I didn’t get the chance to explain my plan, but I was going to sacrifice Jaune just to keep Yang busy for a bit.”

“Really?” Ruby exclaimed. “But that’s terrible. I know he’s not that strong but he’s still a member of our team.”

“Sometimes a pawn has to be sacrificed to win the game.”

“But Jaune’s not a fish, he’s a person!”

It took Sunset a moment to work out what Ruby meant. “I said pawn, not prawn.”

“Oh, you mean like those magazines Yang thinks I don’t know about? But what does-“

“No, not that either!” Sunset said. “Just forget it, the point is that you can’t save everyone and-“

“Yes, you can,” Ruby said. “Of course you can. What’s the point in being the hero if you can’t save everybody?”

“What if the alternative is saving no one?” Sunset asked. “Not even yourself?”

“I don’t believe that that’s the choice. I don’t believe that it’s impossible to do it all. It’s only impossible if you don’t let yourself believe that you can do it.” Ruby looked defiant for a moment, but then the look in her strange silver eyes faded. “Anyway, that wasn’t all that I wanted to apologise for. It’s my fault that everyone found out about what was going on between you and Pyrrha. It’s just that I tell Yang everything and I didn’t think that her team would-“

“It doesn’t matter,” Sunset said.

“It doesn’t? But everyone hates you?”

“So?” Sunset said. “They probably hated me anyway, and it’s not like I need their good opinion for anything.”

Ruby frowned. “Why do you always act like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like…it’s not even that you don’t have any friends, it’s like you don’t want any.”

Sunset smirked. “I don’t need them,” she said. “I drink milk.”

Ruby flushed as red as her name. “You…you heard that?”

“Yup.”

“Well, what I meant was that I…that doesn’t mean that I don’t want any friends,” Ruby protested. “I just meant that I…I don’t know what I meant. Why are you doing this?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well…no offence, but it’s Pyrrha.”

“Yeah, and I’m Sunset Shimmer,” Sunset replied. “It’s time the world realised what that meant.” She turned to go.

“Wait, what about your gun?” Ruby asked, pointing to Sol Invictus propped up against the wall.

Sunset glanced over her shoulder, first at the weapon and then at Ruby. “I don’t need it.” Or rather, it wouldn’t do her any good to take it with her anyway. She couldn’t beat Pyrrha Nikos with Pyrrha’s own weapons, the weapons of a huntress in which she had been training her entire life. In order to win, she would need to use the weapon of Sunset Shimmer, mind and magic in which she had trained for her whole life. It would mean revealing a lot more of her power than she had thus far, but Sunset judged the risk well worth the prize. She had to do something to prove that she was not a thing to be taken lightly, and she had to do something to start impressing people in a way she just wasn’t going to manage with her above-average huntress skills in a year that had people like Pyrrha and Ruby in it.

She was not, probably would never be a truly great huntress using simply her weapons and her aura. Even if she discovered her semblance then, unless it turned out to be something particularly badass, it probably wouldn’t be enough to put her in top tier.

But she was a unicorn archmage, and if she wasn’t quite able to complete one of Starswirl’s unfinished spells then she was still one of the most gifted unicorns to pass through Celestia’s tutelage.

You have to own what you got, that was what she’d said to Twilight. Well, what Sunset had more than anything else was magic and it was about time that she owned that, even in Remnant.

This was not a world to hide virtues in. The world to hide virtues in did not exist.

Thus Sunset strutted out of the locker room and onto the stage.

Pyrrha stood on the other side, armed and ready, unaffected by the cheers of the crowd.

Professor Goodwitch coughed. “Miss Shimmer, you seem to have forgotten something.”

“I’ve decided to fight without a weapon, professor,” Sunset replied. “I have that option.”

Professor Goodwitch’s eyebrows rose. “This is very unusual, Miss Shimmer-“

“But not wholly unprecedented,” Professor Ozpin declared, suddenly appearing by the side of the Professor Goodwitch. He sipped from his coffee. “As you say, you have the option. But are you sure that this is the wisest choice, Miss Shimmer?”

His words hung pregnant in the air between them for a moment as the headmaster’s eyes bored into her, ferreting out the heart of her mystery even as his words conveyed more than they said.

He wanted her to be careful. He wanted her to reconsider, though Sunset did not know why. But she was beyond all care and caution. This was her moment, she could not throw it away by languishing in half measures.

She looked away. “I’m quite sure, professor.”

“Very well then. So be it.”

Pyrrha’s expression was inscrutable at this distance. It was impossible to tell what she thought about it.

Just so long as you don’t hold back.

“Are both combatants ready?”

“I’m ready,” Pyrrha declared.

Sunset turned her collar up, and spaced her legs more evenly apart. “I’m ready, professor.”

Professor Goodwitch’s voice rang out across the hall. “Begin!”

Pyrrha charged, her burnished shield before her as her swift-feet carried her across the stage to the cheers of the onlookers.

Sunset crossed her arms before her, and conjured a glowing green shield around her.

Pyrrha’s face showed nothing but concentration on the battle as, without a word or sound, not even a shout, she pushed outwards with her shield slashed wildly with her sword at Sunset’s shield.

The blade skittered harmlessly off the magical barrier. Pyrrha’s eyes gleamed as she switched her weapon into spear-form and reversed her grip for a thrust.

Sunset grinned as he flung her hands outwards. Instantly the shield erupted, the energy of the barrier exploding like a shockwave which tossed Pyrrha like a rag doll, thrown aside by a spoiled brat, backwards across the stage. The crowd gasped as the champion of Sanctum hit the floor and skidded backwards a few feet until she leapt in a fluid flip back to her feet, her spear changed into a rifle with which she fired three quick shots at Sunset.

Sunset teleported out of the way, moving herself a few feet to the left with her hands flung outwards. Power was gathered at her fingertips, she’d practiced this until it was almost as easy as it would have been with a horn. From all ten fingers she fired off burst of green energy at Pyrrha. Pyrrha rolled aside, deflecting some of the blasts with her shield even as she used said shield as a rest for her rifle. She fired again. This time Sunset wasn’t fast enough to teleport away and the shot struck her in the shoulder, bearing her to the ground. She winced once as she was hit, it felt like being hit by an ursa’s paw, and a second time as she hit the ground beneath her.

Instantly she hit the ground Pyrrha was on her, her spear descending straight for Sunset’s heart. Sunset rolled, and teleported again – she was breathing heavily now, sweat was coating her brow and running down her back, making her top stick to her skin – this time just above and behind Pyrrha. She fired a burst of energy from her open palm. Pyrrha rolled to avoid it, and so nimble was she and so swift that she nearly dodged it despite the point-blank nature of the distance. Part of the stage floor exploded as Pyrrha, struck in the side, was turned around like a spinning top but as she turned she had the presence to extend her shield arm and raised her shield to strike Sunset, in turn, a glancing blow upon the face.

Sunset hit the floor face first, and scrambled to her feet. She had to get up before Pyrrha could recover or-

Of course, who am I dealing with here? The thought, rather unhelpful, ran through Sunset’s mind as Pyrrha was on her. She kicked Sunset up and then struck with her shield, so hard that Sunset not only hit the ground but shattered it beneath her. Sunset grabbed hold of the pieces of broken floor, hurling them upwards above her. She was rewarded by the sound of them hitting what could only be her tenacious opponent.

She teleported again - I can’t keep doing this – and added a touch of the reverse gravity spell to keep her hovering overhead, suspended twenty feet above the stage near the ceiling. In spite of the pounding in her heart, in spite of the sweat, in spite of the shaking weariness in her limbs Sunset did her best to keep a calm, serene look on her face. She didn’t dare let Pyrrha know how close she was to losing. She didn’t dare take her eyes off Pyrrha long enough to check their aura levels.

Pyrrha stood, waiting, expectant. It almost looked as though she was smiling.

Sunset grinned right back. And for my next trick. She spread her arms out wide on either side of her, and conjured up a score and more of bolts of green energy all around her like vorpal spears, hovering in the air. This kind of indirect casting was a drain even more than teleportation but damn if it didn’t look impressive to bystanders.

She held them in the air for a moment longer, and then like a god casting down thunderbolts from his mountain throne she hurled down her spears on Pyrrha Nikos.

Pyrrha ran. She darted this way and that as the spears fell down around her, destroying the stage beneath her feet, running and dodging like a field mouse in the thicket trying to escape the eagle’s claws. As she ran, Sunset lifted up the fragments of stage beneath her feet, trying to unbalance. But Pyrrha was not only swift but graceful, she leapt from fragment to fragment and though some of Sunset’s spears hit home she didn’t allow them to slow her for more than a second. Even when she lost her footing she recovered it again a moment later. The spears from heaven fell and Pyrrha dived through them and leapt upwards, shield held before her and blade reversed for a downward stabbing stroke.

And Sunset did the most unexpected thing that she could think of, and rushed to meet her. Magic propelled her forwards and downward through the air like a superhero, leather jacket flying behind her as she collided with Pyrrha with all the force of a bullet, reversing her momentum as they both plummeted downwards into the ground to wreck what remained of the Beacon stage.

You gotta be close to the end now, surely. Sunset raised her fist, but Pyrrha was faster and hit her in the face with her shield so hard that Sunset’s head was knocked backwards. She groaned in pain, and while she was distracted Pyrrha hurled Sunset back into the air and slashed at her repeatedly with her sword.

Sunset teleported away. She was visibly gasping for breath now, she didn’t have another teleportation in her. She hadn’t done so much magic at once in quite a while and her reserves were starting to run low. Have to make it count.

Pyrrha charged towards her.

Sunset felt a great wind blowing around, billowing her hair and jacket as though destiny itself swirled about her. She gripped her right arm with her left, to keep it from shaking, and pointed her index finger at Pyrrha like a gun.

“Bang.”

A beam of energy erupted from Sunset’s finger. Pyrrha didn’t have time to dodge this time, it was moving too fast and so was she. She was caught in mid-stride, and though she took the beam upon her shield she was borne backwards by its force and dumped in a heap on the edge of the broken stage.

Sunset panted. That was it. That had to be it. That was all that she had left in her, surely there was no way that Pyrrha could-

She glanced at the board. Pyrrha’s aura was still in the yellow. It was only just, it was a sliver away from being in the red, but it was still in the yellow.

And Pyrrha was getting up again.

She took a few steps forward, pirouetted on her toes like a dancer, and threw her shield like a discus.

Sunset saw it coming, but she didn’t have the energy to raise a shield, she didn’t have the energy to teleport, she didn’t have the energy for anything but to watch as the shield hit her in the face, and knocked her onto her back.

The klaxon sounded.

“Congratulations, Miss Nikos,” Professor Goodwitch said. “You are the winner.”

Sunset cursed mentally. She thought it through, she’d gone to her limits, she’d fought the fight upon her terms, fought her way, with her gifts. Was she really that inferior? Couldn’t she beat Pyrrha even in her own chosen discipline?

Was she really just…mediocre?

There was no other sound in the hall but Pyrrha’s footsteps traversing the shattered the treacherous stage, before she appeared above Sunset.

She was smiling, but it was not a cruel smile, not a smirk of victory to lord over a defeated foe. It was…it was something else. It almost seemed kind.

“Thank you,” Pyrrha said.

“Huh?” was all Sunset could murmur in reply as she lay on the ground, prostrate and defeated.

Pyrrha held out a hand to help her up. “That was the most enjoyable fight I have had in quite some time. That semblance…it’s quite the talent you’ve been hiding.”

“You’re not so bad yourself,” Sunset said, as she allowed Pyrrha to help her to her feet. She might not have won – let’s be honest, she hadn’t won – but she understood Pyrrha better now than she had before. Just reading about her record and her accomplishments wasn’t the same. Sunset now recognised that, though they were completely different in so many ways and attitudes, they were at their core the same: they were both people who had worked their backsides off to be the best in their chosen field – Pyrrha in arms, Sunset in magic – and although Sunset didn’t understand why Pyrrha wanted to be the best when she didn’t seem to enjoy all the accolades that came with it Sunset could nevertheless recognise the skills. From one prodigy to another.

For a moment, the two of them stood amidst the wreckage they had wrought in silence. No voice from the hall was raised to interrupt them. They stared into one another’s eyes – both green, and though Sunset was loath to admit it there was a nagging part of her that thought Pyrrha’s were probably brighter and more beautiful – and Sunset fancied that, just as she understood Pyrrha better now for having spoken with blows than she had when they were speaking with words, so too did Pyrrha understand her a little better also.

“Miss Shimmer,” Professor Goodwitch said. “An impressive display, although I will note that had you not left your weapon in the locker room you might have had some options once you had exhausted your semblance.”

Sunset sighed. “Yes, professor.”

“Although, with such a powerful semblance, one can hardly blame you for a slight degree of overconfidence,” Professor Ozpin murmured.

“Miss Nikos,” Professor Goodwitch said. “A formidable display, as always. You did excellently, both of you. I hope that the experience has taught you something.”

“Yes, professor,” Pyrrha said, with a glance at Sunset. “I think it has.”

“Go Pyrrha!” Ruby shouted. “Go Sunset!” She started to applaud, and it became clear from the way her eyes went from one to the other that she was applauding for both of them. Jaune was the next to take up the clap, and soon the applause had spread throughout the hall until all the spectators, save only for the two professors, were applauding.

Sunset couldn’t be sure, she could not know for certain, but she dared to hope that they were all applauding for both of them.

She let it wash over her for a moment, eyes closed as that nectar and ambrosia which she had long sought and for so long been denied flowed into her ears and balmed her soul. This was it. This was what it was all for. She didn’t need friends, Pyrrha didn’t need friends…all that they needed was this, to be loved by the masses, acclaimed by them, acknowledged by them as something superior. She hadn’t heard this sound – for applause that was for you sounded different than applause for other people, as you learned if you listened closely enough; you could feel the difference in your soul – since she had demonstrated her prodigious magic before the nobles of Canterlot at the symposia that Celestia would hold for the great and good. She had felt then as though she were on track for something great and glorious. She was starting to feel that way again.

She glanced at Pyrrha, wordlessly enquiring as the to the etiquette of these situations.

Pyrrha nodded, wordlessly answering.

As one, still hand in hand, they bowed.

Sunset and Pyrrha sat on the rooftop with the wind caressing their features and licking at their hair, even as the sunlight gently kissed their faces.

Sunset leaned back, resting her head on her clasped hands, and closed her eyes.

It was the afternoon after their fight, and Sunset found that she could be around Pyrrha without raging outwardly or even inwardly at all her flaws. While she wouldn't call her a friend, being up here with her was, well, it was almost pleasant. Comfortable.

Whether that comfort would survive contact with all of Pyrrha's fans downstairs in the school was a matter for some discussion but, right now, Sunset was feeling pretty good.

Even if she had lost the fight, she had gained the respect of Beacon in the process; it was like one of those sports movies about going the distance with the champ.

Of course, that wasn't to say that Sunset didn't still kind of hope to be the champ one day.

"You're semblance is very impressive," Pyrrha said. "One of the most versatile semblances I've seen."

Sunset opened her eyes. That would certainly be true if magic was her semblance, which was part of the reason she hadn't previously gone so over the top with it. But, as much as Pyrrha was a smart girl, Sunset had faith in the power of frame of reference. If she, in her studies at Canterlot under Celestial, had been confronted with a form of power like aura or semblances then she would not, without any details, have assumed them to be hitherto unknown forms of power, rather branches of the magic she was familiar with. So far, it had worked just the same in Remnant.

"Yeah," she said. "It is pretty cool."

"You must have spent a long time training to use it."

Sunset looked up at the blue sky overhead. "When did you start training to fight?"

"Seriously? My training began when I was five."

"That's about when my training began."

"It sounds like an interesting training regimen that focussed so heavily upon the use of your semblance, rather than combat skills or weapons handling."

Sunset was silent for a moment, considering her response. "I had...you might say that she was an unusual teacher. She wasn't training a warrior, rather...I'm not sure I can explain what she was training. I'm not even sure that I know anymore." The closest she could think to come to a frame of reference that Pyrrha would understand would be to use Pyrrha's own words: a paragon of virtue and glory. "She's probably very disappointed in me right now."

"Disappointed?" Pyrrha repeated, with astonishment evident in her voice. "I would say that your abilities do credit to your master."

Sunset snorted. "My teacher wouldn't have wanted me to become a huntress, a killer. Hey, Pyrrha?"

"Yes?"

"Do you believe in destiny?"

Now it was Pyrrha's turn to fall silent. "Yes," she said. "Although not as some might conceive of it. There is no inescapable fate to which we are condemned from birth. Rather, I believe that our destiny is the goal to which we have committed ourselves, and to which we progress through determined effort."

Sunset sat up, a frown creasing her forehead. "No offence, but how is that destiny? If we can choose our fate then surely it is no fate at all."

Pyrrha asked, "Do you believe in inescapable fate?"

"I'd like to," Sunset said. "I certainly used to when I thought my fate was something grand and glorious. But I think destiny must be preordained or it is nothing."

"Look at me, I am the daughter of a great woman," Pyrrha murmured. "A god was my father, but death and inexorable destiny are waiting for me."

"A quote?"

"I'm a little surprised someone as knowledgeable as you hasn't read the Mistraliad."

"I know the stories, mostly," Sunset replied with a touch of defensiveness.

"Yes, but until you have read the poem...I was named for the Pyrrha who fought at Mistral, the finest of the warriors who fought there. When the war began, that Pyrrha chose a brief but glorious existence over a long and ordinary life, and when her lover was killed Pyrrha chose to have her revenge though she knew that her own death would follow hard upon. That became her destiny, inexorable...but only because she chose it."

Sunset nodded. She understood a little better now where Pyrrha was coming from. "Among my people," she said. "We don't really trouble to define what we mean by destiny. We think of it mostly in terms of a fixed thread, but now that you have explained it I think that we sometimes slip into the second meaning." It would explain the lies of Celestia: in the mistaken view of her old teacher, she had strayed off the path that led to her royal destiny and thus forfeited it. She had been quite wrong, of course, and understanding her thinking in no way lessened the sting of her betrayal of Sunset, but...she understood a little better now what Celestia had been trying to say.

"Can I ask, if you believe we choose our destiny then why did you choose a destiny you don't want?"

Pyrrha shook her head sadly. "I've always believed that my destiny is so much more than to win trophies. My destiny, the destiny I choose, the destiny I came here searching for...is to protect the world."

Sunset chuckled. "And I thought I was the one with grand ambitions."

"For what other reason do huntresses exist?"

"Well, yes, but when you say it out loud..." Sunset trailed off. There was a reason she kept her own ambitions to herself: to speak them out loud was to expose them to the mockery and derision of small minds and smaller spirits incapable of risking all with a leap into the unknown. And besides, if you told a wish it wouldn't come true, and ambitions had always seemed very close to wishes to Sunset's way of thinking.

"Our world is under siege and in grave peril," Pyrrha said solemnly. "We cannot simply try to hold ground or minimise our losses."

"You're talking about retaking the world from the grimm?"

"I suppose I am," Pyrrha said. "I believe that that is where our destiny, humanity's destiny, must lie; and I believe that I can play some part in that. And so could you."

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "What are you saying?"

Pyrrha smiled. "I'm saying that it was an honour to fight against you, but it would be a greater honour to fight by your side."

A smile blossomed across Sunset's face. She held out a balled fist, which Pyrrha regarded suspiciously.

"You bump it with your knuckles," Sunset explained.

"Oh," Pyrrha replied. "Oh, I see."

They bumped fists.

"Hoof bump," Sunset murmured.

"I'm sorry?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all."

And that's how I learned that fighting was the way to solve all my problems.

Well I'm glad that things are better between you and Pyrrha, obviously, but I can't help but think that this could have been resolved without a fight.

If we hadn't fought we wouldn't have been able to appreciate one another's skills first hand.

There was a pause at the other end of the journal. Twilight: Unfortunately I have a feeling that you might be right.

Sunset sniggered. Am I making the princess of friendship uncomfortable?

The fact that you live in a world of violence disturbs me, I will admit. You make it sound almost dystopian.

Atlas could have stepped out of a trilogy of novels if you added a love triangle, but so far Vale hasn't been all bad. Not great either, but not all bad. Twilight Sparkle?

You can just call me Twilight, if you want.

We're not friends. But

Sunset's hand trembled. She felt as though she were on the threshold of a door that she must cross, and yet she feared to do so. Do you think Princess Celestia is ashamed, that I took what she taught me and I use it take life?

I haven't actually told her too much; you're situation sounds incredibly dangerous and I wasn't sure if you'd want her to worry.

No. I don't want her to worry. And I don't want her to judge. There, she had set it down, her fear, and now it could not be erased. It grinned up at her, mocking and sardonic, taunting her with her own weakness.

From what you've told me, there is nothing to judge. Assuming you're not lying, then you're protecting people from terrible monsters. I pity that you have to live such a life but I don't judge you for it.

Sunset nearly wrote back that she didn't need the pity of a usurper, but what would have been the point? She was irritated, but not so irritated that she wanted to either end the conversation or get it bogged down in whether Twilight Sparkle had or had not meant to be patronising.

She thought about Pyrrha's dream, her destiny to which she was willing to commit body and soul to work towards. Could it be done, the grimm defeated once and for all? The history of places like Mountain Glenn or the Crimson Offensive suggested otherwise, but Sunset was no seer. Not even Celestia could see the future. Perhaps Pyrha could do it, and if Sunset were a part of it then...

Princess, do you believe in destiny?

Are you allowed to tell me what you're working on right now, or is it classified?

I'm still attached to General Ironwood's staff, I'm helping him on a couple of things which are classified. Sorry.

If that's how it goes. Is it boring?

Atlas needs staff officers as much as any other kind of soldier; there's no such thing as an unnecessary position in this army. I'm protecting Atlas and the world - and you. That's all that matters. My boredom or otherwise doesn't enter into it. Besides, it isn't as though the general has me getting coffee.

Weiss smiled at thought of her bug sister, tough as they come, getting coffee for anyone. That's probably because he's tasted your coffee.

You are becoming a sharp-tongued brat. I'm very proud.

Weiss stared down at the screen of her scroll, and at those words that warmed her more than a dozen cups of coffee could have managed. The smile on her face blossomed on her face so brightly that people stumbling upon her would hardly have recognised her as the Weiss Schnee who stalked the halls of Beacon every day.

She relished these opportunities to talk with Winter, even if it was texting. She felt as though it were only to her sister that she could be herself. Winter had high expectations of her, as her father did, but unlike father Winter was also willing to see Weiss as her own person and not simply an extension the Schnee name and legacy.

And Winter knew her well enough that there was neither need nor purpose in playing a role with her. She could open up to Winter in a way that she never could have to her team-mates.

Thanks.

Enough about me. How are things? How's your team?

Performing adequately under my leadership.

What aren't you saying?

Quite a bit, if Weiss was being honest; like the fact that she sometimes felt like she wa herding monkeys as much as leading huntsmen. But even with Winter there was such a thing as too much information. It's nothing that I can't handle. Although

Yes?

You were team leader, right?

Yes.

Did you ever have a problem with them trying to ask you out?

Ah, you're having that problem, too.

What did you do about it?

I told them that I'd been disinherited and miraculously they lost interested.

Weiss snorted. Unfortunately I haven't been disinherited. Not yet, anyway.

Don't worry about it. Father has to leave the company to someone.

Whitley.

You haven't given Father any reason to change his disposition. Although maybe you should take one of his calls. He knows we're in contact and he's been badgering me to badger you about it.

Weiss hesitated. She didn't want to talk to her father and she didn't want to argue the point with Winter either. But nor did she want to lie to her sister. I'll think about it.

Okay. Now, about these boys, they do know I can deploy Atlasian spec ops, right?

I don't think they do.

Let them know and see if it helps.

I might end up having to do just that.

I have to go back to work now.

I love you.

There was a pause, a silence from her scroll.

We'll talk again soon.

Weiss sighed as she shut her scroll with an audible snap. It was nothing personal, she told herself; emotional reserve was the curse of the Schnee family.

She put away her scroll, and put on the mask of Weiss Schnee, heiress and ice queen, for which she was known at Beacon.

Weiss sometimes wondered how she had ended up in the position in which she found herself at Beacon. She was not a vain girl - certainly she was not vain of her looks, at any rate, although her skills as a huntress were something of another matter altogether - and she was certainly not the kind of girl who would consider herself, like the heroine of a bad online fiction, to be so beautiful it was like a curse. How was it then, by what twist of fate had she found herself in a position where, out of the seven men in the top four teams in her year, four of them seemed to be attracted to her?

The situation might not have been so bad if the four corresponded to the four boys who were not on her team, but Ren seemed completely disinterested, Dove hadn't so much as glanced at her and Sky Lark was a nonentity.

Three of her four unwanted suitors were the ones she had to live with every single day.

Cardin's advance had been like so much else about Cardin: boorish and overconfident. He had sat himself down next to her at lunch one day and started planning their date as though she had already agreed.

Weiss fixed him with an icy gaze of the sort that had been enough to freeze his words in his throat. "Cardin, at what point precisely did I agree to go on a date with you?"

Cardin hesitated, before he laughed and spread his arms across the table in such a way as to emphasise the broadness of his chest. "Well, how can you say no to this?"

"Very easily," Weiss said dryly. "For the sake of your dignity I'm willing to pretend that this never happened." She turned back to her lunch and hoped that he'd adept the out she had offered him.

He didn't. Weiss got the impression that people didn't say no to Cardin Winchester very often. At least her father, whatever his faults, could not be said to have spoiled his children. Not in any sense other than the strictly material, anyway.

"Come on," he said. "No need to be like that about it. Why, we'd make a perfect pair, you and I: my Vale pedigree and your Atlasian-"

"Money?" Weiss suggested acidly.

"I was going to say connections," Cardin said defensively. "My undeniable masculinity and your delicate femininity."

Weiss was thinking some decidedly unfeminine thoughts about what she would like to do to him as she said, "Cardin, I don't know what kind of primeval hole you crawled out of, but I'm a better fighter than you are and I certainly don't need your protection. The answer is no, now drop it."

He had dropped it, at least in the sense that he hadn't asked her out since but that hadn't stopped Weiss from getting the distinct impression that he hadn't given up yet. If nothing else, he was always harder on Jaune Arc after Jaune had attempted to ask Weiss out. She thought there might be a connection there.

Russell had waited until Cardin had been shot down to make a move, catching her as she was coming out of the library.

"Hey," he said, in a voice that was deliberately deeper than his usual register. "So, I was wondering if you might like to go out for drinks sometime, I know this great little place in downtown Vale. Kinda edgy, you know. The sort of place where you never know what might happen."

If Weiss hadn't had her arms full of books then she would have folded them. As it was, she contented herself with staring at him until he looked away in embarrassment. "I'm surprised Cardin is taking the risk that his sidekick might succeed where he failed."

"Hey, I'm not Cardin's sidekick!" Russel protested, his voice returning. He coughed, and tried to deepen his voice again. "I mean, uh-"

"What makes you think I'd want to go to some seedy bar in downtown Vale?"

Russell shrugged. "You know, rich chicks love that kind of stuff. Rebel against your dad and all."

Weiss derived some internal amusement from the fact that her father would probably have just about preferred her to have rebelled against him by going to low dives with boys like Russell Thrush rather than going to Beacon to train as a huntress. It wouldn't have been much better in his eyes, but a little.

"Russell, you watch too many movies," Weiss said.

Russell shrugged again. "Maybe, but it could still be fun. Look, I'm not asking you to marry me, just give me a chance."

"I'm afraid not," Weiss said, in a more gentle tone than she had used with Cardin because he hadn't annoyed her so much. It was just that he really wasn't her type with the whole punk revival thing that he had going on. And, to his credit, he seemed to have accepted her rejection as the last word it was. Lately he'd been sniffing around Blake Belladonna of BLBL, and Weiss wished him luck with that.

And then there was Flash, who hadn't actually gotten around to asking her out yet but who clearly wanted to. In some ways he was more annoying than Cardin because instead of just getting it over with he seemed to be trying to pay the groundwork with solicitous behaviour, always offering to do things for her as though she wasn't training to fight the creatures of grimm at the same elite academy he was. Honestly, Weiss would rather that he just asked her out if that was what he wanted to do. He was pretty cute, clean cut and nice, she might have considered him if he could have just spat it out. Of course, there were disadvantages to dating one's team-mates, not least the consequences of a break-up and what might happen to the team dynamic even in the best of circumstances. And Weiss hadn't come to Beacon looking to find romance. Even if Flash asked, there was still a good chance that she would refuse.

But she much preferred Flash's coy juvenile bashfulness to the tenacity displayed by Jaune Arc, who seemed as boneheaded and clueless in courtship as he was in every other aspect of his life. If Weiss hadn't been such a skilled huntress, and Jaune been such a mediocre huntsmen, then his refusal to take no for an answer, forever springing flowers, mediocre poetry, music or melodramatic declarations on her without any consideration of tact, privacy, setting or Weiss’ own mood might have started to creep her out.

It was seriously getting on her nerves regardless. So much so that she did something very difficult for her and went to see his team leader about it.

Weiss didn't like having to approach Sunset Shimmer. She wasn't a racist, but she didn't like having to have anything to do with faunus and she never had. Quite apart from all that she had been told about the White Fang, her experiences with ordinary faunus had been bad enough, like the times she had been ambushed on the streets by so-called peaceful protesters telling her what an awful man her father was; peaceful they may have been but it had been frightening enough for a child before Klein chased them away. Even those faunus whom were not openly antagonistic had in their docility a kind of insolence in their manner, as if for them not doing anything that could be used against them was a kind if defiance. Whether they were uppity or not it was hard to trust them, especially knowing that they might at any moment transform into the nightmare figures of the White Fang who had murdered so many of her father's friends, who were the reason Klein carried a gun with him when he took her out - a gun which he thought she didn't know about.

Even now, as Weiss approached Sunset in the library, she found it frighteningly easy to imagine the faunus student in a grimm mask, a cruel smile on her face as she sought to snuff out Weiss' life.

Weiss coughed into her hand, giving the other girl plenty of warning as she approached. Sunset Shimmer shut her book. She carried herself with a curious mixture of arrogance and nervousness that Weiss had not seen in faunus previously, the latter covered beneath a healthy serving of bravado like a steak slathered in sauce to obscure the flavour of the meat.

"Can I help you?" Sunset asked impatiently.

Weiss clasped her hands together behind her back. "I...I'd like to ask you to control your team-mates."

Sunset stared at her for a moment. "I presume you mean Jaune?"

"Indeed."

Weiss wasn't sure exactly what she'd expected or hoped for. Sisterly solidarity, perhaps. But Sunset smiled, in a way that might not have seemed completely disingenuous to most people. But Weiss Schnee was not most people, and she had been around smiles like that her whole life. People smiled at her father like that all the time, because they didn't like him but daren't show the fact because he was Jacques Schnee, the richest man in the world. And they wanted something from him. That was what all the disingenuous smilers had in common, whether they were seeking investment in their latest project, an improvement in working conditions, a donation to some ‘charitable foundation’ or other they all smiled like that when they wanted something from her father and the Schnee family. No doubt Sunset Shimmer wanted something from her, too.

"I'll make you a deal," Sunset said. "I'll keep Jaune away from you, and you keep Cardin and Russell away from my team. Agreed?"

Weiss hesitated. She disliked Sunset's tone, and the idea of having to bargain for a favour in this business rankled with her. But, Sunset hadn't actually asked for anything outrageous, and her proposal was not, on the face of it, unreasonable. She probably ought to have put a stop to Cardin's antics before now anyway; they were unbecoming and they threatened to disgrace the entire team. She had...a part of her had found his treatment of Jaune a fitting punishment for his pursuit of her, and the rest...she had rebuked him at times, but often found it easier to turn a blind eye to offences mostly committed against deserving victims.

And so Weiss ignored the part of her that told her that Sunset Shimmer was getting above herself, and nodded. "Very well. I'll talk to my team and you talk to yours."

"Fair enough." Sunset said. She held out her hand.

Weiss didn't take it.

Sunset's hand hung there a moment, unwanted, before she let it fall. Sunse5's insincere smile turned into something more like a smirk. "I see. So that's how it is, huh? Well, for the record I wash my hands after I've been to the bathroom, but whatever. We don't have to like each other to keep our nuisances out of one another's hair."

"No," Weiss replied frostily. "No, we don't."

Sunset waited until that evening to speak to Jaune, which carried the risk of him doing something stupid in the interim but also meant that he wa stuck having to listen to her while she didn't have to go looking for him.

She finished the conclusion to her grimm studies essay, which praised Professor Poet's valour in a way that might be over the top if it were anyone but Professor Port, and pushed her chair back. Jaune, of course, was reading a comic book.

Irritation flashed through Sunset and made her even more determined to get through this.

"Jaune," she said loudly.

Jaune cringed, and he tried to hide the comic book. "Uh, yeah?"

"Weiss Schnee and I had a little chat today," Sunset said. "Leave her alone from now on."

"What?"

Sunset briefly wondered if he was deaf or stupid. "You've been bugging her so much that she came to me to put a stop to it. So I made a deal with her: you're going to leave her alone, and Cardin and Russell are going to leave us alone."

Ruby and Pyrrha had both stopped what they were doing. Though neither said anything, nevertheless it was quite clear to Sunset that they were listening closely.

Jaune leapt to his feet. "You can't do that! You have no right-"

"I just did it," Sunset said. "And the ability to act gives me the right. Besides, do you really enjoy being Cardin's victim of choice?"

"No, but I'll take it for her sake!"

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Look, I shouldn't have to be doing this because she's already told you no more than once. I mean, I'm kind of glad that you didn't stop but isn't it about time that you let this go?"

"If I could just get her to take me seriously for a second-"

"She took you seriously enough to seriously complain to me about you," Sunset said. "And believe me, I could tell how much it was killing her to be around me. That is how seriously she takes this. Frankly, if it was me I'd have thrown you out of a window by now." She spread her arms to encompass the room. "Ruby, Pyrrha, you agree this is getting creepy, right?"

She saw at once that she had asked the wrong people by the looks on their faces. Of course, Pyrrha had never had a boyfriend before and Ruby was probably too young - if her older sister had anything to say about it anyway - to really know.

"Well," Ruby said. "We're always being that we have to keep trying, right? If we fail, we have to pick ourselves up and keep moving forward."

"That's not really what that-"

"Perhaps if you let Weiss know how you really feel, with no zany schemes or goofy gestures, then she'll finally see you for what you really are," Pyrrha suggested.

"Trust me, she sees exactly what he is," Sunset muttered. "Ugh, you two suck. Look, the point is...there are three points actually, the first one being have some self respect for Celestia's sake, she said no and you're just making a fool of yourself. Secondly what do you really see in her anyway and thirdly I don't care. I don't care if you think she's the love of your life, I have made a deal with Weiss and if I can't keep it then I look weak in front her. That isn't going to happen."

Jaune looked as though Sunset had just run in over his dog, stopped, got out of the car and then strangled the injured animal to death in front of him. Seriously, he looked as though he was about to cry. "But I love her," he said.

"No, you don't. You're just horny." Sunset snapped. She took a deep breath. "Look, trust me, its better this way. These things never work out the way you think they will." One moment he's taking you to the fairgrounds and the next moment he's dumping you because you're not the kind of girl he can take home to meet his mother. Did Jaune really think that Weiss would introduce a guy like him to her rich daddy? A no-mark from Vale with no money or prospects? She'd date some clean-cut Atlasian boy whose mom worked for the council and oh Celestia she was going to date Flash wasn't she?

No. No, that could not happen. Her feelings for the Schnee heiress were nowhere near benign enough to tolerate her stealing Sunset's boyfriend! She'd rather void their bargain and loose Jaune on Weiss with renewed intensity than see that happen.

She was already half way to devising a plan to break them up before she remembered that the two weren't actually dating anywhere other than Sunset's imagination.

By the time she had calmed down enough to take in her surroundings once again, Jaune had disappeared.

"Where is he?"

"In the bathroom," Ruby said. "Sunset, did you have to be so...did you have to do that?"

"Don't look at me like that, Weiss came to me," Sunset replied. "I'm not the bad guy here."

"Nevertheless, he's quite upset."

"Just so long as he does as he's told," Sunset said as she sat back down. "It wouldn't have worked out between them anyway."

Pyrrha frowned, and she glanced at the bathroom. "It must be terrible, to care so much for someone who doesn't see you at all, and you have no idea how to tell them how you really feel."

"I wouldn't know," Sunset lied.

Weiss cleared her throat. "Your attention, please."

The three members of her team all looked at her. Weiss, standing at the head of the room, clasped her hands behind her back. "I'm aware that some of you have taken some pleasure from mistreating Jaune Arc, as well as other members of Team Sapphire." She didn't name any names, for the same reason she hadn't singled out Cardin and Russell; she didn't want them to feel persecuted and the message to get lost in the recrimination.

Cardin snorted. "Neither of them ought to be here."

"I don't know, man," Russell said. "You didn't see the fight with Nikos, the pony's got some skills."

"Sunset's tough," Flash agreed. "But even I didn't realise how tough until that fight. I think she's been holding back this entire time."

Weiss was inclined to agree, and it worried her a little. Those kinds of powerful semblances were rare - the Schnee family semblance being amongst the most powerful - and none of them, as far as she knew, were in the hands of faunus. But Sunset had successfully hidden hers, who knew what other powerful semblances the faunus might be hiding? How many hidden demons lurked with the dark ranks of the White Fang, waiting to be unleashed? Might she, her family, the human race someday find out that the power imbalance between their species was not nearly as great as it appeared to be?

Once again her imagination supplied an image of Sunset wearing a grimm mask over her face, her cruel laughter echoing as she rose above the flames and rained down those green darts upon Weiss for no other reason than her name was Schnee.

But that was a fear for the future. Sunset Shimmer was not a member of the White Fang - not yet, a voice in her head clarified - and thus she not yet Weiss's problem. Right now Jaune was her problem, and a problem that she could solve.

"Regardless of how powerful she is," Weiss said. "They are all to be left alone from now on."

Cardin grunted. "Huh. Why? What's it matter to you?"

"Because your actions reflect badly on this team and thus upon me," Weiss declared magisterially. "But more importantly because it's going to get Jaune Arc off my back, and stopping your fun is worth it to me."

Cardin looked at her, and for a moment she thought that he might defy her. But then he shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever, it doesn't matter to me either way."

"Russell?"

Russell laughed nervously. "Don't worry, I'm staying out of her way."

"Hmm," Weiss murmured. She had the distinct impression that the two of them would probably move on to finding someone else to make miserable. "All your actions reflect upon this team and in your team-mates," she reminded them.

"We know, Mom," Russell said, and killed any hope that Weiss had that they would listen.

Cardin chuckled. "You, of all people, ought to know that those people need to be kept in their place."

Weiss knew many things. She knew, better than Cardin, far better than anyone else at Beacon, what the faunus were capable of when roused to anger. She understood as no one else in this room or in this academy did what it was like to live from day to day, moment to moment, in fear of your life from the malice of the White Fang. She understood as Cardin never could that the gap between faunus and men was vast and unbridgeable.

But she was not Cardin. The fact that she didn’t like them very much didn’t mean that she had any desire to squander her time in futile attempts to grind them into the mud, nor that she would condemn them all out of hand. Many faunus were White Fang, and doubtless many others that started out as mere rapscallions would find their way into the terrorist ranks in time, but Weiss would have no witch-hunts on her conscience, nor would she join the crowd of slack-jawed idiots calling for deportations to Menagerie – because that had worked so well in the past – every time the White Fang sneezed.

“I’m nothing like you,” she whispered, because she was the victim in all of this and Cardin’s callousness could not take that from her.

His lips curled into a derisive sneer. “You can tell yourself that all you want. You’re no better than either of us.”

“I have better things to do than waste my time on flaunts and jibes and jeers,” Weiss replied. “Leave them alone and put the time into your studies, your grades could do with the extra effort. Leave them alone, before we all suffer for your stupidity.”

Nothing mattered to Weiss so much as passing through Beacon with flying colours. It was her way out, her chance at being free from her father and all the influence he exercised over her life.

Compared to that, her dislike for the faunus simply couldn’t compare.

"Flash Sentry and Nora Valkyrie, please make your way up to the stage," Professor Goodwitch announced as the images of Flash and Nora appeared on the screens above her head, together with the green bars representing their aura levels.

Nora, along with the rest of Team YRDN, was sitting nearby. She looked enthusiastic and confident as she got up off the bench and made her way up onto the stage, which looked so pristine you would never guess that Sunset and Pyrrha had completely trashed it not too long ago. Yang whistled as Nora got up onto the stage, and even the imperturbable Lie Ren looked quietly confident in her chances.

They were all underestimating Flash and what he was capable of. Sunset felt an absurd surge of protective instinct towards him, a desire to defend him from those who didn't rate him at all. Though why she should care, she couldn't rationally say.

For his own part, Flash got up slowly, his expression unreadable. Weiss whispered something to him as he got up. Was she encouraging him, or something more? Sunset felt jealousy prick her soul as Flash nodded to acknowledge whatever it was she'd said. Look how close their faces were! Back off, leave him alone!

She breathed an inner sigh of relief as he turned away and climbed onto the stage. He looked resplendent in his gleaming armour, with the talk crest upon his helmet and the hoplon shield held before him, painted with the image of a shield and thunderbolt. He looked magnificent, like something out of the Australian war epics that Pyrrha knew and had supplied her name, when mighty warriors had clashed beneath the topless towers of Mistral to bring Vale's princess home. He also looked slightly odd, Sunset had to admit, facing thoroughly modern Nora in her short skirt and boob window.

"Begin," Professor Goodwitch said.

Flash advanced a few cautious steps, sword ready and shield held before him. Nora, on the other hand, charged with a great shout, hammer held high above her head. She was not the swifter, but she crossed the stage briskly enough and with a yelp she brought her hammer down on Flash.

Flash bent his knees; he almost knelt before her, and raised his shield above his head. The hammer struck the shield with a sound like the ringing of a young that echoed across the hall. Flash did not flinch, which seemed to surprise Nora in the split second before Flash turned his shield on and lightning rippled across the gleaming metal surface.

The thunderbolt on his shield wasn't just for show. Flash was quite adept at using lightning dust as well.

Lightning crackled across the shield, snapping like hungry dogs, and with a crackle it surged up Nora's hammer and consumed Nora herself, dancing up and down her body for a few seconds. Sunset leaned back a little in her seat...and then she noticed that Nora's aura hadn't dropped in the least bit.

And then she noticed that Nora was smiling.

"Thanks!"

"Wh-" Flash's question was cut off as Nora reversed the sting of her hammer and caught him with an upwards blow that struck him in the chest and punted him upwards and clean off the stage.

The buzzer sounded to end the match.

Sunset's were wide. Clearly she'd just seen Nora's semblance and it was...pretty impressive. Not particularly versatile, though, she had to say. And fairly easy to counter, too, simply by avoiding lightning dust or anything like it.

Up on the stage, Professor Goodwitch was giving out her notes.

"Miss Valkyrie, while your semblance ensured that you didn't suffer for it, you continue to leave yourself open when you attack. I urge you to door a degree of restraint against a prepared opponent. Mister Sentry; you were unfortunate."

Flash didn't look particularly reassured by the fact that Goodwitch couldn't find anything to actually criticise him on. He made his way back to the seat in silence. There, Weiss leaned close to him, whispering something in his ear. What did she have to say to him that required to be spoken in such confidence? And then she took his hand, why? Sunset glared at them, kissing palms there in the hall without a trace of shame. Get a room! Or better yet, don’t! Just get away from him! Flash had his faults, and Sunset knew them all well, but he was too good for the likes of Weiss Schnee. He was not for her. With her wealth and looks she could surely have any man she wanted, so why did she have to take the one that…

Sunset scowled. But what did it matter to her, anyway? Flash was…Flash was just a big, dumb moron who hadn’t appreciated what he’d got when he had it.

He was just…he was just the only person who had reached out a hand to her, when he didn’t have to.

He was just the only one who had, for however brief a season, seen more in her than anyone else.

He was the only one who, for a little time, had seemed to see her worth.

And now to see him thus enchanted by a snowflake…it tore the scab from Sunset’s aching wound.

It’s nothing. It’s nothing. She’s just his team leader giving him notes on the fight.

It’s nothing.

I hope it’s nothing.

The screens brought up the next pair of randomised combatants: Jaune and Cardin.

"You can do it, Jaune!" Ruby cried as Jaune got up with the air of a condemned man going to his execution.

"Just do your best," Pyrrha said. "Good luck."

Jaune laughed nervously. "Yeah, thanks." He walked on to the stage with more resignation the confidence. Cardin, by contrast, looked positively eager. It had been a couple of weeks since Sunset and Weiss had made their agreement, and so far their bargain appeared to be holding. Cardin had moved on to a second year student named Velvet Scarlettina, while Jaune hadn't pressed his suit on Weiss since being told to knock it off. But their deal didn't apply in the arena; there Cardin could do exactly as he like to Weiss and probably would; Sunset didn't have any confidence to stop his ogreish opponent. That was one of the reasons she hadn't bothered to encourage him: it would have felt like a waste of breath.

That, and cheering wasn't really her style anyway.

The fight went exactly as Sunset thought it would go, reality justifying her bleak analysis over the optimism of Ruby and Pyrrha as Cardin kicked his ass and served it up with all the trimmings. By the end of the battle Jaune's aura was in the red, while that of Cardin had barely been chipped away.

Sunset had say, Professor Goodwitch's advice to Jaune was not particularly helpful: yes, charging like a maniac when your aura was almost gone wasn't that smart, but without any kind of ace in the hole then a defensive posture was only going to prolong the agony to no purpose. It wasn't as if Pyrrha was going to come and rescue him if he could only hold out for long enough.

For Cardin the professor had no advice at all and he stood there looking smug as Jaune sat down dejectedly on the edge of the stage.

Sunset would have been lying if she had claimed to have, well, any sympathy for him at all. If he had some spectacular light that, like her magical skill, he was hiding under a bushel then now was the time to show it. And if he didn't then what was he doing here? He was a millstone around the necks of the rest of them.

"Remember," Professor Goodwitch said. "The Vytal Festival is not far away now. Any teams wishing to compete in the tournament will be defending the honour of Beacon Academy and the Kingdom of Vale."

Sunset wasn't entirely sure how the Kingdom of Vale we going to be defended by a class ever the best students were mostly from Mistral or Atlas (or Equestria) but she was more concerned about her own glory than about the prestige of the kingdom or the school. It also made her point about the millstone of SAPR seem all the more acute. While she could, and would, dump Jaune when it came to the doubles round, that didn't change the fact that SAPR would essentially be fighting three against four in the opening round of the tournament. And while, between Ruby's speed, Sunset's magic and Pyrrha's Pyrrha-ness they could hand would overcome those odds that didn't alter the fact that they shouldn't have.

Nor did it change the fact that Team SAPR ought to have established itself as the most gifted team in the year by leagues and had not; that wasn't entirely Jaune's fault - Ruby's grades were lagging behind, and Sunset bore a measure of responsibility that she would never confess to out loud - but he was certainly a part of the problem.

Sunset had to do something about him, not only because she was the team leader but also because Pyrrha and Ruby both mollycoddled him far too much - case in point, the way that Pyrrha was gazing at the stricken Nah e with melancholy moon eyes as though he was a blameless victim in all this; Sunset briefly distracted and amused herself by imagining how they would react if he wasn't a good looking guy with a line in adorably dejected expressions - to be of any use in getting him to shape it.

It was he responsibility, but the necessity of it irritated her. She had better things to do than play nursemaid to Jaune Arc.

But if she didn't do it then they would all suffer.

Sunset glanced at Pyrrha out of the corner of her eye. She was still downcast, her eyes still fixed on Jaune, her mood mirroring his own as though she were a mirror of his emotions.

Pyrrha…Pyrrha hadn’t liked the way that she’d spoken to Jaune about Weiss. Ruby hadn’t much cared for it either. They both treated him less like a comrade in a war against evil and more like the goofy brother that they never had. But she didn’t want to fight with them, not after she only just made up with Pyrrha.

She snapped her fingers in Pyrrha’s face – Ruby was busy geeking out at the thought of the upcoming Vytal Festival, and didn’t notice Jaune, Sunset or Pyrrha – until she got the other girl’s attention.

“Sunset?” Pyrrha murmured.

Sunset leaned in, to speak softly to Pyrrha without being overheard.

“Listen, I know that he’s your partner and I know that you like – though I can’t think why – but he really needs to shape up; I’m going to give you a chance to get that across to him nicely, or else I’m going to let him have it with both barrels, understand?”

Pyrrha was silent for a moment, and then she nodded. “I’ll talk to him. I’ll help him. I’m sure that with my assistance he can improve.”

Sunset didn’t comment on that. Pyrrha was certainly that good, although whether she was a good teacher remained to be seen.

“Okay,” she said. “Don’t take too long.”

“I’ll do it tonight,” Pyrrha replied. She looked back at Jaune, and sighed at his dejectedness.

Sunset shook her head in disbelief.

One of the disadvantages that Blake was only now discovering with her choice of attire was that it had somehow given Russell Thrush the idea that they moved in adjacent subcultures.

They didn't. They really, really didn't.

But it meant that he put himself down on the edge of her table and was at this very moment carrying on a one-sided conversation about music that Blake had never listened to, in a genre that she had no desire to hear, and night life hotspots that she had no desire to visit.

"You know, I've even laid down a couple of tracks myself," Russell said. "I figure it might be a cool side-line from the hunting."

"I'm not sure that you'll have a lot of time for a music career in between defending the kingdom from the creatures of grimm," Blake remarked dryly. She wasn't looking at him, concentrating wholly upon her lunch. He didn't seem to be taking the hint.

He wanted to go out with her. Blake was fairly sure of that just as she was absolutely sure that she had no desire to go out with him, not only because she'd seen how he behaved towards faunus who weren't hiding behind a little black bow, but also because they had absolutely nothing in common and, frankly, she wasn't really looking for that sort of thing. She hadn't come to Beacon to find romance.

But this kind of propositioning, carried out though it was with a modicum of subtlety, wasn't something that she'd had to deal with until now. She had been Adam's girl, which meant that nobody had so much as looked at her twice because Adam would probably have reacted to jealousy as badly as he'd reacted to everything else that didn't go exactly how he wanted it to. But that lack of experience meant that she wasn't sure how to tell him no, or rather how to tell him no in such a way as didn't leave him resentful. Not that she cared greatly for his feelings, but she didn't want to damage her anonymity too much.

She glanced at her team-mates, but Sky seemed completely oblivious, and Lyra and Bon-Bon were talking. Blake noticed that their eyes flickered in her direction every so often, but neither of them said or did anything. She guessed that they weren't sure how she felt about Russell and didn't want to react the wrong way.

Or perhaps they simply didn't see it as any of their business.

"We can't be out in the field all the time," Russell replied, oblivious to her sarcasm. "Hey, why don't you swing by my dorm-room and I'll play you some of my sound?"

The suggestion was not tempting in the least, not least because it might involve being in the same room as Cardin Winchester, which would not happen. Blake took a deep breath. "Russell, you seem like a nice guy," it galled at her to say that to someone like him, but it had to be said no matter how untrue it was. Gentle was the way, right? Hopefully her excuse - her true excuse, in many ways - wouldn't draw too much attention to her.

Russell's face fell a little. "Here comes the but, doesn't it?"

Blake nodded slightly. "I just got out of a really bad relationship," she said. She shuddered at a few of the memories that rose like sea-monsters to the forefront of her mind. "And I'm just not ready to think about any of that stuff again."

Russell shrugged. "I always say that it's never too soon to move on from a breakup. It'd be a real shame if you let one bad experience with some jerk ruin your life."

That was your cue to exit gracefully, Blake thought. "I'm sorry, I just...can't."

Lyra and Bon Bon had stopped talking. Bon Bon, seated to Blake's right, leaned back so that she could look at Russell from past Blake's head. Lyra's attention was on Blake herself.

Russell smirked, even as he raised his hands in surrender. "There's no need to glare at me like that, I can take a hint." He got up, stealing a handful of fries off Sky's plate as he did so. "When you get over your ex I might be waiting. Or not, so don't wait too long, okay?" He grinned, and started eating the stolen chips as he turned and walked away.

Bon Bon shook her head. "He doesn't lack confidence, but you could do so much better. You know, if you weren't sworn off dating."

Lyra smiled sympathetically. "You know...he's got a point. You can't let a bad break-up make you sour. You deserve to be happy."

"It's...it's a lot more than just a bad break-up," Blake murmured.

Lyra's mint-green eyes widened just a little. She shared a glance with Bon Bon.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Lyra asked.

Blake shook her head. "No, I really don't."

Lyra nodded. "Well, if you do, we're all here for you."

"Right," Bon Bon agreed.

Lyra elbowed Sky.

"Uh, yeah, sure, we're all ears," Sky said. "Or you could tell us who the guy is and we'll kick his ass."

"No!" Blake said, more loudly than she had intended. The idea of Sky - or Lyra, or Bon Bon or pretty much anyone in their - going up against Adam was laughable and terrifying in equal measure. Terrifying twice over, because not only would he cut down any one of her team without breaking a sweat, but because if he did that would mean that he had found her. "I-I mean," she stammered, looking away from them. "It's fine. He's...a long way away from here. He doesn't know where I am. It's better that way."

"Right," Lyra said softly. She glanced away, and cleared her throat loudly before adroitly changing the subject onto safer ground.

Or at least, she did so for a moment before a commotion amongst team WSTW drew their attention.

When Weiss was a girl, Klein had taken her to a fairground; she had loved it, so many colours, so many sounds, so many scents and sensations all coming together in one heady mixture. And then she had done the one thing that Klein had told her not to do, and run off by herself, away from him. The moment that he found her again he had taken her straight back home, which she had found unbearably cruel at the time but now she understood not as cruelty but as him teaching her that actions had consequences.

Now, as she watched Cardin tugging on the ears of some rabbit faunus, Weiss knew how her faithful butler must have felt.

She didn't care about the girl, although Flash - who had brought the scene to her attention, seemed to - but she had told Cardin not to do this. She had ordered him not to do this and here he was flaunting his disobedience in her face and in front of the entire school. If she let him get away with it then where was her authority?

Leadership was a trick, that was the lesson that Weiss had learned from watching her father, and Winter. Father's money, Winter's insignia of rank, they no more conveyed power upon them than Weiss' appointment as team leader did because power did not exist. Father's employees, Winter's soldiers, could easily have defied them if they wished. The trick was to convince or coerce those beneath you into accepting the lie, the lie that Cardin threatened to expose by his actions.

And so, as the rabbit faunus winced in pain and pleaded with Cardin to let her go, Weiss rose from her seat, her meal half-eaten before her. Her wedge-heels clicked on the dining hall floor as she stalked around the table - Flash got up to follow her, a silent shadow in resplendent armour - and walked briskly, but not so hastily that she sacrificed her dignity for speed, towards the table.

Fortunately there was no one else there. No one else, it seemed, wanted to be a part of this display.

Good. It would be easier that way.

"Cardin!" Weiss snapped, in a voice as chill as the high mountains of Solitas. "Let her go."

Cardin stared up at her as though she were half-mad. "Now why would I do that?"

"Because I told you to," Weiss declared.

Weiss had been eleven years old, old enough to understand everything that was going on, the last time that her father's workers had attempted to unionise for better conditions. It hadn't worked. It never worked. There were always enough unemployed faunus in Atlas willing to work even for the pitiful wages of the mines or the processing plants that strikes were broken almost before they started, and in the last resort father would speak to his friends on the council and have the military sent in to break up strikes and nascent unions both. She remembered the way her father had looked at the union representative, when he had had the nerve to call on their house: the way he'd stared at the grubby-handed miner in front of him as though he were a louse, as though he were worse than a louse, as though he were utterly insignificant. Weiss stared down at Cardin in just the same way, with just the same ice in her eyes, until he wilted in the face of her stare and released the ears of the faunus.

Weiss turned her gaze upon her; the girl's rabbit ears made her seem tall and gangly even if she was not, but in any case she too flinched away from Weiss' gaze. How someone so lacking in assertiveness hoped to become a successful huntress was beyond her. Nevertheless, after a moment in which her desire to appear to be a leader - and, in so appearing, to transcend the deception and become a leader - warred with her disdain for faunus, Weiss said, "Please accept my apologies for the behaviour of my subordinate."

Please accept my apologies for the behaviour of my children. That was how father had phrased it, when she or Whitley had embarrassed him in front of his guests. He had apologised on their behalf while at the same time distancing himself from any social misstep, to say nothing of any wrongdoing. It was also a phrase which, they had soon learned, heralded punishment to come when the house was empty. Cardin might not know that.

"Uh, right," the faunus said, before making her escape from the whole situation.

Weiss was about to round on Cardin once again when Russell wandered over.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Cardin's face was transfigured by a sneer of contempt. "Our team leader has decided to become a faunus lover."

"That's enough, Cardin," Flash growled.

Weiss held up one hand to silence him. She had no need of others to fight her battles for her. Her authority would not survive the impression that she was hiding behind Flash Sentry. "I made my expectations quite clear last night," she declared. "Was any part of what I said unclear?"

She glanced at Russell, who let out almost a yelp as he recoiled from her gaze. "Hey, don't look at me like that, I was over with Bluebell."

"Yes, you were," Weiss said. "This time."

Cardin climbed ponderously to his feet, like a mountain rising up out of the sea. "Maybe I missed the part where I have to listen to everything you say."

Weiss managed to continue looking down at him, in spite of his superior size. It was a trick that had a little do with how you held you chin, a little to do with back posture, and a lot to do with attitude. She showed no anger, she showed no fear, she acknowledged of no doubt. Like her father confronting that union rabble-rouser, the only thing that Weiss conveyed was unassailable superiority. She was as firm as the mountain and as cold as the wind. "Maybe you also missed the fact that I was appointed your team leader."

Cardin, for all his size, was a child. A spoiled child who didn't hear the word 'no' often enough. And when his sheer physical bulk failed to move her, when he failed to intimidate her in any way, he crumbled before her.

Weiss noticed that people were staring at her, their behaviour had attracted attention from all around the hall. It was not ideal, but at least they were seeing her stamp her authority upon her recalcitrant team-mate. There were worse things which they could have seen.

"Come," she said, as though they were hounds not men, and turned to sweep magisterially from the hall.

For a moment, a mere moment, she doubted that they would follow. But follow they did, trailing in her wake.

Weiss permitted herself a smile that the three of them could not see.

Winter, she was certain, would be very proud.

Flash scuffed his foot on the ground, and reached up to scratch the back of his neck.

He stole a glance at Weiss. Gods, she was gorgeous. A perfect angel sculpted out of ice. The shape of her features, the shade of her eyes, the way that she bore herself...and the good heart that he could sense beneath the thorns that surrounded this winter rose.

Flash Sentry had never had a lot of luck with women. He just didn't know what to say around them, and now was no exception. But he had to say something; he, after all, was the one who had asked Weiss if they could talk alone, out here in the corridor where Cardin and Russell couldn't disturb them. She was waiting, expectant, silent. Couldn't she guess what he was going to ask? Was she deliberately making this difficult?

"You know, you're...you're pretty amazing," he stammered. Oh, great. Just great, Flash. Real smooth. Next time, why don't you stick to bumping into her and laughing about it?

"Thank you," Weiss said courteously, but it was no more than courtesy. His praise did not suffuse her with joy. Either she was surfeited with praise from others, or she simply didn't consider him to be the sort of person whose praise would carry weight with her.

Come on. Come on, you can do this. Whatever she says, at least you've tried. Flash took a deep breath. "Would you like to go out some time?"

Weiss blinked. "I see. So that was what this was about."

That wasn't good. Flash could already feel his shoulders starting to slump. "Yeah. Yeah, that was it. I just...you're really gorgeous, and talented and kind-"

"Kind?" Weiss repeated. She smiled, or was she smirking. No, it was a smile; a smile tinged with frost as she turned away and walked to the window through which moonlight descended on the corridor. "Not many people would be so generous to me."

"Most people..." Flash trailed off. "I think you have a good heart. I can...feel it."

"Is that your semblance?"

"No," Flash said. He dared to smile. "I'm just good at reading people."

Weiss let out a single chuckle. Her head bowed a fraction. "Flash...you're a good person, a good huntsman and I'm glad to have you on my team. I appreciate the support that you've given me." She glanced at him. "And I think your hair really suits you. But I'm also your team leader and for that reason..."

"It's not you, it's me," Flash murmured.

"Just because you've heard it before doesn't mean that it isn't true."

"It's not what I heard, it's what I said," Flash replied. It had seemed...better, at the time. It had seemed less cruel than to tell Sunset that he was breaking up with her because she had grown too monstrous to be around, that he could barely stand her presence any more. It had seemed better, kinder, more gentlemanly to let her think that he was dumping her because she was a faunus than because the cruelty of the world had made her cruel in turn. It's not you, it's me. Better that she should hate him than...

"I can't let this team be divided between you and me on one side and Cardin and Russell on the other," Weiss said. "It won't work. Maybe if we were on different teams, but...I'm sorry. Nothing is more important to me than success here."

That surprised him, honestly, although he tried not to show it in case he gave her offence. Flash found it hard to imagine why the Schnee heiress would care that much about whether she succeeded at Beacon or not. If things didn't work out here then surely she could just go back home and take a job in her father's company while she waited for him to die or retire and leave her his company and his fortune? Although by that line of logic there was no reason for her to risk herself at Beacon at all.

"I get it," he said, even though there was a lot he didn't get, because he didn't want her to think that he was a sore loser. "We're here to learn how to be huntsmen and huntresses, not to find romance." He paused. "Thank you for helping that faunus in the cafeteria earlier today."

Weiss was silent for a moment. "I didn't do it for her," she whispered.

Flash walked slowly over to the window. The shattered moon shone down upon them both, bathing them in silvery light. "You don't like them, do you?"

In the moonlight, the scar upon her eye seemed more noticeable than normal. "I feel as though they've been hunting me my entire life," she said. "My parents, their friends, associates, business partners; they've been attacked, even killed."

"By the White Fang," Flash said.

Weiss sniffed. "You say that as though the White Fang aren't really faunus. As though they can't become completely invisible the moment they take off their masks."

"The White Fang killed my father," Flash said softly.

A small, soft gasp escaped from Weiss' mouth before she stifled it. She turned, looking up at him. "When?"

"The Mantle bombing, four years ago," Flash replied.

"I'm sorry," Weiss said.

"It's okay," Flash said. "It was bad, but...do you what really made me angry? Do you know what I hated more than anything?"

Weiss shook her head.

"I hated the way that the moment my father was dead all the bigots and the racists started using his name like he was one of their candidates, talking about how we needed to do something about the faunus even though he never...we can't let hate win, Weiss. Even if they hate us, the moment we become like them is the moment we lose."

"But how do we win?" Weiss asked.

"I...I don't know," Flash admitted. "But I know that giving in to hate isn't it."

Ruby groaned.

Sunset looked up. Ruby was holding her head in one hand, while with the other she was using her pencil to beat a tattoo on her history textbook.

As Sunset watched, Ruby groaned again.

Sunset twisted round in her seat, resting one arm upon the back of the chair. “You’re not getting sick, are you?”

“Sick of this homework,” Ruby muttered.

Sunset was silent for a moment. It was just the two of them, Pyrrha having taken Jaune off somewhere so that they could talk. It just Sunset, who had already completed the essay, and a clearly struggling Ruby.

“History?”

Ruby moaned wordlessly.

Sunset sighed, and picked up her chair and carried it across the room to Ruby’s desk.

“So,” she said. “What’s the problem?”

Ruby looked up at her. “Huh?”

“Clearly there is a problem or you wouldn’t be acting as though your dinner disagreed with you,” Sunset said. “What’s up?”

Ruby stared at Sunset as though she’d suddenly grown an extra head. “Uh…Sunset, are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” Sunset said. “Look, I know that I’m a lot of things but I am an actual genius and I’m your team leader and your partner and we’re on a grade average, so why don’t you tell me what it is that you find so difficult about this and see if I can’t help you out.”

“Really?”

“Yes!” Sunset cried. “Yes, I am me and I am doing this. Now can we please not make a big deal of it and get to the actual problem?”

Ruby deflated like a popped balloon. “I…I have no idea how to handle this essay for Doctor Oobleck.”

“The one about the repercussions of the Faunus Rights Revolution?”

“Yeah, I mean, I know that we have to talk about faunus rights, but-“

“No, you don’t,” Sunset said. “Everyone is going to talk about faunus rights because it’s obvious, but if you want to impress Doctor Oobleck and get a top grade you should do what I did and write about depopulation and grimm incursions.”

Ruby blinked. “Come again?”

Sunset rocked back in her hair, resting it upon its back legs as she folded her arms. “Right, so you know about the Great War, right?”

“Uh…kinda?”

It occurred to Sunset Shimmer that one of the disadvantages of being admitted to Beacon two years early on the basis of your enviable combat prowess might be that you missed out on two years of academic study.

It also occurred to her that this might explain Ruby’s bad grades.

“How many classes have you felt as though you didn’t know the basics that the course started out with?”

“Um…most of them? Not Professor Port’s class, but-“

“You should-“ Sunset said, and stopped, because what was she going to say, that Ruby should have said something? To who, Sunset Shimmer? Not much chance of that, the way that she’d been acting. Pyrrha, maybe, except Pyrrha had her own problems – most of them caused by Sunset – to deal with. It wasn’t as though she could ask Jaune for help, his grades were just as bad as Ruby’s. She could have talked to her sister about it, but then Sunset wasn’t sure how academically inclined Yang was.

And perhaps she just didn’t want to admit that she had a problem. Sunset knew the taste of that dish well enough; pride could drive you to do any number of things no matter how foolish or…unhelpful.

She lifted up her legs and her chair flopped forwards with her in it. “I’m afraid it might be too late for midterms, but we’ll see if we can’t get you up to speed by the end of semester.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I’m going to tutor you up to level, obviously,” Sunset said. She was, after all, a genius and a genius with consistently high grades what was more. How hard could it be to teach Ruby, so long as she wanted to learn?

“Really?”

“Yes, why are you acting so surprised? Wait, don’t answer that,” Sunset said quickly. “Now, to start with this essay, and why it is a colossally stupid idea to fight two colossal wars back to back.”

It was Sunset’s opinion that, as important as it might have been for the faunus themselves, the more important consequence of the Faunus Rights Revolution was to cement the territorial losses of the Great War and make it impossible for humanity to retake the lands lost to the grimm during that conflict. Rather than focus on rebuilding after the war, Mantle had decided to pander to the worst elements amongst its population instead, and Mistral – eager to prove that it was still a military great power after the debacle of the Vacuo campaign – had thrown in its lot with them. To the losses of the Great War – estimated at between one and two million dead – had been added the casualties inflicted by wily faunus, whose troops had been seasoned in the Great War while many of the human forces were untested conscripts.

“General Lagune’s army was four times the size of the faunus forces at Fort Castle,” Sunset explained. “But what those numbers conceal is that the faunus army was made of experienced veterans, while Lagune was leading kids your age given pikes and muskets and marched off to war because by that point they were the only ones left. In the Faunus War you were an old soldier if you were my age. And then Lagune’s army was destroyed out and, well, there was no one left to march to war. So you see, that’s why we’re in the state we’re in right now. That’s why the kingdoms are so small, that’s why huntsmen are always on the back foot against the grimm that are absolutely every where and that’s why expansion efforts have always failed: because mankind nearly tore itself to pieces over twenty years and the population still hasn’t fully recovered yet.” She paused, and she couldn’t help but think of Pyrrha’s hopes, her own ambitions beside which Sunset’s were cast into shadow. Thus placed in their historical context they seemed quixotic in the extreme, hopeless fantasies besides which the dream of ascension or a crown seemed grounded. Humanity could retake the world? Defeat the grimm for good and all? They hadn’t managed it yet and Pyrrha, while good, wasn’t good enough to make up for all the unborn shadows who should have fought by her side but never would.

“The point is,” she said. “That this is why we have to fight, because y-“ she stopped herself from saying ‘your ancestors’. “Because our ancestors fought too much. Actually, no, the point is that if you put that in your essay Doctor Oobleck will think you’re really clever. Do you understand?”

“Sort of.”

Sunset picked up a pen from off Ruby’s desk. “I’ll write your introduction for you, and then you can make a go of the rest.”

Russell's foot twitched as he sat on his bed, writing lyrics - or trying to - to his latest track. His arms are sweaty...something, something, Mom's spaghetti? You know, I think that could actually work.

His arms are sweaty...knees weak, arms are heavy. Is that an arm too many?

Russell considered the matter, as well as how to get from arms are heavy to Mom's spaghetti. He scratched at his nearly-shaven head as he looked around the half-empty dorm room.

"Where do you suppose pretty-boy took the ice princess?"

Cardin grunted. He looked like he was trying to work, bent over his desk but not really writing much. "He's asking her out."

"He doesn't have the balls to ask," Russell replied. "He'll just moon over her without making a move."

Cardin grunted again. "If he isn't asking then where is he?"

Russell was silent for a moment. "Do you think she'll say yes?"

"Nothing would surprise me about our team leader any more," Cardin growled.

Russell smirked. "You're just sour cause she turned you down." Russell wasn't particularly fond of Flash Sentry, who was a bit of a kiss-ass apart from anything else and as wet as a damp rag too, and he wouldn't deny that if Weiss decided to date him instead of Russell himself he would take it as a mark against her judgement...but he wasn't going to lose any sleep over the rejection. After all, this school was full of supermodels and at least one of them would turn out to be receptive to his bad boy, down-town guy charms. They had to be, because it would be a monstrously cruel world if they weren't. Maybe Nikos, she was probably gagging for a bit of rough.

Mistral Princess, looking fly,

Looking for a down-town guy,

Looking for a guy like me,

Cause I know all the place to be

Nah, that's awful. I was better off with Mom's spaghetti.

Russell put the idea of a track about Nikos to one side. Her, Weiss, Blake, by the time he was done laying it down about them the world would swear they'd all gone out with him. No one wanted to hear from a rapper who struck out.

"What's a rhyme for spaghetti?" Russell asked.

Cardin shook his head. "I can't believe you even like that faunus garbage, let alone perform it."

"Oh, so the music that I like is faunus garbage but the music you like is what?" Russell demanded.

"What are you talking about?" Cardin asked, looking up at Russell in confusion. "Rock and roll is-"

"Is derived from the faunus blues tradition from Solitas after the Faunus War, a tradition which itself came out of old slave songs," Russell said. "Seriously, it's a crying shame that the Mossy Rocks never won any of those Music of Faunus Origin awards. So if you don't want to listen any faunus garbage then I suggest you borrow some of the princess' violin and piano stuff." Russell had borrowed them himself more than once, they were a great cure for insomnia.

Cardin looked as though he was torn between horror and scepticism. "Are you serious?"

"You didn't know that?" Russell replied.

"How do you know that?"

"Just because I'm cool doesn't mean I never read a book before," Russell said. As a matter of fact, for his essay for Oobleck's class on the legacy of the Faunus War he had written all about the dissemination of Rythmn and Blues into the cultural mainstream and the rise of rock and roll. It couldn't be any worse than talking about civil rights like everyone else was sure too. Not that he was going tell Cardin that in case the other guy stole his idea. "So are you going to burn those vintage LPs under your bed or what?"

Cardin's face twitched. "I guess even animals come up with something good every now and again."

"Yep, they sure do," Russell said. "It's like they're not even really faunus any more when you see them on stage." Maybe the fact that so many of them wore hoodies had something to do with that. You couldn't see the weird ears.

"No, Jaune, don't!"

The startled cry attracted Russel's attention. It had come from out the window and above, from the flat rooftop that sat over their dorm room. People seemed to use it as a hang-out, no matter how late it was. It was kind of a drag.

"That was Nikos, right?" he asked softly, trying to listen to what she and Jaune were saying to each other. But they were being quieter now, and it was hard to make out.

Cardin nodded. He got up from his desk and walked to the window.

"You think I need help?" Jaune asked.

You don't think you need help? Russell thought. Seriously, that guy was the biggest loser in the year and yet he sounded like someone had just run over his puppy at having that pointed out to him.

Come to think of it, he also sounded pretty unenthusiastic about getting alone time with a perfect ten honest to god superstar. What was up with that guy?

Cardin had stuck his head out of the window by now.

Some more murmurs passed between Jaune and Pyrrha, before Jaune's voice rose again. This time he didn't sound hurt so much as he sounded frantic. "I didn't go to a combat school, I didn't earn my place here! I got my hands on some fake transcripts and I lied!"

Russell's eyebrows climbed up his forehead. That...I guess he's got balls, I'll give him that.

No brains at all, but he's got balls.

A cruel smirk was fixed on Cardin's face.

"I'm tired of being the loveable idiot stuck in the tree while his friends fight for their lives, I'm tired of being ignored, I'm tired of being the lump who doesn't even get a role in the plan when everyone else is risking everything! I don't want help, I want to be the hero!"

Well it ain't going to happen with technique like yours, Russell thought.

"Just...just go!" Jaune shouted. "Leave me alone."

Cardin started to climb out of the window.

"Where are you-" Russell began, but stopped once it became clear that he wasn't going to stop and answer.

He must have climbed up onto the roof, because Russell could hear his voice saying something, even if he wasn't being loud enough to make out any actual words.

"Cardin! Please, you can't tell-"

He was cut off. Presumably Cardin had cut him off. Russell couldn't hear anything else until Cardin climbed, somewhat ponderously, back down off the roof and in through the open window.

"What happened up there?"

Cardin's step was positively jaunty as he swaggered across to his desk and began to pack up his step. "Well, I don't have to worry about doing this essay. Or any other essay for that matter."

"Because..."

"Because my new buddy Jaune is going to take care of everything for me," Cardin replied. "Or else he's on the first airship out of Beacon."

"Blackmail?" Russell asked. "What about Weiss?"

"What about her?"

"She told us to stay away from Sapphire," Russell said.

"What our team leader doesn't know won't hurt her," Cardin said. "Besides, if she knew she'd just have little Jauney expelled, and what a waste that would be." He sat down. "I can tell him to do your essays too?"

"Thanks, but I don't want my grades to drop," Russell said. "Wonder why he did it."

"Don't know and don't care," Cardin replied. "But he's going to do exactly as I say from now on, if he knows what's good for him."

Jaune had never felt worse than he did now. Everything was going wrong, from the moment that he had blurted out the truth to Pyrrha. It was stupid, so stupid that if Pyrrha wasn't the nicest person that he'd ever met in his life then he would already have been shipped back home to face the indifference of his family by now...but he'd just been so frustrated and upset and when she offered to help him he...he was an idiot. Such an idiot. She only wanted to help him, but all he'd been able to see was that he wasn't good enough to stand on his own, unable to stand beside Pyrrha and Ruby, unable to be the hero from out of his dreams.

And it had all tumbled out: the lies, the deception. And then he'd sent her away, yelled at her...the moment the words had passed his lips he'd regretted them. When he saw the look on her face, how wounded she was by his unjustified anger, then he'd regretted it even more. After Pyrrha left he had lingered on the rooftop, brooding upon just how much he had screwed up.

And then Cardin had climbed up onto the roof to join him and it had become clear that he hadn't know what screwing up meant until that moment.

Now he had to see the hurt and betrayal in Pyrrha's eyes every time he looked at her, and he could feel the lead around his neck chafing every time Cardin pulled on it.

All I wanted was to be a hero. Was that so wrong? Why am I being punished for having dreams?

This wasn't how it was supposed to go. None of this was how it was supposed to go. Okay, he'd never been to a combat school or learned how to use a sword or shield properly, but so what? He had a lot of heart and he wanted to succeed and that was supposed to be all that it took, right? That was all the heroes had in comics and they...they became heroes! Ruby said that if he only kept trying and moving forward then he'd get there eventually, but even before Cardin had found out his secret, even before that disastrous night on the roof-top Jaune had felt as though his feet were trapped in cement, as though he were weighted down with lead preventing him from going anywhere. Ruby was nice about it, but she kept racing so far ahead of him that she disheartened him without even realising it. Pyrrha treated him like someone she had to protect, and Sunset...he could feel the contempt that his team leader had for him radiating off her like the rays of the sun. He could see it every time she looked at him. But she didn't know what it was like, none of them did, to fail so hard no matter how hard you tried until trying itself seemed pointless. She didn't stay awake at nights worrying about how much of a screw-up you were until you fell asleep in class from exhaustion. She didn't know what it was like to want something that, it was starting to see, you could never have.

And so he lingered outside of his room like a phantom, unable to bring himself to cross the threshold and join the others. He could hear them through the door, talking.

"Where's Jaune?" Ruby asked.

"Probably hanging out with Cardin again," Sunset growled. "Now pay attention or you'll never get this right."

"I just don't get it. Jaune, I mean. Cardin was picking on him until you stopped it, and now they're hanging out together like best friends? Does that make any sense? Am I just being clueless?"

"I'm sure Jaune knows what he's doing," Pyrrha said, and Jaune couldn't unhear the disapproval that was lacing her voice. He slouched against the wall, head bowed.

"Ruby, pay attention," Sunset said. "Dust properties."

Ruby made a noise like someone being forced to eat something that they don't really like.

"All huntsmen are expected to understand dust, even if they don't use it," Sunset said. "It may be a holdover from earlier days, but it's still on the exams. So: why is powder the most efficient form for use of dust?"

"Because you can't put the crystals into bullets."

There was a pause, before Sunset sniggered. "You're not wrong, but the answer that they'll be looking for is that the impurities render dust crystals inert under normal circumstances, while processing to powder removes those impurities and makes the residue more reactive."

"Which is why Torchwick had to shoot the crystal he threw at me to make it explode, but the power Weiss shook in my face blew up when I sneezed."

There was another pause. "Really? Both those things happened to you?"

"Yep."

"Then...yes, that is why. It's also why the powder is more expensive, the Schnee Dust Company charges a premium for the processing."

"Is that why you don't use dust?" Pyrrha asked. "I've thought that your style would accommodate it quite easily."

"Mmm," Sunset murmured. "I can't afford it. I did try to grind the crystals down to fine powder myself once but it blew up in my face; I almost set my room on fire."

Jaune was about to slink away, at least for now, until his scroll went off with a loud buzzing sound. He fumbled for the device, trying to answer it before the sound alerted his three team-mates in the room, but he could already hear footsteps only slightly muffled by the carpet.

Sunset flung the door open, her gaze imperious as she stood framed in the doorway, casting a shadow over Jaune from the light in the room. "There you are."

Jaune froze, wilting under her gaze. His scroll continued to buzz in his hands.

"Answer it," Sunset said, as Pyrrha and Ruby looked at him from behind her.

Jaune's thumb twitched on the 'take call' button.

Cardin's voice floated out of the scroll. "Hey there, buddy, it's your new best-"

Sunset snatched the scroll out of Jaune's hands. "Jaune can't come out to play right now, he has to tidy his room before bedtime." She disconnected the call before tossing the scroll back to Jaune, who just about managed to catch it. Sunset took a step back, gesturing for him to come into the room. "Now, I expect you to tell me the truth when I ask you this," she said. "Is Cardin giving you a hard time again because if Weiss isn't honouring our agreement then I'll-"

"No!" Jaune said, quickly and loudly. Too quickly and too loudly, he could tell by the way that Sunset's eyes narrowed that far from allaying her suspicious he had only aroused them. He glanced over Sunset's shoulder at Pyrrha. Her lips were pursed together, and she looked as though she was contemplating telling Sunset...not the truth, he didn't think that she would betray his secret, but she might tell Sunset that he wasn't hanging with Cardin because they'd suddenly become best bros forever, but if she did that and Sunset went storming off to Weiss then his secret would come out for sure. He stared at her, trying to convey with his eyes his desperate need for her to keep quiet. She said nothing. "I mean, aha, Cardin's not such a bad guy when you get to know him. And sometimes it's nice to hang out with another guy, you know, do guy stuff."

Sunset folded her arms. "Guy stuff, huh? Such as?"

"Uh..." Jaune stammered. He really, really wished that he had thought about this ahead of time. "We, uh, talk about sports."

Oh, great, just great you absolute moron! Jaune recognised that that was one of the worst things he could have said the moment after he said it, not least because these girls were all training to be huntresses and there were probably lots of sports that they were into.

"Sports," Sunset repeated, spitting the word out as though it were contaminating her lips.

Jaune froze. He could feel the sweat on his brow and underneath his armpits. She was going to call him out on it, she was going to ask for more details, she was-

And then she smiled. "You know, I'm kind of a fan of motorcycle racing if that's what you're into."

"You are?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, I even put my own bike together from parts that I...acquired perfectly legally from a variety of neighbourhood junkyards around Canterlot," Sunset said.

"Yang lets me help on the maintenance of her motorcycle. What kind of engine does it have?"

"900 cc twin cylinder."

"Ooh, classic."

"It hums beautifully," Sunset said. "Anyway, I'm going to get some coffee. I'll back in a while." She didn't so much as look at Jaune as she walked out the door. He could hear her walking away down the corridor.

He didn't breathe a sigh of relief because that would have been too obvious, but he did dare to think that he'd gotten away with it.

He looked at Pyrrha. She looked away. "I'm...excuse me," she said, as she walked into the bathroom.

Ruby wouldn't meet his eyes. She didn't even look at him. She looked at everyone and everything but him as he pressed her fingers together nervously.

Jaune walked to the foot of his bed and sank down onto the floor. Now he did sigh, deeply and heavily, as he bowed his head until his chin was resting upon his chest.

He heard, rather than saw, Ruby sit down beside him. "Jaune?"

Jaune gave a wordless noise in answer.

"Jaune," Ruby repeated. "What's really going on? These past few days you've been really distant, spending all your time with Cardin...I just don't get it."

Jaune looked at her. Ruby's face, so close to his own, was guileless; her silver eyes were bright with trust. Ironically that made lying to her a lot harder than it was to lie to someone like Sunset who didn't trust him one bit anyway. It changed nothing, and cost him nothing to lie - or try to lie - to his team leader, but with Ruby...she trusted him and that trust was like the glass animals that his sister Viola collected: delicate and fragile. Something he couldn't bring himself to break.

"Cardin's got me, Ruby. He's got a leash on me and I can't get away from him."

"But Sunset-"

"This is bigger than that," Jaune said. "I...I really messed up. I did something stupid and Cardin knows and if...if I don't do as he says then it's over for me." Jaune closed his eyes, he screwed up his face with agonised thought. "Maybe it would be better if it was over."

"Jaune, this is what you want, isn't it?" Ruby asked. "To be here, to be a huntsmen."

"Yes," Jaune cried. "Yes, this is what I've always wanted, all I've ever wanted."

"How do you expect to fight the grimm if you can't even fight for your dreams?"

Her words pricked him like a dagger. "It's not that simple," he said. "Ruby...why aren't you embarrassed to be on the same team as me?"

"Why should I be embarrassed?"

"Because you're so cool and I'm...I'm me," Jaune replied softly. "Sunset's embarrassed."

"No she's not. She's just cranky. Like...really, really cranky," Ruby said. "Jaune, in all the storybooks that Yang used to read to me, about great huntsmen and huntresses who saved everyone, most of them didn't go to any of the four academies; most of them lived before the four academies even existed. And they didn't become heroes because they were well-trained, but because they had good hearts. You've got a good heart, Jaune, and that's more and better than Cardin can ever have."

Jaune shook his head, and wished he could believe that.

Sunset had not gone for coffee.

She'd known that Jaune was lying. It was obvious that he was lying. Cardin wasn't a good guy deep down, he was a dick, and Jaune had never shown any interest in sports. And if he needed male company then what about Ren? No, he was clearly lying, but it was equally clear that he really didn't want to tell Sunset what was up, and any attempt on her part to force the issue would probably have Ruby and Pyrrha - or, actually, maybe not Pyrrha, who knew at least some of what was going on and wasn't entirely happy about it - defending him against Sunset's wrath as they so often did.

But she had hope that, if she wasn't around, they might press him to open up, and so she'd 'gone for coffee' while actually lingering just outside the dorm room.

And she was able to hear every word that Jaune said to Ruby. And she did not like what she had heard.

They had an agreement, she and Weiss. SAPR would stay out of the way of WSTW, and WSTW would do the same for SAPR. It was that simple and they had agreed it. They had talked about Cardin specifically. They had an agreement and Weiss was breaking it, or at least turning a blind eye while Cardin broke it, which amounted to the same thing. Who did she think she was? Did she take Sunset for the kind of wallflower who would roll over and take this lying down?

She might be a faunus and Weiss might be a Schnee, but this wasn't Atlas and Sunset didn't have to take this kind of thing lying down any more.

The only thing that was stopping her from marching right down to WSTW's dorm room right this instant and giving Weiss a piece of her mind was what Jaune had said about his situation - his mistake - being bigger than the bargain struck between Sunset and Weiss. Sunset doubted that, and in any case their agreement had not been conditional in any way, and in Sunset's opinion 'leave us alone' meant 'leave us alone' in all circumstances, but she confessed that he made her curious to find out just what was going on. Ruby didn't ask, unfortunately, preferring to try and pep Jaune up instead, which meant that Sunset would have to get the truth out of him herself.

Queen to H5.

Sunset moved the white queen into the appropriate position on her chessboard. A Wayward Queen Attack; I wouldn't have expected you to be so bold, princess.

What have I said that would lead you to think I was timid?

Sunset didn't reply. Instead she studied the board for a moment, before moving one of her black knights out. Knight to C6. Would you rather I credit you for boldness or ask if you've played this game before. Wayward Queen is an amateur opening.

We are amateurs.

Speak for yourself, princess.

Bishop to C4.

Pawn to G6. Sunset moved the pieces into position on the chessboard that sat beside her on the desk. I suppose that I should thank you for agreeing to play with me. I'm starved of intellectual equality in this place.

I'm sure you must be being harsh on your companions. Queen to F3.

What makes you say that?

Because you're harsh to everyone, or at least you appear so. It's your move.

I am as harsh on others as others deserve, neither more nor less. I know my worth, none better, and I know the worth of others to the ounce. Why should I give them false measure? Considering the lack of recognition I have received I should rather be praised for my honesty in not unfairly denigrating those about me as I have so often been denigrated.

There was no reply from Twilight for a few moments. It's still your move.

Knight to F6. So, if you weren't playing with me what would you be doing right now? What does a Princess of Friendship do all day?

I spend time with my friends, I help them out with anything that they might need my assistance on; I read, I research magic, I'm also the Ponyville Librarian.

I don't know whether the library should be honoured or you should be insulted.

Quiet, you. And I solve friendship problems.

Sunset laughed. She couldn't have stopped herself if she'd wanted to. She had rarely been more glad that that room was empty as she giggled like a filly. Friendship problems!

I can hear you laughing on the other side of the book.

That's because it's hilarious. What are you, a therapist?

I wouldn't call myself that, not least because I lack the qualifications, I just make sure that everyone is getting along and that any potential disagreements are nipped in the bud before they fester into real trouble.

Huh, we could almost

She stopped. Her eyes narrowed. Is that why you're talking to me? Am I a friendship problem to you?

Unfortunately you seem to have done a fair amount of festering already.

What a saucy tongue this princess has. Move.

Knight to E2. I thought you might respond to a more assertive approach.

Well, it's certainly more fun than corresponding with a milksop. Do you know, this must be how Celestia feels.

Come again?

She is the player, and we are all her pieces. She moves us at her will, sends us out to fight for her, sacrifices us. Unless you escape as I did.

We both know perfectly well why you left Equestria and it wasn't for any reason so noble as to free yourself from a tyrant. Even ignoring the fact that Celestia is not a tyrant, the truly noble course if she were would have been to have stayed and fought.

Were it so easy. Think about it, and you'll see that my analogy fits perfectly. Knight to H5.

Why do you persist in this? Pawn to G4.

Sunset moved the pieces. Perhaps I simply want what's best for you.

Somehow I doubt it. Is there nothing else that we can talk about while we play?

In other words change the subject or I disappear. Sunset did not reply immediately. Then an idea struck her. As it happens I have a friendship problem for you to solve.

As they played - the honours were quite even, although Sunset felt as though she gradually started to win as the game unfolded - Sunset described the situation as it stood: Cardin's antagonism, the deal with Weiss, and Jaune's newfound camaraderie with his tormentor, to the point where he seemed more time with Cardin than anywhere else. And he has some kind of secret which has given Cardin a hold over him. So, Princess of Friendship, any thoughts?

In these cases it's always a good idea to remember that bullies are people too, and that they often have some kind of reason for their behaviour.

Cardin's reason is that he's a dick.

Have you considered that he might be getting bullied himself?

I am not befriending Cardin Winchester. I want your advice on what to do about Jaune. He's never been any help and now he's becoming an active hindrance. What am I supposed to do? What do you do when your minions aren't up to scratch?

I don't have minions, I have friends.

I can feel the cold rolling off the page.

Good. As for Jaune Arc, have you considered that he might open up to you if you were a little nicer to him?

He doesn't deserve kindness.

Who does? Anyone at all? Friendship isn't about desert any more than it's about need. Yes, my friends have helped me out of a lot of difficult spots in the past, and I've done the same for them but even if every monster or menace to Equestria disappeared tomorrow then I would still be their friend because I love them. I love them as I love myself, maybe more. They're my family.

I have no family, and I need none. They turned their backs on me, or shut the door in my face, then so be it. I have no need of them.

I don't think you can really believe that. What made you even say such a thing? What made you this way?

Sunset was about to berate Twilight's impertinence in daring even to ask her such a thing, when the door opened and Jaune walked in.

Hold on, someone's coming. She closed the book as Jaune looked around the dorm room.

"Pyrrha's in the gym, Ruby is with her sister," Sunset said.

"Oh. Right. Yeah," Jaune said, in the tone of a man who was wandered into a nest of beowolves without a weapon. "Well...I, uh-"

"Stay where you are, and shut the door," Sunset said. Now that she had Jaune alone she was going to get the truth out of him.

Jaune whimpered a little as she closed the door. He looked at the chessboard on Sunset's desk. "Where you playing against yourself?"

"No," Sunset said. "I was playing...I'm playing a correspondence game with a friend. I was just looking at their latest move." She sniffed. "I'm surprised that you even know what a chessboard looks like."

Jaune didn't rise to that. Instead he said, "So, it's your turn then."

"Yes," Sunset said, with a touch of irritation at his stalling antics.

"If you move Bishop to D5 you can get death in four."

Sunset froze. She could not have been more still if she had been turned to stone. She looked at the board. She looked back at Jaune. She looked at the board again, and moved her bishop. She got off her chair and onto her knees, examining the state of play and running through all the possible countermoves in her head. He...he was right.

She looked at him. In fact she rather stared at him. "How...how did you know that?"

Jaune shrugged. "My father taught me how to play."

"That doesn't mean you should be good at it!" Sunset snapped. She took a deep breath, and forced herself to be calm. "Sit down on the floor there."

Jaune shifted uncomfortably. "Why?"

"Because we're going to play," Sunset said, re-arranging all the pieces. "And you're going to show me how good you really are." She picked up the once more fully-laded board and put it down on the floor, while she sat cross-legged on the black side.

Jaune looked at the closed door. "I...I really need to go."

"You have somewhere to be?"

"Cardin-"

"No." Sunset's voice cut like a blade.

Jaune took a step back. "No?"

"No," Sunset repeated. "You're done with Cardin."

"I'm really not,"

Sunset gestured to the other side of the board. "Sit."

"You don't understand!"

"I understand that he has something on you," Sunset said.

Jaune let out a horrified gasp. "How did you...you never went for coffee, did you?"

Sunset shook her head. "Ruby didn't ask you what your big secret was. I'm asking now." She cocked her head slightly to one side. "Pyrrha knows, doesn't she?"

Jaune let out a mournful nod as he sat down. "I told her. Cardin overheard."

"Unfortunate," Sunset said softly. She looked at him, silent, waiting for him to continue.

Jaune said nothing, at least at first. But Sunset continued to watch, and wait, and her emerald eyes bored into him and at last Jaune poured out his soul to her.

It was...an interesting story, certainly. Like Cardin, Sunset wouldn't have credited him with that much nerve and daring. She felt, in fact - and would feel even more strongly based on how he performed in the game - as though she were seeing new sides to him hitherto concealed behind his impression of general incompetence. If he could be so bold in battle as he had in all that he had done to get this far.

"So you see, Cardin's got me over a barrel," Jaune insisted. "I really need to get-" His scroll began to buzz. "That's him now!" he squeaked, his face paling.

"Don't answer," Sunset commanded. "Like I said, you're done with Cardin."

"But he'll tell-"

"Not right away he won't," Sunset replied. "He's too weak for that. The moment he turns you in is the moment he loses his power over you, and he relished the power more than anything else. And so he will warn you, and tell you not to ignore him again, not realising that he shows more weakness every time he tolerates your insolence."

Jaune swallowed. "How can you be so sure?"

Because it's what I'd do in his position, the bitter thought rose from the back of Sunset's mind to make her shiver. It was not a thought she wanted, but equally it was not a thought she could escape. Not when the advantage of this knowledge was pricking at her like a kitten clawing at her leg, desperate for attention.

Nevertheless, she suppressed such thoughts and impulses for now. She even smiled at Jaune, though it seemed to make him more uncomfortable than he had been before. "Trust me, I'm not telling you this so that you can get expelled. I don't want that. You're a member of my team and I...I'm going to take care of you. Place yourself in my hands, Jaune Arc, and let me take care of you." Her smile broadened. "After all, you don't have any better offers, do you?"

"I, uh, I guess not."

"Excellent," Sunset said. She gestured at the board before them. "Now, you're white, so it's your move."

They played. He was good. He was very good. He obviously hadn't been trained by a master, as Sunset or Twilight had; while Twilight's play was methodical, controlled, Jaune's style was a bit all over the place, erratic, almost seeming random at times. But that only made it harder for Sunset to follow him and predict what he would do next. She had been able to recognise Twilight's plays, and in recognising them counter them while she waited for Twilight Sparkle to make a mistake in the mid-game. But Jaune didn't use any classical strategies, probably because he didn't know any. It was all coming out of his head, unfiltered, and Sunset found herself struggling to keep up with him.

She won, in the end; if she hadn't Sunset would have had to throw herself off the roof for the sake of her dignity, but Jaune had given her a close run, and between them they had slaughtered most of the pieces on the board, on both sides.

He had run her close. Closer than someone as lazy, stupid and ignorant as him had any right to do.

Sunset felt a little as she flattered herself Pyrrha must have felt when she, Sunset, had revealed herself to be a worthy challenger after all.

Only she felt not so much respect as sheer flabbergasted astonishment.

Her amazement was soon joined by a degree of anger that was far from insignificant. So far, in fact, was her wrath from being insignificant that when Sunset spoke her voice was like ice. "Let me ask you something, Jaune," she said, her voice clipped with menace. "If you have such wit in you, if you can think like this, if you can strategize like this then let me ask you...WHY HAVEN'T YOU SHOWED THIS SIDE OF YOU BEFORE, HUH?"

Jaune cringed in the face of her fury.

"Someone as...as dumb as you appear to be wouldn't last a handful of moves against me, and he wouldn't deserve to," Sunset declared. "But you...you are clearly not an idiot. So what's the big idea? You lie to get in here and then...what? Because you won't need to worry about Cardin or your secret if your grades haven't picked up by the end of semester. I could accept that you're in the same boat as Ruby but at least she's making an effort. So what is it?"

"I didn't expect it to be this hard, okay?" Jaune said. "And then...I don't know, I can't explain it. I just...I just couldn't do it, you know? I'd try but...nothing would come. And eventually there didn't seem to be any point to trying. And besides...I never expected that there would be this much school, you know?"

"Did you think that hero school would just be teaching you how to rescue damsels?"

"Kinda," Jaune murmured.

Sunset rolled her eyes. "You're smarter than you look in some respects, but clearly not others." And yet...Sunset found that she was not without sympathy for him. He wanted to be the hero, and in pursuit of that dream he had crossed lies and broken rules. She'd be lying to herself if she had done the same, and for much the same reasons. He might speak of dream instead of destiny, but it was all much the same, especially if you took Pyrrha's view of destiny as something that you made rather than something bestowed on you from birth. She and Jaune were much alike, more so than she had supposed before or been willing to admit; now that she could see that he wasn't a complete incompetent but, rather, had some raw materials worth working with, she found that she was more willing to concede the commonality between them. A little.

He was worth preserving. He would never be Pyrrha or Ruby, and he would certainly never be Sunset, but between his mind and his abnormally large aura he would be of use if he could be brought up to scratch.

The difficulty, it seemed, was his pride. Fortunately he had handed Sunset the weapon she needed to batter that down.

"You want to be the hero," she said. "Guess what, we all want to be the hero, it's why we're here. Remember when we carved our initials on the wall: I said that we'd all be great hunters some day and I meant it then. I mean it now, too. You can become a hero, Jaune Arc. And I'm going to help you get there."

"Cardin-"

"Isn't going to be blackmailing you any more," Sunset said soothingly. "Auntie Sunset is going to make sure that bad man leaves you alone." She smiled like a shark. "I'm going to be blackmailing you instead."

"Sunset!"

"Don't be like that, it won't be anything too onerous," Sunset said. "First, you're going to go to Pyrrha, apologise, and tell her that you want her help in training your fighting skills. Second, I - out of the goodness of my heart - am going to get you up to speed in your academics alongside Ruby. Third, you're going to do your homework each night and I'd better not catch you slacking off. Fourth: give me those comics."

"What?"

"I'm going to lock them up until you deserve them."

"Aw, come on!"

"You'll get them back, probably," Sunset said. "It's just to make sure that you concentrate. Do you want this or not?"

"Yes!" Jaune said. "Yes, I want this, this is all that I want."

"Good," Sunset said. "Because Ruby and Pyrrha would mope if you got thrown out and I don't need it. Trust me, you'll be a great huntsman in no time."

"And Cardin?"

"Leave him to me," Sunset said. "He and Weiss aren't going to know what hit them."

Sunset fumbled her way down the corridor in the dark. She didn’t dare risk using the torch in her pocket, not yet; not while anyone could stumble across her.

She would probably only get one shot at this, so she had to get it done.

Problem: Jaune’s transcripts were fake, and he obviously had no faith in the ability of those fakes to stand up to scrutiny; if he had then he wouldn’t have been acting like Cardin’s lapdog under threat of exposure.

Solution: Well, now; that was the trick, wasn’t it?

The best solution would probably have been to replace the fake transcripts with transcripts that looked a little less fake, but that required skills that Sunset didn’t have, and if Jaune had them then he would have been produced better transcripts in the first place, so that was out.

So Sunset had studied the rules of Beacon Academy, all of them, including the arcane rules going back to the beginning of the academy that later headmasters had simply forgotten to do away with. For example, there was a rule that said that the leader of the highest rated team in the final year could keep a goat on the lawn; Sunset couldn’t figure out why you’d want to but there it was, in the fine print.

But more important were the rules around cheating.

And the rules on that were quite clear: any student’s examinations, transcripts or any other official documentation could be examined by the Headmaster or any other teacher for any reason. If, upon examination, said material was found to have been tampered with or any other evidence of cheating or deception was discovered, then the student responsible could be expelled from the academy without notice.

That was an interesting turn of phrase that, ‘upon examination’. Because you couldn’t examine something that you didn’t have, now could you? Absence of evidence, after all, was not evidence of absence, and it would be particularly cruel to expel a student simply because the Academy had happened to lose their paperwork somewhere in the bureaucracy, wouldn’t it?

Which was why, in the middle of the night, with the corridors dark and the whole school asleep, Sunset was making her way to the school archives.

She crept quietly along, using a minor spell to muffle the sounds of her footfalls upon the tiles. From the moonlight, she was able to get a rough idea of where she was, and that she was heading in the right direction.

She stopped, frozen, upon hearing a noise. She pressed herself against the wall, looking this way and that like some prey creature trying to make their way across a field without the hungry owl spotting them. This was not going to be an experience she looked back on with fondness.

Jaune, you’re going to owe me big for this.

There was no more noise. She couldn’t see anything; not that that meant too much, as she wasn’t one of those faunus with superb night vision. It wasn’t a trait that ponies possessed, and certainly not unicorns. Still, she heard nothing and she saw nothing, and so she resumed her course.

The archives were stored at the end of a corridor, just past Professor Goodwitch’s office. Thankfully the lights were off in said office or Sunset would have felt a little nervous, but the professor had turned in for the night, or gone out, or…she wasn’t in her office was the important point. Nevertheless, as she passed the darkened room Sunset had to resist the urge to duck beneath the window.

The archive door, by contrast, had no window in it. It was simply a dull, slightly ugly iron door, locked of course. Not that was any barrier to Sunset, who teleported across to the other side of the door.

Now she got out her torch. She could have lit her way using magic, but a torch was just easier and it didn’t tire her out to do it.

Sunset looked around, shining her flashlight up and down the tall shelves filled with boxes. Each cardboard box was labelled with a name, and it took Sunset less than a moment to work out that they were ordered alphabetically by first name. That wasn’t how humans tended to do it, in Sunset’s experience, but it made her feel almost at home: ponies ordered by first name, simply because so many didn’t have a second name.

Nice of you to put me at my ease, Professor Ozpin.

Sunset walked down the rows of box-files, swinging her torch from shelf to shelf as she searched for the start of J. The names of students past and present met her eyes as she walked between the towering shelves: Bartholomew Oobleck, Bernard Rouge, Blake Belladonna, Bonnie Bonaventure…Cardin Winchester – Sunset was briefly tempted to vandalise his files – Dove Bronzewing, Glynda Goodwitch…Jaune Arc.

The files started from the bottom up, so Sunset only needed to bend down to get at Jaune’s box on the bottom shelf. She gripped the torch between her teeth, feeling the plastic against her tongue, as she pulled open the lid and began to rifle through the contents of Jaune’s box: test results, teachers’ impressions, Professor Ozpin’s personal evaluation. Sunset couldn’t help but pause for a moment, the torchlight shining upon the piece of paper containing, in a handwritten scrawl, the headmaster’s personal feelings regarding her team-mate.

Although untested, Mister Arc demonstrates great courage and determination, qualities which I feel will stand him in good stead in the future. He has potential, and may be of some use.

Some use? Some use for what? Defending humanity, I guess, but it’s a strange phrasing.

Although her brow furrowed a little, Sunset tried to dismiss the whole thing as she put the extraordinarily brief evaluation back and went down to the very bottom of the box.

Aha. There they were: Jaune’s transcripts recommending him to Beacon. They purported to be from a combat assessor, confirming that Jaune’s proficiency with weapons, aura – what a joke – and academic knowledge was up to the standard that would be expected of a graduate from a combat school. Apart from the fact that some of it could be proven false – like the fact that he hadn’t know what aura was – Sunset couldn’t tell that it was a forgery; but then she wouldn’t really know what a forgery looked like.

She pulled the transcripts out of the box, shut the lid, and put the box back where it came from.

She could go now. She had what she came for.

But something, some instinct or simple curiosity, wouldn’t let Sunset leave just yet. There was something else she had to check up on first.

So she headed deeper into the archives, passing K and L and M and N and all the other letters that stood between J and S. Sa…Se…Su…

Summer Rose.

Sunset stopped, looking up at the name of Ruby’s mother illuminated by the light of her torch. The cardboard was crinkled with age, and starting to fall apart in places: there were holes developing in the corners as though rodents had nibble at them.

She could have passed on. She could have ignored it, looking for her own name as she had decided to do after getting Jaune’s transcript. She could have left Ruby’s mother be.

But she didn’t.

She needed a ladder to get up there, so she wheeled one over from the back of the room and scampered up it, Jaune’s transcripts tucked underneath her arm, and once more took the flashlight between her teeth like a bit before she pulled out the box of Summer Rose and opened it up.

There was a lot more in it than there had been in Jaune’s box; not surprising, since she guessed that Summer Rose and her team had completed a full four years at Beacon Academy. She rooted through exam results, report cards, not really knowing what it was that she was looking for…until, underneath a pile of third-year midterms, Sunset found a book. It was small, leather-bound, with a black cover on which someone – presumably Summer herself – had painted a white rose in nail polish or something; it was the same symbol as on the wall of their dorm room.

Gingerly, with a feeling of trespass as though she were entering into a musty old temple intent on robbery of the idols there, Sunset opened it up.

Dear Diary

Sunset shut the book. The mouldering and dormant thing that passed for conscience revolted at the idea of reading further. There were some things that she neither the desire nor the right to know.

But she slipped the diary into her jacket pocket all the same.

Her own box was not far away: Sunset Shimmer. Sunset dragged the ladder a few feet across, and climbed up once more to see what Professor Ozpin had to say about her.

Sunset Shimmer clearly has enormous potential, though I must question whether she will always be capable of living up to that potential, or if her own pride and stubbornness will get in the way.

What do you know, Sunset thought.

However, I think it likely that with the right team-mates she could mellow considerably.

I’ve gotten by just fine on my own.

If she can overcome her flaws and rise to the occasion, then not only does she have the makings of a skilled huntress, but also of a member of the circle.

Sunset blinked. The circle? What circle? What are you talking about, Professor? And what would I get out of being a member?

One thing is certain: Miss Shimmer is too powerful to be allowed to fall into her hands.

Her who? Why are you being so cryptic?

At present, Beacon is the best place for her. A place where she can learn and be observed.

Sunset had to be careful, she almost swallowed with the torch in her mouth. A shiver ran down her spine. The words themselves were perfectly innocuous but…something about them disturbed her. A part of her wanted to see what the Headmaster had to say about Ruby and Pyrrha but another part of her…another part of her was afraid. She had felt, at the time of her interview with Professor Ozpin, as though he was weighing her, and it seemed that that was exactly what he had done: weighed her up like a prize pig at the county fair. Weighed her fit for membership of this circle, weighed her dangerous in the wrong hands – and whose hands were those?

Weighed her…and judged her.

Sunset shoved the box back, and replaced the ladder quickly. With Jaune’s transcripts in hand, and Summer’s journal in her pocket, she teleported out of the archive and fled, heedless of the noise that she made, back to her dorm room.

It was only when she got there, when she was standing outside the dorm with her scroll in hand, that Sunset started to calm down a little. It was the darkness of the room, the silence, the solitude…it had overcome her. There was nothing to worry about. Professor Ozpin’s words were just words, meaning little and possessing no capacity to harm.

Put like that, Sunset could almost believe it.

She slipped quietly into the dorm room, and stored Jaune’s transcripts somewhere safe, where Cardin wouldn’t be able to use them but she would, if she had to; or at least, she could threaten to use them to keep Jaune on the straight and narrow.

The diary she left by Ruby’s bedside, where the sleeping girl would see it when she woke up.

Weiss Schnee was not in a particularly good mood.

She had thought that she had banished the spectre of Jaune Arc and his persistent suiting from her life. She had proof that she had done so, in the form of his sudden absence from her presence after blighting it for so long. No more serenades, no more flowers, no more declarations of his love. It had all been quite liberating. She had been able to go wherever she liked without the fear that a loser was going to jump out at her and ask her out.

Well, not that loser anyway. Her family name being what it was she would probably never be completely free of men importuning her. Not unless she left her name behind, and Weiss was not ready to do that. The name of Schnee did not belong to her father alone, in fact in light of how he had come by that name one might argue it did not belong to him at all; Weiss did not intend to leave it forever in his keeping, nor allow him and him alone to dictate what it stood for. But that was for another time, for a time many years in the future when she had the power to do something about the state of her family and the company on which they had built their fortunes. For now, she had been grateful enough just to be rid of Jaune Arc. It was like a dark cloud had departed from the sky, revealing the sun that had hidden behind it. Even Weiss had not quite realised how free she would feel once he was gone.

And then, just a week later, he had come back like an invasive variety of mould. Worse, he was back at the invitation of Cardin. He didn't ask her out any more, which was a slight improvement on what had come before, but he was always around, and when he wasn't around Weiss was being reminded of his existence as Cardin was always going to meet him.

Weiss wasn't sure who she was more displeased with about this state of affairs, Cardin Winchester or Sunset Shimmer. Cardin, obviously, attracted her ire because it was apparently his fault that this boy with his tongue hanging out was being inflicted upon her once again; but Weiss considered Sunset to be far from blameless in the matter. They had had an agreement, and Weiss had upheld her end of it: she had stopped Cardin and Russell from persecuting the members of SAPR, and she had even gone further than that and extended her protection to cover other, unrelated faunus too. And for her generosity she had been repaid with bad faith, she had been tempted with a momentary restraint of Jaune Arc only to see him unleashed upon her once again.

She considered herself fortunate that there had been no sign of Jaune since yesterday morning, although that same fact appeared to be irritating Cardin somewhat.

It was Sunday, there were no classes and there wasn't even a lot to do in Vale proper, although Weiss was considering a brief shopping trip to replenish her dust supplies. Speaking of dust, Flash was still trying to get his dust studies homework done - Weiss, of course, was acing the course, but she didn't believe in doing all of her team-mates' work for them, and in any case Flash hadn't asked her for help - he was bent over his desk while he scribbled away. Russell had headphones on, and his feet were tapping on the air. Weiss herself was catching up on the news: some aspiring Valish politician was thumping the tub about her father's monopoly on every stage of the dust industry. He wasn't wrong, the Schnee Dust Company did have a monopoly, but he was wrong if he thought he could do anything about it. These kind of people turned up every so often, but either her father bought them off or their opponents started receiving very generous campaign contributions. Weiss scrolled to the next news item, this one a piece on the opening of the Mistral Fashion Week.

Meanwhile, Cardin seemed to be trying to reach someone on his scroll, and was growing steadily more angry about his apparent failure to get hold of them. His face was red, he was baring his teeth like an animal, and as time went on a series of low growls started slipping from between his lips until he threw his scroll clear across the room. It struck the opposing wall with a crack.

Russell took off his headphones. "Is Jaune washing his hair tonight?"

"Shut up!" Cardin snarled as he rose from his bed. "Who does that loser think he is? He thinks he can ignore me, why I'll..." he was still chunnering as he began to stomp towards the door.

"Cardin!" Weiss' voice cracked like a whip. "What's all this about?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean why are you fraternising with Jaune?"

Cardin didn't respond. He simply continued on his way to the door.

"Cardin!" Weiss called, and she would have blocked the doorway with a glyph until she got some answers out of him except that he was too fast for her. He was out the door - slamming it behind him - before she could prevent it.

"Why does he want to associate with someone he despised, or despises?" Weiss mused aloud. She had considered the possibility that he was doing it to annoy Weiss, and pay her back for humiliating him in the dining hall, but that wouldn't explain why he spent time with Jaune outside of Weiss' presence. "Flash, do you know anything about this?"

Flash looked up from his homework. "No. I'm as confused as you are."

"Russell?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you know anything about what's going on?"

Russell looked away. "Cardin does his own thing, you know how it goes."

Weiss stood up, her hands upon her hips. "What do you know?"

"Nothing!"

"Russell."

"I really don't know!" he squeaked. "I really, genuinely don't...get why he's doing this."

That sounded like a half-answer to Weiss, but it was clear that she wasn't going to get much more out of Russell, at least not right now. It didn't tell her very much. It didn't solve the question of who's idea this was or why Sunset had let this happen. It certainly didn't solve the question of why the two of them were spending time together.

To get at least some answers, it appeared that Weiss would have to go straight to the pony's mouth...and talk to Sunset Shimmer again.

Pyrrha knew a little of what had gone on after she left Jaune on the rooftop - she felt so foolish for having brought him there, how could she not have known that it was Cardin's rooftop? - and she understood why Jaune was reluctant to train up there. It was, after all, Cardin's rooftop. It did leave the question of where they could train: the roof would have been convenient because it was secluded, and Pyrrha doubted that a crowd of gawping onlookers, drawn by her fame, would be conducive to developing Jaune's confidence. It was also a question of a space that would be reliably unoccupied for their use, and have sufficient space for them to spar.

Sunset had suggested that they use the team garage, the space allotted to them for storage of their vehicles - if they had them - and so the whole team was headed down there to see if it would suffice for Jaune and Pyrrha's needs.

Pyrrha wasn't entirely sure why Sunset and Ruby had decided to join them - there was a part of her that had been looking forward to spending time alone with Jaune, even for a purpose such as this - but she didn't question them about it as the four of them walked through the school grounds. Sunset led the way, with Ruby trailing behind just a little, and Jaune keeping pace with Pyrrha herself despite the hunch of his shoulders and the dip of his head.

It was on Jaune that Pyrrha focussed most of her attention. Despite the fact that he had come to her - waited for her in their dorm room, rather - and asked if her offer to help him improve his combat skills was still alone, he did not look that much happier than he had done before. He looked almost as dejected as he had done for the few days prior to this, which had only been a little worse than how he had appeared before that. Evidently, whatever had happened to make him change his mind had not been enough to snap him out of his black dog mood. She reached out, and placed a reassuring hand upon his shoulder. Hopefully, if she could help him get better, even just well enough to hold his own against people like Cardin or Sky Lark, then he would start to feel better about himself, and just better, generally.

He was much more handsome when he smiled, she thought; it illuminated his whole face quite charmingly.

As it was Sunday, there were quite a few students out on the grounds, lounging upon the common, reading or playing on their scrolls out in the sunshine. Some of them noticed her, and she could see them pointing out of the corners of her eyes, she could hear the whispers from those closest to her. She ignored them. Jaune was what mattered right now.

Fortunately the presence of her team-mates seemed to deter anyone from actually coming up to her for any reason, and they were able to proceed onwards without being interrupted.

"There you are!"

So much for not being interrupted, it seems.

The shout had come from Cardin, who appeared at the top of the pathway in front of them with a red face and an overall look like an enraged bull. He stomped down the white paving stones, bearing down upon them with his hands clenched into fists. His nostrils flared as he snorted furiously, but at the same time as he approached he seemed to be making an effort - a futile effort, but an effort nonetheless - to appear something less than incandescent as people started to stare at him.

"Jaune!" he said, half growling the word even as he tried to seem at least a little affable. "Jaune, buddy, you've been ignoring me. It's really upsetting."

Sunset didn't give Jaune the chance to respond. Instead she barred Cardin's way with her own body, staring up into his face.

"Turn around," she said. "And walk away."

Cardin glared at her. "Jaune, tell your...friends that we just want to talk. After all, we're all pals, right?"

"Don't talk to him," Sunset said, and she was close to growling herself. "You're dealing with me now. So turn around, walk away, and forget all about this because I guarantee that you do not want to get into this with me."

"You don't seem to understand-"

"I understand," Sunset said. "I know everything." She stepped closer to Cardin, so close that the two of them were almost touching. "But here's something that you don't understand: I don't share the things that are mine; not with people I like, certainly not with people that I don't like and Jaune is mine. My team: mine. Now run along."

Cardin's rage was evident for Pyrrha to see as he bent down and whispered into Sunset's ear.

Sunset whispered something right back, though Pyrrha couldn't hear what it was.

Cardin's face went even more red than before, even as his back straightened as though he'd been shocked. "Big mistake," he snarled, as he stalked away.

"Sunset," Jaune murmured. "Now he'll-"

"Relax," Sunset said. "I told you I would take care of it, and I will. Besides, today is a day off for the staff as well, he won't be able to see anyone today."

"And tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow he'll have his own problems," Sunset replied blithely. "Look, I promise that whatever he says I will protect you. Like I said, I take care of the things that are mine." She must have caught Pyrrha's eye, or possibly Ruby's, because she coughed into her hand. "I mean, um, I look out for my team because unity and friendship and family and all that good stuff. Let's go."

"What are you two talking about?" Ruby asked, as they started to move again. "I feel like you guys know something that I don't."

Sunset laughed. "No offence, Ruby, but I'm sure I know lots of stuff that you don't."

"You know what I mean!"

Sunset laughed again. "I'll tell you when you grow up, how's that?"

"Now you sound like Yang!"

Sunset cackled wickedly.

The four of them made their way to the school garages, grey concrete blocks in sharp contrast to the elegant architecture of the academy proper, all lined up in rows with unpainted metallic doors.

Sunset pulled a control stick out of her pocket, and pressed it once to raise the door to garage thirteen. It elevated with a mixture of mechanical and motorised sounds, clattering and whirring as it rose to admit them.

“Here,” Sunset tossed the control to Pyrrha. “As you’ll be using this more than the rest of us. Just give it me back when I need my bike, okay?”

“Of course,” Pyrrha murmured. The garage was dark, although there was a lot that Sunset turned on by pulling a cord by the door. The only thing in the garage was a motorcycle, Sunset’s presumably. Pyrrha wasn’t an expert about such things but it looked somewhat…irregular.

As though somebody had put it together out of…oh, of course.

Ruby didn’t seem to share Pyrrha’s misgivings about the appearance of the motorcycle. Her silver eyes glimmered and she let out a sound that was one part covetous, one part awed and one part, to be honest, rather adorable as her mouth opened wide.

“Is that your bike?” she squeaked.

“Yep,” Sunset said, as she walked over to it.

“That’s so awesome!” Ruby cried as she rushed over to the motorcycle. “You didn’t tell me that the engine had a turbo! And are those the exhaust pipes from a Black Shadow? And those high handle bars look like they came off a-“

“Down, Ruby,” Sunset said, not without affection. “We didn’t come down here to talk about my bike, awesome though it is.” She looked at Pyrrha. “Will this do?”

Pyrrha walked around the room, getting a measure of the size of it. She glanced up at the light, and tried to imagine what it would be like with the door closed or at night. She paced back and forth. The room was about ten feet deep and another twenty feet wide, maybe a little more. The ceiling was about eight feet, which should suffice.

“It should be fine for sparring,” she said. “Nothing more complicated, but then the rooftop would have had the same problem of space.”

“So it works?”

Pyrrha hesitated for a moment before she nodded. “Yes, it works.”

Sunset closed the garage door, and they got started immediately. Pyrrha wasn’t entirely certain why Ruby and Sunset stuck around, but neither of them made a fuss as she and Jaune began.

Jaune was in dire need of the tuition that much was plain. Not only had he not gone to a combat school, but he didn’t seem to have had any training whatsoever. His footwork was a mess, and he seemed to view his shield not as a weapon but as something to cower behind when he was attacked. Pyrrha’s instructors would have had a fit at the sight of him.

But Pyrrha did not, of course, phrase it so baldly. Rather, she gently took him through some basic stances and movements, correcting his footwork, his posture, and the way he held and wielded both sword and shield as they went. They didn’t spar, not now. It was far too early for that; Jaune wasn’t ready for sparring against her yet, he needed to get some sort of handle on the basics of how to stand and move first.

“Make sure that you don’t get into a rut,” Sunset said. “There are other kinds of opponents than those who use sword and shield.”

“Of course,” Pyrrha said. “But the basics are applicable to every situation.”

They spent a couple of hours together, maybe more. Pyrrha had, if she was honest, been hoping that she and Jaune would spend it alone but…don’t be foolish, they were here to help Jaune improve, not to…and he didn’t notice anyway. It seemed that if she was not the champion of Sanctum then she was completely anonymous, unable to match the light that emanated from Weiss Schnee and drew all eyes towards her.

I spent so long wanting to be the Pyrrha instead of the Invincible Girl, but what if Pyrrha Nikos was never here at all? What if there’s nothing for anyone to know, no me to be seen?

Nevertheless, whether that was true or not – and Pyrrha had a shrinking suspicion that it might be – they spent two hours or more helping Jaune, and by the end of that two hours he at least knew more than he had done before, and some of his drills looked a little better than shaky already.

“Well done, Jaune,” Pyrrha said. “You’re already making good progress. If you keep this up you’ll be holding your own in the amphitheatre by the end of the semester.”

“Great,” Sunset said, and she sounded almost as though she meant it. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go into Vale before the stores close. There are a couple of things that I need to buy.”

“I’ll come too,” Ruby said. “Can we stop by a dust shop? I want to pick up some rounds?”

“Why don’t we all go?” Pyrrha suggested. “Jaune could use a break, and I wouldn’t mind picking up a few things.” She glanced at Jaune. “That is, if you want to come with us.”

Jaune’s face was stained with sweat, his hair was sticking to his forehead in places. His voice, when it emerged, was weak with weariness. “Yeah, sure. A break sounds great. Vale sounds great. Great.”

Pyrrha giggled. “It will get easier, I promise.”

They remained in Beacon long enough for Pyrrha and Jaune to stow their gear back in their lockers – and for Jaune to get a much needed shower, if Sunset had been forced to wander round Vale with him smelling like that, she didn’t think that she could have managed it – before getting the first airship down into Vale proper.

Though they had left their weapons behind, Pyrrha and Jaune were still wearing their armour, which meant that there was no mistaking the two of them for huntresses. It occurred to Sunset that if she didn’t want to be noticed then maybe Pyrrha could try changing her clothes.

But then…I’ve only got this leather jacket that happens to look casual so who am I to talk?

In any case, it didn’t matter that much today; Vale was sufficiently quiet that there was barely anyone around to notice them, let alone to gawp at Pyrrha or to badger her on account of her fame. They were able to walk down the streets in relative peace, with only the occasional flash of a scroll-camera to disturb them.

They called at a hardware store, where Sunset stocked upon spray-paint for the second stage of her revenge on Cardin, and then proceeded on to look for a dust shop for Ruby. The first two Mom-and-Pop places they tried were both closed, with boarded up windows and signs indicating that the closure would be for the foreseeable future and so, against Sunset’s better judgement, they went to a Schnee Dust store, with the snowflake logo on the windows and an electric blue sign above the door.

“I’m telling you, they charge more at these places than they do elsewhere,” Sunset said.

“Maybe, but at least its open,” Jaune replied.

There wasn’t much arguing with that, so they all trooped inside where Sunset was surprised to see none other than Weiss Schnee herself browsing over by the powders.

Sunset’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll catch up with you guys, okay?” She didn’t give any of them a chance to respond as she sauntered over to Weiss.

“I’m a little surprised to see the Schnee heiress having to shop in one of her own stores,” Sunset said. “Doesn’t your daddy just ship you new dust whenever you need it?”

Weiss’ jaw clenched. “Sunset Shimmer,” she muttered. “Just the person that I wanted to see.”

“Likewise,” Sunset said, as she leaned on the dust display. “I knew you didn’t like me but I thought that I could trust you to respect our agreement.”

Weiss whipped round to face her. “You…you’re accusing me of breaking our agreement? You are accusing me? How dare you?”

“How dare I?” Sunset repeated. “How dare I what? How dare a faunus speak to a Schnee that way?”

“How dare you accuse me of breaking our agreement when you know full well that it was you!” Weiss snapped. “You’re not the one who had to put up with Jaune Arc after I thought I wouldn’t have to see him again. And there he is!” She gestured imperiously at Jaune, who fortunately had his back to her.

“Forgive me for not checking where you were going to be before I decided to visit a dust shop,” Sunset replied. “But anyway, don’t play the innocent victim here, I told you that I expected you to put a leash on Cardin-“

“And I did!”

“Oh, yeah, and you did a really good job of it too,” Sunset snapped. “We agreed that Cardin was going to stop hassling Jaune and then after a few days he went right back to it.”

“I know that they’ve been spending a lot of time together, that’s why I’m-“

“Are you really going to stand there and pretend that they’re friends, don’t act like you don’t know what’s going on.”

Weiss folded her arms. “What, precisely, is going on?”

Sunset frowned. Did Weiss know what was going on? She looked genuine enough, but then she could just be good enough to fool Sunset. It was hard to tell what she was really thinking? She seemed irate, almost as irate as Sunset, which might mean-

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a gunshot. Sunset’s eyes flew towards the door as a man in a white jacket and bowler hat strode in, followed by a girl with hair half pink and half black, as well as about a dozen or so faunus in grimm masks.

“Pardon the interruption, ladies and gentlemen, but as I’ve always wanted to say: this is a stick up,” the man in white announced jovially as he twirled his cane in one hand. “Stay calm, don’t try anything stupid and everything will…” he trailed off as he caught sight of Ruby, who seemed to recognise him too.

The smirk on the face of the man in white was replaced by a look of weary despair. “You have got to be kidding me!”

Instinctively, Pyrrha moved to stand a little more in front of Ruby and Jaune. She didn’t know who this man was, but she could recognise the masks of the White Fang when she saw them; and though she didn’t know why the White Fang would be associating with a human criminal either…such questions were not her concern right now. They were here, they were armed, they were dangerous; but they would not hurt Pyrrha’s friends, not while she drew breath.

By her shoulder, she would protect them.

After a moment, the man in the white jacket recovered his previous composure. He even smiled as he levelled his cane at Ruby like a gun. “Red, we have got to stop meeting like this.”

Pyrrha was moving even before the bolt of green energy shot from Sunset’s finger to knock the cane out of the man’s hand. Her legs propelled her across the blue carpet of the dust shop, she vaulted effortlessly over one display table, and then another as she closed the distance with the man in white.

She had no weapons, nor time to summon her locker with her scroll. No matter. She had been trained in unarmed combat, even if it wasn’t her strongest mode. But what could not be helped would be endured, and she would protect her team regardless.

There was no other choice.

She had almost closed the distance with the man in the white suit when a figure interposed themselves between them. It was a girl, a girl with hair neatly divided into a pink half and a dark, with eyes to match. She carried an old-fashioned parasol, which she held lightly in one hand and with it slashed at Pyrrha as though it were a sword.

Pyrrha stopped, facing the much smaller girl; she raised her fists and assumed a boxing stance.

The girl seemed not at all intimidated by Pyrrha, not by reputation (if she knew of it) nor by her superior height. She said nothing, but smiled cheerfully and curtsied as though this were a formal dance and Pyrrha had just requested the honour of her hand.

Pyrrha attacked, meaning to finish this quickly. Her fists struck out in a succession of quick jabs. The other girl dodged as nimbly and as fluidly as water, flowing around Pyrrha’s blows. She retreated, Pyrrha pursued, the other girl started using her parasol to parry the punches. Pyrrha reached out with her semblance, and gently moved the metal in the centre of the parasol just out of the way. Her punch was through the other girl’s guard…but the other dodged nimbly aside, pirouetting gracefully on one foot to kick Pyrrha on the side of the head with the other.

Pyrrha took a step back. Her aura was barely affected…but it had been a long time since anyone had landed a hit on her in hand-to-hand to combat like that.

She would have found this interesting if the reason for which she was fighting had not been so immediate.

Her hopes for a swift victory that would enable her to deal with their real opponent were fading away, but the flashes of green light that Pyrrha could see from out the corner of her eye gave her some hope that Sunset had everything in hand. And if Ruby and Jaune could summon their lockers…

She would have to trust her team. Her fight was in front of her, she could think of nothing else. Once the fight began, nothing but the fight mattered.

The girl with the parasol looked as enthusiastic as ever. Her smile, as she gestured for Pyrrha to come on, might almost have looked good-natured under better circumstances.

Pyrrha attacked again, more warily this time. She wasn’t going to roll over an opponent of this calibre. No, whoever she was this girl had skill. She would have to be careful, get the measure of her speed, her strength, her reflexes. Only then could she go for the kill.

But this girl was good. Pyrrha didn’t know where she had been trained but she found it impossible to believe that she didn’t have training, and expert training at that. Pyrrha punched and kicked, but the girl was never quite where she had been when the attack began. Pyrrha was fast, but this girl could always get out of the way, if only by a fraction, and her counterattacks nearly caught Pyrrha extended more than once. She didn’t quite get her, but that only left them stalemated, neither able to land a blow upon the other, dancing around another, flowing around the attacks of their respective opponents.

One advantage Pyrrha had was her semblance. She didn’t know what semblance this girl had, but she didn’t appear to be using it. Pyrrha, on the other hand, was making minute adjustments to the girl’s parasol every time, moving it out of the way of her blows, changing the height of her attacks so that Pyrrha could dodge them better, small changes that would not be noticed.

Small changes that she hoped would not be noticed.

She grabbed the other girl by the leg as she flipped away from a punch. Now, now she had her! Pyrrha tossed the other girl up in the air…but she spun gracefully and landed on her feet, even counterattacking with a swiping kick that Pyrrha had to leap up to evade.

And she was still smiling as though she hadn’t a care in the world.

Trying to bait me, I suppose. Pyrrha reached for the calm that many hours of meditation had taught her. She could not rise, not if she wanted to win as she needed to.

Four plumes of blue smoke trailed across the sky like comets before four lockers landed on the street outside the store.

The door to Pyrrha’s locker opened and she abandoned subtlety, summoning Milo and Akuou to her hands at once. They flew to her like homing birds, and as her gauntleted fingers closed around Milo Pyrrha’s hand felt blissfully complete.

It was Pyrrha’s turn to smile, if only faintly, as she rested Milo in rifle mode upon the crescent of Akuou and aimed squarely at the girl with the two-colour hair.

Sunset appeared beside her in a flash of green light. "Tag out. Go back up Jaune. I'll deal with her."

A cry from Jaune drew Pyrrha's attention. Although his locker had just landed outside, unlike Pyrrha he had no way of getting his weapons too him, and in the meantime he was struggling to stay one step ahead from a giant of a faunus with a stylised, full-face mask decorated with crimson markings, who was pursusing Jaune with a chainsaw that whirred menacingly in his hand.

Pyrrha's grip on Milo tightened. "Be careful," she whispered to Sunset. "This one is dangerous."

"Yeah? Well, so am I," Sunset said. "Go!"

Pyrrha ran. She heard the crack of Sunset's gun going on behind her but she paid it no heed, trusting her team-leader to keep the parasol girl off her back while she saved Jaune.

Hold on, Jaune, I'm on my way.

She leapt over a table and through a patch of burning dust on the floor, trusting that she could afford to take the hit to her aura in exchange for getting there faster. She made no sound, she gave no battle cry, but her expression was grim and terrible as she charged through the flames and fell upon the White Fang warrior like a thunderbolt descending from the heavens.

He was a big man, but Pyrrha had fought many opponents larger than herself - if never one quite so huge as he - and she did not quail before his size or the corded muscles of his arms. Milo assumed rifle mode and she fired twice as she descended on him, making him recoil away from Jaune even as he whirled on her. Pyrrha landed, placing herself between Jaune and danger, her legs crouched, her whole body low. Milo transformed into a spear.

A wordless growl rumbled out from behind the mask of the chainsaw warrior as he swung at her with his purring weapon. Pyrrha ducked the blow, not even needing to her semblance to do so, and lashed out with one leg to cut his out from under him. She didn't give him the chance to fall but kicked him up towards the ceiling, then leapt up after him to deliver a series of swift strikes with her sword before hitting him in the stomach hard enough to send him plummeting back downwards once again. Milo changed into a spear as she fell upon him.

He rolled out of her way, and when she landed in the crater he had made on the floor he slashed at her with his chainsaw. She leapt away, and turned Milo into a rifle which she fired for a third time as he struggled to rise to his feet. He shuddered under the impact, but rose nonetheless.

He doesn't have my speed, but he does appear to have a considerable amount of aura.

Pyrrha was not concerned. In a battle of the mountain against the storm, the mountain would be weathered down to a nub before it could land a blow upon the storm.

He held his chainsaw in a guard before her. "I'm guessing you're petty fragile once you stop moving."

"You will never find out."

He chuckled darkly. "I only need to get lucky once to bring you down."

Luck has nothing to do with it, Pyrrha thought. She charged again. Reflected firelight danced upon her blade and on her burnished shield as she attacked. With Akuou she battered aside his guard and slashed furiously with Milo, her blows rippling up and down his body, cutting his aura to ribbons until she had borne him to the ground once again. He lay there, as Pyrrha planted her foot upon his chest and turned Milo to a spear to thrust down upon him.

His left hand lashed out in an attempt to grab her by the ankle, but Pyrrha was too swift. She leapt back, flipping over herself to land a couple of feet away.

"That was not honourable," she whispered.

If he had heard her, her opponent did not reply. He recovered his chainsaw from the ground, and stared at her - or seemed to, his mask completely concealed his eyes - for a moment, before he rounded on Jaune with a furious slash of his chainsaw.

"Jaune!" the cry leapt from Pyrrha's lips even as her spear leapt from her hand. It missed her opponent, passing a few inches before his masked face, but as Pyrrha had intended it gave him pause, and in that pause she was on him once again, wielding her shield like a blade in both hands, beating him around the face with the sharp edge once, twice, three times before Milo flew to Pyrrha's hand and she struck him down. This time Pyrrha did not relent. She struck at him with sword and shield, her arms descending, rising and descending again until his aura shattered and his mask broke and he was comatose and helpless before her.

Jaune let out a disappointed sigh behind her.

"Are you alright?" Pyrrha asked. "Are you hurt?"

"No," Jaune replied, his tone still dispirited. "But I needed to get saved again. Some hero, huh?"

Pyrrha placed hand upon his shoulder. "Sometimes survival is the most important victory of all."

The man in the white suit smirked as he pointed his cane at Ruby like a gun. "Red, we have got to stop meeting like this."

A bolt of green energy erupted from Sunset's fingertip to blast the cane from out of his hand before he could fire it. Pyrrha was already moving, charging the man, but she was intercepted by the girl with the pink-and-black hair. Sunset didn't pay the two much more mind as they began to brawl, Pyrrha could handle it; Sunset just had to handle everbody else.

Piece of cake.

The fighters of the White Fang advanced upon her slowly, with a degree of caution that their lack of speed emphasised as much as the wary way in which they held their weapons.

"Ruby, Jaune, call the lockers," Sunset commanded. "Take cover until they get here."

The man in the white suit rolled his eyes. "Don't just stand there, you animals, get her!"

They attacked in a rush, the ones with guns shot as they came.

Thank you, Sunset thought, as they gave her an excuse to throw up a shield around herself. Their fire was wild and inaccurate, but she could feel some of the bullets striking the emerald shield. They closed in around her, swords and knives at the ready, but Sunset let her shield erupt to knock them back and off their feet just as she done in the fight against Pyrrha.

Sunset held her fingers like play-guns, favouring the quicker but less powerful bursts of energy from her finger tips rather than the stronger palm beams that took more out of her and took longer to charge. Two Fang fighters were down almost before they could get back up, one of them in only a single blast and the other in three.

"Watch where your shooting!" Weiss shouted. "You're going to-"

Sunset missed a Fang fighter with deer antlers, who ducked underneath the magical bolt she had fired at him. It struck the dust container behind him, which exploded with such violent force that it hurled the deer faunus off his feet, blasted a part of the wall away and set fire to the light blue carpet of the shop. Sunset felt the heat of the explosion wash over her in a wave.

"-ignite the dust," Weiss concluded with a sigh.

Sunset grinned. "Thanks for reminding me." A deft bit of telekinesis was enough to pop open one of the tubes of light blue ice dust powder and pull the powdered grains of dust out of said tube. Sunset kept a tight, but careful, grip on them. She didn't want to activate the dust before it was ready. She wielded the stream of powder at her command like a flail, waving it before her, close the floor, even as she kept a thin line of it connected almost to her hand. The White Fang charged again, but Sunset's aura pulsed as she ran a charge through the dust. A rampart of ice appeared on the floor in front of her, enough to knock the White Fang back or trap their legs depending on where they were.

Sunset's smile broadened. She wasn't a great dust user for the simple reason that she couldn't afford it, but there was a part of her that had always regretted the constraints of circumstances. She used fire dust next, yanking the powder out of the tube in clumps which she turned into fireballs to hurl with one hand, even as she continued to fire magical projectiles with the other. She had the control and the intelligence to use dust effectively, and to be honest she was kind of enjoy the opportunity to demonstrate that.

She ignited a table full of lightning dust close enough to a warrior of the White Fang that the lightning struck him, rippling up and down his body until he dropped, twitching and moaning, to the ground.

Sunset created more fireballs, throwing them at the White Fang, striking them squarely in the chest. She was mostly done with the goons by now, just a little-

The explosion punched Sunset off her feet, throwing her head over heels, tumbling through the store as the heat washed over her. She hit the ground head first and rolled across the store until she came to a stop face and belly down.

She raised her head, her aura wasn't broken but another fire-dust display had just exploded, maybe more than one judging by the number of fires now burning in the store, not all of which were her responsibility. A White Fang fighter with cat ears charged out of the smoke at her, but a bolt of white struck her in the chest and knocked her down.

"Schnee!" bellowed the last remaining fighter of the Fang, a huge guy with a chainsaw, as he charged past Sunset, ignoring her completely in his zeal to get at Weiss.

The man in the white suit, on the other hand, did not ignore her. He had his cane pointed right at her, enabling her to see the hollow end that formed the muzzle, as he advanced on her.

"You got quite a few tricks up your sleeve," he said. "And with those ears...it's a pity you're not playing on my team."

Over the crackle of the flames, Sunset could just about hear the lockers descending, but that wasn't going to be much help to her. There was no dust close enough for her to use it, so she reached for her magic-

He stamped on her hand. It didn't break her aura but it still hurt. "Ah, ah, ah," he said. "You've got a talent, sure, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you use it on me." He rested the muzzle of his cane upon her forehead. "Nothing personal, you understand. It's just business."

Ruby charged in a burst of rose petals, Crescent Rose whirling. White glyphs in the familiar snowflake of the Schnee family appeared all round the man in white and Ruby rocketed off them like a pinball, bouncing up and down as she slashed at Roman with her her scythe while he could only try desperately to defend himself against attacks coming at him from all directions.

Sunset leapt up. In front of her she could see that Pyrrha was still engaged with Parasol Girl, while a cry from behind drew her attention long enough to notice Jaune desperately trying to fend off the big guy with the chainsaw.

Sunset summoned Sol Invictus into her haand, and made her decision. She teleported to Pyrrha just as Pyrrha summoned her own weapons from her locker.

"Tag out. Go back up Jaune. I'll deal with her."

Pyrrha glanced towards Jaune. "Be careful. This one is dangerous."

"Yeah? Well, so am I?" Sunset said. "Go!"

Pyrrha turned, sprinting back across the half-burning store towards Jaune. Parasol girl made to follow, but a shot from Sol Invictus and a blast of magic from Sunset's palm - both of which missed - brought her up short.

"I'm your opponent now," Sunset said.

Parasol Girl studied her intently. The smile never left her face.

Sunset smirked right back, if only to show that two could play at that game.

Let's see what you've got.

Parasol Girl's eyes flickered away from Sunset, towards the man in the white jacket.

"I said, I'm your opponent," Sunset growled, shooting another bolt of magic from her palm. Parasol girl dodged, and as she dodged she pirouetted closer to Sunset, striking out with her parasol to whack Sunset on the side of the head. Sunset staggered sideways, feeling the sting through her aura. Parasol girl produced a sword, which she held in her right hand while she opened up the parasol like a shield.

She's fast. Almost as fast as Pyrrha, no wonder she couldn't finish this.

Good thing that I'm not Pyrrha then, isn't it?

Sunset raised Sol Invictus to her shoulder and fired once, twice, three times, four times, five times until she had no more rounds left in the chamber and not a single one hand hit; Parasol Girl had either dodged them all or taken them upon her parasol. But, while Sunset had been shooting, she had almost been moving around the spilled dust power that lay all over the floor now, using her telekinesis gently, and in such a way that - with luck, Parasol Girl wouldn't notice.

Judging by the look on her face she was more interested in the fact that Sunset had run out of bullets.

Sunset raised one hand, and magic leapt from the tips of her fingers. She still couldn't hit, because this girl was even slipperier than Pyrrha was and that parasol was surprisingly sturdy, but so long as it kept her distracted from noticing all the dust power coiling around her booted feet then none of it mattered. All Sunset had to do was keep away until-

Now!

Sunset activated the dust, which exploded into various conflagrations of fire, ice and lightning around the feet of Parasol Girl, who shattered into a hundred fragments like glass; fragments that dissolved before a single one of them hit the ground.

"What the..." Sunset murmured. She turned towards the man in the white jacket, only to see him shatter too under Ruby's latest attack. And then he was gone, as though he had never been here at all.

An illusion semblance. His, or the girl's?

"Aww," Ruby moaned, her head falling forwards. "He got away again."

"Again?" Sunset said as she crossed the ruined shop towards them. "How did that guy know you, anyway?"

"That was Roman Torchwick," Ruby explained. "I was there when he tried to rob another dust shop, and I fought them, and that's why Professor Ozpin let me into Beacon. I really thought that we could catch him this time."

"We should be cautious," Pyrrha said. "The enemy may still be nearby."

"I doubt it," Sunset said. "The man was here to rob the place, not kill us. The only reason to fight in the first place was out of fear that we'd pursue him. Now that they're away...those two, anyway, I don't think they'll be back." She looked around at all of the unconscious White Fang members. "But we should probably call the cops for all these guys."

"Already done," Weiss said casually. She walked primly across the shop floor, and almost managed to keep the distaste off her face completely as she held out her hand to Sunset. "On behalf of the Schnee Dust Company I suppose I should thank you for helping me foil this robbery." She glanced around the damage. "Although I wish it could have been done without wrecking the place."

Sunset took Weiss' hand. "Just so long as you don't ask me to pay for it."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "I'm sure the company can absorb the costs."

Sunset let go of her hand. "Ruby, thanks for taking over with Torchwick. Although...I was a little surprised to see you." She had actually been surprised that Ruby had ditched Jaune to fend for himself in order to help Sunset, but she was hoping to put it a little more delicately in front of a non-team member.

"Jaune told us to go," Ruby said. "He said he could handle it."

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "Really?"

"Well...you needed help, and I do have a lot of aura," Jaune said. "And I knew that Ruby could get to the lockers and back really fast, so..."

"That was a brave thing," Sunset said. She folded her arms. "You know, overall I think it's safe to say that we did a pretty good job here."

Ruby raised one hand in the air. "High five! A first victory for Team Sapphire!"

"Ahem."

"And Weiss."

"Technically," Pyrrha said. "Wouldn't this be our second victory?"

"Do sparring matches count?" Jaune asked.

"Especially when you...kind of don't deserve to win," Ruby murmured.

"Everything counts, a win is a win," Sunset said. "This is our second victory."

"A second victory for Team Sapphire!"

"Ahem!"

"And Weiss."

Sunset had found that whenever she was called in to see Princess Celestia, she had been able to tell before she actually went through the door whether she was going to enjoy the experience or not. This was not only because she had a brain and knew whether or not she had done something worthy of censure or not - even if she didn't always know how Celestia knew that she'd done it - but also because, as she waited outside the door to the royal study, she could feel whether the atmosphere was benevolent or hostile.

As she rode in the elevator up towards Ozpin's office at the pinnacle of Beacon Tower - with Team SAPR plus Weiss all crammed in to the one lift it was a little bit cramped - she had the feeling that she more commonly associated with a telling off than with fulsome praise.

Which struck her as a little unfair, to be perfectly honest. It wasn't as if they'd gone looking for trouble; the trouble had found them, and quite unexpectedly. And once it had, what were they supposed to have done? Rolled over and died? Run away? They had defended themselves and the store in which they happened to be, nothing more. They had nothing whatsoever to be ashamed of and they certainly had nothing to apologise for.

The lift stopped, and the doors slid open a second later to reveal the Headmaster's sprawling, but at the same time largely empty office. The clockwork ground remorselessly overhead, casting a constantly shifting shadow down upon the floor below.

Professor Ozpin sat enthroned in an enormous chair, behind a large crescent-shaped desk. Professor Goodwitch stood at his right hand, her expression stern. Mind you, her expression was almost always stern as if by default.

Team SAPR - plus Weiss - walked into the officer. A kind of instinct, honed by experience in this sort of thing, told Sunset when to stop. She clasped her hands behind her back as the rest of Team SAPR - and Weiss - lined up beside her.

Professor Ozpin was silent for a moment. The only sounds were the grinding of the gears and the trickling of liquid as Ozpin poured himself a cup of coffee from an ornate teapot.

He sipped from his Beacon mug. "So, you five certainly had an eventful afternoon."

"With respect, Professor, that wasn't by our choice," Sunset said.

"Is that so?" Professor Goodwitch asked in a decidedly arch tone.

"Yes," Sunset said firmly. "Do you think that we deliberately went looking for Torchwick or the White Fang so that we could catch him?"

"Ooh!"

Sunset rolled her eyes. Me and my big mouth. "Absolutely not, Ruby."

"But-"

"Miss Rose," Professor Goodwitch's tone was cold enough to shrivel Ruby's words to silence. "In this instance you should listen to your team leader. Apprehending criminals is a task for the proper authorities, not for first year students." Her gaze swept across their line, from Weiss back up to Sunset. "Assuming, of course, that your team leader is telling the truth."

"We were in the dust shop before the White Fang arrived," Weiss declared. "They attacked us, completely unprovoked."

Professor Ozpin took another sip of his coffee. "Then you were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

"That seems to be something of a habit with you, Miss Rose," Professor Goodwitch murmured.

"Considering that we won, professor," Sunset said. "I'm not sure wrong place, wrong time is altogether appropriate." She caught sight of the look on Professor Goodwitch's face, and so continued hurriedly. "But we weren't looking for trouble, certainly. This was a shopping trip that got interrupted."

Professor Ozpin had them each, in turn, describe what had happened; and as each one spoke Professor Ozpin fixed his gaze upon them, and his eyes did not leave their eyes until their account was complete.

"I see," he said, when Weiss had finished her own account. "That seems conclusive. You were all of you in the wrong place...but, perhaps, at the right time." He smiled for a moment. "And, considering the circumstances, you all acquitted yourselves quite well."

"But Torchwick got away again," Ruby protested.

Professor Ozpin chuckled. "Indeed, Miss Rose, but as Professor Goodwitch so recently informed you, the apprehension of that particular criminal is a task for the proper authorities. You must not blame yourselves for failing to accomplish a task that was never yours to complete in the first place. Though you are only students, you have fought an adults' fight and you have survived. You should feel proud of that, all of you."

Sunset's back straightened. This hasn't been so bad after all.

"However," Professor Goodwitch said. "Allow me to remind you all that if we believed that you had deliberately sought out Roman Torchwick or the White Fang or any kind of danger then you be punished appropriately to the foolhardiness of your behaviour. I trust that none of you will feel inspired by this event to seek out further extracurricular assignments."

"Certainly not, Professor," Weiss said.

"No, Professor," Sunset said. In her opinion, the only one she had to worry about in that regard was Ruby: Jaune was too aware of his own inadequacies to deliberately seek out a life or death conflict, and Pyrrha was not the kind to look for trouble. Ruby, however, was something else entirely. Hopefully she wouldn't be so stupid as to act on her own...unless she tried to rope her sister and team YRDN into it somehow.

I don't know Yang well enough to say what would make her turn down a request like that. I might have to find out.

Maybe there's something that she wants from me that I could bargain away in exchange for keeping Ruby on a leash.

"Excellent," Professor Ozpin said. "That will be all, for now. I'm sure you all have places that you'd rather be than here."

Sunset bowed her head. "Thank you, Professor."

They all crammed back into the elevator for the ride back down, but in spite of the crowding it was a far more relaxed, pleasant journey down than it had been a journey up.

"We could always-" Ruby began, her voice piping up from the back of the lift, somewhere behind Sunset.

"No," Sunset said.

"You don't even know what I was going to say!"

"You were suggest that we hunt down Torchwick, weren't you?"

"Well, yeah, but you didn't know that!"

"We're not doing it."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't see the point," Sunset said.

"But somebody has to stop him!"

"Someone doesn't have to mean us."

"Weren't you listening to what Professor Goodwitch said," Weiss demanded. "We're first years; we're here to learn how to fight monsters, not run around Vale chasing criminals."

"Thanks," Sunset muttered.

"Pyrrha-"

"This team is not a democracy," Sunset declared magisterially. "It is a dictatorship and the tyrant is me."

Ruby didn't press the issue for the rest of the ride down.

The elevator doors opened at the base of Beacon Tower, and as they slid open they revealed Flash standing outside. He looked a little nervous, though as soon as the group of five disembarked his face lit up with that goofy grin he had. "You're okay!"

"I'm fine," Sunset and Weiss said at the exact same time. The two looked at one another, and Sunset could tell that Weiss was thinking that Flash had been talking to her, not to Sunset.

Sunset could tell that because she was thinking the exact same thing.

Flash looked from one to the other. "That's great, both of you. I heard...you got attacked by the White Fang?"

"Yes," Weiss murmured, her voice dropping and becoming a little more subdued. "If you don't mind it's not something that I particularly want to talk about."

"No, no, I get it," Flash said. "I just...I heard that you'd been in a fight and...I'm glad you're okay."

Weiss stared at him for a moment, as though his concern surprised her. She clasped her hands behind her back. "Yes, well...I'm going to go back to our dorm now."

"Right, I'll come with you," Flash said. He glanced at Sunset out of the corner of his eye. "Sunset, I..."

"Thanks for coming down here," Sunset said. "It was good to see you." She almost surprised herself with the fact that she meant it. Even if she was kidding herself thinking that he had been worried about her instead of or even in addition to Weiss, it was still good to think that he cared. Surprisingly good, really.

"Yeah, sure," Flash murmured, before he followed Weiss down the path that led to the dormitories.

Sunset turned to her team, but before she could say anything she heard a cry of "Ruby!" and the next thing someone had shoved her out the way so hard that she toppled over and fell on her backside.

It was Yang, obviously. She had bulled aside all obstacles between Ruby and herself and enveloped her little sister in a bear-hug.

"Yang! Come on, get off of me!" Ruby protested futilely.

"Did you really get in a fight with the White Fang?" Yang demanded.

"How does everybody know that so quickly?" Jaune asked.

"Probably Ozpin told them," Sunset muttered. "While he was waiting for us to show up."

"Oobleck told me," Yang explained still not letting go of Ruby. "The White Fang and Torchwick? I don't know whether to be proud or mad."

"It was an accident," Ruby said. "We didn't know he was going to show up to the dust shop."

Does everybody think that we would intentionally go hunting for criminals on purpose?

"Oh," Yang said, and judging by her tone of surprise it would appear that the answer to Sunset's question was 'yes'. "In that case I'm so proud of you! And a little worried that trouble keeps finding you like this." She chuckled. "For a moment there I was worried that you'd actually gone looking for Torchwick."

"Well-"

"No!" Sunset and Yang said simultaneously. Yang looked at her, and nodded approvingly.

"You two are no fun at all," Ruby moaned.

It was only when she was away from Team SAPR and on her way back to the dorm room with Flash that Weiss realised - or remembered - that she and Sunset had not finished the conversation that they had started in the dust shop...before they had been interrupted by the arrival of the White Fang.

The White Fang. It was taking a lot of Weiss' well-honed self-control not to shudder at the thought of those masks, and the leering, sneering, snarling mouths beneath them; the angry cry of 'Schnee!' as though her name alone rendered her deserving of death; the fire and smoke, the gunshots...the more she thought about it the more imagination transfigured it to resemble a scene out of her nightmares. She had escaped unharmed, true, but only because of the efforts of Team SAPR. Had she been alone in there then...

At least Sunset Shimmer had fought them. It was a little harder - not impossible, but harder - for her to imagine Sunset as a member of the White Fang now that she had seen her fighting the White Fang, using her over-powered semblance to protect Weiss.

Weiss wrenched her thoughts away. She didn't want to think about the White Fang right - she never wanted to think about the White Fang, particularly, but she told herself that she could afford to put them out of mind for now - and back to Sunset and their interrupted conversation. They had been talking about Cardin and Jaune; Sunset had been as angry as Weiss, if not more, and she held Weiss responsible. It was possible that Sunset was putting on a grand show at Weiss' expense to get one over on her, but if she was not then...what? Had Jaune been unwilling in his camaraderie with Cardin? What, then, would have induced him to spend time with someone he feared and disliked? What had Cardin done?

It might be a very minor mystery in light of the day' events, but there were times when it was good to focus upon the minor mysteries and ignore the larger truths, such as the fact that...Weiss pushed that aside because she was ignoring it.

"Are you okay?" Flash asked.

"I'm fine," Weiss said, a little too snippily. Her voice calmed. "I'm fine," she repeated.

"Right," Flash murmured. "I only ask because you're quiet."

"I'm thinking."

"Ah."

"Are you sure that you don't know what's going on, or what was going on, between Jaune and Cardin?"

"What?" Flash asked, surprised. "No, I...I've got no idea."

"Hmm," Weiss mused. Her mind continued to mull in silence over the possibilities until she arrived back at her dorm-room and walked inside.

Cardin grunted at the sight of her. "Right, you're back."

Russell took the headphones out of his ears. "Heard that you got in some kind of battle or something, with the White Fang?"

"Yes," Weiss said coldly. Thank you both for caring.

Russell grinned. "Next time share the love, okay? If I'd known you were going to have some fun out in Vale I would have come with you."

Weiss wasn't sure what was worse: his attitude or the fact that if she'd known what was going to happen she might have actually taken him up on his offer.

Weiss Schnee was no wilting fragile flower, she was confident in her abilities, she had trained and studied to become proficient in combat...and still the White Fang frightened her. As much as she might be superior to most - perhaps all - individual members of that despicable organisation in combat, with Myrtenaster in hand, nevertheless the group, the shadowy force that had murdered so many figures of her childhood, it...terrified her. She would not want to face them alone.

Weiss felt drained. Certainly drained of any energy to confront Cardin. Perhaps minor mysteries could take her mind off larger truths, but today she had no energy for them, nor to deal with Cardin's indifference or Russel's utter lack of understanding. She had no energy left to deal with any of it so she flopped down onto her bed and lay there, dead to the world.

She hoped it would prove otherwise, but she had a feeling that today's incident wasn't going to leave her alone just yet.

Sunset was out again that night, this time in the part of the dormitories that was reserved for second year teams. In her hand was one of the cans of red spray paint that she had bought from the hardware store before their shopping trip had been stopped dead in its tracks by the fracas at the dust shop.

She had to be a little careful here, not so much of getting caught as of finding the right dorm room. If she got the wrong room - which meant any room other than that belonging to Team CFVY - then the act would just look random and weird. It had to be the right door in order for the blame to rebound where she wanted it to.

She and Weiss hadn't had the chance to finish their conversation before Roman Torchwick and the White Fang - sounded like a garage band - had so rudely interrupted them, but Sunset had heard enough to be somewhat sure that Weiss hadn't known about Cardin's activities. So be it. She wouldn't take out her frustrations on Weiss; but that didn't mean that she was about to let Winchester off the hook.

I'll show you what happens when you mess with me.

A quick check through the student records had confirmed that the rabbit-eared faunus Cardin had been picking on yesterday was named Velvet Scarletina, a member of Team CFVY. Team CFVY were perhaps the team to beat in Second Year, even if one of their members was having to re-sit her fist year history.

Now Sunset's plan would fall apart if it turned out the other members of CFVY didn't actually care for their faunus team-mate that much, but as she found the right door most of her worries on that front were swiftly dispelled.

Team CFVY had helpfully marked their dorm room with a sign on the door, and underneath the sign with a team photo in which two big and burly-looking guys attempted to squash themselves into the same frame as two much smaller girls, one of whom was the rabbit-faunus Velvet. The picture was so crowded that the background was practically invisible, as the guys looked over the girls' heads - and in Velvet's case, between her ears. Nevertheless, all four faces were smiling enthusiastically out of the wooden picture frame.

Sunset looked at the picture for a moment. It was...it was kind of cute, really, and it made her wonder if SAPR should get team photos done. It wasn't mandatory, but it might be cool even if they didn't want to stick it up on the door. She frowned. She had come here to do a job, and she'd better get on with it.

Nevertheless, she took the picture off the door and left it on the floor before she started spraying, because it would be a shame to ruin a perfectly decent picture.

To say that Coco Adel was furious was an understatement.

Everything had been going just fine that morning until they got a knock on the door from the concerned team across the hall, and upon opening the door Team CFVY had discovered that someone, some irredeemable dickwad whose life-expectancy would be measured in minutes if Coco ever found out their name, had spray-painted FAUNUS SCUM! GO HOME! in blood-red letters on the door of their dorm room during the night.

To put the cap on it they had also ripped the team photo off the door beforehand and dumped it on the floor like it was garbage.

Coco was holding said picture in her hands now, having to control herself to avoid cracking the cheap frame that had been all they could afford back in first year. The contrast between the smiling faces looking out of the photograph and the expressions they all wore now were undeniable: Velvet was sitting on her bed, facing away from the offending and offensive door, while Fox tried somewhat ineffectually to comfort her. It was ineffectual mostly because Fox looked as though he’d rather slice someone in half than help Velvet calm down. Yatsuhashi’s expression was pretty murderous in and of itself.

Coco well understood the feeling. It was no secret from any of them that Velvet didn’t always have it easy here at Beacon, or in Vale generally, but they had hoped that once they became second-years then she would be able to put the worst of it behind her, and they all trusted her to tell them if she needed help.

She knew that they would have her back in an instant…didn’t she?

“Velvet,” Coco said, trying to sound calmer than she felt for her partner’s sake. “Do you have any idea who might have done this? Has anyone started hassling you lately?”

Velvet shook her head. Her rabbit ears twitched.

Coco prowled across the dorm room until she was standing in front of Velvet. With one hand, she reached out and ran her fingers through her team-mate’s hair. She knelt, and kissed Velvet gently on the forehead. “Velvet…you know that you can tell us anything, right? You don’t have to hide, you don’t have to lie because we’re all here for you.”

“Against the grimm, against the world,” Fox said.

Velvet looked glum and downcast, but she said nothing. She simply shook her head again.

Coco frowned. She felt in her finger-tips that Velvet was keeping something from the rest of them, maybe even some idea of who’d done this, but short of dragging it out of her with forceps she had no idea how she was going to-

Her scroll beeped with a notification. Coco ignored it.

Velvet glanced at her. “Are you going to get that?”

“Are you going to talk to me?” Coco replied.

“You should probably get that.”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“It might be important.”

“Fine, fine, you’re obviously not going to let it go,” Coco muttered, and she rolled her eyes as she pulled out her scroll and checked the message.

Someone – the account was anonymous – had sent her a video. A video of some jackoff bullying Velvet in the dining hall, pulling her ears, making her feel unsafe. The sounds of Velvet mewling in pain and begging to be let go, although tinny and a little distorted, where nevertheless loud enough to fill the dorm room. Velvet moaned wordlessly, and recoiled away as though the video was going to attack her next. Yatsu lumbered over to watch, while Fox leaned forward and craned his head for a better view.

Coco felt her blood-pressure rising to dangerous levels. Contrasting visions of beating this guy into the ground with her handbag or using the minigun to turn him into a sieve fought for dominance in her fevered mind. “What is this?” she demanded, showing the video to Velvet.

“Coco, it’s not what it-“

“Why didn’t you tell us this was happening?” Coco demanded. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“He didn’t really-“

“Who is he?” Fox demanded.

“What the video doesn’t show is-“

“If you need one of us to come with you, you only have to ask,” Yatsu said.

“I don’t need your help and I don’t need your protection!” Velvet cried, tears filling her eyes. “I need…I need to learn how to stand up for myself, I need to learn not to be so…” Something inside her body seemed to snap as she slumped forwards. “I’m sorry I cause you guys so much trouble.”

“Velvet,” Coco murmured, as she put one arm around her and pulled her into a hug. Fox and Yatsu placed reassuring hands upon her shoulders. “Velvet, you know we love you, right? Not a single thing about this is your fault. And you don’t have to put up with it. Certainly not alone. I’m sorry I didn’t realise this was happening to you.”

“But we’re still going to kill this guy, right?” Fox said.

“Oh, totally,” Coco said. “What’s his name?”

“His team leader stopped it, that’s what the video doesn’t show,” Velvet said.

“That’s good for them but it doesn’t erase what he did,” Coco said. She felt a little guilty as she added. “Velvet, an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. What’s his name?”

Velvet twitched. “Cardin Winchester.”

Coco took a deep breath as she got up. She felt a little calmer now that she knew that name of her enemy. “Fox, you’re with me. Yatsu, stay with Velvet. And…maybe look at hanging a sheet over that door or something until we can paint over that crap, I don’t want to have to see it again.”

INVINCIBLE GIRL FOILS DUST SHOP ROBBERY!

That was the headline to the article on the electronic version of the Vale Chronicle that Sunset had just brought up on her scroll. The picture just below said headline was a stock photo of Pyrrha, credited to some picture library in Mistral, that showed her looking stern and martial in front of a crowd at what was probably some tournament or other. The caption to the photo was helpful enough to remind everyone that Pyrrha was a four-time tournament champion. The article discussed the robbery - with blame apportioned equally between 'notorious criminal Roman Torchwick' and the White Fang - but with the presence of Weiss and the other members of Team SAPR airbrushed out. You had to read to the very end to see that there had been anyone besides Pyrrha present at the shop. Only in the last paragraph was it noted that Pyrrha had been aided in her heroic efforts by 'Schnee Dust Company heiress Weiss Schnee as well as by her team-mates John Arc, Ruby Rose and Sunset Glimmer.'

Sunset put the scroll down on the table. "Sunset Glimmer. Sunset- they couldn't even spell my name right."

"I can't imagine what that feels like," Jaune muttered.

"Sorry," Pyrrha said. "Some of my press coverage can get a little...excessive."

Sunset sighed. "Not long ago that would have made me furious but now I feel as though I'm approaching a state of zen resignation about the whole thing."

"Really?" Ruby asked.

"No, I'm still mad, only at this crappy paper rather than at Pyrrha," Sunset said. She glowered at her scroll. "And no, I am not paying two lien to support quality journalism; I might if there was any!" She snapped her scroll shut.

Nora grinned. "So, Ruby, what's it like becoming Roman Torchwick's personal nemesis?"

"Please don't give her any ideas," Sunset muttered.

It was breakfast, and as usual Team SAPR and Team YRDN were sharing a table, the latter facing the former across the way.

Nora continued unchastened by Sunset's rebuke. "You know, I beg that if we worked together we could make sure that he didn't even get away next time!"

"Why..." Sunset spread her hands in front of her. "Why would you even want to bother with something like that?"

"Because it's fun, duh!" Nora replied. "What's it like having a buzz kill for team leader?"

"You know, I do know a guy downtown," Yang mused. "He knows all kinds of stuff. Maybe-"

"Why are you encouraging this?" Sunset demanded. "Yesterday you didn't want Ruby to-"

"I didn't want Ruby to do anything without me," Yang said. "It's different if I'm helping."

Sunset groaned. "I hate my life and everyone in it." She put her head in her hands as Ruby started to describe the fight for the benefit of Team YRDN, complete with Nora ooh-ing appreciatively in all the right places. Sunset looked up when a shadow fell across her, a shadow that turned out to belong to Blake Belladonna, who had wandered over from the Team BLBL table.

"Is it true?" she demanded, with more vitality in her voice than Sunset had ever heard there before.

Sunset looked up, straightened up, and then leaned back on the bench a little. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Is it true?" Blake repeated, as though repetition would bring the necessary clarity. "Is it true that Roman Torchwick and the White Fang were working together to rob that dust shop."

"It was definitely Torchwick," Ruby said. "I recognised him from the last time, and he recognised me too."

"And you're sure that it was the White Fang?"

"They wore the masks," Jaune said.

Blake scowled. "Thank you," she grunted, before she walked away; not back to her table, but out of the cafeteria altogether.

Jaune watched her go. "What do you think was up with that?"

"Who can say with that girl?" Yang replied.

"Not her team, by the look of it," Dove said, gesturing with his head to the BLBL table, where Blake's team looked as confused by her behaviour as anyone else.

"I hope she's okay," Ruby said. "We didn't say something wrong, did we?"

"She asked questions, we gave honest answers," Sunset said. "If she has a problem with that-"

"CARDIN WINCHESTER!" a voice roared angrily, a voice that - it swiftly transpired - belonged to the young woman in the brown blouse and black beret who marched into the dining hall, trailed by a muscular man with dark red hair.

Heads turned towards her. Sunset smirked as she turned on the video camera on her scroll. "Oh, yes, it's happening."

"What's going on?" Pyrrha asked.

"Someone is about to get what he deserves," Sunset responded.

"CARDIN WINCHESTER!" yelled the woman - whom Sunset recognised from the team photo on the CFVY door, and therefore guessed that she was probably Coco Adel, the team leader - bellowed once again. She swept her gaze, her eyes concealed behind a pair of sunglasses, across the crowded dining hall; both her and her companion seemed oblivious to the way that everyone was staring at them.

Whether she would have noticed Cardin so quickly if Weiss hadn't been half out of her seat, drawing attention by the movement, was an academic question. Coco did notice, and with her silent companion at her side she strutted with the graceful deadliness of a lioness straight towards him.

Sunset kept the camera trained on her as she advanced.

Weiss barred the other girl's way, even as she motioned for the rest of her team-mates to remain seated. There might - there probably was - a good reason for this girl to be so angry at Cardin...but on the other hand that didn't mean that Weiss was simply going to stand by and let her do as she pleased. As team leader it would reflect badly upon her if she demonstrated such disregard for him.

She might not have - did not - like Cardin, but she would fight his corner...up to a point.

The girl in the black beret and sunglasses was considerably taller than Weiss, and she attempted to use that height difference to her advantage as she loomed over Weiss, looking down on her to such an extent that Weiss could see her eyes over the top of her shades.

"Move," the other girl demanded.

"Weiss Schnee, leader of Team Wisteria," Weiss said coolly, introducing herself since the other girl had failed to do so.

"Coco Adel, leader of Team Coffee," Coco said. "Now move."

"Why?"

"Why?" Coco repeated, as she pulled out her scroll. "This is why." She pulled up a video of Cardin tormenting that rabbit faunus.

Of course, that's what this is about, Weiss thought. She watched the video in silence, considering what she ought to do about it. "Your team-mate."

"Yes," Coco growled.

"I stopped that when I saw it."

"So I've been told," Coco said sharply. She took a deep breath. "I'll thank you once you get out of my way."

"I give you my word that it won't happen again."

"It already has!" Coco yelled. "Or what do you call this?" She swiped her scroll, and the video was replaced by a photo of a dorm-room door upon which someone had graffitied FAUNUS SCUM! GO HOME in crimson spray paint.

Weiss blinked. The worst part was that she wouldn't have put it past Cardin to do something like this; for all that he ostensibly came from an established Vale family, he had already demonstrated that crude, working-class racism of this sort was not beyond him. Weiss didn't care for faunus but you didn't behave in such a boorish fashion. Besides, if they went home - presumably the home referred to was Menagerie, although of course very few faunus who went to that remote continent ever came back and most of those living in the kingdoms were the descendants of those who had chosen not to leave the kingdoms - then who would work the mines, or clean, or cook? Ridiculous.

And yet she knew that Cardin hadn't done this. She knew because he had been in the dorm room when the lights went out and there was no way that he was light enough on his feet to get out of the dorm without waking Weiss in the process. She knew that he hadn't done this...and yet she also knew that her chances of convincing Coco Adel of Cardin's innocence were very slim. The video was undeniable, and a powerful piece of evidence against him.

Weiss' eyes flickered towards Sunset Shimmer, who was filming this with a look of unholy glee upon her face and she knew, she knew with absolute if unsubstantiated certainty that Sunset was the one who had graffitied the Coffee door, and probably Sunset who had filmed Cardin's abuse of the rabbit faunus and sent that video to Coco. And she had done all of it in order to get back at Cardin for the way that he had treated Jaune Arc. Weiss didn't know whether to grind her teeth in frustration or admire the sick brilliance of it.

Not that that was something she could present to an increasingly frustrated looking Coco Adel; she had no proof, and the idea of a faunus doing this would seem absurd. The idea that she had done do so as part of a convoluted plan to manipulate team Coffee into taking revenge on Cardin for her was...well, if Weiss suggested it then she would seem like she was grasping at straws in an effort to shift the blame off her team-mate.

And the fact was that Coco had the video, and the video was accurate - if truncated - and it was probably all the proof that she required anyway.

Doesn't he have this coming? It was not the most loyal thought, but then...what loyalty had Cardin ever showed to her? Of course, Weiss didn't intend to simply take what Sunset had done, but at this time...there wasn't much that she could do short of getting into some kind of fight with the other girl, who was obviously - based on the fact that Weiss had never seen her before - from an older year and probably appropriately skilful.

She stepped aside. "Please don't do anything too rash," she said. If it got too bad then she would step in.

Flash and Russell watched in silence as Coco approached Cardin, and slammed his head down into the table.

"Did that hurt?" Coco demanded.

Cardin grunted by way of response.

Coco bent down so that she could growl into his ear. "I said did that hurt?"

"Yes."

"And are you afraid?" she asked, glaring into his one visible eye.

"...yes."

"Then now you know how Velvet felt."

"Who?"

"Velvet!" Coco roared. "Velvet Scarlettina. My partner. A cute, sweet girl who loves photographs and understands what lens aperture is. But a guy like you doesn't see that, do you? You only see a pair of ears well do you know what I see? Trash. You stay away from Velvet from now on, unless you want me to find you again." She let him go, and stalked away.

Russell waited until she was safely out of earshot before he whistled appreciatively. "And there goes my future wife, boys," he declared, as he tucked his hands behind his head.

Flash looked at him as though he was nuts. "Seriously?"

"Dude, that chick is hard core. Major turn on."

Weiss shook her head in despair, and turned her attention back to Sunset Shimmer.

It was time for them to have another talk.

“Sunset Shimmer!”

Sunset looked over her shoulder as she left the dining hall as Weiss’ voice reached all four of her ears. Sure enough, the Schnee heiress was walking towards her as quickly as her heels and dignity would allow.

“I need to talk to you,” she said. “Alone.”

Sunset was silent for a moment, before she half turned towards Weiss and nodded. “I’ll see you guys in class,” she murmured.

Jaune, Pyrrha and Ruby all left with the members of Team YRDN. Sunset was silent for a few moments, listening to the sounds of their feet echoing on the floor as they walked away.

She studied Weiss’ face. She didn’t look angry, but she did look certain; as if she was driven onwards by great purpose.

She is a smart girl. Maybe she figured it out.

That possibility didn’t scare Sunset as much as it probably should have done; perhaps because, even if she had figured it out, then she couldn’t prove it. She probably couldn’t prove it.

And if she was going to denounce Sunset then why would she want to talk?

Honestly, Sunset wasn’t quite sure where she and Weiss stood at the moment, if they stood anywhere at all. Sunset didn’t like her, but she didn’t hate her either; she was smart, nearly as smart as Sunset, and not bad in a fight either. Sunset didn’t hate her. She’d actually been somewhat reasonable when it came to relations between their teams.

And she wasn’t dating Flash, as far as Sunset could tell.

So…as things went she wasn’t really that bad.

Yet.

“You want to talk outside?” Sunset asked. “Somewhere a little more private?”

“That…that sounds like a good idea,” Weiss replied.

The two of them walked out side by side, out of the dining hall and into the courtyard, to the statue of the two old hunters standing so heroically upon the rock. They stood in the shade of the statue, or at least Sunset stood in the shadow while Weiss stood just beyond it, in the sun. The light made her white hair shine as though one of her Schnee ancestors had stolen moonlight to glimmer in the hair of his descendants.

If Flash did go out with her I’m afraid I could understand why. If we’d met under different circumstances I might want to go out with her myself.

Sunset folded her arms. “So…what shall we talk about?”

Weiss’ look carried a hint of a glare. “I know what you did.”

“Really? And what did I do?”

“Cardin didn’t vandalise that door,” Weiss said.

Sunset shrugged. “I’m sad to say that he’s already proven that he’s willing to disobey your instructions.”

“Can we please drop this ridiculous pretence?” Weiss asked. “I know that you did it in order to frame him.”

Sunset smirked. “I can neither confirm nor deny that. But even if your…interesting theory were correct then he would have had it coming for a whole host of reasons.”

“That doesn’t give you the right to pull a stunt like that!” Weiss snapped. She took a deep breath. “I recognise that Cardin…violated the boundaries that we agreed. And for that reason I will…let this slide. This once. But don’t do it again.”

“Or what?”

“Or you and I are going to have a serious problem.”

Sunset’s smirk remained in place. It was second nature, by this point; she probably couldn’t have stopped it even if she’d wanted to. Not that she particularly wanted to. It was part of her armour against the world. Aura couldn’t protect you from harsh words and suspicious attitudes, but a smirk on your face and a Nightmare Moon-may-care tone of voice could go a long way as far as convincing people that their words had no power to harm you.

And so, when she spoke, she probably didn’t sound as sincere as she wanted to when she said, “Well we wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we?” Sunset made a conscious effort to sound like a little less of an ass. “I mean that, I don’t want trouble from you.” The truth was…the honest truth was that there was a lot to admire about Weiss Schnee; even more than Pyrrha she represented the kind of person that Sunset wanted to become, that she would become in this world through hard work and dint of her natural greatness: elevated, remote, set apart from the run of common men by virtue of that invisible quality called greatness; wanting for nothing, desired, admired; commanding by natural right and brooking no dissent.

Cold and lonely and all alone in the world.

Sunset frowned momentarily, because where had that come from? There was nothing wrong in being all alone. It was better that way, you couldn’t be hurt or betrayed if you didn’t let anyone get close to you. And as for the cold…the fires of ambitions flames would keep her warm.

“I don’t want trouble with you,” Sunset repeated. “I…”

“I don’t want trouble with you, either,” Weiss said. “You…aren’t like most faunus.”

“Really?” Sunset said. She couldn’t help but preen a little. “How so?”

“You don’t act like other faunus that I’ve known,” Weiss continued. “You’re very human.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t get me wrong, you’re a jerk,” Weiss said quickly. “But you’re a very human jerk, if you understand.”

“Sure,” Sunset said sceptically.

“Leave my team alone in future,” Weiss said. “They might be…absolutely terrible, but they’re still my team.”

Sunset hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “I get that. Fine. I’ll leave him be for now. So long as he learns his lesson.”

“If he doesn’t then I’ll deal with it,” Weiss said firmly. “I’m his team leader, that’s my job.”

Sunset couldn’t argue with that. Hadn’t she behaved exactly the same way with regards to Jaune, after all? In her place…in her place I wasn’t so restrained, was I? Should I be thankful she didn’t trash my door or set me up to be on the receiving end of Coco Adel?

Maybe. Maybe not. Either way…I don’t want trouble with her.

I don’t need that kind of aggravation.

And neither does she.

“Sure, I’ll let it lie now,” Sunset said. “But…try and keep a leash on Cardin, okay?” She didn’t add that if Weiss could not do that then she might have to take further steps, even if it meant trouble between them. Weiss was smart enough to get that, just as Sunset was smart enough to know that if she took the first step then she would be courting trouble with her.

“I think I can do that,” Weiss declared.

Sunset might have said something more about that, but her scroll rang. She pulled it out. Pyrrha’s face confronted her, set with worry.

“Sunset, you have to come quickly!”

“Why, what’s going on?”

“Professor Goodwitch just called Jaune to the Headmaster’s office,” Pyrrha explained. “Apparently it’s been suggested that his entry transcripts were faked!”

Ruby shoved Pyrrha a little aside so that at least part of her face could hove into view on the screen. “Sunset, what are we going to do? Is Jaune going to get expelled? Why would somebody-“

“Both of you calm down, Jaune isn’t getting expelled,” Sunset said firmly. “I’m going to go over to Beacon Tower and straighten this out. You should head over there as well. You both do the ‘we love you, Jaune, feel better’ thing a lot better than I do. But trust me, this is all going to work out just fine.” She hung up, and started to walk quickly towards the tower.

“What’s going on?” Weiss asked, as she started to follow.

“Cardin chewed through his leash,” Sunset replied.

Jaune felt the sweat pooling under his armpits as he stood in front of the Headmaster and Professor Goodwitch.

Professor Ozpin wasn’t looking at him. He was reading something as he sipped his coffee. Professor Goodwitch was staring at him, though. Staring at him as though he were some kind of insect and she was about to crush him under her heel.

In the rare moments of coherent thought that escaped the combination of blind panic, bottomless despair and anger at Sunset for failing to take care of it like she’d promised she would, Jaune wondered at what point this had all started to go so horribly wrong. At what point had he made the big mistake that had led to all this?

Was it when I decided to come here in the first place? Was that where I went wrong after all?

It was all over now. His adventure, his dreams. His family would welcome him back, no hard feelings…just their suspicions that he was a hopeless screw-up who would never amount to anything confirmed.

But what Jaune felt most, somewhat to the surprise even of himself, was guilt. Pyrrha and Ruby…they’d believed in him. Nobody had ever believed in him before, not in his whole life. For as long as he’d known it he’d always been ‘you can’t’ or ‘you’re not strong enough’ or ‘it’s too dangerous’. Nobody had ever trusted him, nobody had ever taken him seriously, nobody had ever looked at Jaune Arc and said ‘yeah, you can become a hero’.

But they had. Those two angels had believed in him…and he had let them down. He saw that now with a clarity that only the impending death of all his hopes and dreams could provide. He had been…he hadn’t been deserving of them.

And it was too late to do anything about it now.

“Mister Arc,” Professor Goodwitch said, since Professor Ozpin didn’t seem inclined to look up from whatever it was he was reading. “The allegations that have been made against you are quite serious. And, unfortunately, they are allegations that I can only too easily believe in light of your performance at this academy. Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Jaune opened his mouth, ready to let everything spill out: the truth, his excuses, his reasons, all of it. He couldn’t lie, not any more, not here, not with Professor Goodwitch glaring at him like that. He was too rattled, too scared, too lost to deny it or stonewall or try to brazen it out. He opened his mouth, and prepared to throw himself upon the mercy of the school.

“Sorry I’m late,” Sunset said as the lift door opened and Jaune’s team leader strolled into the office as if she owned the place. She advanced quickly across the floor, passing beneath the shadow of the gears until she was standing at Jaune’s side. She clasped her hands behind her back. “I wasn’t around when Jaune got the summons, Pyrrha and Ruby had to call me.” She smiled. “As I’m sure you’re both well aware, professors, Article 15 subsection 3 states that any student accused of a disciplinary infraction is entitled to have their team leader present at proceedings.”

“Of course,” Professor Ozpin said, and Jaune must have been going nuts from the stress because it sounded like the headmaster was pleased that she’d shown up. “We wouldn’t want to do anything except follow the rules to the letter, would we? Thank you for joining us, Miss Shimmer.”

“Are you aware of the allegations made against Mister Arc, Miss Shimmer?” Professor Goodwitch demanded.

“I’m aware that Cardin Win-“

Professor Ozpin raised one hand. “I’m afraid that we don’t name accusers here, Miss Shimmer. That’s subsection five.”

Sunset took a breath. “Of course it is, Professor. But that doesn’t change the fact that the allegations are spiteful, malicious, and thoroughly false. Motivated by personal dislike of Jaune.”

“And yet,” Professor Goodwitch said. “These allegations would explain a great deal about Mister Arc’s performance.”

Jaune might have said something at this point – he could still feel the pressure to confess like a weight pushing down upon his chest – but a look from Sunset silenced him.

“With all due respect, Professor, the fact that Jaune’s grades are poor doesn’t prove fraud,” Sunset said. “Only proof of fraud can prove fraud. Have you examined the transcripts?”

Professor Ozpin took another sip from his coffee mug. “Unfortunately, they appear to have gone missing.”

Sunset’s face was impassive. “In that case I don’t see that the matter can be proved one way or the other; in which case Jaune has nothing to answer for.”

Jaune’s eyes widened. He…he thought that he was starting to get it now. Sunset’s confidence, her assuredness that Cardin wouldn’t be able to do anything to him…she had done this, it was the only explanation. She had gotten rid of his transcripts somehow, knowing that without them nothing could be proved. He was safe! He was saved! He might get to stay at Beacon after all!

Professor Goodwitch’s expression was one of controlled frustration. “Despite the somewhat convenient loss of records, the fact remains that an allegation of this sort cannot simply be dismissed-“

“Forgive me, Professor, but if allegations are to be entertained regardless of the lack of proof then that strikes me as the start of a very slippery slope,” Sunset said. “Jaune, did you forge your transcripts?”

Jaune swallowed, and managed to squeak out, “No.”

Sunset spread her hands. “Without any evidence to prove otherwise, professors, you must accept his word. Anything else would be expulsion without cause.”

Professor Goodwitch pushed her glasses a little further up her nose. “Miss Shimmer, are you really comfortable having someone on your team who may not have earned his place here? Who may not be ready for this level of combat? Are you prepared for the consequences for your team?”

“I don’t believe that to be true, Professor,” Sunset replied. “But even if it were…I believe that with enough ambition to succeed then we can achieve our destinies in spite of all of those who say that we’re not ready.”

“Ah, the confidence of youth,” Professor Ozpin declared, with a touch of nostalgia in his voice. “When all life’s promise lies before you, and all obstacles seem only temporary, and put in your way by malicious elders.” He smiled, if a little sadly. “I truly hope that your confidence is not shattered too soon. As for this business…you are correct, Miss Shimmer, in your interpretation of the rules. I thought that it might be worth seeing what Mister Arc had to say on the subject, but I see that…well, there seems little purpose now.” He chuckled indulgently. “Good day to you both.”

Sunset nodded. “Professor Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch.”

“Miss Shimmer,” Professor Goodwitch said, with just a touch of coldness. “Mister Arc.”

Sunset gestured for Jaune to go first, and so he led the way back to the elevator. Neither of them said anything as they climbed into the metal box, and Jaune pushed the button to take them back down to the ground floor.

The doors slid shut behind them, and the elevator whirred as it began to descend.

“Your harem is waiting for you downstairs,” Sunset said. She looked away for a moment, and then glanced back at him. “Are you okay?”

“I…” Jaune trailed off, and fell silent. Was he okay? How did he feel? He could barely work out, he was feeling so much that just trying to put a name to how he felt, trying to distill it down to just one feeling seemed impossible. How did he feel? Relieved, delivered, a little guilty…purposed. “Thank you, Sunset,” he said. “I’m going to do better from now on.”

“Yeah you are,” Sunset said.

“No, I mean it,” Jaune declared. “Pyrrha, Ruby, they’ve offered me so much help and I…I’ve been such an idiot! But I’m not going to just trail after Ruby and Pyrrha any longer. I’m going to work hard and push myself and I’m not going to stop until I can stand alongside them and you as their equal. I’m going to deserve this, you can count on it.”

Sunset looked at him, her face impassive and inscrutable. And then she smiled. It wasn’t a smirk it was a real smile, not cruel but pleased, maybe even nice. “Well, you’ll never catch up with me…but don’t let that stop you trying.” She reached up and patted him on the shoulder. “I meant what I said up there: stop letting people tell you no and just go for it, and you can do almost anything.”

The elevator doors opened again, presenting the Beacon courtyard. Ruby and Pyrrha were both waiting for him as he stepped out.

“Jaune, are you alright?” Pyrrha asked. “What happened up there?”

Jaune stared at her wordless for a moment, comprehending anew her kindness, and his own callousness in initially rejecting it. “I…” he bowed his head. “Nothing happened. I’m not going anywhere.”

Pyrrha sighed with relief. “That’s wonderful news.”

“But why did you have to go up there in the first place?” Ruby asked.

Jaune looked down at her. There was so much trust in her face it was like a needle in his stomach to shatter it…but it was the right thing to do.

He looked around to make sure that no one else was listening – not that it really mattered now, he supposed, but he still didn’t want everyone to know.

“Because…because…”

“Jaune-“ Pyrrha began.

“Because it’s true,” Jaune admitted. “They can’t prove it, not any more thanks to Sunset, but…it’s true. I faked my way in here. I…I don’t deserve to be your team-mate.”

He closed his eyes, and waited for the inevitable shock, the condemnation, for-

“Nope.”

He opened his eyes. “What?”

“Nope,” Ruby repeated. “You don’t get to decide whether or not your deserve to be our team-mate, Jaune. Only we can decide that.” She reached out, and put one small hand upon his heart. “You’re a brave person, Jaune. You’ve proven that, and that fact that you aren’t really strong or fast doesn’t change that. And if we work together then we can all get stronger, together.”

“Yeah,” Jaune said, feeling more blessed in that moment than he ever had before in his life. “We’ll do it together.”

Weiss’ scroll buzzed. She hesitated, fearing that it would be her father, but when she actually did reach for it she saw that it was Winter.

A smile began to grow across her face as she accepted the call. Her sister’s face confronted her from an austere military office somewhere in Atlas.

“I was afraid that I’d see more scars when you answered,” Winter observed.

“You heard.”

“I did.”

“Does a dust shop robbery really get that widely reported?”

“No,” Winter said. “But our military attaché in Vale saw your name and passed me the information. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Weiss said.

“Were they after you?”

Weiss didn’t have to ask who ‘they’ were. “No,” she replied. “Or at least…I don’t think so. I think they were there to rob the place. I was in the wrong place.”

“I see,” Winter murmured. Her jaw tightened for a moment. “What were you doing in a dust shop anyway?”

“Buying dust.”

“Obviously, but why? Father would-“

“If I wanted Father to send me more dust I would have to speak to Father,” Weiss said.

“Of course. However, you should be aware that he knows all about this.”

Weiss felt a little colder in her stomach. “How did he react?”

“How do you think? He wants to speak to you.”

“Of course,” Weiss murmured.

“Did they-“

“Winter,” Weiss cut her off. “Can we please change the subject?”

Winter stared at her for a moment. Then she nodded. “Of course. How have you been?”

“My grades are consistently-“

“How have you been?” Winter repeated, with extra emphasis. “Have you made any friends yet?”

Weiss considered that for a moment. “I think so.”

“Name?”

“Flash Sentry, he’s from Atlas.”

“I see,” Winter murmured. “What combat school did he go to?”

Weiss blinked. “You’re not going to run a background check on him are you?”

“If I’m going to be stuck behind a desk I may as well abuse my position a little.”

“I thought you said the work was no less valuable than any other!”

“I did, because it is,” Winter replied. “I never said I didn’t prefer to be in the field.” For a moment, Weiss thought that her sister might smile. But she didn’t. Winter rarely smiled. You had to listen to what she was saying to get an idea of how she felt.

“I apologise for returning to an unpleasant subject for a moment,” Winter continued. “But I have an asset in Vale; if you’d like I can have them try and find something out about the White Fang attack. Determine if you’re in any danger as a result of this.”

“You have people in Vale?”

“Don’t be naïve, Weiss; the Atlasian military doesn’t just operate in Atlas.”

That was true enough. “It seems hard to imagine any Atlasian specialist being able to find any information out about the White Fang.”

“She’s a faunus.”

Weiss’ eyebrows rose. “Really? You work with a faunus?”

“Faunus in the Atlasian military are rare, but they exist,” Winter said.

“I know, but,” Weiss hesitated for a moment. “I’d never imagined you working with one. How…how do you do it?”

Winter’s tone softened a little. “They’re not all White Fang.”

“I know,” Weiss replied, thinking of Sunset Shimmer for a moment. A jerk, but a very human jerk all the same. “What’s she like? Your asset, I mean.”

“Arrogant, cocksure, borderline insubordinate,” Winter said. “But General Ironwood believes she’s made of the right stuff…and I’m inclined to agree with him.”

“You make her sound human.”

“Sometimes a little too human,” Winter said, with a faint tone of disapproval.

“She sounds like someone I know.”

“A friend?”

“Certainly not,” Weiss declared.

“An enemy, then?”

“No,” Weiss said. “More like…a rival.”

“Indeed,” Winter said. “Weiss, are you…happy, where you are?”

Weiss was silent for a moment. Was she happy here? She wasn’t unhappy, which made it a little better than home, but was she happy?

“I don’t know,” she said. “But I think…even if I’m not, that I could be.”

I suppose you’re feeling rather pleased with yourself.

Sunset smirked as she wrote back. You say that as though I haven’t got anything to feel pleased about. Jaune got away with it, and I got him to actually commit to some hard work for a change. He’s sparring with Pyrrha now, and afterwards we’re going to hit the books for grimm studies. And, on top of that, I paid Cardin back a little bit, and my understanding with Weiss still holds. I’d say I’m doing pretty well.

Except that you haven’t solved any of your underlying problems; you haven’t even tried.

Sunset stared at the words as though they might reveal their meaning if she just watched them long enough. You’ll have to unpack that for me a little bit. Is this a friendship thing?

Sunset could practically feel the frustration from Twilight Sparkle as she wrote back. You haven’t reconciled with Cardin.

Why would I want to reconcile with a guy like that?

Because you haven’t addressed the reason why he’s behaving this way, you’ve just made him angry. He’s bound to try and retaliate against you somehow.

How? He only had one piece of leverage and he’s just blown that. There’s nothing he can do to Jaune now, and my agreement with Weiss.

Which you put too much faith in.

You think she’ll betray me?

No, I think that people aren’t toy soldiers for you to move around in a sandpit, they have their own hopes and dreams and desires. You can’t just say to Weiss ‘keep Cardin off my back’ and assume that it will happen. Cardin is an actor with his own will, and he might try to retaliate against the way you’ve treated him.

And if he does I will crush him.

There was a pause before Twilight’s reply arrived. Where do you get your overconfidence?

I prefer to say that I have faith in myself.

Regardless, you seem to have an ample supply.

Sunset snorted. I suppose you’re one of those mares who carries a ton of insecurities around with her and has to be reassured as to your own virtues by the people around you.

I do not have a ton of insecurities. I have one or two.

Sunset shook her head. I don’t have the luxury of being insecure. I have to faith because no one else will. Without my confidence I’d be nothing.

I suppose I can see your point. Wouldn’t it be easier just to mend fences with Cardin and not have to watch your back all the time?

Two people need to want to mend fences. I’ve seen no evidence that he does. Not every problem can be solved by the power of friendship, princess.

I disagree.

You would.

But you’re proving me right yourself, you just don’t realise it. Look at what you told me about Jaune, how guilty he felt, how he wants to improve for the sake of Pyrrha and Ruby, and how they’re willing to go out of their way to help him achieve that goal. That’s friendship in action, doing what blackmail and threats and anger and underhand tactics could never do. The bond they share has made them more than just three people thrown together by fate, it’s made them a team. And as for you, you may deny it but I believe that you care about them just as I believe that you still care about Flash. I think you even like Weiss.

I do not like Weiss Schnee, you’re being ridiculous. She doesn’t like me either.

And if she did? If she held out a hand to you, would you reject it?

No.

Why not?

Because why give myself the aggravation?

Nobody wants to be alone, Sunset.

Is that your professional opinion?

That’s the truth that I’ve observed. Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me that you don’t care about your team-mates.

Sunset snorted. Easily done. All she had to do was write the words. All that she had to do was write ‘I don’t care’ upon a piece of paper.

That was it. That was all she had to. She could write it down and nobody would ever know except Twilight Sparkle, the princess in another world. She could write it down and she didn’t even have to mean it.

The pen shook a little in her hands.

She could write it down. She could write down that she didn’t care. She didn’t care about Ruby and her goofy smile, she didn’t care about Jaune and his quixotic hopes, she didn’t care about Pyrrha and the awesome skills she wished she didn’t have. She didn’t care about any of them.

But when she tried to write it down her hand revolted.

She couldn’t write it down. She couldn’t write down because…

Can’t do it, can you?

I hate you, sometimes.

I see the good in you, Sunset; and I’m not going to stop until I’ve brought that good to the fore.

"Nora!" Yang yelled. "Will you stop eating all of the Red Sap?"

There was a red ring all around Nora's mouth which, combined with the expression of mischievous innocence upon her face, made her look much younger than she really was. "Aw, come on! It's not like there isn't plenty to go around!"

She had a point there; it wasn't as if they were on a mission to drain the forest dry, only to collect one jar of sap per student. Considering that it wasn't exactly hard to extract the sap, Sunset had to wonder why they needed until four o'clock to complete the task.

Possibly because it was expected that someone would eat all the sap and make the job take much longer than it ought to.

Sunset had just finished filling her second jar of sap and hesitated, her eyes lingering upon the reddish-purple substance in the jar. Nora had consumed two whole jars of the stuff so far, so there had to be something pretty moreish about it, right? Gingerly, Sunset dipped her finger into the jar and pulled it out covered in sticky sap which she then licked off.

Sunset's face contorted with disgust. Too sweet! Far too sweet, sickly so! She spat on the ground at her feet, hacking up every trace of the saccaharine substance out of her mouth that she could. "How do you stand this stuff?"

"Red Sap is supposed to be used sparingly, as a natural sweetener accompanying certain sour dishes," Ren declared. He looked at Nora out of the side of his eyes. "You're not supposed to gulp it down by the jar-full."

Nora sniggered self-deprecatingly.

"It's also used in medicine to mask foul tastes," Ren went on.

Sunset's eyebrows rose a little. "You know a lot of things."

Ren shrugged. "Cooking is a hobby of mine."

"And the medicine thing?"

"It's always good to know when an ingredients has properties beyond the flavoursome."

"I guess," Sunset said, as she scooped just a litle more sap out of the hollow of the nearby tree and filled up her second jar, screwing on the lid tight. Although there was no requirement for the four first-year teams undertaking this field-trip to stick close together (only to stick by your team-mates, a rule that Cardin had broken by wandering off somewhere on his own) no one had seen any reason for the teams to split up and so the fifteen students - four teams sans Cardin - were all working in close proximity to one another. Well, sort of working anyway; Jaune had started having an allergic reaction to the sap so Sunset had set him to sparring with Pyrrha while she and Ruby filled up team SAPR's jars; meanwhile Nora was eating more sap than she was collecting, Russell was dozing under the shade of one particularly tall and broad tree, and Lyra - draped in patchwork cloak of many shades of red and wearing a broad hat with a peacock-feather plume - was sat on the stump of a fallen tree, playing a soft air upon her golden harp. With ample time to complete a simple task, with neither sight nor sound of the creatures of grimm that supposedly infested the unchanging forest, an air of gentle conviviality had settled over the extended group. Thoughts of peace soothed Sunset's soul, and the soft and almost melancholy music of the harp carried her thoughts away from northern Vale and homewards to Equestria. Equestria that had been so full of music, where joyous song had been ever-present in the world. Where it needed no extraordinary setting or occasion to open your mouth and start singing; quite the opposite in fact, it was more as though you went through life waiting for an excuse to break out into song. Sunset had forgotten how much she'd missed that, in this tuneless and quite often joyless world of Remnant. She'd forgotten how much she'd missed being able to walk down the street belting your heart out and not have people stare at you like you were nuts. She had forgotten...but the scoring of her soul by that harp had brought it flooding back to her.

"Sunset?" Ruby's voice, gentle and concerned, interrupted her thoughts. "Are you okay? You looked kinda spaced out there?"

Sunset smiled thinly. "I'm fine," she said. "I was just...the harp is making me a little homesick. Hey, Jaune!"

Jaune was sufficiently distracted by her sudden shouting of his name that Pyrrha knocked him onto his back with a blow from her shield.

"Sorry!" she said, as Dove sniggered. "You were doing very well up until you lost focus."

"My fault," Sunset muttered. She walked over. "I was going to tell you to take a break, I want to talk to you."

Jaune looked distinctly nervous as he picked himself up off the ground. "Okay."

Sunset shook her head. "Don't look at me like that, I'm not going to yell at you." Honestly, you'd think that I was so awful, wouldn't you? She crouched down on the ground and began to pick up pebbles off the forest floor: one white, one brown, one grey and one a kind of pink.

"You want to talk about collecting rocks?" Ruby asked.

"I want to talk about team strategy," Sunset explained. She began to put her pebbles back down on the ground again. "The white stone is Jaune, the brown is Pyrrha, the sort of pink one is Ruby and the grey one is me. So, Jaune, we're under attack by creatures of grimm. What do we do?"

Jaune's expression became pensive for a moment. He picked up the pink and brown pebbles and put them in front. "I'd put Ruby and Pyrrha up front," he said, putting the two small stones down together before picking up the grey stone. "With you behind, using your semblance to back them up."

"And yourself?"

Jaune shrugged.

Sunset picked up the white stone, and put it down just in front of Sunset. "You can cover me, with all that aura that you've got," she said. "Although personally, I would put Ruby at the back," she picked up the pink stone and move it a distance behind the grey.

"Wha?" Ruby exclaimed in obvious disappointment.

"You've got a sniper rifle, you don't belong at the front," Sunset said.

"I've got a scythe too."

"Less useful than the sniper rifle, at least at first," Sunset replied.

"But that leaves Pyrrha all alone out there at the front," Jaune said.

"I can handle it," Pyrrha declared, with serene self-confidence. There was nothing boastful in the way that she said it, she was simply stating the facts as she saw them, and doing it as blandly as if she'd been answering a question in class.

Sunset drummed her fingers on her knee. She was inclined to agree with Pyrrha, that even alone she could handle whatever the grimm could dish out; but at the same time...she believed that Ruby served the team better by using her gun rather than her scythe, though it seemed that Ruby herself disagreed. "If it gets too hot," Sunset said. "Pyrrha can fall back on us, and we'll fight them together with Ruby in support."

"Why not send Ruby up to support Pyrrha?" Jaune asked.

"In a tournament fight where the tight quarters discourage reloading then yes, that's a good idea, but in a battle I think that the fire support is more useful."

Ruby shook her head. "Crescent Rose's scythe does more damage, when you combine it with my semblance-"

"Maybe," Sunset said, interrupting her. "But if you're close enough to hit the enemy then you're close enough to get hit." Personally, Sunset was somewhat of the opinion that Crescent Rose was oversized for close combat and that it was only Ruby's incredible speed that prevented most enemies from being able to get inside her guard. In Sunset's opinion, the ability to nail enemies from a distance was a far more valuable skill to have. Clearly Ruby didn't agree, and it was far from clear that Jaune or Pyrrha did either.

"What I'd really like to do," she continued. "Is to have all of us firing, with Jaune providing cover as necessary when someone needs to reload."

"You'd like to?" Jaune asked.

"I'm not sure that you're quite there yet," Sunset said. "Maybe when you've started to improve."

"A more cautious strategy than I expected from you," Pyrrha said.

"A winning strategy," Sunset countered.

"Perhaps," Pyrrha murmured. "But is it a glorious one?"

Sunset snorted. "When people talk about your four tournament victories how many of them talk about how you won each one?"

There was something wry, and just a little weary, about the smile that Pyrrha offered in response to that. "Well," she said. "Someone always cared that I won in what they called the right way; I take your point that in our battle with the grimm victory itself is the only measure, but...I thought that you would want the glory that came from winning well."

Sunset shrugged. "I disagree that there is such a thing. Frankly, if we save the world nobody's going to give a damn how we did it."

"Save the world?" Yang asked, wandering over to interrupt them. "Someone's ambitious."

Sunset stood up. "May as well aim high, right?"

"Depends on the consequences if you can't make it," Yang said.

Sunset, who understood exactly what she was saying between the lines, chuckled. "Relax, Yang. I'm not going to whisk Ruby off on a suicide mission. But, you know, it would be cool to win the war, wouldn't it? To be the ones who won the war?"

"I guess," Yang said, with a slight shrug. "If you think it can be won. It's not like there's a final boss out there you can beat and all the grim will just...turn to dust or something."

"Probably not," Sunset agreed. "But...I don't know, this is Pyrrha's dream really, she can explain it. Don't let Nora eat all of our sap, and I'll be back before Goodwitch."

"Where are you going?" Ruby asked.

"I've got an idea for a new move I want to try out, but I don't want anyone to see it before it's ready," Sunset said. She spread her arms out to encompass the vastness of the forest around them. "And, since we have all of this free space...like I said, I'll be back. Stay out of trouble, kids." She turned around and wandered off, leaving her team and all of the teams behind as she walked through the lush red forest. Crimson leaves, fallen from the trees above, crunched beneath her boots as she walked. Birds chirruped above her head. The forest was full of noise but none of them belonged to the creatures of grimm; even as the soothing music of Lyra's harp faded Forever Fall was full only of sweet airs that gave delight and hurted not.

Sunset walked until she could no longer see or hear her team-mates (but, since she had only walked straight ahead since leaving them, was confident in her ability to find them again by simply turning around and heading back the way that she had come; not to mention she still had her scroll) and in a clearing she stopped and got to work.

This was something that she had theorised, but had not yet had the chance to try out. Actually it was two concepts: first, the active use of aura and magic at the same time; and second the melding of the two together in a more powerful attack than magic alone could provide.

That was the reason she had gone off on her own to practice this; leaving aside the fact that she didn't want to reveal this combat secret - if it worked it would be her ace in the hole - to anyone else, but just as importantly she didn't want to invite too many questions about how her 'semblance'.

Okay. Let's do this. Magic in my right hand, aura in my left.

That would be the first step. Could she actively use the two at once, and more importantly do so without draining off too much of her protective aura? Sunset was under no illusions that her aura was anything like as powerful as her magic, nor that it existed in such great quantities. Even if this did work it would only be something she could use once or twice or else risk leaving herself defenceless.

Hopefully worth it, though; if she could get it to work.

Sunset closed her eyes, and held out her hands. Magic in my right hand, aura in my left.

The first was easy, the second less so. Concentrating the magic was definitely the easy part, Sunset had been training to master magic since she was six years old, and it came to her call like an obedient hound. She could feel the energies running through her veins, drawn from the outside world and from herself in equal measure, flowing down her arm like blood, concentrating at her fingertips, swirling in the palm of her hand. When Sunset opened her eyes for a moment she saw that her lower right arm was surrounded by an ethereal green glow.

The second part was not so simple. Sunset wasn't trained in using aura to nearly the extent that she was practiced in magic. She hadn't enjoyed the benefit of one-to-one tuition from a master of aura manipulation; plus, she was trying to concentrate her aura in specific part of her body all the while trying to maintain her all-protecting cloak of aura protecting the rest of her body. It was like trying to pull on water, to take it between her fingers and yank it like a blanket. It was too porous between her metaphorical fingertips; it resisted her attempts to rouse it from a passive presence.

Come on!

Sunset could feel it there, evenly spread across her entire body. Concentrating it in any one place would weaken that spread, but the prize...if she could only get it to obey her and move. Sunset scowled. Sweat began to bead upon her forehead from the effort of holding onto her magic while at the same time attempting to manipulate her aura but she would do this. She was Sunset Shimmer, student of Celestia and archmage amongst unicorns, marked out for greatness with destiny driving her on. There was nothing to which she set her mind which she could not accomplish, and no part of herself over which she was not mistress. Her aura would obey her.

She began to feel a slight tingling in her left arm as, like a viscuous fluid rendered slow-moving by its thick consistency, some of her aura began to flow towards her hand.

Something flew past Sunset's head, missing her by an inch and shattering against the nearest tree.

Sunset opened her eyes to see that the offending object was a jar. A jar of red sap, a little bit of which had spattered onto her jacket and top.

Sunset stared at the stains for a moment. "I hope you realise this needs dry-cleaning," she yelled. "And someone's going to be paying for that but it won't be me." She looked around the woods, seeing nothing but the scarlet trees all around her. "Come out! Show yourself!"

Russell pulled down the zipper on his pants.

He needed to take a leak, which had involved him leaving all the others and walking off into the woods a little way because he really didn’t want to see the way Weiss or Yang would react to him pulling out the little man in front of them or Ruby…or doing so anywhere there was even the slightest chance that they could see it.

Now, however, he was well out of sight of all the girls, and so he found a convenient tree and claimed sweet relief.

He sighed as the heavy feeling in his bladder began to subside.

He stayed that way for a few moments, until he heard something nearby. Something like footsteps, not far away.

Russell looked around, zipping back up as he did so. He saw nothing, just the everred trees in all directions.

Yet there it was again, the sound of footsteps. Heavy footsteps at that.

“Hello?” Russell called. “Cardin, is that you?”

There was no sound. Cardin didn’t answer, in fact nobody raised their voice in reply. There was only the rustling of the wind through the trees, blowing some of the crimson leaves into the air.

Nothing but the wind…and the sound of someone - or something, Russell’s mind suggested – stepping on those leaves.

“Who’s there?” Russell demanded. He reached behind his back for the knives that he wore at his belt, even as he leaned around the tree upon which he had been relieving himself to see if there was anyone there.

There was no one.

Russell took a step back, and turned around – and came to face to face with the biggest ursa that he had ever seen, its aged bulk encrusted with armour plates and bony spikes protruding from its back.

Russell’s scream of fright was interrupted by the ursa’s roar as it swatted him to the ground with one powerful paw. Russell’s cry of fright turned into a yell of pain as he hit the ground hard and rolled across the leafy floor of the forest.

He began to crawl away, scuttling backwards across the ground like a spider. The ursa pursued him, moving rapidly for its size and bulk, growling and snuffling as it came.

Russell yelled, howling to the sky as the ursa’s jaw opened and it chomped down upon his boot. Even through his aura he felt the pain.

“Get off of me!” Russell yelled as he kicked at the ursa’s mask with his free foot. “Get off you son of a-“

The ursa opened its mouth and roared into his face. Russell scrambled backwards and leapt to his feet, brandishing his daggers before him.

“Okay, you want a piece of me?” he shouted, setting both daggers to fire dust. “Let’s dance!”

The ursa reared onto its hind legs. Russell leapt forward, raising both hands for an X-pattern dual slash across the demon’s chest. He swung his daggers forward-

The roaring ursa batted him aside with another swing of its paw. Russell hit the ground face first, his daggers flying out of his grip to skid across the forest floor.

A soft moan escaped from Russell’s lips as he lay on his belly. He tried to crawl away, before an immense force pressed down upon his back and pushed him forcibly into the ground.

Crap, crap, crap. Russell gritted his teeth. He tried to force himself up onto his elbows but the weight of the ursa was just too much. He could feel his aura draining away as it pressed down upon him, growling in anticipation.

Russell looked up to see the grimm raising its other paw to slash downwards upon him.

A line of white glyphs erupted from out of the depths of the forest, making a beeline right for Russell and the ursa, and on those glyphs Flash Sentry, his armour gleaming in the afternoon sunlight, glided with all the speed and grace of an ice dancer straight for them.

He came to a halt, and raised his shield and braced his knees as the ursa struck home.

The grimm’s paw struck the gleaming shield and was halted.

Flash didn't so much as flinch from the blow. He drew his sword and slashed at the ursa's face, then followed up by shooting it at point blank range.

The ursa roared in a mixture of pain and anger, recoiling away from the sudden pain. Another line of gleaming white glyphs appeared across the forest floor like some kind of exotic carpet, and over that carpet soared Weiss Schnee. Her expression was grim in its intensity, her white braid flew behind her and her narrow blade glowed brilliant white.

With a flourish of her sword, she conjured a glyph in front of Flash and Russell that barred the ursa's path as it sought to attack again. And then Weiss was before it, her silver-white attire seeming more brilliant contrasted with the lightless black of the ursa's demonic hide. She slashed, and to the strength of the blow was added a touch of ice dust. The ursa bellowed in pain as one paw became encased in ice.

Now she had its attention.

The ursa swiped, but Weiss blocked the blow with a glyph. She leapt, and conjured another glyph in mid air. She touched the floating glyph with one foot, turning in the air with a grace that Russell would have thought impossible if he hadn't seen it for himself; and then she kicked off. She flew towards the ursa, straight for the head, sword held before her like a spear.

The ursa opened its mouth to growl.

Weiss fired, and a plume of ice erupted from the tip of her myrtenaster to consume the ursa's bestial head.

Weiss landed on the ground as the creature's lifeless remains hit the ground, and began to dissolve into smoke.

Russell kind of expected her to bow for the audience, but she did not. Instead she simply gave him a Look. A look that he did not want to cross. "Get up."

"Yes, ma'am!" Russell yelped as he scrambled upright.

Weiss sighed. "What were you thinking? Weren't you listening when Professor Goodwitch said that this forest is full of grimm?"

Russell, sensing that his bathroom needs would probably not get a receptive hearing right now, stayed silent.

Weiss put one hand on her hip. "And where is Cardin?"

Russell shrugged. "I don't know, I haven't seen him."

"No one has," Flash said. "That's the problem."

Weiss shook her head. "And of course, that means we'll have to go look for him."

The sharp report of a gunshot echoed through the trees, scattering birds into the sky.

Flash frowned. "That sounds like Sunset's rifle."

Cardin stepped out from behind a tree and into Sunset's view.

"You," Sunset said in a voice that was half a growl and half a sigh of resignation.

Cardin's lip curled into a sneer. "You think you're so smart, don't you?"

"I am that smart, as it happens," Sunset replied. "While you...what was your plan with that jar anyway?"

"I know it was you who set me up over that rabbit!"

"And it never would have worked if you weren't the kind of person who would call her a rabbit," Sunset said.

Cardin bared his teeth as his fists clenched in frustration. "Who do you think you are to talk to me like that?" he snarled as he stomped towards her. "Just who do you think you are?"

"I'm Sunset Shimmer."

"You say that name as though it's supposed to mean something."

"Give it time," Sunset said. "Some day, being able to say you knew me will be the high water-mark of your loser life."

"Shut up!" Cardin roared as he continued to advance upon her.

Sunset raised her hands, and both of them glowed green with magic. "You really want to do this, Cardy-boy?"

"I said SHUT UP!" Cardin bellowed, brandishing his mace before him. "You think that you're so big, huh? You think that you're so great because you lucked out with your semblance? What did someone like you do to deserve power like that? Why should a gift so rare belong to you and not to me?" He was screaming so loudly now that he had to pant for breath in between sentences. "I am Cardin Winchester! Heir to the Winchester line! My grandfather fought at the right hand of the Last King! I am the heir to greatness! I deserve greatness!" he shook his head, and it almost looked as though there were tears in his blue eyes. "But you...you...faunus! You filthy animal! You...and Nikos...taking everything...all the things that I deserve! Why? WHY?"

Sunset retreated backwards a step, treading the leaves into the ground beneath her. He's me, she realised, with a sickening abruptness. I'm being yelled at by myself. She didn't want to recognise herself in Cardin Winchester, in his broiling mass of frustrated entitlement and unfocused rage, she didn't want to see herself in a man like him, she didn't want to see her flaws reflected back at her in someone that she hated...but as he yelled and screamed...it was unavoidable.

"Who are you, anyway? You're just some stupid pegasus from the middle of nowhere! Who do you think you are to usurp my destiny away from me!" So she had yelled at Cadance, the Princess of Love, expelling her rage and frustration from her throat like mucus, spraying it upon the mare who had possessed the nerve to be all that Sunset had wished to be, to become what Sunset desired to become but could not attain. To take all the things that should have belonged to Sunset Shimmer. Now she was the target of the rage of someone else, and no amount of special pleading - but Cardin's just a lazy ass, I really was that talented, that special, that deserving - could conceal the similarity.

This probably wasn't what Twilight Sparkle had in mind when she told Sunset to try understanding Cardin, and Sunset would be lying if she said that it was something she wanted to do, or that these feelings were ones that she wanted to admit, but as Cardin stood before her with his mace trembling in his hands...she could not deny it to herself.

"What gives you the right?" Cardin demanded. "Why you, and not me?"

Why you, and not me?

Why her, Princess Celestia...why not me?

When will I be ready?

You're lying! You're wrong! I do have a destiny, and if you won't help me find it then I'll go out there and seize it myself.

Arrogant, entitled, envious, monstrously unpleasant. In Cardin's rage were all her sins remembered.

She hated him, and pitied him; as she hated and pitied herself.

Should she apologise? Had she wronged him? His failings were not of her making but...amongst all that she had done were wrongs to Cardin Winchester amongst them?

There were those from whom she ought to seek forgiveness - Flash chief amongst them, if her guess was right - but Cardin? Her pride revolted at the idea of bending before him, being what he was and having done what he had done.

And what of what I have done?

"The fault is not in the world but in ourselves," she murmured.

Cardin blinked. "What?"

"I am not holding you back," Sunset said. "Pyrrha isn't holding me back, Ruby isn't holding me back, Cad- no one holds us back but us. If we have been deceived it's by our blindness to our natures. If we have been restrained it is by our unworthy hearts. But we can change, Cardin. Our hearts can mend, our souls can grow. I have to believe that we need not be these small and ugly things forever or else...destiny is not beyond us if only we can...there are lights that we can follow." Ruby, Pyrrha, even Jaune. They could show her the way and she could follow it. She would reform herself. She would not remain a faunus Cardin forever. She would not let the chip upon her shoulder crush her beneath it's weight, squeezing out all ambition and hope for advancement.

She would do better. She had to do better. Or she would end up confronting Pyrrha in the woods, trembling with rage as tears grew in her eyes, demanding a reckoning for the difference in their fortunes.

Forever Fall may be eternally unchanging, but we need not be the same.

I hope.

Judging by the way that his face twisted into a rictus of hostility, Cardin didn't find this as much cause for optimism as Sunset did. "What are you even talking about? Of course you're holding me back, this is all your fault! But I'm going to teach you a lesson you little pony!"

He raised his mace, but before he could do more he was interrupted by a series of growls from behind and around him as a pack of beowolves emerged into view a in a horse-shoe surrounding the young huntsman and huntress.

Negative emotions. Crap, we drew them right to us!

Sunset gingerly, cautiously unslung Sol Invictus from where it hung on her shoulder. She moved slowly, counting the grimm around her as she did so. Twenty, including an old and truly vicious-looking alpha.

Crap.

Her finger found the trigger of the rifle.

Cardin let out an angry roar and struck the ground with his mace as though he would shatter it. The ground exploded in fire, scattering the autumn leaves into the air, in a trail racing away from the mace and towards one of the beowolves. The grimm leapt aside, and the others howled as they leapt for Cardin.

He was still howling out his anger as he struck one of them across the mask in mid-flight, killing it instantly. But then the rest of them were on him.

For a moment Cardin stood before the fury of the pack, his powerful form rising above the black mass the raged around him like a stormy sea; but then they bore him down and he was buried beneath the mass of grimm.

Sunset froze. A part of her wanted to run, to flee, to get out while she still could...to leave Cardin Winchester to die.

He wouldn't hesitate to leave me behind if our places were reversed.

Yeah, but he isn't Remnant's greatest hero, is he?

If you wanted to be admired and respected across the world then at some point you had to do something vaguely admirable or respectable. If you wanted your glory to shine bright as the sun at noon then you had to do something by some measure glorious. To demand, as she had done, the rewards of greatness by virtue of her desire for them...how had that worked out for her so far?

She didn't have to like Cardin. She didn't like Cardin. She didn't have to understand him or befriend or anything like that. But she did have to save him.

Forever Fall may be unchanging, but we need not be.

Our hearts can change.

Sunset raised Sol Invictus to her shoulder.

BANG!

Birds scattered from the trees as Sunset fired, the crack of her rifle echoing through the forest. A beowolf was hurled backwards by her shot.

BANG!

Sunset advanced on the pack of beowolves tearing at Cardin, firing as she went. Three shots, four, more beowolves fell, five shots and another one bit the dust with its head blow off, six shots and she had wounded the alpha. And she had no more bullets left.

Sunset roared in anger as she charged, her bayonet gleaming. She didn't dare use her magic yet, not with the beowolves all so close to Cardin, all of her powerful attacks would hurt him too and he probably didn't have much aura left.

She did use a touch of telekinesis to pick up one young, immature beowolf and throw it off him and into the nearest tree, but for the rest she relied upon her weapons, twirling her rifle in her hands like a spear and wielding butt and bayonet in equal as she tore into the grimm like a fox amongst the chickens. Sunset impaled one, she clubbed another so hard that its mask cracked and the creature recoiled with a howl of pain, she planted herself athwart Cardin - he was still conscious, but didn't really look up to contributing to his own defence at all - and as the beowolves gathered all around her Sunset slung her rifle over her shoulder and gathered her magic to her hands.

The beowolves advanced cautiously as a series of low growls rose up from every throat. Then, at a barked command from the alpha, they surged forward like a black and bone-mask tide against Sunset Shimmer.

Magic flew from her fingertips in miniature bolts of green energy, erupting in all directions, striking at her enemies all around her. Sunset turned this way and that, blasting at the beowolves who lunged at her. None of them struck her, they did not bear her down, but some of them got close enough to tear chunks off her aura before a blast from her magic sent them flying. She lost track of how many there were, how many she had killed and turned to dust; they were a mass, a broiling mass of darkness beyond counting snarling at her, lunging at her, always absorbing her attacks. She was killing them, she would swear to that, but there were so many and they kept on bringing her aura down.

And then the alpha beowolf lumbered forward. It's huge spikes of bleached bone rippled with the movement of its muscles. Three shots from Crescent Rose slammed into the alpha's chest, putting it on its back and putting it down. Pyrrha burst in amongst the beowolves like a light to burn away the darkness, her red hair and red sash both flying behind her as she slashed out with her shining sword. Jaune gave a shout that was both defiant and terrified as he cut down one beowolf in a succession of frantic blows. Flash's gunblade flared, while Weiss glided in upon a line of glyphs, conjuring ice from the tip of her sword.

The beowolves howling turned to cries of pain, but SAPR and WSTW cut them down all the same.

"I stayed back, like you said!" Ruby called, waving enthusiastically from her vantage point on a slight rise in the ground.

"We heard your gunshots, and came to investigate," Pyrrha explained.

"I'm glad you did," Sunset murmured. She cast her eyes over Pyrrha, Ruby, even Jaune; then she looked at Weiss, whose own gaze flickered between Sunset and the prone Cardin on his back on the ground. Sunset nodded. "Thank you."

Weiss' look was prim and her posture stern as she walked forward. "I should thank you for saving my team-mate," she said.

Sunset moved away a little, so that she wasn't straddling Cardin like a mother bear any more. "It...it was the right thing to do," she said quietly.

Weiss' eyes widened. It was only slight, but Sunset noticed it. "You..." she began, then stopped for a moment. Then, after another moment, she held out one hand. "You know, if you ever want to switch teams you'll be welcome."

Sunset's eyebrows rose. She grinned as she took Weiss' hand. "Nah, you ever get bored you can replace Jaune on my team."

"Hey!" Jaune cried.

Sunset laughed, and found that Weiss was laughing too, the both of them covering their mouths with their free hands as they squeezed their clasped hands with...a surprising affection, really.

She...she wasn't really a bad person, Weiss Schnee. In her own way she'd just paid Sunset a great compliment.

Sunset was still going to beat her in every class, of course.

She glanced at Flash as she let go of Weiss' hand. There were things she needed to say to him.

Not now. Not here. Not, amongst other things, in front of Cardin, who was being helped to his feet by Russell. He looked shaken, and he didn't look at Sunset.

Dare I hope that there'll be no more trouble of out of him?

"Thanks," Sunset repeated. "To all of you."

Four bullheads carried the four teams back to Beacon, their engines whining as they flew south over Forever Fall.

The Team SAPR bullhead was on the right flank of the diamond, and Sunset looked out of the open right hatch at the open sky and the scarlet forest passing rapidly beneath them. The wind danced through her hair, pushing it this way and that. She tightened her grip on the ceiling strap, just a little.

“So…listen,” she said, having to raise her voice more than she would have liked in order to be heard above the sound of the bullhead’s engines and the wind through the plane. She fell silent for a moment, watching the unchanging forest going by beneath her.

I am not Forever Fall. I can change…and I think I must.

She looked up, away from the forest and at her team. She had their attention at least. All three of them were looking at her with some degree of anxiety and curiosity mingled together.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

Silence greeted this concession.

“Uh…okay,” Jaune said.

“Sorry for what?” Ruby asked.

Sunset smiled wryly. “How about we say ‘for everything’ and spare me the humiliation of having to make a list?”

“That’s…rather remarkably generous of you,” Pyrrha said.

Sunset snorted. “I can’t guarantee that it will be a permanent change, but I’ll do my best.”

“Uh…you are Sunset Shimmer, right?” Jaune said.

“Yes, of course I’m Sunset Shimmer.”

“You weren’t replaced by a shape-shifting grimm when you were alone in the forest so that you could infiltrate Beacon?”

Sunset looked at him. “I’m not a changeling, I just had…I suppose you could say that I had an epiphany.”

Ruby’s eyes widened. “You mean there really are shapeshifting grimm?”

“Not as far as I know.”

“But you just called them changelings!”

Me and my big mouth. “I just meant…if there were such a thing…which there aren’t…then…changelings would be a good name for them. Don’t you think? Look, I’m trying to apologise for being a jerk here, so can we get back to that?”

Ruby giggled. “You’re changing back already.”

Sunset was silent for a moment, then she let out a sound that was part sigh, part laugh. “You guys…I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“In a good way?” Jaune asked.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Sunset replied. “I guess…what I’m trying to say…ugh, I’m really not good at this…I don’t want to end up like Cardin. I don’t want to be a bitter failure hating and blaming everyone…although I’ve already kind of been that already, but…the point is…” I should have asked Twilight for advice on how to do this properly. “Pyrrha, I’m really sorry, the fact that you have what I want is not on you and I…I’m going to get there and be twice as famous as you are, ten times! But I don’t need to-“

“I understand,” Pyrrha said softly. “Thank you, Sunset. It’s very much appreciated.”

“Not as much as I appreciate the save,” Sunset said. “Just…in future, if I’m becoming too much of a jerk…if I’m getting too awful…stop me.”

“How?” Jaune asked.

Sunset shrugged. “I have faith in you to figure it out.” She looked out the hatch again, if only for a moment. “Hey, what do you guys think about team photos?”

Cardin was unusually subdued tonight. Flash thought it was a marked improvement. Clearly almost dying had done wonders - at least for now - even if Flash couldn't tell what exactly was going through his head.

Whether it would translate into the harder work that Cardin and Russell clearly needed remained to be seen.

However, he was interrupted by any thoughts about his newly more bearable team-mate by the buzzing of his scroll. Somewhat to his surprise, when he opened it up he saw Sunset's face looking back at him.

"Hey, can we talk?"

Flash sat up a little straighter. "I...yeah, Sunset, sure."

"No, not like this," Sunset said. There was something not quite right about her, something about the way that she was standing and the tone of her voice. Was she upset? "Can we talk in person? Are you okay to come out?"

"Uh, yeah," Flash replied. "Where are you?"

"I'm outside your dorm," Sunset said.

Flash hesitated for a moment, glancing around the room. None of his team-mates reacted. In the case of Weiss in particular it seemed that she was studiedly not reacting to what she could clearly hear.

"I'll be right out," Flash said, leaping up off his bed and crossing the room in a couple of swift strides. He opened the door, stepped out into the dark corridor, and closed the door behind him.

Sunset was waiting in the shadows, the black of her leather jacket blending with the gloom of the corridor. She shifted a little to the side, so that a little light fell on her face. Her shoulders her hunched, her back was bent a little, she was gripping her left sleeve with her right hand; her expression was melancholy, her eyes lowered, her mouth sunk. It reminded him of when they had first met, when she had allowed him to see her vulnerable and lost and alone.

He'd thought that she had done away with that side of her a long time ago, but now it occurred to him that perhaps she had just hidden it away where he couldn't see it any more. "Sunset," he murmured. "Have you been crying all this time?"

He half-expected her to snap at him, to rebuke his presumption, to explode with offended pride at the very idea that he might know her feelings or that she had succumbed to such a weakness as perpetual sorrow. But she did not. She smiled, a sad smile like a flower gripped by a sudden frost, and said, "You didn't break up with me because I was a faunus, did you?"

Flash was silent for a moment, and for that moment he considered...no. The lie had gone on long enough, and by the sound of it she was wise to it now anyway. "No," he said. "There were people who told me that I should, sure, but that's not why I did it."

"You broke up with me because I was an ass," Sunset said. "It's okay, you can say it."

Flash's brow furrowed. "Something like that. I couldn't...I just couldn't take it any more."

"But you let me think you were a racist," Sunset murmured. "Why?"

Flash shrugged. "I didn't want to hurt you."

"You could have told me-"

"Would you have listened?"

Sunset took pause a while. She looked down at her feet, and scuffed the carpet with her boot. "Probably not. But...for whatever it might be worth right now I'm sorry. It can't have been easy...putting up with me sometimes."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, why does everyone find it so strange that I can take responsibility for my mistakes!"

Flash looked at her.

Sunset sighed. "Okay, perhaps it is a little unusual but yes, this is me, I'm fine, I haven't gotten sick or brainwashed or replaced or anything like that. I'm fine, I just...I realised something in that forest and I...I figured of all the people who I owe an apology to you must be pretty high on the list."

Flash leaned against the wall. "You don't owe me anything, Sunset."

Sunset stared at him. "That's kind of you, if you mean it. But then...you always were a really nice guy. The kind of guy who'd take pity on a lonely faunus with nowhere to go." She smiled, if only slightly. "Do you remember that bike you helped me put together in your garage?"

Flash chuckled. "Sure, I remember. You still have it?"

"Of course. You think I'd get rid of my baby."

"Is it still ugly as a grimm?"

"Hey, it's not ugly," Sunset replied. "It's asymmetrical, sure, but that doesn't make it hideous!" She pursed her lips together, and scuffed her foot some more. "It wasn't all bad, right? I mean, we had fun, yeah? We were good together...sometimes."

"Yeah," Flash said. "At first...it was a lot of fun."

"Do you think...is there a chance that...could you-"

"Sunset," Flash interrupted her before she could finish because he knew what she was going to ask and he thought...if she actually got to the end of the sentence then there was a chance - a very good chance - that he would say yes, because she was still gorgeous and right now she sounded so much better and she was reminding him of the way she'd been before when they were cool together and it tempting to believe that this time they could make it work. Tempting, but maybe not all that smart. People could change, but they couldn't change back to what they had been before. Sunset wasn't the same, and neither was he. "I don't want to say that it couldn't work...but right now...we're not there any more."

Sunset was still and silent, as though by some extraordinary semblance she had been turned to stone. "I...right. Of course."

Flash waited for the inevitable outburst, the explosion of anger, the vitriol. He waited for all that did not come, as Sunset remained still, and quiet.

"I can't promise that I'll always be nice, and kind, and...not me," Sunset said. "But I'm going to try, and I wanted you to know that." She hesitated. "I...I'll see you around, Flash, goodbye." She turned away.

"Sunset," Flash called, pulling her up short. "Good luck," he added. "I hope...I hope you find what you're looking for."

She glanced over her shoulder. "Thanks," she said, so softly it was almost a whisper. "You too."

Sunset's pen hovered over the page uncertainly. Where did she even start? How should she begin?

How could she say all that needed to be said?

And how would Celestia react to it?

The corridor was dark. Sunset sat outside the door of the SAPR dorm room, gripping a torch between her teeth and using it to illuminate the magical journal that sat open on her knees. Inside the dorm her team-mates were asleep, or at least she hoped they were. The reason she was sitting out here was to avoid disturbing them. The corridor was dark and silent, so quiet that Sunset could almost believe that she was alone in the world.

Twilight Sparkle was probably asleep too. The time difference between Vale and Atlas wasn't so great, and the two Canterlots were linked on the same time. So Twilight Sparkle was probably in bed, she didn't strike Sunset as much of a night-owl party animal; although she might be the stay up all night working type. Sunset hoped not. This would be easier without anyone replying to her. She wanted to get out all of the things that she had to say without interruption.

If Twilight had anything to say in response she could say it later, Sunset...Sunset wasn't sure that her resole would withstand continual interruptions.

Sunset, leaning back on the door, almost fell through it when it opened up behind her.

"Sunset?" Ruby asked from where she stood in the doorway, clad in her pyjamas and that grimm sleep mask (Sunset had been here for several years but she still couldn't get over the fact that the mortal enemies of humanity had merchandise). "Did you lock yourself out of the dorm?"

"No," Sunset said, keeping her voice soft. "I just have something I need to do before I turn in. What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep," Ruby replied. She too was whispering for the benefit of Jaune and Pyrrha. "I've been thinking about something. Sunset...I'm glad you're out here. I need to talk to you."

Sunset's brow furrowed. It wasn't exactly a great time, but then it wouldn't exactly be a great start to her resolve to turn over a new leaf by telling Ruby to get lost, would it? "What about?"

Ruby shut the door behind her, and sunk to the corridor floor alongside Sunset. It was only then that Sunset saw that she was holding a little book in her hand: a little black booke with a white rose on the cover. "Do you know anything about this?"

Sunset tried to keep her expression neutral. "Why do you ask?"

"Because this was just left beside my bed one morning," Ruby said. "And I don't think...I didn't know what it was at first, except that maybe it had something to do with my Mom, and I looked inside and I saw that it was a diary and at first I was like 'woah!' and then I was like 'this is so cool and I need to tell Yang right away!' but then I was like 'but how did it get here?' and then I started to wonder if it was even real or if someone was playing a prank on me and I haven't even started to read it yet because I'm afraid that it'll all turn out to be not true and I can't even tell Yang in case-"

"It's real," Sunset said, because in the face of all that how could she lie? She hadn't considered - although with hindsight she probably should have done - that Ruby might have cause to wonder at the provenance of such an unexpected and miraculous gift. She was a little offended that Ruby might think Sunset had been playing a trick on her, because - as far as Sunset was concerned - she hadn't given Ruby any cause to think that she would sink so low...but she salved her injured pride by telling herself that Ruby hadn't accused her, just wondered if someone might have done such a thing. In any case, she deserved to know the answer. It was clear that she needed the answer. "It's real," she repeated. "I can attest to that. And, yeah, I'm the one who left it beside your bed."

If Ruby's eyes went any wider than they would consume her entire face. Her mouth hung open, contorting into various shapes as it framed words that did not come. "How?"

"You know Jaune's transcripts," Sunset said. "The ones that got lost? Yeah, they got lost because I...trespassed slightly in the archives and removed them." That reminded her, she should probably burn those or something. She shouldn't keep them in case they tempted her to bad habits. "And then...while I was there I decided to look at my records and while I was looking I found your mother's box and...that was in there. I haven't looked at it. Well, I stopped as soon as I realised what it was. I don't know anything."

Ruby stared up at her for a moment, and then a moment longer. And the she flung her arms around Sunset's neck and squeezed her tight into a hug.

"Thank you," she whispered into one of Sunset's ears.

Sunset was stiff, startled into statuesque rigidity. People didn't hug Sunset Shimmer. She hadn't gotten a hug in...sweet Celestia, was Celestia herself the last person to embrace her like this? No, that couldn't be right, Flash...no, when she was going out with Flash she hadn't been much of hugging type; she'd preferred making out. Had she ever felt the warmth of his arms around her? She thought she must have done but she couldn't quite recall. Regardless, it had been a long time since anyone embraced her the way that Ruby was doing now.

And to be honest, it wasn't half bad.

Slowly, gently, gingerly, Sunset put one arm around Ruby's shoulder. "It was nothing, really. I was just passing through."

Ruby let her go. "Mom," she murmured. "There's so much that I don't know, and Dad won't tell me and nor will Uncle Qrow and I know that they're not telling me stuff! And I think...I think that Beacon might have something to do with it, but I don't know what I just...thank you."

"I hope you find the answers," Sunset said. "But, even if you don't...I hope that you know your mom a little better by the time you're through." Sunset hadn't known her mother either; she'd died bringing Sunset into the world. Princess Celestia had been the closest that Sunset had ever known to...she pushed that thought aside, that confusion was a large part of how she'd ended up this way in the first place. If her mother had left Sunset some way of knowing her, even after she was gone, then maybe...

She hoped that Ruby got something out of it.

A smile was still playing across Ruby's face as she looked at the journal open upon Sunset's knees. "What about you? What's up?"

"I...I'm trying to write...I suppose you might call it a letter."

"Who to?"

"Someone from back home," Sunset said. "And...my old teacher, kind of. We didn't...part on the best of terms, but now...I'd like to hear from her again, but I don't know if..."

"You were close?" Ruby said.

Sunset nodded. "She pretty much raised me. She did raise me. And then I threw it all back in her face."

"So?" Ruby asked. "It doesn't mean that she stopped loving you."

"That's the thing," Sunset said. "I don't know if she ever did love me or if she just...I don't know."

"But you loved her, right?"

Sunset hesitated before she nodded. "Yeah. The difference is that she deserved to be loved."

"Sometimes, giving other people a chance means giving yourself a chance as well," Ruby said. "You're not a bad person, Sunset; and although I don't know this teacher of yours, if you cared about her so much then she can't be a bad person either. So why don't you just give it a try, because if you don't then all that you'll do is regret it."

Sunset looked down at her. "You're very wise for such a little kid."

Ruby beamed. She climbed to her feet. "Goodnight, Sunset."

"Goodnight, Ruby," Sunset said, leaning forward a little as Ruby opened the door and walked back into the dorm room.

When the door shut again, Sunset began to scribble across the journal page.

Dear Princess Twilight

You have been telling me that I should try and understand Cardin Winchester. I didn't want to. I still don't want to. But unfortunately for me I do understand him a little better now, and in understanding him I better understand myself.

It sucks. Mostly because I do.

Sunset paused for a moment, pondering how she could best proceed.

I don't know what to do now. I don't want to continue being what I am but I'm not sure that I know how to be anything else. I'm worried that I can't be anything else. I feel like I might need your help. You said yourself that's what you do, right? You help people like me?

What do I do? How do I do it?

How do I become better than I am?

All my life I've wanted power. I've wanted glory. I wanted to ascend, to shine, to be admired and adored. I wanted to be the hero. I still want that. I still want all those things. But I also want

I also always wanted

I want to be

I don't know if I can be

I don't know if I deserve to be

Are you really going to make me say it?

I need help.

I need your help.

Twilight Sparkle, will you do me a favour?

Will you tell Celestia

Sunset stopped, wondering just what she could or felt comfortable with asking Twilight to tell Celestia

Will you please tell Celestia how sorry I am?

Dear Diary,

I can’t believe I finally made it to Beacon! After so long dreaming and waiting I’ve finally made it. This is my dream come true.

Yang chuckled. “Looks like we weren’t the only ones to really want to come here, huh?”

The two sisters sat together on one of the benches out in the courtyard, where they could be alone without having to secrest- without having to preclude – without having to shut themselves up in a dark room somewhere (Sunset had said some kind of long word that Pyrrha seemed to understand, but Ruby couldn’t remember what it was).

The day was crisp, a little warm for a spring day; pleasant weather to be out in the courtyard with the wind rustling through the trees.

Ruby barely heard them. She barely felt the wind blowing through her hair. Her attention, as her gaze, was fixed upon the book open in her lap.

She smiled, a little sadly. “Yeah, I guess not.”

Yang leaned down a little, so that they were eye to eye, and gave Ruby a squeeze on the shoulder. “You okay?”

“I…” Ruby hesitated. “I wish that she’d been able to tell us in person, you know? I wish that she’d been able to tell us what a great time she’d had at Beacon and that we’d really love it there and maybe not to worry too much about Professor Port or that…I wish she was here.”

Yang frowned. “Yeah. You and me both, Rubes. Listen…if you don’t want to-“

“No,” Ruby said firmly. “No, I want to read this. I want to hear what Mom has to say.”

Yang looked at her for a moment, and then she nodded. “Okay.”

Ruby looked back down at the diary.

Nothing much has happened yet, because I only arrived here today, but all the same: I finally made it to Beacon!

I know that Dad didn’t see the point in me coming here. He thinks that I can already fight grimm perfectly well on my own, so why do I need to come to a school to spend four years learning what I already know.

“Grandpa has a point, I guess,” Yang said. “I mean…it’s not even the end of first semester yet and we can already kill grimm. You wonder what the rest of the four years will be like.”

I told Dad that I can’t just rely on my eyes, and I suppose he must have accepted that or he wouldn’t have let me come here in the first place.

“Her eyes,” Ruby asked, reading and re-reading that sentence over and over again as though, if she read it often enough, the words on the page in front of her would change into something that she could actually understand. “What does that mean? Eyes means…eyes, right?”

“I…think so,” Yang said. She put her arms behind her head. “Does Dad ever talk about Mom’s semblance?”

“No,” Ruby said. “At least, not that I remember.”

“Maybe her semblance was to shoot lasers out of her eyes,” Yang suggested. She grinned. “Or maybe she could kill grimm just by looking at them!”

Ruby giggled.

Yang laughed a little as well. “Or maybe she’ll explain later if we keep going.”

“Right,” Ruby said, and read on.

What I didn’t tell my father was that that’s not the real reason I want to come here. Don’t get me wrong, I want to fight the grimm. I want to show everyone that we’re more than just cattle in a cage. I believe that if we work together we can save the world, and take it back from all the monsters.

But that’s not why I’m here. If I wanted to start fighting now I could. Dad would probably be happier that way. Maybe other people would too.

I’m ready to fight. I’m ready to die if that’s what it takes. But I want to be just a normal girl for a few years, to have friends and fun and be more than just a warrior.

This makes me sound so selfish, not to mention that I must sound as though I’m not taking this seriously. If someone reads this and thinks that I didn’t deserve my place at Beacon then so be it; you’re wrong, I really want to be here.

I just want to live for a few years for myself as well.

“No, Mom, that’s not selfish at all,” Ruby murmured. For a moment she thought of Pyrrha, the champion fighter who had never been…Ruby couldn’t exactly say what it was that she had never been; she’d say that Pyrrha had never been a person but if that were true then what was she? It didn’t really matter, the point was that reading Mom’s words reminded her of her friend a little bit.

Mom got to live…for a while. Maybe Pyrrha will too.

She kept reading.

I have to admit that I got a little lost getting off the airship. But it did mean that I met this really cute boy named Taiyang who helped me find the way to the amphitheatre. He’s kind of a goofball, but I like him, he’s a lot of fun. I’m not sure how good he is in a fight, but he got in here so I suppose he can’t be that bad.

“Is it me, or does it sound as though Mom had a crush on Dad from the moment they met?” Ruby asked, eagerness and amusement blending in her voice.

Yang looked a little troubled. “Yeah,” she said softly. “Yeah, it does.”

It was only at that moment that Ruby realised just what she'd said. "Yang, I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"It's okay," Yang said. She grinned. "I'm here now, and so are you. So I'll guess we'll see how it all shook up with Dad as we go on."

"Right."

Yang chuckled. "Imagine anyone finding Dad adorable."

Ruby tried to imagine her father was an adorable cute goofball…strangely enough her imagining ended up looking a lot like Jaune.

Less strangely, she could imagine her Mom having a crush on a guy like that – and not just because she’d gone on to marry him; someone cute and funny and kind…

“Ruby?”

“Huh?”

“You spaced out for a second there.”

Ruby laughed. “I, uh, I was just trying to imagine Dad the way that Mom just wrote about him.”

“I can imagine it.”

“Really?”

“Yup.”

After he said a few words to everyone, Professor Ozpin took me aside. He’s been so nice to me, and not just because I wouldn’t be able to come here without his support. He’s so considerate, he made sure that I was okay and that I wasn’t feeling overwhelmed. Maybe it is because of my eyes a little, but it’s still nice.

“Ugh, the eyes again,” Ruby said with a scowl. “Come on, Mom, explain!”

Yang laughed. “She probably wasn’t expecting this to be read by anyone who didn’t know.” Her face fell. “She probably thought she’d explain it herself.”

“It must have been something really cool if Professor Ozpin was interested in it, right?” Ruby asked. “Maybe he could tell us.”

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” Yang said. “He might want to know where you got the diary from.”

“Oh, right,” Ruby murmured. She didn’t want to get Sunset and Jaune into trouble. “It is still only the second page, so maybe it comes up later?”

“We can hope.”

Tomorrow is the Initiation, the final taste before my time here really begins. I can’t wait, but at the same time I’m kind of nervous because I don’t really know a lot about how to do people at all. Coming from outside the Kingdoms

“Mom grew up outside the Kingdoms?” Yang said. “Wow, that’s…no wonder she was a badass even before she got to Beacon.”

I don’t really know how to get along with other people. But that’s why I want to be here, so I can finally do all that stuff. And then I can go back to fighting.

So sure, I’m nervous. But at the same time I can’t wait to meet my new team-mates.

And that was the end for that day, and that page.

“Do you want to read the next day?” Yang asked.

“Yeah, you?”

“Let’s do it.”

Ruby flipped over the page.

Dear Diary,

I have a team! I’m the team leader!

Okay, so I should probably go back just a little bit.

Like I told you yesterday, I was as nervous as I was excited about the initiation today but looking back it was really cool. Professor Ozpin fired us all off a cliff and into the Emerald Forest, how cool is that?

Yang snorted. “She really was a supermom, wasn’t she?”

The rules were that the first person we made eye-contact with would be our partner for the next four years. Luckily, the first person I made eye-contact with was that cute boy I met yesterday, Taiyang. Turns out he really does no how to fight. He doesn’t use weapons, but he punched a beowolf’s head clean off in one hit! I’ve never seen anything like it. He must have some kind of strength semblance, but there wasn’t time for him to really explain it.

Then we ran into these two siblings named Raven and Qrow Branwen.

“Uncle Qrow!” Ruby cried. “And...Aunt Raven, I guess? Or...something like that.”

Qrow is really cool; we’d only met up for five minutes and he was already flirting with me. He was just kidding, though, he’s way out of my league.

Besides, I kind of prefer guys who are honest and don’t put up a big front. Qrow’s cool, but it’s like he’s trying a little too hard to be something he’s not.

Raven, on the other hand, is kind of aloof. She doesn’t say much, not even to Qrow, but she says even less to anyone else. I wonder if she’s lonely?

One thing’s for sure, they both really know how to fight. Watching them was incredibly, they’re so well-coordinated that you wouldn’t believe it. Together we’re going to be an awesome team, I can feel it!

Oh, yeah, teams. I should probably go back to that. So, after Tai and I met up we had to go to these ruins. It was on the way that we met Qrow and Raven, who had partnered up with each other. So we got to the ruins and we find these chess pieces, and Qrow and I each took a white knight. Then we had to get out of the forest again and we got attacked by some ursas.

This is the best part. Up until now I hadn’t been using my eyes, only my Solstice Rose; but there were just so many grimm and we were already so tired that I had to use my eyes on them.

It tired me out. The guys had to carry me the rest of the way out of the forest, I was so exhausted my body just wouldn’t move at all. I was worried. I was worried that they were going to think that I was weak, or else that once they found out about my eyes they’d stop treating me like I was a normal person; I was afraid that I’d stop being Summer Rose and become a Silver-Eyed Warrior to them.

“A silver-eyed warrior,” Ruby whispered. “What’s that?”

“I don’t know,” Yang said. “A…warrior with silver eyes?”

“But I’ve got silver eyes and I never did anything special with them,” Ruby said.

“Yet,” Yang said.

Ruby started to shake her head, and then paused. “He mentioned it.”

“Huh?”

“Professor Ozpin,” Ruby explained. “When he came to see me after I fought Torchwick, he noticed my eyes.”

You have silver eyes.

The two sisters looked at each other for a minute, neither one speaking. Professor Ozpin had taken an interest in Mom on account of her eyes, and now he had let Ruby into Beacon too, and pointed out that she, too(?) had silver eyes.

That couldn’t just be a coincidence, could it?

“What does it mean?” Ruby asked.

“I don’t know,” Yang replied. “Let’s…let’s just keep going, okay?

But everyone was really cool about it, even Raven. They were impressed, sure, but none of them treated me any differently.

Of course I hardly knew them before they found out about this, I suppose what I’m trying to say is that they’re treating me like a person (and Professor Ozpin says that using my eyes will get less tiring with training and practice, so that’s good).

Together we’re Team STRQ (pronounce Stark, although Qrow won’t stop saying he would preferred to pronounce it Strike) and I’m the leader. So, yeah, that happened.

I’m back to being nervous and excited at the same time. Excited, obviously, because this is so cool and I feel like I have friends for the first time ever and everything’s going to be great, but nervous too.

Nervous because I’m responsible for Tai and Raven and Qrow, and if anything happens to them then that’s on me.

Still, I have three team-mates now and I think, I really believe, that they could become three friends. My first three friends.

And if we work together, I’m sure that everything is going to be okay.

“That seems like a good place to call it a day,” Yang said, gently but firmly shutting the book.

“What?” Ruby asked. “Come on, Yang, we have plenty of time left to keep going.”

“Maybe, but why rush?” Yang asked. “There’s plenty of time to read through everything. Savour it, you know.”

“No,” Ruby replied. “Don’t you know what happens next, or about the Silver Eyed Warriors? What Mom just described, it doesn’t seem like a semblance to me. Does it seem like it to you?”

“I’ve never heard of a semblance that can tired you out when you use it once, but what else could it be?” Yang said. “If it isn’t a semblance, then what is it?”

“I don’t know, that’s why we have to keep going!”

“Which we will, later.” Yang took a deep breath. “I just think that the last thing Mom would want is for you to neglect your own life chasing answers about her.” She smiled. “Don’t get so wrapped up in reading about Mom’s time at Beacon that you forget that you’re at Beacon, understand?”

“I guess,” Ruby murmured. “Hey, Yang?”

“Yeah?”

“Is it okay if I talk to my team about this?” Ruby asked. “I mean, Sunset and Pyrrha are really smart, maybe they can…I don’t know…work something out?”

Yang was silent for a moment. “If…if you want to tell them, then that’s your choice. I can’t tell you what to do any more.”

Ruby bowed her head. “Yang?”

“Yeah, sis?”

“If Mom was here, do you think she’d be proud?”

“No, I don’t think she’d be proud,” Yang said. “I know it.”

Sunset leaned forwards, resting her elbows on her knees. “A silver-eyed warrior? That’s what you’re mother called herself?”

“Yes,” Ruby said. “She talked about her eyes a couple of times without explaining why, and then she called herself Silver-Eyed Warrior, and she said that, during her initiation, she…she did something with her eyes and it killed a whole bunch of grimm.”

“Could it be a semblance,” Pyrrha suggested. “A particularly powerful one, projected through the eyes.”

Ruby frowned. “Yang and I thought that as well, but it doesn’t seem that way. I mean, what kind of semblance tires you out if you use it just once? What kind of semblance gives you a name like Silver-Eyed warrior?” She hesitated. “I’m not crazy, right? There’s something more to it? You agree with me, don’t you?”

She wanted them to believe her. She wanted her team-mates, her friends to agree with her that there was something more to it than just a semblance, that there were things that it being a semblance couldn’t explain.

She wanted them to believe her so that she could believe it herself.

The four members of team SAPR sat in their dorm room. Ruby was sitting on her bed, not far from the carving that Mom and Dad and their old team had made in the wall, and the markings that her team had made just above it. Sunset and Jaune were sat on Pyrrha’s bed next to hers, while Pyrrha herself had taken a chair.

All their eyes were fixed on Ruby.

Sunset clenched and unclenched her fists. “Doesn’t your mother’s journal tell you anything more?”

Ruby hesitated. “Well…we’ve only read the first two entries.”

“You could read on.”

Ruby shook her head. “Not without Yang, it wouldn’t be right. And Yang…Yang wants to take it slow.”

“But you want answers?”

Ruby nodded.

“Then keep reading, don’t tell her, and act surprised when you go through it with her the second time.”

“Sunset!” Ruby exclaimed.

“What?”

“Not cool!”

“I think that Ruby is hoping for some advice that doesn’t involve lying to her sister,” Pyrrha pointed out gently. She smiled at Ruby, with equal gentleness and a measure of encouragement that Ruby needed.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “I see. You want to do this the hard way.”

“I am right, aren’t I?” Ruby asked. “This sounds like more than just a semblance.”

“It reminds me of something,” Pyrrha murmured. She put her fingers to her chin and looked away, her brow furrowing in thought. “I just can’t quite remember where.”

“You’ve got a point that most semblances don’t get you a proper noun,” Sunset mused. “Not to mention the fact that semblances are unique, so there wouldn’t be a plural anyway.”

“Aren’t some semblances hereditary?” Jaune asked. “I mean, Weiss-“

Sunset leaned just a little away from Jaune so that she could look at him sideways a little more effectively. “How do you know that?”

“I know things,” Jaune replied, a little defensively.

“I mean, you’re right, the Schnees have a hereditary semblance,” Sunset said. “But even so, we don’t go around calling them Glyph Warriors.”

“The way that Mom described it, the way that she talked about it, it sounded like it was something people would know,” Ruby said. “But I’ve never heard of it.”

“Your mom did grow up outside the kingdoms,” Jaune said. “She might not have had the best idea of what people in Vale would or wouldn’t know.”

“Maybe, I guess.”

“From what you’ve described, it sounds as though she was worried that she would be treated differently from others, put upon a pedestal, once her possession of…whatever it was, was discovered,” Pyrrha said. “However, that could be…where do I remember that term?”

“Silver-eyed warriors,” Sunset murmured. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that.”

“I have,” Jaune volunteered. “In Broadsword the, well, Broadswords are also called Silver-eyed warriors by regular folks.”

“Sure, but somehow I doubt that Ruby’s mom was infected with grimm flesh to turn her into a half-human killing machine who just happened to have silver eyes,” Sunset declared. “For one thing, Ruby has silver eyes and no grimm flesh needed.”

“I’m saying that Broadsword is accurate, but I was about to add that a lot of the stuff in there was inspired by real folklore and how do you know that?”

“Huh?”

“How do you know that broadswords are created by forcing your girls to ingest grimm flesh so they become only half-human?”

Sunset blinked, and a faint blush rose to her cheeks. “I, um, I may have…looked at your comic collection after I stole it. You’ve got good taste.”

“Well, maybe now that you’re all nice and stuff you could give those back!”

“I will…when I’ve finished reading them.”

Pyrrha cleared her throat. “Um, excuse me,” she gestured towards Ruby.

“Right, sorry,” Jaune said; he looked shamefacedly down at the floor.

“Wait,” Pyrrha said. “That’s it.”

Jaune looked up. “That’s what?”

“Folklore,” Pyrrha said. “That’s where I remember hearing about silver eyes.” She twisted around in her chair, rocking it back on its hind legs as she reached for one of the books on her shelf. She grabbed an old volume, well cared for but starting to show it’s age nonetheless. As Pyrrha opened the book, and just before she put it down on her lap, Ruby caught a look at the cover – an illustration of a princess in a beautiful gown – and a look at the title: Fairy Tales for All Seasons.

“Never took you for a fan of fairy stories,” Sunset observed.

“I’ve had this book since I was a child,” Pyrrha replied. She didn’t look up, she kept leafing through the pages of the book. She was silent for a moment or two, her eyes scanning the pages as she flicked from one to the other. “Here we are: the story of the Hero with Silver Eyes.” She glanced up at them. “Do you mind if I read it to you? It’s probably better than me trying to summarise it.”

Sunset shrugged. Jaune looked at Ruby. Ruby nodded. “Sure, go ahead Pyrrha.”

“Very well,” Pyrrha said. She cleared her throat softly, paused, and then began. “Once upon a time, in a kingdom now forgotten, there lived an old man who had three sons. The eldest son was a strong young man, irresistible in a contest of strength or speed; the second son was very clever, no one could match him in a contest of wits; the youngest son did not seem particularly strong, nor particularly wise, but he had a good and humble heart, and he was always ready to help any soul in need. He had also been blessed at birth with eyes of silver, and many remarked on how unusual this was, and it was even said by some that this young man had been marked by fate to do great things.

“His brothers, hearing this, were consumed with jealousy at the very idea that their humble brother might outshine them. And so they laughed at him, and mocked the idea that he would ever achieve anything of note, and while they amused themselves they forced their brother to clean and cook and tend their house for them.”

“They sound like my sisters,” Jaune said.

“They sound like me,” Sunset muttered.

Ruby tried to imagine Yang treating her that way, forcing Ruby to become her servant. Ruby! Wash my dress, I’m going clubbing tonight! Nah, she just couldn’t see it.

“Meanwhile,” Pyrrha continued. “A dragon had come to the kingdom, and begun to lay waste to everything that lay in its path. It burned whole villages, devoured whole farms worth of livestock, and the people cried out to their king for protection; but all the King’s knights could not stand before the dragon and its wrath.

Desperate, the King sent out word throughout his realm: that whomsoever should kill the dragon would receive not only the hand in marriage of his daughter, his only…but that they should succeed him as king when his time came.”

“Kind of sexist to assume the dragonslayer would be a man,” Sunset remarked.

“It’s a fairy tale,” Pyrrha replied.

Sunset muttered something that sounded a little bit like ‘where I come from’ but didn’t say anything loud enough for Ruby to really hear her properly.

Pyrrha went on. “When the three brothers heard this news, they were filled with excitement. The eldest of them declared that he would surely be the one to slay the dragon, and win both the princess and the kingdom for himself. And so his father sold all that he had to buy a horse and armour for his son, who set out full of pride, confident in his strength and his skill.

“The eldest son rode away, passing through a dark forest, along a winding trail up a steep mountainside, until he came to a deep, dark cave. And in that cave, he met the dragon.

“’So,’ the dragon said. ‘You have come to kill me? What makes you think you will succeed where all others have failed?’

“‘I will surely triumph,’ replied the eldest son. ‘For you will not withstand my strength.’

“’Is that so?’ said the dragon, and he smiled before he attacked. Though the eldest son was strong and swift, and thought the battle between them was long and hard, the first brother was no match for the power and ferocity of the dragon. The beast devoured him, and turned his remains to ashes.”

“I thought this was a kids’ book,” Sunset said.

Ruby shushed her.

“The second brother set out next,” Pyrrha said. “Declaring that he needed neither armour nor weapons, for he was not such a fool as his brother was. He would defeat the dragon in a contest of wits, where he was unmatched. His father sold what little he had left to buy a horse for his son, who promised that he would repay him tenfold once he had defeated the monstrous dragon. And so the second son rode through the dark forest, and along the winding trail that led up the steep mountainside, until he came to that deep, dark cave. And in that cave, he met the dragon.

“’So,” the dragon said. ‘You have come to kill me? What makes you think you will succeed where all others have failed?’

“’I will surely triumph,’ replied the second son. ‘For I challenge you to a match of riddles, and when I win I will claim your head as my prize.’

“The dragon smiled. ‘Very well,’ he said. ‘But if I win, I will gobble you up instead.’

“And the second son agreed, for he was confident that no mere beast could get the better of him. But, though the second son was very clever, the dragon was cleverer still, and when the beast won the riddle game he devoured the second son, and turned his remains to ashes.

“The father of the three sons fell into despair, for he had lost not only his two precious sons, but also all that he owned providing for their doomed ventures. And so, when the youngest son declared that now he would seek out the dragon, his father begged him not to go. But the third brother was determined. He could no longer stand by while people were killed and forced from their homes. He had to do something, no matter the risk.

“And so, with only a simple wooden staff to lean on, and a faithful dog to keep him company along the road, the third son walked through the dark forest, and along the winding trail up the steep mountainside until he came to a deep, dark cave. And in that cave he found the dragon.

“’So,” the dragon said. ‘You have come to kill me? What makes you think you will succeed where all others have failed?’

“’I have no weapons,’ the third son said. ‘I am neither strong nor wise. But my heart is pure and my intent is noble, and my virtue will be my sword and armour against your evil.’

“When he heard this the dragon laughed, for he did not believe that a simple soul could stand before his strength, his malice, his will to destroy and to devour all things. And so he leapt upon the young man, and opened his mouth to swallow him whole. But, as the dragon attacked, the third son’s silver eyes began to glow brightly. Ever brighter they glowed, until they outshone the moon itself, and the light from his silver eyes could be seen all across the unhappy kingdom. The dragon screamed, and for the first time it knew fear, but it was too late.

“When the light from the young man’s eyes died down, the dragon had been turned to stone.

“The King rejoiced that the threat to his kingdom had been ended, but the third brother refused any reward, saying that he had done only what was right and just, for which he deserved no especial praise or honour. He asked only that his aged father be cared for, having lost all that he had.

“But the King recognised that here was a young man of especial promise, not only powerful but good and brave. He insisted that he should marry the princess, and take his place at court as heir to the throne. The princess was beautiful and kind, and the young man was so good-natured that they were very happy together, and with the power of his eyes the young man, who became known throughout the kingdom as the Hero with Silver Eyes, protected his realm from all evils for as long as he lived.” Pyrrha shut the book, to indicate that the story was over.

“So, Ruby’s mom could turn grimm into stone?” Jaune asked.

“Not necessarily,” Pyrrha said. “It’s a nice story, but it’s still just a fairy-tale.”

“But something’s real,” Ruby said. “My mom talks about it, a silver-eyed warrior? You agreed that it meant something.”

“Some fairytales have a basis in fact,” Sunset said softly. “Maybe…maybe there’s something to it.”

The four of them were silent for a moment.

It was Jaune who said what Ruby was thinking, and probably what Sunset and Pyrrha were thinking as well. “Do you think that Ruby could do that to? I mean you’ve got silver eyes.”

Ruby didn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure what she could possibly say in response to that. If her mom could do it, and it really did have something do with silver eyes, then maybe…she imagined herself briefly standing in front of a whole army of grimm, turning them to stone just by looking at them, while Yang and Pyrrha and Sunset and Jaune and Dad and Uncle Qrow and everybody just stood back and watched in awe. That would be pretty awesome. But then…

If Mom was that awesome, then why didn’t she come home?

Ruby looked around the room. Jaune looked as overwhelmed as Ruby felt right about now, Pyrrha was looking at Ruby as though she was more concerned with her than with anything to do with silver eyed warriors or the like, and Sunset…Sunset looked intrigued, and a little bit greedy to. To be honest, there was a look in Sunset’s eyes that kind of put Ruby in mind of the dragon in Pyrrha’s story, smiling at the arrogance of the two brothers who thought they would kill it.

“Sunset?” Ruby asked.

Sunset’s gaze flickered up to meet Ruby’s eyes. Ruby’s silver eyes.

You have silver eyes.

There had to be something in it. Professor Ozpin had mentioned her eyes specifically, the same way that he’d taken an interest in Mom. It occurred to Ruby that maybe Professor Ozpin had left the diary for Sunset to find, trusting that they would follow the clues to solve the mystery. She couldn’t exactly why he would do such a thing, but it made a kind of sense in her head. Although she didn’t mention it out loud for fear that it would stop making so much sense once she actually told someone about it.

“How far,” Sunset said, her voice surprisingly mild. “Do you want to take this?”

“I want to find out the truth about my Mom,” Ruby replied.

“That’s not what I asked,” Sunset replied. “If we find out what it means to be a Silver-Eyed warrior, that will tell you everything you need to know about your mother, but is that it? If it turns out that you have this power too, do you want to know? Do you want to learn how to use it? Are you prepared to work to master it? How far do you want to take this?”

“Sunset, ease off,” Jaune said. “You can’t expect Ruby to make all of these decisions straight away. You sound like you’re asking her to commit everything to…to whatever this is!”

“And if I am?” Sunset asked. “I committed everything to mastering my power when I was a lot younger than Ruby.”

“So did I,” Pyrrha said, with a voice touched by a sudden chill. “But it doesn’t mean that Ruby has to repeat our mistake.”

Sunset scowled, and then she looked a little embarrassed. “Sorry,” she muttered. “I didn’t mean to…I suppose I’d like to get something out of all this, and to know that you’re prepared to work towards that end.”

“If it will help, I am.”

“Ruby,” Pyrrha said gently.

“Maybe Mom didn’t have a kind of power like the one in the fairytale,” Ruby said. “Maybe being a silver-eyed warrior isn’t all that big of a deal. But what if it is? What if…what if I could really help people, save them, like the brother in the story. Then…then I should do it, shouldn’t I? I mean…I kind of have to, don’t I?”

Mom…I promise that I’ll make you proud.

Sunset smiled, and raised one hand into the air. “Who’s up for a research project? All in favour of discovering the truth about silver-eyed warriors, helping Ruby answer her questions about her mother and unlocking a power able to defeat the grimm say ‘aye’.”

Jaune raised his hand. “Uh, sure, yeah. I’ll help you. I don’t know how much I’ll actually be able to help but, sure. I’ll do what I can, Ruby.”

“Thanks, Jaune,” Ruby said, favouring him a warm smile. “I really appreciate it.”

“And me,” Pyrrha said. “Count me in.”

“Okay!” Ruby said, leaping up from her bed. “Let’s do it!”

“None of you said ‘aye’,” Sunset griped.

Ruby and Pyrrha walked down the street and people made way for them.

Or at least, they made way for Pyrrha anyway. It was as though she had a kind of magnetism about her that caused them to part before her like a ship ploughing through the ocean, but she never had to struggle to force her way through the press of people, and while she was at Pyrrha’s side that meant that Ruby didn’t either.

It did mean that people took pictures of them, but Ruby didn’t mind. She just kept flashing peace signs and her biggest grin for the cameras and the scrolls.

They had both changed into different outfits for their trip into town: Ruby had exchanged her usual outfit for a grey top with a black pinafore worn over it, and a red rose-pattered skirt; Pyrrha was wearing an amber blouse with a plunging neckline, and a scarlet skirt that fell down to her ankles, but which also had a slit down the front to enable her to walk freely without obstruction. Her circlet still gleamed upon her brow, and she still carried her weapons slung across her back just as Ruby still had Crescent Rose strapped to her waist.

Considering what had happened the last time they went out into Vale, it seemed like the smart thing to do.

While Sunset and Jaune were in the library, looking for any information about silver eyes, Pyrrha and Ruby were going to hunt through some of Vale’s bookshops for anything that they might have there that couldn’t be found back at Beacon. Ruby wasn’t exactly sure what kind of books they might find useful that wouldn’t be in Beacon library, but Pyrrha and Sunset had both agreed that it was a good idea and she trusted that they knew what they were doing.

Ruby blinked as she was temporarily blinded by a flash from someone’s scroll as they grabbed a picture of Pyrrha.

“Is this bothering you?” Pyrrha asked softly. “We could find a more…obscure route, if you’d like.”

Ruby snorted. “Pfft. No, it’s fine, really.”

“Oh,” Pyrrha said. “I see.”

Ruby had the distinct impression that she had just said the wrong thing. “Uh…unless you want to take a different route?”

Pyrrha didn’t break her stride, but Ruby got the sense that she was hesitating nonetheless. “I…I’m afraid I don’t know this city well enough to be sure of finding our way through the less travelled streets.”

“Me neither,” Ruby admitted. “I haven’t actually been to Vale very often.”

Pyrrha glanced at her. “Really? I thought that you and Yang were from here?”

“Nah, we grew up on Patch,” Ruby said. “It’s a little island just off the coast. It’s part of the Kingdom, but it’s not part of Vale, if you get me.”

“Ah, I understand,” Pyrrha said. “What was that like, living…not outside the kingdoms, but on the fringes of their reach and authority?”

Ruby shrugged. “There are grim around, if that’s what you mean. You have to be a little bit more careful than you do here. But I didn’t mind. I always had Yang to watch over me, even when I was little. And…it was nice. Forests, open spaces. You can walk a little way in any direction from our house, and before very long you’ll come to some place where you can forget that there are any other people around, or in the whole world. It’s so quiet, it’s just you and the wildlife. There are rabbits living not far from home, and Zwei – that’s our dog - chases them every chance he gets. It was really nice. Really, really nice. Here in Vale…I don’t think there’s anywhere quite the same.”

“No,” Pyrrha agreed. “I get the impression that there are no truly wild places in Vale proper. There are some open spaces, parks, that sort of thing; but they’re all carefully cultivated, curated, any wildness that you might see there is just an illusion skilfully created by land management.”

“Was it not like that where you grew up?”

“I grew up in the heart of Mistral,” Pyrrha said. “It is…not a city exactly like this one. Aesthetically…a little more pleasing. The whole city is built around the highest peak in series of mountains, a shining city on a hill set amidst peaks and troughs of verdant green. The mountains around are covered with grass, and in the valleys there are vast forests, but Mistral itself…all the buildings are white, they cover the slopes so that when you approach from a distance it appears that they are rising like marble out of the mountain itself. I remember, when I was returning home from one of my tournaments, approaching Mistral by airship, everything coming into view more clearly the closer I got to home: the commercial and residential districts nestling at the foot of the mountain, and then the houses becoming larger and larger the higher up you climb, mansions belonging to old and wealthy families, until you come to the very peak, the pinnacle of the mountain, and the great palace of the old Emperor that sits atop it. It’s used by the council now, of course, but still a sight to behold, built astride a waterfall that flows down the mountain through the heart of the city. In a lot of ways it is the heart of the city, and its life blood.”

“It sounds beautiful.”

“It is,” Pyrrha agreed. “When the dawn light strikes…” She stopped, and a smile flitted across her face. “You should come and see it one day. I mean, if you’d like.”

“I…sure, I guess.”

“You could come and visit during vacation sometime,” Pyrrha said. “We’ll take an airship and fly through the clouds, and when they part before us you’ll see the whole of Mistral spread out before you, rising up to touch the sky. The view from a train is less impressive, but perhaps a little more imposing.”

“I’d like that,” Ruby said, and not only because it made Pyrrha look so happy to hear it, but because she had made her home sound so beautiful that Ruby genuinely hoped to see it one day, and with her friend too. “You sound as if you really like it there.”

“Mistral is my home,” Pyrrha said. “I will fight for all of humanity, but Mistral will always have a claim upon my heart.”

“Why did you leave?” Ruby asked. “I mean, you don’t have to tell me, but…you seem to like it there so much that I wondered why you didn’t go to Haven.”

Pyrrha glanced down at the pavement over which they walked. “Mistral is a beautiful place, but I thought that a change of scenery might do me a little good.” She fell silent, and they walked on in that way for a little while, with the sounds of the street ebbing and flowing around them as their shoes tapped upon the concrete slabs. Pyrrha gestured to a nearby bench, overlooking a small park where a few children were running under the supervision of their parents. “Would you mind if we sat down for a moment?”

“Uh, no, not at all,” Ruby said.

The two of them sat down, and for a moment neither of them said anything as the sounds of children playing and dogs barking reached their ears. Ruby noticed an ice cream cart not far away.

“Would you like some ice cream?”

“Hmm?” Pyrrha murmured.

“Ice cream,” Ruby repeated, pointing at the cart.

“Um,” Pyrrha hesitated, before her face brightened a little. “Alright. Let me just get out my-“

“Oh, no, I wasn’t trying to-“

“I really don’t mind-“

“No, it’s fine, I can-“

“It will be my treat.”

“You don’t have to-“

It took a few minutes of this back and forth before they realised how stupid it was to sit there arguing over a couple of ice cream cones, and both of them burst out laughing at how silly they were being.

“Shall we each just pay for ourselves,” Pyrrha said.

“That’s probably the only way we’ll agree on something,” Ruby agreed.

Pyrrha got a simple two scoops of vanilla, while Ruby got one scoop each of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla with a chocolate flake, strawberry sauce and a sprinkling of multi-coloured hundreds and thousands. Fortunately nobody had taken their bench while they were away, and they were both able to return to it with their ice creams. Ruby began to devour hers greedily, and a little messily, while Pyrrha licked delicately at hers.

“So,” Ruby said as she ate. “What did you want to talk about?”

Pyrrha produced a tissue from out of her sleeve, and dabbed delicately at her ice-cream stained lips. “I…” she looked troubled, her brow furrowed and her mouth set in a sort of frown. “I envy you, Ruby. I know that isn’t very good of me, but…it’s the truth. I envy that you have…such an open heart. It draws people towards you. It makes it easy for them to like you. I suppose I envy your ability to make friends so easily.”

“I don’t really make friends as easily as that,” Ruby said, as she felt her cheeks burn up a little.

“You do it far more easily than I do,” Pyrrha replied. “And that is what I wanted to talk to you about. I understand that you want to learn more about your mother and your past, I would never discourage you from that, but this…I want to be sure that you understand what it might mean to go further than that. To go from understanding what it meant for your mother to be a silver-eyed warrior, if that is indeed the term, and seek to become one yourself.”

Ruby blinked. “You…you don’t think I should do it? I mean, we still don’t know what ‘it’ is or whether I could do…it. But, if I could do it, whatever it is, then you don’t think that I should?”

“I think that it isn’t my choice to make,” Pyrrha said. “Nor is it Sunset’s. We cannot choose your destiny on your behalf, Ruby. And we shouldn’t try. But you should see where the path leads before you set your feet upon it.”

“I don’t understand,” Ruby murmured. “Mom’s power, the power of the silver eyes, she used it to destroy a whole bunch of grimm just by…just by looking at them, maybe. The hero in that storybook defeated a dragon that no one else could stand up to and saved an entire kingdom.” She paused, and again the question niggled at the back of her mind that if the power of the silver eyes was all that, if her mother had been all that, then why hadn’t she come home? Had the power of the silver eyes grown in the telling, or had Mom in all her strength come up against some power mightier still? “If I can do that, if I can have that power then…don’t I have to take it?” Mom had seen it so, judging by her early diary entries; if she had wanted a brief interlude of normalcy at Beacon then she had nevertheless been prepared to devote the rest of her life to the struggle against the grimm.

Pyrrha looked away, and gazed out across the park where the carefree children played. “Look at them,” she murmured, as the wind rustled her long ponytail. “Do you think they realise that they are living in a fortress of humanity? A fortress under siege by incomprehensible evil?”

“Probably not,” Ruby ventured. “And, to be honest, I don’t think that they should know that.” She had found that out when her mother didn’t come home and her Dad had sunk into a mire of grief. She wished she hadn’t had to find out so early.

“No, you’re quite right,” Pyrrha said. “And many of them, most of them by far, will probably grow up never quite realising that. And yet some of them may have the potential to become great huntsmen and huntresses, potential that they will never realise. They could risk their lives to defend humanity, but they never will; and there is no shame in that. To take upon ones own shoulders the burden of defending the world is a great weight…but it is a weight that must be freely chosen, it can never be imposed by others. Or at least, I don’t think that it should.”

“Sunset isn’t imposing anything on me, if that’s what you think.”

“I know,” Pyrrha said. “But I don’t believe that Sunset understands…she sees a weapon, perhaps a very powerful one. And I admit that we have need of powerful weapons. But I want you to understand what it might cost you to follow this path to the end. You read your mother’s diary entry; you know what she was afraid of once she revealed her power to others.”

Ruby nodded. “She was afraid that they wouldn’t see her as a person any more.”

“When you allow yourself to be placed upon a pedestal,” Pyrrha said. “You lose all connection to the people who put your there in the first place. You may not want it, you might hate it and you probably will, but…it will happen. Is that what you want, Ruby? Is that really the destiny you wish for yourself?”

Ruby tried to imagine it, and struggled because her mind itself revolted against the very notion. She tried to imagine losing connection with Jaune, tried to imagine Yang holding her in such a state of awe that she ceased to see her as a little sister any more. She tried to imagine not being able to joke around with her, share hopes and fears, share everything that mattered. She tried to imagine it and, as hard as she might try, she couldn’t. Even if she imagined everyone else in her life fading away into a fog of disconnectedness, or falling down at her feet worshipping her silver eyes, her imagination always supplied Yang right beside her, ready to give her a noogie and embarrass her in front of everybody else while she wore that big-sister grin of hers.

She wouldn’t ever have it any other way.

“No,” she said. “That’s not what I want. But I don’t see that it has to be either.”

“You may not be given a choice,” Pyrrha said softly.

“We always have a choice,” Ruby replied. “And it’s never too late to make new choices. I can choose to find out about my mom, I can choose to find out whether I have the same power that she had, and I can choose to do all that and still have all my friends right beside me when I do it: Yang, Jaune…and you, too. Pyrrha, you might think that you don’t make friends very easily, but you have two great friends and Sunset. And I don’t plan on leaving you behind, not for a pair of silver eyes or for any destiny or…or for anything.”

Pyrrha smiled fondly. “That’s very kind of you to say, Ruby. But…I’m afraid…when you have a gift, I speak from experience when I say that the study of it consumes you all too easily until it’s all that you have. You live it, you breathe it, you go to bed and wake up again thinking about it. Until it’s all that you are, and you have nothing else.”

She bowed her head, and sighed.

Ruby rested her hands on her knees, and leaned forwards so that she could look up into Pyrrha’s face. “Pyrrha, when was the last time that you just had fun?”

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. “If I ever did I think it must have been when I was very small.”

Ruby’s expression fell for a moment as she tried to contemplate what that must have been like, before a wide smile like a particularly precocious puppy spread across her face. She leapt up from the bench and held out her hand. “Pyrrha, come with me.”

Pyrrha looked up. “Where?”

“Not to some bookshop,” Ruby declared. “We can do that tomorrow, or some other time. Right now, I’m going to teach you how to cut loose. Everyone should learn how to have fun!”

Pyrrha hesitated for a moment.

“Come on,” Ruby urged. “Don’t you trust me?”

Pyrrha nodded, and she smiled slightly as she placed one hand into Ruby’s outstretched palm.

Ruby’s fingers closed around Pyrrha’s hand as she pulled her up off the bench and began to drag her down the street. She wasn’t quite using her semblance, but she was running pretty fast and yanking Pyrrha along behind her as she pounded down the pavement in search of something specific. She passed by shops that didn’t interest her, and shops that would have interested her if she hadn’t been on a mission right now. She was looking for…she was looking for…

“Ruby,” Pyrrha said, as she picked up her own pace to partially catch up with Ruby before her arm was pulled out of its socket. “Where are we going?”

“I’ll know it when I see it,” Ruby replied, as she pulled Pyrrha to the right. There had to be something around here somewhere. “I’m about to show you a whole new world.”

Sunset sat in the library, in front of a computer terminal, going over the results of her search for 'Silver-Eyed Warriors'.

She wasn't expecting anything spectacular out of the search engine, but she was hoping that it would recommend a book that would turn out to be in the Beacon library - failing that she could give Pyrrha a call and ask her to keep an eye on it - which, in turn, would have some answers.

So far, she wasn't seeing anything useful: everything seemed to come back either to Jaune's Broadsword comic or to that fairy tale that Pyrrha had read out. The results were all either references to the story, different versions of the story, or else they were literary commentaries about the story. What books she could find were mostly retellings of - say it with me - the fairytale. Dark and edgy retellings with added sex and violence; gritty, realistic retellings where the dragon didn't talk because it was a grimm; retellings where the third brother got eaten as well because the author hated happy endings; and none of it getting Sunset any closer to finding out the truth about silver eyes.

And yet there was obviously some truth to find. Unless you were to assume that Summer Rose had filled her own diary with nonsense for the confusion and misdirection of future readers, which made no rational sense whatsoever, then you had to assume by contrast that she was telling the truth: she was a silver-eyed warrior, whatever one of those might be, and she had power that derived from the aforementioned silver eyes. That was rational assumption number one: Summer Rose confided the truth to her journal; it might only be the truth as she percieved it, but then someone who believed that they had magic eye powers when they didn't probably wouldn't make it through four years of Beacon to become a badass huntress.

Rational assumption number two: Summer Rose was not the first person to possess these powers. If magical-seeming silver eyes were her semblance, then she might get given a name like the Silver-Eyed Warrior - case in point: Pyrrha Nikos the Invincible Girl, who had earned a heroic epithet for far less - but you wouldn't get it pluralised unless you were the latest in a line of the same.

Which brought Sunset on to rational assumption number three: if there were a line of these warriors each wielding power that seemed as close to magic as anything else - maybe not Sunset's magic, but turning grimm to stone put her in mind of the cockatrice a little - would be remembered. And that was where Sunset's rational assmptions started to fall apart because it seemed that nobody remembered them at all outside of a single fairytale. It almost defied belief. Things might be forgotten with time but they didn't vanish from the collective consciousness completely. It was almost as though someone had made the information disappear, leaving only a single fairytale behind.

But that was ridiculous; who would have the power to accomplish such a feat, to make an entire world forget something that they had once known?

So why, assuming as seemed rational that Summer Rose's powers had not sprung up sui generis, was there no information about them to be found?

Sunset pushed her chair backwards. "Hey, Jaune! Any luck?"

A despairing groan from Jaune over at another terminal was all the answer that Sunset got or, frankly, needed. She rested her fingers on the edge of the table, and drummed a brief tattoo upon the wood. Then she got up.

"You're leaving?" Jaune asked.

"My old teacher used to tell me that you don't get anywhere staring at a blank page: if you can't think what to write on it then just looking at it won't give you any ideas." Sunset frowned a little. She still hadn't heard back from Twilight or Celestia. She didn't know what Celestia had made of her apology, if she had made anything at all. If she'd even cared. She pushed the thought away, this wasn't the time. If need be she could start to badger Twilight Sparkle about it, but not right now. "Come on, let's go."

Jaune started to rise from his seat. "Where are we going?"

"To get a change of scenery, grab a coffee or something, hope that some inspiration strikes us on the way," Sunset said. She pulled out her scroll as she made her way to the door, leaving Jaune to follow. "We can call Ruby and Pyrrha and see if they want to join us, or if they've found something."

As she walked out of the library, with Jaune traling after her, Sunset opened up her scroll and called Pyrrha. By the look of what Sunset could see in the background once Pyrrha answered, they were outside and moving somewhere.

"Sunset," Pyrrha said, sounding a little nervous about something. "Hello again."

"Hey," Sunset said. "Have you two had any luck so far?"

"Wait, that isn't Sunset Shimmer is it?" asked another voice, momentarily unfamiliar; unfortunately, when that all-too-brief moment wore off, Sunset felt with a slight chilling feeling stealing over her that this voice was not actually unfamiliar to her at all. In fact it was all too familiar in all the wrong ways.

No. No way can she be here. I got away, I was done with her, she cannot have followed me all the way to Vale it isn't fair! Sunset's voice trembled with a touch of dread. "Is that...Rainbow Dash?"

Pyrrha opened her mouth a little, but before she could say anything the scroll was wrenched out of her hands to focus upon the all-too familiar face of Rainbow Dash. That ridiculous rainbow hair in its daredevil cut, those magenta eyes gleaming with mischief, that face, that cocky grin; Sunset would recognise them anywhere. Much as she might wish she didn't.

"Sunset Shimmer."

Sunset's jaw tightened. "Rainbow Dash." She struggled to keep a lid on the mounting anxiety that she felt rising within her breast because this could not be happening. This absolutely could not be happening! She had gotten away! She was free of Canterlot and Rainbow Dash and all of the rest of them and everything else besides! It was bad enough that Flash had followed her to Beacon but at least he was basically amenable, he wouldn't...what might Rainbow Dash say to Ruby and Pyrrha? I had a fresh start. She had not been known here at Beacon but, notwithstanding her desire for fame, that anonymity had served her well: her unjust reputation had not gone before the poison the well in advance of her coming. If Rainbow Dash talked, if she lied to Pyrrha and Ruby then it might all be lost. "What are you doing here?"

Rainbow looked a little shifty. "Hanging out."

"Hanging out," Sunset repeated acidly. "With my team-mates?"

"Hey, I didn't know you were the one putting the S in Sapphire until you called," Rainbow replied. "Small world, isn't it?"

"Too small by a long way if you're here," Sunset said. "Put Pyrrha back on." And stay away from my team! she wanted to add, and only did not for fear that prohibition would spur Rainbow to do the opposite just to spite her. "Pyrrha, where are you?"

"Uh, I'm not entirely sure. Let me see...Thirty-Second Avenue."

"Stay there and don't move, I'm coming to you," Sunset said.

"Sorry, we can't stop," Ruby said. "We have to find Penny!"

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "And just who the hell is Penny?"

"There she is!" Ruby yelled from somewhere out of view of the scroll. "Penny, wait!"

"Gotta go," Rainbow Dash said. "Penny, stop right-"

"No, don't you dare hang up on-" Sunset yelled, stopping midway because, of course, Dash had hung up on her.

Sunset didn't know what was going on. She didn't know who Penny was or why Ruby and Pyrrha were looking for her. The only thing she knew was that there was no way she was leaving them alone with Rainbow Dash to turn them against her.

Sunset started to run. "Come on, Jaune, pick up the pace!"

"Why?" Jaune asked as he started to chase after her.

"We have to save the girls from a wicked faunus."

"Really? You mean like the White Fang?"

"Worse than the White Fang," Sunset growled.

Ruby wasn't quite using her semblance, but she was possibly blurring the edges of it just a little bit. She was certainly running fast, even allowing for dragging Pyrrha - who was running herself in order to keep up - behind her. She was running so fast, in fact, that when a girl with orange hair ambled into the street right in front of her there was no way that she could slow down in time.

"Look out!" Ruby yelled.

The other girl looked around in surprise, her mouth forming a startled O just as Ruby crashed into her. The two of them went sprawling to the pavement, though Ruby's aura prevented her from feeling more than a slight bump. Pyrrha leapt gracefully over the two fallen girls, and hesitated in apparent confusion for half a moment, before holding out a hand to help Ruby to her feet.

"Thanks," Ruby said, as she accepted Pyrrha's helping hand up. "Sorry about that, uh..."

She trailed off as she looked down at the victim of her reckless speed. Dressed in an old-fashioned blouse but modern overalls with neon green strips, the girl - who was maybe Ruby's age, maybe closer to Pyrrha, it was hard to tell if it was just her freckles making her look young - lay casually upon the pavement as though it were the most natural thing in the world to just lie on your back in the street and not something you should do something about pretty quickly. Even weirder, she was smiling, beaming even, without a hint of...well, without a hint of any of the things that you'd expect someone to feel after they'd just been knocked to the ground.

"Uh," Ruby murmured. She glanced at Pyrrha for help, but Pyrrha looked just as baffled by this as Ruby felt. "Sorry I ran into you."

The girl's smile remained fixed in place. "No problem. Judging by your cry of warning, it was an accident. Your momentum was too great to be arrested rapidly."

"Yeah," Ruby said. "I, uh, was going pretty fast." She laughed nervously. "So...do you...need a hand getting up?"

"No," the girl said, and she proved it by leaping to her feet in a single fluid motion. "But thank you for asking."

"Are you alright?" Pyrrha asked solicitously.

"One hundred percent capacity!" the girl declared proudly.

"Ah," Pyrrha said, in a neutral tone. "I see."

A silence descended between them. An uncomfortable silence that Ruby filled before it could get any worse. "So, I'm Ruby."

"And my name is Pyrrha."

"I'm Penny, it's a pleasure to meet you!" Penny chirped. She cocked her head. "Why are you carrying weapons?"

"Well, we're Beacon Academy students and-"

"Really!" Penny yelled. "Are you going to be competing in the tournament?"

"Very probably," Pyrrha said.

"I am also here to compete in the tournament," Penny said. "Perhaps we will face each other in the coliseum!"

"Are you a student from one of the other schools?" Ruby asked. She knew that some of the other competitors were due to start arriving soon, although most of them wouldn't make it until the start of next semester. "Is the rest of your team around here somewhere?"

"No," Penny said, and for once her voice lost a little of its enthusiasm. "They let me go off on my own." She hiccupped.

"You've been here before, then?" Pyrrha asked.

"No. This is my first time away from home. It's so exciting!"

"And your team-mates just let you wander off by yourself?" Ruby asked. "Seems kind of mean. Do you know where you're going?"

Penny shook her head. "I am taking in the sights."

Ruby frowned. Penny's team didn't sound like much of a team to her. The first time in a new city should be a time for team bonding, hitting the streets together, trying the food, seeing what was what. Not ditching someone to do...whatever the rest of them were up to right now. "Well...you're welcome to come along with us." Belatedly she realised that Pyrrha might want a say in that decision, but the other girl didn't seem bothered by the impromptu invitation.

Penny's eyes widened. "Really? I can come with you...like friends?"

"Yeah," Ruby said. "Just like friends."

It shouldn't have been possible for Penny's smile to get any wider, but somehow it did. "Sensational! Where are we going, new friends?"

"I was just about to take Pyrrha to-"

"Penny!" a loud yell from a harsh female voice echoed down the street, drawing the attention of all three of them. Penny squeaked in alarm, and pushed past Ruby to start quickly down the street, even as a rainbow blur sped towards them from the other direction.

"Penny!" the new arrival shouted again. "Get back here!"

Ruby reacted on instinct. As Penny fled, Ruby started forwards.

It was simple. This person, whoever they were, was chasing Penny. Penny didn't want to be caught. Therefore whoever was chasing Penny must be bad news for her.

And it was a huntress' job to protect people.

Like a rose unfolding its thorns, Crescent Rose unfurled in a series of clanks and hisses. And as the other girl charged towards her, leaving a trail of rainbows, Ruby took aim down the sights.

"Hold it right there!"

Team RSPT (pronounced rosepetal) was not like other teams. It wasn't made up of four aspiring huntsmen or huntresses thrown together by fate to train in monster slaying. It had been put together by General Ironwood, deliberately and with thought, and each member had a purpose.

The whole team was built around Penny. It was her team; she might not lead it but she was the point of it, the star of the show: a walking, talking demonstration of Atlesian R&D prowess, proof of a concept that would change the world. If she could actually focus for five minutes at a time and not wander off because seriously, she got distracted more easily than Pinkie on her worst day.

No offence, Pinkie. You know I love you.

The rest of the team was there for Penny's sake: to support her, to watch over her, to make sure that she could and did achieve her potential; her destiny. Twilight Sparkle was there for Penny's tech support; she might not be a good huntress, or any kind of huntress at all to be honest, but she was probably the only person other than Penny's father who could understand Penny's systems, let alone maintain them in the field.

Ciel Soleil was there to try and keep Penny in line, on mission and reasonably focussed. She didn't always succeed but not for lack of trying. In between times she also took care of all the other boring stuff that had to be done like finding them a place to sleep. And paperwork.

And Rainbow Dash was there to keep all the rest alive. That was why her name came first, that was why she was the team leader: because if all else failed, if Penny didn't live up to her hype, if something went wrong then Rainbow Dash would get them out. Whatever it took.

Of course, being team leader - and the muscle - also meant that when Penny did manage to slip past Ciel's watch - it wasn't Ciel's fault, or Twilight's; a robot who didn't need to sleep was always going to have an advantage over humans who did. If anything it was probably Rainbow's fault for going out on a morning jog - and get out of the hotel it was Rainbow's job to find her and drag her back by the scruff of the neck while Twi and Ciel stayed safe in their hotel room.

And so Rainbow was out pounding the streets of Vale, not in the best of moods as she tracked the errant robot using an app that Twilight had uploaded to her scroll linked to a transponder in Penny's...Twilight had stopped bothering to explain the techspeak when she saw Rainbow yawning. While Twilight's genius did mean that Rainbow was spared the need to hunt for Penny all across Vale, that didn't actually put Rainbow Dash in a good mood as she closed in on Penny's location.

Rainbow Dash considered herself to be an easy-going sort of girl, but to be perfectly honest there were very few things about this situation that she liked. She didn't like having Twi in the field like this, much as Rainbow loved her the little egghead wasn't trained for combat, wasn't physically fit and understanding all the properties of aura didn't mean that you knew how to use it to fight the grimm. She didn't like the fact that they had to go to Vale for Penny's field testing in the first place and she liked it even less now that Vale was being hit with a wave of White Fang attacks. She didn't like the fact that one of her best friends was in the same city as a major White Fang presence and she really didn't like the fact that she couldn't keep an eye on Twi right now because she had to chase down an over-curious robot. Again.

General Ironwood should have given Applejack this job, Rainbow thought as she ran down the street, with her unzipped sports jacket flapping around her. That meant that the machine-pistols she wore in her shoulder holsters were partially exposed, but if anyone noticed they didn't object. Probably they were used to huntresses from Beacon walking around armed. Applejack could be here, and I'd be with Fluttershy. But, although Applejack might have possessed more patience for Penny's antics, Rainbow knew that wouldn't have stopped her from worrying. She might not have had to worry about Fluttershy, but she'd have worried about Twilight twice as much for being so far away.

The effect of all of this cumulatively was that when Rainbow Dash ran around the corner to see Penny right in front of her, talking to a pair of armed girls about Rainbow's age, she wasn't inclined to react calmly.

"Penny!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she ran down the street, a rainbow trailing behind her as she reached the low threshold of her semblance.

Penny started to flee.

"Penny!" Rainbow yelled again. "Get back here!"

And then the girl in the red hood pulled a gun on her. Or at least, she unfolded a ridiculously huge scythe and pointed it at Rainbow Dash as though it was a gun so there was probably a gun in there somewhere.

"Hold it right there!" she cried in a high-pitched voice as Penny ran out of sight.

Rainbow Dash didn't know what was going on here or who these people were. All she knew was that she was not having the best day ever and someone had just pulled a weapon on her. Maybe they were trying to kidnap Penny (Penny was too nice for her own good, it wouldn't surprise Rainbow if somebody could talk her into a van by offering her a bag of...robot candy). Maybe something else was going on. Right now she didn't really care. Good guys didn't pull weapons unprovoked.

Which meant they were a problem, and it was part of Rainbow's job to deal with problems.

She gritted her teeth. You want a piece of me? I'll show you want I've got.

What she didn't have was her wing-pack, unfortunately; but never mind. She could take these two just fine without.

She was Rainbow Dash, after all. She could take them out in ten seconds flat.

Rainbow reached for her pistols.

"Ruby!" the other girl - the one not wearing a hood, the one with a sword and shield for which she was now reaching - cried in alarm.

The girl in the red hood - Ruby - fired.

And Rainbow activated her semblance.

Instantly the whole world was plunged into syrup, and Rainbow Dash herself the only person able to move normally. She could see the bullet from Ruby's gun, a white streak moving lazily towards her. A rainbow glowed around Dash, and trailed behind her as she darted around the shot and ran straight for Ruby. It was as Rainbow was running forward, drawing her pistols as she ran, that she noticed something that she'd never seen before. Not-Ruby - there was something familiar about her, but Rainbow couldn't quite place what it was - was reaching for her weapons, pulling her sword and shield off her back, but she was doing so slowly, painfully slowly like she was wading through tar or something. But Ruby...Ruby was coming straight for Rainbow Dash and she was moving normally. She trailed rose petals behind her as she came for Rainbow Dash every bit as fast as Rainbow Dash was coming for her.

Another speedster, huh? Rainbow thought. This just got a lot more interesting.

Hell, this might even be fun.

The scowl slid off Rainbow Dash's face, replaced with a grin. Sure, she had a Penny to find and a mission to complete, but how many times would she get the chance to go up against somebody as fast as her?

Judging by Ruby's wide-eyes, she wasn't quite as appreciative of the opportunity to match speeds like this.

Rainbow swerved out of Ruby's way, letting Ruby's momentum carry her past.

And as they past Rainbow winked, aimed the pistol in her right hand, and shot Ruby in the face. She squeezed the trigger four times, semi-automatic...except that she'd forgotten that the bullets were not superfast. As soon as they left the barrel they moved as slowly as everything else and Ruby was able to evade them with ease.

Twilight needs to make me some super-speed bullets or something, Rainbow thought. I don't know how but she's a genius, I'm sure she can figure something out.

Ruby swung her scythe. The arc was wide. Too wide, the guard on that thing was ridiculously over-extended. Maybe that didn't matter if nobody was fast enough to get close but Rainbow was fast enough. She leapt into the air, legs tucked up to let the scythe pass harmlessly beneath her...until she brought one leg down to balance on the crimson shaft of the scythe and kicked Ruby in the head.

Ruby managed to avoid the strike with a deft movement, and then threw Rainbow off of her scythe with a flick. Rainbow twisted in mid-air for a landing on her feet...but she had de-activated her semblance the moment she stopped to pose on Ruby's scythe for her kick.

Something slammed into Rainbow Dash from behind hard enough to send her flying head first into the wall. She hit the brickwork hard enough to crack it in places, but barely had half a second to appreciate that fact before she was hurled to the ground. Not-Ruby stood over her, with eyes as cold as the Atlesian tundra.

I'm guessing you're one of those mama bear types who doesn't appreciate people picking on your friends. Rainbow could respect that, since she was a little in that way herself. Didn't mean it wasn't kind of a pain to deal with now though. Rainbow rolled out the way as not-Ruby brought her shield down where Rainbow's face would have been. A burst of semblance got her out of immediate danger, and a quick check of her scroll confirmed that her aura was still in the green.

Not-Ruby charged. She might not have a speed semblance but she could still move. Rainbow levelled her pistols and let her have it with both barrels, full auto. Not-Ruby took it on her shield, covering her face and letting the bullets bounce off as she turned her sword into a frickin' gun and shot back. Rainbow dodged out the way as her pistols ran empty.

No time to reload now. Rainbow charged, not at super-speed but leaving a rainbow trail regardless as she ran for not-Ruby. She leapt up, spinning in mid-air as she went for a kick right at the centre of not-Ruby's shield. She'd kick, and fire the shotgun hidden in the sole of her boot.

Except that wasn't what happened. Though Rainbow would have sworn that her kick was aimed perfectly, it didn't land. Not-Ruby angled her shield up a little and Rainbow's kick passed harmlessly over it, barely scraping the metal.

And then not-Ruby brought her shield up into Rainbow's outstretched leg, tipping her up so that she hit the ground head first before being battered into the ground with a series of blows that must have knocked her aura down into the yellow at least.

Rainbow's pony ears twitched as she let out a soft groan of pain. When she looked up, both Ruby and not-Ruby were standing over her, guns pointed at her head.

Damn.

"What do you want with Penny?" Ruby demanded. "Leave her alone!"

"Leave her alone?" Rainbow repeated. "So that you can...what? What do you want with Penny? Who are you working for, how did you find out about her?" Being humans they weren't White Fang but that still left foreign governments, criminal syndicates or the Schnee Dust Company as possible suspects.

"We don't work for anyone," Ruby replied. "We just protected Penny from you!"

Please don't tell me that I got my ass kicked as a result of a misunderstanding. Rainbow groaned. "I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot here. The name's Rainbow Dash, I'm Penny's team leader and I've been looking for her."

"You have a very aggressive form of looking," not-Ruby observed.

"Yeah," Rainbow admitted. "I got a little too grouchy there. But I really do need to find her and bring her back with me."

"If you're her team leader then you're the one who sent her out on her own in the first place!"

"Did she tell you that? Did she hiccup when she said it?" Rainbow asked.

The two of them looked at one another. "Yes."

"She does that when she lies," Rainbow explained. "Listen, I really do need to find her: she's all alone in a brand new place and she has no clue what she's doing. But if you don't trust me, then you're welcome to come with: we'll all go find Penny together, and when we do she'll admit that I don't mean her any harm." Now she would see if they were sincere in having Penny's best interests at heart, or if they were full of it. Rainbow drew a small degree of hope from the fact that they hadn't just killed her and dumped her body in the garbage somewhere. That suggested they were more than just simple bad guys.

"Penny...does seem a little naive," not-Ruby said softly. She glanced at Ruby. "So long as we keep an eye on her..."

Ruby's scythe folded into a more compact, stubby, carbine-like weapon. "Okay. But we'll be watching."

Rainbow Dash took that as her cue to pick herself up off the ground. "So, who are you guys anyway? You got some moves between you. Huntresses?"

"Not quite," not-Ruby said. "We're students at Beacon Academy. I'm Pyrrha Nikos and this is Ruby Rose, members of Team Sapphire."

"Rainbow Dash, leader of Team Rosepetal," Rainbow said as she shook the hand of- "Wait a second, Pyrrha Nikos! I didn't recognise you without your costume on."

"You mean my armour."

"It's kind of a costume, isn't it?"

Pyrrha hesitated. "Possibly. So, I suppose you've seen me fight."

"Yeah, I saw you fight Shining Armour for that charity gig," Rainbow said, speaking vaguely because she didn't honestly expect Pyrrha to remember what she was talking about. She might remember the fight, but she probably wouldn't remember much about the occasion.

It was a little to Rainbow's surprise that Pyrrha's face brightened visibly. "Oh, the exhibition for the Prosthesis Institute fundraiser! Yes, I remember-" her eyes narrowed a little. "We've met before, haven't we? You were at the gala after the fight. You're a little easier to recognise now that you've stopped running or shooting."

"You two know each other?" Ruby asked.

"I wouldn't say we know each other," Rainbow replied.

"It was last year," Pyrrha explained. "I fought an exhibition with the Atlesian champion, all the ticket sales went to raise money for a new institute developing prosthetic limbs for children, in partnership with expertise from some of the finest hospitals in Atlas and Mistral."

"I didn't actually buy a ticket," Rainbow admitted as she pulled out her scroll. "I'm a friend of Shining Armour's sister and I got one of his complementary tickets." She opened up the scroll, went to her photo album, and started to rummage through the pictures. "And then you went round the hospital and talked to the kids afterwards. Now that was the bit I thought I was really cool." She brought up a picture that she'd taken from Pyrrha's visit, that showed Pyrrha sitting on the edge of Scootaloo's bed while Rainbow's spiritual sister beamed excitedly into the camera. She showed the picture.

"Awww," Ruby cooed.

"I didn't really do anything," Pyrrha murmured.

"You told Scootaloo that she could be whatever she chose to become," Rainbow said. "Not enough people tell her that." She chuckled. "I wish I'd recognised you before I attacked you. Sorry about that."

"It's alright," Pyrrha said. "I think we both reacted a little rashly. Now, do you still want our help in finding your friend?"

"She's not my friend so much as she is my...yeah, I'll take your help."

"Where do we start looking?" said Ruby.

"I've got a super-smart friend who put a tracker on her," Rainbow said, bringing up the tracking app. A red dot pulsed on a top-down map of Vale. "We just have to follow this to her location."

"Kind of extreme, don't you think?" Ruby muttered with evident disapproval.

"You'll understand once you get to know her," Rainbow replied.

They followed Penny's slow-moving signal, and were closing in on her latest position when Pyrrha's scroll started to buzz.

Pyrrha opened up her scroll, and seemed to hesitate a little on seeing whoever it was on the other end. "Sunset; hello again."

Sunset? No way, it can't be her can it?

"Hey. Have you two had any luck so far?"

"Wait, that isn't Sunset Shimmer, is it?" Rainbow Dashed asked as she plucked the scroll out of Pyrrha's hands and looked down onto the unmistakable face of Sunset Shimmer.

Wow. What did these two do in a previous life to get stuck with Sunset Shimmer...Sapphire; she's their team leader isn't she?

Wow, are these two unlucky.

For that matter, Rainbow Dash was inclined to consider herself a little unlucky herself. She'd hoped to never have to see Sunset Shimmer again after what some of the stunts she'd tried to pull in Canterlot. Trying to turn her friends against one another wasn't something that Rainbow Dash forgave or forgot lightly; the fact that it hadn't worked didn't mitigate the fact that she had made the attempt. "Sunset Shimmer."

Sunset's jaw tightened. "Rainbow Dash."

No way that I can tell her about Penny. You didn't let Sunset Shimmer know anything about you if you could avoid it. Anything she did find out she'd try and use against you. "Hanging out."

"Hanging out," Sunset repeated acidly. "With my team-mates?"

What, is somebody worried that I'll tell some stories? How much do your team-mates know about you, I wonder. "Hey, I didn't know you were the one putting the S in Sapphire until you called," Rainbow replied. "Small world, isn't it?"

"Too small by a long way if you're here," Sunset said. "Put Pyrrha back on."

Rainbow wordlessly handed Pyrrha her scroll back.

"Pyrrha, where are you?"

"Uh, I'm not entirely sure. Let me see..." Pyrrha looked around for a street sign. "Thirty-Second Avenue."

"Stay there and don't move, I'm coming to you," Sunset said.

"Sorry, we can't stop," Ruby said. "We have to find Penny!"

"And just who the hell is Penny?" Sunset demanded, just as Ruby caught sight of Penny looking aimless outside the entrance to a big, glassy shopping plaza.

"There she is!" Ruby yelled, loudly enough to draw the attention of Penny herself. "Penny, wait!" Ruby cried as Penny turned to make another exit.

"Gotta go," Rainbow Dash said, reaching across to hang up on Sunset. "Penny, stop right there!"

Penny looked as though she didn't really want to wait for Rainbow Dash and the others to catch up to her, but a quick burst of semblance carried Rainbow and Ruby the remaining distance over to her, while Pyrrha was left to run to catch up.

"Penny, stop! Ruby cried. "You don't need to run away." She put a hand on Penny's shoulder. "It's going to be okay, I promise."

Rainbow Dash put her hands on her hips. "In the first place, will you please tell these two that I am not the bad guy? In fact why don't you just tell them who I am?"

"You're Rainbow Dash, leader of Team Rosepetal."

"Uh-huh," Rainbow said. "And you're a member of Team Rosepetal, aren't you?"

"Certainly! I'm combat ready!"

"Then why were you running?" Pyrrha asked as she joined them.

"We got into a fight because of you," Rainbow said.

Penny blinked. "You...you fought over me? You got into a fight with Rainbow Dash...because of me?"

"Well, yeah," Ruby admitted. "I mean, we thought you were scared of her or something, but-"

"Thank you!" Penny yelled, pulling Ruby into a hug. "This means we really are friends! You fought over me! Nobody has ever fought for me before!"

"Uh...you're welcome?"

Penny released her. "I'm sorry that I caused so much trouble. I just don't want you to take me back yet."

"I'm sure that wherever it is you don't have to go right away, right?" Ruby said, looking at Rainbow Dash. "You're both welcome to come along with us, right Pyrrha?"

"Oh, yes! You never got the chance to tell me where we were going?"

"Hang on, Penny, you might not be going anywhere," Rainbow said.

"Aww, come on," Ruby said. "So long as you stay with her then it's no problem, right?"

Specialist Schnee and General Ironwood might not see it that way, Rainbow Dash thought. But neither of them were in front of him now, looking at her the way that Ruby and Penny were looking at her.

I guess we are supposed to be field testing Penny; we'll call it Observations of Behviour in Non-Combat Situations, or something.

"Okay," Rainbow conceded. "Where are we going?"

Sunset found them in an arcade not far from Thirty-Second Street.

Her brow was stained with sweat from a mixture of the running and the sense of nervousness that she'd felt tightening in her chest with every step she took, every moment that she spent away and they were with Rainbow Dash and Celestia only knew what she might tell them about Sunset and the things that she'd done. Her mind was filled with horrible visions as Ruby and Pyrrha rejected her for the horrors of her past, as they refused to believe that she could change, would change, had changed.

I am not that which I was. But of course Rainbow Dash wouldn't believe that - and to be somewhat fair Sunset couldn't blame her too much for that - in fact she couldn't even believe that Sunset was only as bad as she had been, and not worse. Things that hadn't been Sunset's fault had gotten attached to her because she was a...because she had been an ass about whom people had learnt to assume the worst because it was frequently true. If Rainbow told Ruby and Pyrrha about the things that she had done it would be bad enough, but if she told them about the things that she hadn't done then...it scarcely bore thinking about.

But it was all that Sunset could think about as she ran through the streets, leaving Jaune trailing behind her, searching frantically, desperately for Ruby and Pyrrha.

And once you find them, then what? Are you going to beat Rainbow Dash into unconsciousness to stop her from talking? It was a tempting idea, but one likely to do more harm than good. The truth was that even once she got there then there was nothing Sunset could do to stop Rainbow Dash from spilling everything...nothing except witness the crash in person.

Or beg for mercy. That might be her only choice, the hardest choice of all: to humble herself before Rainbow Dash and cry forgiveness for all that she had done and hope the other faunus was generous enough to grant it, to plead to not have everything that she had so slowly and so painfully built up here ripped away from her in an instant.

I mean, it's not like I really did her any harm, or any of them. Yes, I was mean and vain and proud and...maybe a little cruel sometimes, but it's not like I did any lasting damage. They were all still friends when Rainbow graduated Canterlot, it's not like I broke up the band. And let's remember who the real victim was in all of the stuff that went down there.

Sunset scowled, and shook her head. She couldn't think like that. She couldn't afford to think like that. Throwing herself a pity party wasn't likely to win her any favours from Rainbow Dash.

How I hate that girl. Sunset, who liked to think that she had mellowed lately, was surprised by the vituperative force of the feelings that still flowed through her when she thought about Rainbow, her smug smile, her cocky attitude. The way she acted as though she didn't even realise that she had pony ears, the way a world that never failed to remind Sunset she was a despised faunus seemed to treat the great Rainbow Dash like she was human.

The way that she was always surrounded by smiles and laughter. Sunset hadn't admitted that at the time, not even to herself; perhaps she hadn't even realised it. But now, with a clearer head and consequently clearer eye, should could concede that truth: even when she had most bitterly denied the worth of friends she had been consumed with envy of those who had them when she did not.

And now Rainbow Dash would take her friends away unless Sunset abased herself before her.

It was with her thoughts thus awhirl like a tornado that Sunset found them in an arcade not far from Thirty-Second Street. She panted for breath, and in the way of it she felt the sweat running down her back all the more once she stopped running and started moving more slowly.

She spotted Pyrrha first. Even in this place of dim lightning illuminated more by the flashing lights of the games cabinets than the practically non-existent ambient lightning, Pyrrha's red hair and statuesque figure stood out. As Sunset made her way towards her she was surprised to see that Pyrrha was playing a button-masher fighting game...with Rainbow Dash.

Ruby wasn't too far away, Sunset could spot her red cloak, playing one of those zombie shooters with the toy guns you pointed at the screen alongside a ginger-haired girl - maybe this Penny that they had been looking for earlier - with a bow in her hair.

Sunset was about to announce herself as she staggered with leaden feet towards them, but it was Jaune who spoke up first with an indignant declaration of, "You guys went to the arcade? Then why didn't you invite me?"

Everyone - everyone being the four people in this arcade who actually mattered - looked at him.

"Jaune!" Ruby cried enthusiastically. "Oh, sorry. It's just that it was kind of an impulse decision and then we ran into Penny and everything happened so fast after that that I just didn't think." She stopped for a second, only to gasp. "Oh, right! You don't know: Penny, Rainbow Dash, meet our friends Jaune Arc and Sunset Shimmer. Jaune, Sunset, this is Penny-"

"Hello, new friends!" Penny said, waving enthusiastically.

"And this is Rainbow Dash."

"Yo."

"Yo?" Jaune repeated. "Sunset said...I thought that you were in danger? Sunset said we had to rescue you from a faunus worse than the White Fang."

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash said. "I am worse than the White Fang. The White Fang are a bunch of chumps. I'm a badass." She smirked. "That said, I'm still kind of flattered, Sunset. I wouldn't have thought that you'd be so nice to me."

I bet you're just loving this, aren't you? "What can I say?" Sunset replied.

Rainbow Dash stared at Sunset coolly for a moment. "I'm going to get a soda," she said. "Hey, Jaune, why don't you take over here."

"Uh, okay," Jaune said, taking Rainbow's place beside Pyrrha. "So, Pyrrha, I didn't know you were into this kind of thing."

"I'm not, really. This is my first time...anywhere like this."

"Really? You mean I might actually beat you at something?" Jaune said. "Or...maybe something less selfish. How have you never been to an arcade before?"

"She's had a poor, deprived childhood," Rainbow called as she headed towards the burger bar at the back of the arcade.

"That's why we're putting it right now," Ruby agreed.

Sunset didn't hear the rest of what might have passed between Jaune and Pyrrha, because she followed Rainbow Dash down towards the back of the arcade.

"Two sodas," Rainbow said, leaning on the desk.

"Generous," Sunset said.

Rainbow snorted. "Who says the other one is for you."

Sunset didn't reply. She just stood there, and stared, and waited.

"Yeah, it's for you, I'm just that nice," Rainbow said. She drummed her fingers on the wooden bar and looked at Sunset out of the side of her eye. "They don't know what you are, do they?"

"What I am? What am I?"

"You're the worst."

Sunset shuffled uncomfortably. "That Anon-a-Miss thing genuinely wasn't me. I swear on...I'll swear on anything you like."

"You could swear on anything you liked and I wouldn't buy it," Rainbow replied. She glanced back up to where the others were engrossed. "What do you think they'd do if they heard some of the stories that I could tell them about you."

"No," Sunset whispered. "Please, don't. I...I'm not the person that I was back then."

"Why should I believe that either?"

"Because they trust me?" Sunset offered. "Because they put up with me, maybe they even like me a little. If I were that bad, if I were as bad as I was back then, would they do that? Would they be able to do that? I've changed, Rainbow Dash, I promise, I sw- I've changed."

Rainbow cocked her head. "This matters to you, doesn't it?"

"Yes it matters to me!" Sunset hissed. "You're talking about destroying the trust that my team has in me."

"The way that you tried to take away the trust my friends had in each other?" Rainbow demanded. "The way you tried to divide and rule at Canterlot?"

"I was an idiot!" Sunset cried. She would have grabbed Rainbow if she hadn't thought it would be counter-productive. "I was stupid and I didn't realise what it meant to be a faunus in Atlas and how it would all turn out and I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry for what I did, for what I tried to do...to you and your friends and everyone, I'm sorry. Is that what you want to hear? What do you want from me?"

"Maybe I want to know why you did it."

"Because I hated you!" Sunset said in a voice that was half-yell, half-whisper. "I hated the way that...I hated the way that when you were around I couldn't just pretend that it was all about my ears and my tail because that's what I told myself: it's not you, it's Atlas. It's not your fault that they don't see you in all your glory. But then there was you: you can't do half of what I can, your semblance is just...all you can do is run fast and you're just a faunus just like me and yet...everyone thought you were so awesome. You were the star of the school and you had friends. You had human friends who didn't give a damn about the extra ears." Sunset took a deep breath. "I'm not proud, but there it is. That's why I tried to...because I wanted to bring you down to the same level that I was stuck at but that's not who I am any more. Please, Rainbow Dash, I...I'm begging you. Don't take this away from me."

But Rainbow dash's face was hard as stone, her eyes hostile and unyielding.

And then she started to laugh. "You should see the look on your face. Hah!"

Sunset's eyes widened in confusion. "You...what...huh?"

"I'm not going to tell them anything," Rainbow said.

"You're not?"

"I may not like you, but I'm not like you," Rainbow said. "I'm not going to try and ruin your life just because I can. Plus, if it really matters that much to you then maybe you have changed. Or else you'll blow it for yourself like you did at Canterlot."

"Don't remind me," Sunset growled. "So this...this was all about getting a rise out of me?"

"Pretty much."

"You are more evil then I could ever dream of being."

"Oh, come on! Pranks are good fun so long as the target can take it."

"I'll bear that in mind."

"Ooh, was that a threat?"

"Or perhaps I'll just share the pictures of that band you and your friends used to be in."

"Okay, first of all we're still in a band: Rainbooms for life. Second, you can share whatever pictures you like because we rocked that look."

"You certainly didn't rock the music."

"Now you're just showing that you have bad taste."

By the time they rejoined the others, Rainbow having decided it would be rude not to get everyone a drink, not to mention a tub of chips for sharing - "Don't worry," she said, although Sunset hadn't been. "Atlas is paying for all of this." Whatever that meant - Pyrrha was laughing and Jaune was crowing.

"I did it!" he yelled. "I actually beat you! I don't believe it!"

"I don't believe it either," Sunset said. "What happened."

"It turns out I'm terrible at this game," Pyrrha said, stifling her laughter behind one hand. "But it was such fun, can we go again?"

It turned out that Pyrrha was pretty terrible at button-mashers in general, if only because she couldn't seem to get the hang of the controls at all no matter how they were spelled out for her. She did much, much better at shooters where she shot the plastic guns with the same unerring aim that she used when firing Milo...until she started to fall off in performance to the extent that Sunset wondered if she was deliberately throwing games so that people would want to keep playing against her. Not that Sunset was bothered by that, it left more space on the high score table for her.

"Do you have any idea," Pyrrha said to Ruby, as she stepped back from Alley Brawler to let Jaune go up against Rainbow Dash. "How refreshing it is to not have your opponent concede defeat to you before the fight has even begun? Thank you, Ruby, this was a wonderful idea."

"I'm glad you're having a good time," Ruby said. "I-"

"YES!" Sunset yelled, as she finally, finally, finally beat Penny at TurboRacer. The strange girl - so strange that Sunset wanted to know what was up with her - had reflexes that were uncannily fast, even without her aura activated (they'd jointly decided on auras down to level the playing field a little); she'd claimed to have no more set foot in a place like this than Pyrrha and yet she picked up every game she turned her hand to with ridiculous ease. And she was good at them, too. But none of that mattered because Sunset had beaten her, and it had only taken ten tries to do it, too! "I won!"

"You know," Rainbow said. "I think you might have actually gotten more competitive than you used to be." She grinned. "I like it. Bet I can beat your high score."

"Oh it is so on."

By the time Rainbow and Penny left, somewhat reluctantly having gotten a call from someone named Ciel, the members of Team SAPR were about ready to head back to Beacon themselves. But, even though they hadn't gotten any work done...

"Ruby," Sunset said. "Great job. Today...it was a good day."

"A very good day," Pyrrha agreed.

"A great day," Jaune said. "We should do it again some time."

"Maybe the other members of Rosepetal could join us?" Pyrrha suggested. "Did anybody get their scroll numbers?"

"I did," Ruby said. "And we could bring Iron, too."

Sunset didn't add anything to the growing discussion. The truth was that she could have lost every game and it wouldn't really have made any difference. The moment that Rainbow Dash had revealed that she had no intention of badmouthing Sunset to her friends, the moment it turned out that she would be keeping her team after all...that, alone, was enough to make it a good day.

Spike barked.

Twilight looked down from the holographic display in front of her, and smiled down at her pet as, with one hand, she scratched him behind the ears. “What’s wrong, Spike? Are you hungry?”

Spike made a yelping, slightly moaning sound as he clambered up onto Twilight’s lap.

“Oh, I see, you just want some attention,” Twilight said fondly, and she kept on rubbing him even as, with her other hand, she continued to pull out bits and pieces from the blow-out hologram.

Team RSPT had rented a mid-market apartment for their stay in Vale. It wasn’t a huge space, but apart from the bedrooms, the bathroom and the kitchen there was a living area with a TV that no one was watching, a couple of chairs, a sofa, some floor space that was getting increasingly cluttered with stuff and a table on which Twilight Sparkle had set up her holo-projector. It was currently projecting, in a soft blue light, a three-dimension blow-up diagram of the planned Semi-Autonomous Sword system she was working on. Even as she gave Spike a belly-rub with one hand, Twilight pulled a piece of the power-pack towards her and turned it over in the air, looking for excess space that she could minimise in her quest to get this thing working.

On the other side of the table, just about visible through the hologram, Ciel sat primly in a tatty green armchair, reading a large and rather heavy-looking book on the history of the Atlesian Navy during the Great War. Occasionally she glanced at her watch and uttered a loud tut.

“I’m sure that they’ll be back soon,” Twilight said nervously. “After all, Rainbow has my tracking app, so she knows where to find Penny.”

“Indeed.”

Twilight pushed her glasses back up her nose. The truth was that she was feeling a little nervous herself. It shouldn’t have taken Rainbow Dash that long to find Penny. After all, her semblance was quite literally being fast, so it wasn’t as if Penny could run away from her. Not forever, anyway.

Perhaps something really had happened to them. A part of Twilight felt disloyal even for considering the possibility – Rainbow was one of her best friends, after all; how could she not have faith in her? But another part of her felt more afraid because Rainbow was one of Twilight’s best friends. What if something happened to her? What if the White Fang got her, or racists, or she was trying to help Penny, or…what if she went out that door and never came back?

What would I say to Pinkie, or Fluttershy and Applejack? What would I say to Scootaloo? What if I never-

Spike looked up, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, and barked happily at the door.

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as she realised that she had been panicking over nothing, working herself up into a state for no good reason. Spike only barked at the door like that when Rainbow Dash was coming back (in this city, at least; back in Atlas it would happen whenever one of Twilight’s friends came around).

Sure enough, there was a knock at the door just a few seconds later.

Twilight was about to get up, but she was halted by a raised hand from Ciel.

“It’s just Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said.

“We’ll see,” Ciel said in a tone devoid of emotion. She put down her heavy book and got up, picking up the pistol that sat on the arm of her chair.

She loaded and cocked it as she walked towards the door.

Do we really need to be so paranoid? Twilight supposed that they probably did, since one of the few things that Rainbow and Ciel agreed on was that Vale was dangerous and that they needed to be cautious, but Twilight sometimes struggled to see what they were so worried about. The four kingdoms were at peace, and Vale and Atlas had been allies for a generation. It was true that General Ironwood had insisted on the need for secrecy around Penny, but he wouldn’t have sent them to Vale if it was the kind of warzone were they should be afraid of walking out the front door.

Ciel pressed herself against the wall, and peered out of the peephole. She made a slightly exasperated noise as she opened the door to reveal Rainbow Dash and Penny.

“Hey,” Rainbow said, with a sheepish smile on her face. “We brought take-out.” She raised a couple of plastic bags bulging with cardboard noodle boxes. Twilight could smell the Mistralian food from where she sat.

“Welcome back,” Twilight said. “Are you guys okay?”

“We are in excellent condition!” Penny replied as she followed Rainbow inside.

Ciel shut the door behind them with just a little more force than was necessary. “You have been out of contact for five hours and forty-two minutes.”

“Sometimes I can’t tell which one is the automaton,” Rainbow muttered as she walked into the centre of the room and deposited the bags of food on the floor. “Hey, Twi. Hey there, Spike.”

Spike barked, and leapt off Twilight’s lap to run to Rainbow Dash’s feet. Rainbow grinned as she knelt down and rubbed his feet.

“Kinda makes me miss Tank, seeing the little guy like this,” Rainbow murmured.

“I’m sure Pinkie’s taking care of him.”

“Yeah, if the alligator hasn’t eaten him.”

“Actually, at Gummy’s size his jaws don’t have the strength to-

“I’ll take your word for it, Twi; you know math isn’t my thing.”

“Is that why you were out so late?” Ciel asked, folding her arms.

“We were out with my new friends!” Penny declared cheerfully.

The words crashed down amongst the remaining members of Team RSPT like a broken sky-cruiser falling to the ground.

“Your…new…friends?” Twilight repeated.

Ciel’s expression was like stone. “Clarify.”

Rainbow rose to her feet. “Penny made some friends on her big day out. A team of huntresses in training from Beacon called Team Sapphire. Hey, Twilight, you’d never guess who their leader is.”

Twilight blinked. It had to be someone that she knew – and Rainbow Dash knew – or she wouldn’t be bringing it up. But equally it had to be someone she wouldn’t necessarily expect to be in such a position. Who did they know who had gone to Beacon? “Flash Sentry?”

“Sunset Shimmer?”

Twilight’s eyebrows rose. “You ran into Sunset Shimmer?”

“Yup. Sunset Shimmer, lead of Team Sapphire.”

“And you’re both still in one piece?”

“She’s actually kind of mellowed out since we last saw her.”

“Really?”

“Kind of.”

Ciel cleared her throat loudly. “What happened?”

Rainbow opened her mouth, but once again Penny spoke before her. “We went to the arcade. It was a lot of fun! Ruby and I-“

“Penny,” Rainbow said, gently but firmly. “I don’t think Ciel wants a blow-by-blow account.”

“An arcade?” Ciel repeated. “You took Penny to an arcade?”

“You say that like I took her to somewhere really immoral,” Rainbow said. “What do you have against videogames?”

Ciel stared at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash stared right back.

“I was right there, Penny was never in any danger,” Rainbow said firmly.

“You exposed her to outsiders.”

“Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be testing in the first place?”

Ciel inhaled sharply through her nose. “What are the names of the Team Sapphire members.”

“Sunset Shimmer, Pyrrha Nikos, Ruby Rose and Jaune Arc,” Rainbow replied.

“Do you think we can trust Sunset?”

“We don’t need to trust her, she doesn’t know anything.”

Ciel shook her head. “Specialist Schnee will need to be informed about this.”

Rainbow sighed. “Fine. Can we eat first? Fifteen minutes?”

Ciel looked at her watch. Then, barely noticeably, she glanced at the food Rainbow had bought.

“Very well,” she said.

Rainbow and Ciel had gone into one of the bedrooms to make Rainbow’s report to Specialist Schnee, which left Twilight keeping an eye on Penny.

Well, she was sort of keeping an eye on her. She was also still working on the swords, even as she fed Spike a piece of chicken with one hand. He gobbled it up greedily, then nibbled playfully at Twilight’s fingers. The tickling sensation made her chuckle a little.

“What are you doing, Twilight?” Penny asked.

“I’m trying to find a way to modify your swords,” Twilight said. “So that you can control them without the need for wires.”

“Why?”

“Because the wires represent a vulnerability in your design,” Twilight said. Doctor Polendina’s original design for Penny had called for her swords to work on a drone model, powered independently and driven by signals from Penny’s core processor. Unfortunately, they couldn’t design a sword with a combination of independent power supply and signal receiver that remained compact enough to fit into Penny’s back with the requisite number of other swords. Ideally they wouldn’t have moved to production until that issue had been sorted, but too much time and money had already been invested in Penny by that point to put everything on hold until they could resolve the issue, so they had moved to a wire-based control model. Hopefully it would only be temporary if Twilight could find a way to miniaturise the necessary elements of the drone design. “And the goal of our engineering should be to eliminate vulnerabilities.”

Penny was silent for a moment. “I thought I was designed to protect the vulnerable, not destroy them.”

“Um, that’s not quite what I meant by elimination, Penny,” Twilight murmured.

“Oh.”

“What I meant was,” Twilight continued, as she frowned a little at the holographic display. “Is that we should always try and improve what we’ve made, to make it better. Does that make more sense?”

“So removing my wires will make me better?”

“I think so, yes.”

“Oh,” Penny repeated. She glanced at the closed door, behind which Rainbow and Ciel were talking. “Am I in trouble?”

Twilight shook her head. “I don’t think it’s possible for you to get into trouble, Penny.”

“Is Rainbow Dash in trouble?”

Twilight hesitated. “Maybe. I hope not. It will depend on what Specialist Schnee says, I suppose.”

“You hope not…because Rainbow Dash is your friend?”

“Yes,” Twilight said. “Yes, I hope that she’s not in trouble because she’s my friend.”

“How do you know?”

“Huh?”

“How do you know that Rainbow Dash is really your friend?” Penny asked.

Twilight looked away from the hologram, and for the first time she looked at Penny. The latter was sat across the table from her and leaning forward, hands resting on her knees, her face illuminated with eager curiosity.

“Penny,” Twilight said. “What’s this about?”

“I want to know,” Penny said. “How you know that your friend is really your friend. And how you know that you are really their friend. You say that you and Rainbow Dash are friends, but how do you know?”

Twilight cringed a little, and looked away from Penny as she absently reached up and started to play with one of the strands of her hair. Her fingertips brushed against her star hairclip. “I…it took me a long time to find the answer to that myself, Penny.”

“But you did, didn’t you?”

“Eventually,” Twilight said softly. “I spent my life…searching for something more but with no idea of what it was. I aced tests, I was praised for my intelligence…but it wasn’t enough. I wanted…I needed…more than that. It was as though…I had an emptiness inside me. A void that I couldn’t fill no matter how much I tried. It wasn’t until I met my friends that I realised that they were what I’d been missing, that that was what I’d been searching for to fill that void.” She chuckled. “I’m afraid this must all seem really unscientific, because it is. I can’t tell you how I know that Rainbow Dash is my friend, I can’t quantify it that way. I could tell you the things that Rainbow has done for me, the things that all of my friends have done for me, but that’s not really it. It’s something that I feel…in my soul. When I’m around my friends…everything feels better.” She groaned. “I’m terrible at explaining this, I’m sorry. If Pinkie were here then maybe-“

“No,” Penny said. “That…I think I understand. So, Twilight, do you think that I could feel that too? Do you think that I could know that Ruby is my friend?”

Twilight hesitated for a moment. “Yes,” she said. “You have a soul, Penny. And if you have a soul then you can feel in your soul. You’re a person.” A person that we built to fight grimm until you die or your parts give out, without ever once asking if that’s what you wanted to do with your life. Suddenly Twilight felt rather ill.

“Twilight?” Penny asked. “Is something wrong?”

Yes. I’m wrong. What we’re doing is wrong. This whole situation is wrong! Twilight tried to keep her burgeoning sense of horror at what she had allowed herself to become a part of off her face. She needed to talk to someone about this – someone other than Penny. She needed – she wanted – Rainbow to tell her that they were not complicit in a monstrous act.

She turned off the hologram. She couldn’t work on improving Penny’s ability to destroy her enemies at this moment.

“I, I’m fine, Penny,” she stammered. “I just, uh-“

The door opened, and Rainbow and Ciel came out.

Oh, thank goodness. Twilight put Spike down on the floor and got up. “Um, Ciel, can you take over watching Penny for a bit. I really need to talk to Rainbow Dash.”

The gaze of Specialist Winter Schnee would have chilled the blood of a lesser woman than Rainbow Dash. Even at the best of times Winter had a way of looking at you as though you were crap on her heel, and unlike some people who had looked at Rainbow Dash that way it had nothing to do with the ears rising up out of her rainbow hair; Winter Schnee just looked at everybody that way.

Right now she was looking at Rainbow as though she were an especially pungent specimen.

“An arcade,” she said, voice dripping with disapproval. “Do you really think that that is the kind of place where our latest prototype should be spending her time?”

“I think that if she’s really a she then she should have some time to be a kid and play videogames with her friends,” Rainbow said. She had propped her scroll up on the bedside table, so that she could stand at ease in front of the screen without having to hold it with one hand. Her feet were spaced and her hands were clasped behind her back, as if by adopting a disciplined posture now she could get away with the indiscipline that she had displayed earlier today.

Winter’s expression didn’t change. “Friends. You mean the Beacon students that she ran into.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Don’t you think that calling them friends is a stretch?” Winter demanded. “She’s only known them for one afternoon. Do you really believe that Penny, that anyone, can make friends so quickly?”

“Yes, ma’am, I do,” Rainbow said. Sometimes it didn’t even need to take a whole afternoon. Pinkie could make a friend in ten seconds flat, and Penny…there were times when Rainbow thought that Penny had that same kind of open heart.

There were other times when Rainbow didn’t like to think about Penny having a heart, especially not one that was at all like Rainbow’s friend, because if that was true then…yeah; that would suck.

Winter’s eyes narrowed. “Do you trust them, these Beacon students?”

“Trust them with what, ma’am?”

If Winter’s eyes narrowed any further then she’d be squinting. “Don’t play games with me, Rainbow Dash.”

“I’m not playing,” Rainbow replied. “Would I trust them with my life? Probably not; not yet anyway. But would I trust them to hang out with Penny and not be mean to her? Yeah, I think I would. They seem like good people.” Three of them did, anyway. The jury was still out on Sunset Shimmer. She did seem to have mellowed a little bit, but she still had that competitive streak, and who knew how much of the old Sunset was still there? If she could get ahead by doing something to Penny, would she? Rainbow couldn’t say. For the other three though, she thought they seemed like good people, Pyrrha especially.

“Soleil,” Winter said.

“Yes, ma’am,” Ciel said, stepping forward so that Winter could see her face through the scroll camera.

“Do you have the names of this Beacon team?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“What do you know?”

Ciel began to rattle off information in that way she had of making her seem more robotic than Penny sometimes. “Sunset Shimmer, seventeen, hails from Drakon, studied at Canterlot Combat School, leader of Team Sapphire. Jaune Arc, seventeen, hails from Vale, obtained a HED certificate from the Vale Council on Education, member of Team Sapphire. Pyrrha Nikos, seventeen, hails from Mistral, studied at Sanctum Combat School and four times winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament. Ruby Rose, fifteen, hails from Patch, studied at Signal Combat School before being admitted to Beacon Academy through the patronage of Professor Ozpin, member of Team Sapphire.”

“And your assessment?”

“None of them have any known affiliations with anti-Atlas groups, ma’am.”

“I see,” Winter murmured. “Rainbow Dash, what are your intentions going forward?”

Rainbow’s pony ears twitched. “I’d like to take Penny out some more. I think that if she’s allowed some supervised freedom, she won’t try and run away again.”

“Freedom,” Winter repeated. “Meaning further contact with her new friends?”

“If that’s what she wants.”

“Ciel, what do you think?”

“If Penny is to make friends I would have preferred to vet them beforehand,” Ciel said. “That said, I believe that the notion has some merit. It could be tested. Part of the purpose of this mission is to determine Penny’s ability to interact with the general population.”

Rainbow’s eyebrows rose. Did you just agree with me?

Winter looked from Ciel to Rainbow Dash and then back again. “Very well. I’ll submit your recommendations to General Ironwood, along with your report on today’s events. However, until I get back to you with our decision you’re to remain on lockdown. Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Understood, ma’am.”

“Good. Schnee out.” The picture on the scroll disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Rainbow walked across the room to recover her scroll. “Thanks for having my back there. I didn’t expect it.”

“Your idea has some merit,” Ciel said stiffly. “Do you know why the military decided to move ahead with Project Guardian?”

Rainbow picked the scroll up and turned around. “No.”

“Sociological studies show that people are not comforted by the presence of Atlesian Knights,” Ciel said. “They arouse feelings of nervousness and uncertainty. It’s hoped that robots like Penny, who can interact with humans on a personal level, will not have this difficulty but will rather, provide reassurance.”

Rainbow smirked.

“Is something amusing?”

“The way you talk about interacting with humans on a personal level is kinda funny,” Rainbow said. “But I get what you’re trying to say: robots won’t be so scary once they can act like us.”

“Precisely.”

“But to know if she can act like us, Penny actually needs to get out there and meet…someone other than us,” Rainbow said. “Someone like team Sapphire.”

“Their status has yet to be determined,” Ciel replied. “But someone.”

“Well, thanks anyway.”

“I don’t always agree with your attitude,” Ciel said. “But we’re all doing our part for the glory of Atlas.” She turned, and led the way back into the living room, with Rainbow Dash half a step behind her,

Twilight got up, setting Spike down on the floor as she did so. “Um, Ciel, can you take over watching Penny for a bit. I really need to talk to Rainbow Dash.”

What’s this about? Twi sounded nervous about something, but Rainbow couldn’t think what could have happened in the short time they’d been talking to Schnee that could have made her nervous. It wasn’t as though Penny was going to do anything.

Ciel nodded. “Very well.”

“The kitchen?” Rainbow suggested.

“Yeah,” Twilight said, with a nod of her head.

They went into the kitchen, a slightly unkempt place that hadn’t been very clean when they moved in. They’d disinfected it, but they couldn’t get rid of some of the stains. Rainbow poured herself a glass of water and sipped from it, leaning against the wooden headboard. Twilight lingered closer to the door, clutching nervously at her skirt.

“What’s up, Twi?”

Twilight pushed her glasses up her nose. “I want you to tell me that we’re not doing something awful.”

Rainbow finished her glass of water. “We’re not doing something awful.”

“Can you try and say it as though you mean it?”

Rainbow put down the glass. “What’s this about, Twilight?”

“What do you think?” Twilight replied. “We’ve built a slave.”

Rainbow frowned. “You’re being a bit harsh, don’t you think?”

“Penny doesn’t get a choice in what she does or where she goes,” Twilight said. “We tell her what to do and we expect her to do it even if…how is that any different from the way that the faunus were treated before the Great War.”

“Nobody built the faunus, Penny was created for this,” Rainbow said.

“Does that matter?”

“I don’t know, does it?” Rainbow replied. “Those drones you make, they can think for themselves, right?”

“Kind of, on a simplistic level.”

“You don’t worry about them being slaves.”

“My drone didn’t just ask me what friendship was and how I knew that you and I were really friends,” Twilight said.

“Penny asked you that?”

“Yes.”

Rainbow’s eyebrows rose. “Wow. Okay, now I see why you’re a little…like this.” She turned away, resting her hands on the sideboard as she looked out the window. The shattered moon gleamed in the sky above them. Rainbow wondered briefly what it was like up there, and lamented that she’d probably never get a chance to find out.

She head Twilight’s footsteps on the kitchen tiles. “Rainbow, what are we doing?”

“I’ve already asked Winter if we can let her out more often.”

“Do you think that’s enough?”

“I don’t think there’s much else we can do, right now.”

“But does that make it right?”

Rainbow sighed. “I don’t know, Twi. I just…I don’t know.”

Roman Torchwick climbed down from the bullhead feeling pretty good about himself. Sure, a couple of the recent robberies hadn’t exactly gone according to plan – he didn’t know whether he wanted to get another shot a little Red or whether he never wanted to see her again – but tonight had gone off without a hitch. They’d gotten away with a major dust shipment, which would teach the Schnee Dust Company not to leave product sitting around on the docks overnight where anyone could get their hands on it.

The amount they’d lifted tonight was equal to what they could have gotten from a dozen dust shops, more than enough to make up for the…less than ideal way a couple of those jobs had gone.

They had enough dust now to blow this town. And come back to blow a hole in it later.

“Good job, boys,” Roman said, as he sauntered away from the airship and towards the warehouse where they were storing the dust until they shipped it out to the south-east. “Get the goods inside and then…why don’t you take the rest of the night off?”

Neo kept pace beside him as Roman walked into the dark warehouse, twirling his cane idly in one hand as, with the other, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigar.

“Need a light?” Cinder asked, as the fire that sprung up into her palm illuminated one side of her face.

Roman stopped; his whole body froze for a moment. It took him that long to remember that he’d just pulled off a successful heist and that, tonight at least, she had no cause to be angry with him. It took him a moment to remember that because damn, this broad was scary.

He’d be lying if he denied that, when she first caught up to him, he’d been attracted to her. You didn’t see a girl like her every day; hell, there were supermodels that didn’t look so hot.

But all the beauty in the world wouldn’t make him touch that after some of the things he’d seen.

Make no mistake, this chick was scary.

But right now he had no reason to feel scared, and in Roman Torchwick’s profession you didn’t let the other guy know when he put you on edge or else he’d just keep doing it. And so Roman chuckled, and shook his head as he stuck the cigar in his mouth. “Thanks, but no need to trouble yourself. I got it covered.” He pulled out his lighter, and lit up the cigar. He drew on it, long and deep, feeling the calming influence begin to settle on him almost as once. “So, come to check on progress? We had a good haul tonight.”

“Good,” Cinder said. “If only that was always the case with your operations.”

Roman took a drag on his cigar. “It’s true that we’ve had a couple of mishaps, but come on! Look at all this dust. It’s not like it’s been one screw-up after another.”

“I should hope not,” Cinder replied, as she walked with a languid, alluring gait out of the shadows in which she’d been lurking. She was wearing red, a shimmering red dress that was falling off of her shoulders and exposing her…

Okay, maybe he was still attracted to her but who could blame him. She was hot.

“If you were providing a parade of failures then that would make me wonder if I hadn’t chosen the wrong associate to go into business with.”

Roman laughed nervously. “Well, I guess we’re both glad that things have been going more or less to plan so far, huh?”

“More or less,” the voice that spoke – growled – those words was unfamiliar to Roman Torchwick, and he would have rather that it stayed that way. There was a barely restrained rage in that voice, barking out each word as though he would choke on it otherwise, that made Roman think that they probably weren’t going to get along. “More. Or. Less?” A bull faunus strode out of the darkness. He was dressed all in black, swathed in like night, save only for two spots of colour: the grimm mask that covered his upper face, more stylised than most of these animals could boast, with red lines like scars running down the white; and his hair, which burned like fire behind his horns.

“More or less?” he demanded. “My brothers are being held in cages like dogs because of you!”

Roman grinned. “For some of ‘em, it’s probably home sweet home.”

The faunus bellowed angrily, and reached for the long hilt of the sword at his hip. The blade was crimson, and a foot of it had been revealed before Cinder’s voice halted his movement.

“Enough,” she said, in a voice that was as sharp as a sword itself. “Enough. Adam, control your temper; and Roman, control your tongue before it gets you into trouble.”

The faunus – Adam – slid his sword back into its scabbard. “If we were anywhere else I’d cut off your head for speaking to me like that.”

Neo stepped protectively in front of Roman, parasol raised.

“I told you boys to drop it,” Cinder said, sounding decidedly bored of it all at this point. “I didn’t bring you here so you could fight.”

“Why did you bring this charmer?” Roman muttered. “Is he your new flunky? What happened to those two brats?” He wouldn’t blame Cinder if she’d kicked them both to the curb, or just killed them. The boy, in particular, reminded him of his son; why anyone would want a kid like that around was beyond him.

“Mercury and Emerald are attending to some other business for me,” Cinder said easily. “But no, Adam isn’t my servant. He’s the leader of the White Fang here in Vale.”

“You didn’t seriously think that all of these brothers and sisters serve you out of any love, did you?” Adam demanded mockingly. “They’re assisting you because I have vouched for you all. And you’re already starting to make me regret it.”

“This is about the dust shop, isn’t it?” Roman said. “Listen, I don’t know what you’ve heard about what happened there-“

“All I care about is that my brothers and sisters are languishing in cells while you walk free.”

“Calm down, Adam,” Cinder said, in a voice that was soft but which held the promise that it could become harder if need be.

“I will not allow free faunus to be dragged in chains before a human court, judged by human laws while humans mock them from the gallery!” Adam snapped. “They have no right to judge us, and I will not suffer it!”

“You’ll have to, for just a little while,” Cinder declared. “I have a plan that will get us all what we want, but we’ll need to let the trial begin first.”

“Why?” Adam demanded. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t just go down to the precinct and free my comrades this very night.”

“How about all the cops?” Roman muttered.

“They’ll be a lot of corpses if they try and stand in my way.”

Where did Cinder find this guy? Roman plucked the cigar from his mouth and exhaled a plume of smoke. “Listen, I can tell you’re really attached to your guys and all…but take it from an old hand at this kind of stuff, if you’re worried about your crew snitching it’s better to shut ‘em up than break ‘em out if you know what I mean. Now I got a couple of friends inside-“

Adam growled wordlessly, and Roman decided it might be best to shut up before he chewed through the leash that Cinder had him on.

“The trial starts tomorrow,” Cinder explained. “And those huntresses who foiled the robbery have been subpoenaed as witnesses.”

“You want to try something with them in the courtroom?” Roman asked incredulously. “You didn’t see what these kids are capable of.”

“No, I didn’t,” Cinder said. She smirked. “But I will.”

Roman raised his visible eyebrow. “You really think it’s worth it.”

“Adam wants to rescue his brothers and sisters of the revolution,” Cinder said. “I want to see if the things I’ve heard about these children are true. Our goals conveniently align. And if these girls live up to the reputations building around them, then better to act now than wait.” She held up both her palms, and flames leapt up in them; they gleamed in her predatory eyes.

“The world stands upon the verge of a great change,” Cinder said. “All that is old and unworthy will be swept away, and something new and wonderful will take its place. No one can be allowed to stand in the way of my dreams. Either they will embrace the darkness…or we must snuff them out.” She closed her hands, and the flames that had danced upon her palms died swiftly and without warning.

The Team BLBL dorm room was filled with music. It often was, of a nights after dinner when the various teams retired to their respective rooms before lights out. Blake had been worried, when she first took command - command; it still seemed strange to think of it. After these past two months she still had trouble thinking of herself as a leader - that she would be expected to help fill up the silence with conversation. It wasn't something she was particularly looking forward to.

As it turned out, filling the silence wasn't something that Blake had to worry about, as Lyra was quite capable of filling any silence that arose whether she was prompted to or not. It was rare for a night to pass without at least one song from Lyra's harp, often more, because she played like one of the gods themselves and sang just as beautifully. The sound of her harp, and the sound of her voice, combined to hold Bon Bon and Sky spellbound - Bon Bon was sitting on the edge of her bed, leaned forward, elbows resting on her knees and a look of such rapturous adoration on her face. Sky lay on his back with a look on his face as though his soul was being scored by the music - and often even Blake found that the music soothed her restless spirit, and brought her some much needed comfort and solace.

But it brought her no comfort now. Few things could, and fewer could distract her from the dark thoughts that whirled about her mind and had done so ever since she had read the news of the White Fang attack on the Schnee Dust Company store.

Roman Torchwick. Roman Torchwick! That the White Fang would be in league with a man like that - a criminal, a rat king who had killed all the other rats on his way to the top of the refuse pile - it baffled her, it enraged her, it frightened her, it filled her with so many feelings that she scarcely knew where to begin in sorting through them.

It baffled her because she just couldn't understand how this could happen. Why would Sienna or Adam agree to work with a man like Torchwick, and what would make him even think to approach them? Sienna Khan was may things but one thing she was not was a hypocrite; she was a true believer in the cause of the White Fang, and when Blake had known her she had never suffered for that cause to corrupted. She had purged anyone whom she caught using the movement to enrich themselves or their associates without mercy. It verged on impossible for Blake to believe that she would now turn a blind eye to any of her lieutenants using the movement as mere muscle for hire and as for Adam...the idea that he could so much as share a room with a human for very long without striking them dead was hard for Blake to accept. He was too full of hatred for their race.

Adam and Sienna did not see eye to eye on everything, but on one thing they were agree: the White Fang were not criminals. Though they might break the law, that law was in itself rendered illegitimate by its use to keep the faunus in their downtrodden place. That they would ally with a man who broke the law without any such noble justification was hard to stomach.

It was enraging. Enraging to think of the movement that her father had founded, to which Blake had dedicated most of her life, could become so thoroughly corrupted.

Blake had already known that the White Fang had fallen far from the ideals on which it had been established. She wouldn't have been in Beacon if she hadn't come to that belated realisation, rather she still would have been at Adam's side. But at the same time...at the same time she still didn't want to believe just how far the White Fang had fallen. Blake had believed - she still believed - in the righteousness of their aim and the justice of their cause. Her heart still ached at the thought of all the faunus living in poverty and squalor across the four kingdoms, and she longed for the day on which she could discard her bow and all faunus would stand as equals of men. It was the means that she had fled from, not the goal: the increasingly indiscriminate violence; the deployment of terror; the erosion of the idea that any human could be innocent, let alone an ally of their cause. But now, not only had Sienna and Adam and those who flocked around them turned the movement she had loved into a murderous gang, but it seemed that they turned it into a murderous criminal gang that had turned away from justice completely in the name of profit from theft and criminality. Robbing dust shops? Was that the White Fang was about now? Had Adam become nothing more than a fence?

It frightened her because she could not understand it, and what she could not understand made her nervous. Adam had always been at his most dangerous, most fearsome, when she could least easily understand him. When she could not tell what had worked him into such a rage, when she was ignorant of the causes of his sudden swing in mood, that was when he was most frightening to her, and most likely to hurt her whether he meant to or not. This development was frightening in part because she didn't understand it, and in part because the possible reasons for it - beyond the simple degradation of the White Fang's goal - were in themselves alarming. Either they were selling the dust they stole, or they were not. If they were selling it on the black market - perhaps they were working with men like Torchwick to take advantage of his criminal contacts in that area - then that suggested that they need a great deal of money, and probably not to pay for redecorating Sienna's headquarters. The alternative was that they needed a lot of dust, which was arguably even worse than a need for money. Were they raising an army? Building a bomb? Something worse that she couldn't even conceive of?

She had considered going to the trial, to see if any new information came to light; she supposed she was still half hoping that it was all lies. But, ultimately, just as she knew in her heart that it was true she also knew that she daren't go to the trial. Walter had known her since she was a child, he'd been Adam's strong right arm for years, if he spotted her he was sure to recognise her then...Blake shuddered. She wouldn't trust prison to keep the news of her whereabouts from getting to Adam.

Blake wanted to do something. She wanted desperately to do something.

But she had no idea what she ought to do.

She had no idea what she could do.

“Blake?” Bon Bon murmured, recalling Blake to her present for a moment. “Are you okay?”

Blake realised abruptly that Lyra and Bon Bon were both staring at her, and even Sky had rolled over to look at her.

“Uh, yeah,” she muttered. “I guess I must have just spaced out for a moment.” She forced a smile onto her face. “Your music can have that effect.”

The quirk of Lyra’s eyebrow suggested that she could spot an attempt at flattering BS when she heard it.

Bon Bon, on the other hand, smirked. “Yeah, the music, I’ll bet. You know, if you were thinking about that cute guy we met down by the wharfside you can just say so. Admit it, we won’t judge.”

Just how wrong Bon Bon was could be evidenced by the fact it took Blake a minute to remember who she was talking about: right, the guy from down by the dockside, the stowaway who had stopped in his flight from the cops to wink at her. She guessed that he was kind of cute, but she didn’t have time to think about stuff like that right now. There was so much going on that was so much more important than that.

“Are you serious?” Sky demanded. “Blake has higher standards than that.”

Bon Bon and Lyra both looked at him. “What is that supposed to mean?” Lyra asked.

Sky shifted uncomfortably as he sat up. “I just meant…someone who could afford a shirt, maybe.”

“You meant cause he’s a faunus, didn’t you?”

“I never said – and anyway, you can’t really think that he was good looking!”

“Well, he’s not my type,” Bon Bon said. “But Blake should have gotten his number.”

Sky made a noise that sounded as though he was about to choke on something.

“I never knew you liked the ‘dashing rogue’ thing,” Lyra said with merriment in her voice.

“He’s not a dashing rogue, he’s a criminal!” Sky squawked indignantly.

Blake sighed softly, and left them to bicker. Sky was who he was, and the others weren’t going to change him. He wasn’t overt about it, and she supposed that that was as good as she could hope for in the circumstances.

Some of the time she could even forget that he felt that way.

Or at least, Blake could ordinarily ignore the fact that Sky was the sort of person who regarded faunus with suspicion, just like she could ordinarily tune out Lyra and Bon Bon's chattiness - how did they never run out of things to talk about? - and find it charming in an abstract sense. Ordinary she could appreciate Lyra's music and let it roll over her like the beautiful waves of the sapphire sea around Menagerie where she used to swim when she was a girl.

Ordinarily, but not tonight. Not tonight, when she felt more in need of soothing than she had for many nights passed. She wanted to be taken back home by dreamlike sounds, she wanted to feel the waves washing over her, she wanted to walk through the crowded market; she wanted to feel her father's strong arms and hear his reassuring voice. She wanted to sleep like she had when she was a child and safe and loved.

But she had left that life behind a long time ago.

She got no rest now, and her sleep was constantly disturbed with thoughts of the White Fang and what they had become. No music sprung out of Lyra's harp could soothe her now, and their chit chat seemed so banal and inconsequential that it was all Blake could do not to take offence at it. It wasn't their fault, they knew no better, but how could they discuss the cancellation of their favourite show when Vale was in the grip of a crime spree?

Blake got to her feet and made for the door before she said something unfortunate.

"Blake?" Lyra asked. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Blake muttered. "I just...I need some air."

She left the room, and shut the door behind her.

Blake leaned against the wall and let out a breath she hadn't even known that she'd been holding in. Her head dropped forward wearily.

She couldn't rest until she did something but there was nothing she could do. What a bind.

Maybe she should just run again. She could feel the itching in her feet, the desire to get out that had been building up in her ever since she found out the White Fang was in town. Every day was becoming more of a battle not to take to her heels, to leave Vale and Adam and the White Fang and all the danger behind. She wasn't sure what she would do or where she would go, but that was a very tenuous thread holding her to Beacon at this moment.

The door opened. Blake looked around as Bon Bon walked out into the corridor and gently closed the door behind her.

"You weren't daydreaming about some cute monkey-boy, where you?"

Blake was silent for a moment. "How did you guess?"

Bon Bon cringed. "Sorry if I was out of line. Was I out of line?"

"No," Blake said softly.

She wondered if that was it, she rather hoped that that would be it, but judging by the way that Bon Bon kept standing there looming at her it wasn't quite it, not yet.

"So what is it?" Bon Bon asked.

Blake looked away. "It's personal, and hard to explain."

"Not much stays personal when you're sharing a room with three other people," Bon Bon said. "We're worried about you, Blake. Me, Lyra, even Sky though he's got no clue how to let you know it. If you let us in, maybe we could help you." She smiled encouragingly. "So come on, tell your knight in shining armour everything."

Blake's eyebrows rose. "You're my knight in shining armour?"

"You've seen my armour, right? It literally glows," Bon Bon declared proudly.

Blake shook her head. She might miss Bon Bon when she left; Lyra, too. Maybe even Sky for all his faults. But she couldn't tell them the truth, not while she was still here. If they found out, if anyone found out...it would be the end of everything.

"I can't," she said, softly and with great melancholy.

Bon Bon looked a little sad, and a little disappointed, but she did not look angry. She nodded her head. "Okay," she said. "Just so you know that our ears always work, whenever you need them too." She opened the door. "We all have our past, Blake, and we all have to live with the things that we've done...but we don't have to live alone; not if we choose not to.

Some people deserve to live alone for the things that they've done, Blake thought. And much, much more.

As the trial was high profile - these were terrorists, after all - and any witnesses were possible targets for White Fang comrades looking to shut them up, a police bullhead had shown up at Beacon air pad to take the members of Team SAPR - and Weiss - down to the courthouse.

"Are you sure that we can't take our weapons with us?" Sunset asked as she climbed aboard and took hold of one of the straps suspended from the ceiling, even as with half a mind she wondered why no one had ever thought to put seats in one of these things.

"Sorry," said the red-headed cop assigned to lead their escort. He hadn't bothered to introduce himself and Sunset hadn't asked for his name. "No weapons allowed in court, you understand."

"Sure I understand, I just don't like it very much," Sunset replied as Weiss climbed aboard, swiftly followed by the rest of Sunset's team. "You realise that the last time we went anywhere without our weapons we got attacked by these White Fang guys, right?"

The cop laughed. "Relax, the security around the court house is top notch, and there's no way these animals can touch us in the air. Uh, no offence."

Sunset just about resisted the urge to flip him off, and contented himself with glaring at him instead.

He swiftly looked away, although given that his new focus was Weiss perhaps he would have started to ignore Sunset anyway. "Miss Schnee, are you alright? Is there anything you need?"

Weiss looked mildly disgusted, although there was always an element of that in her expression. "I'm fine, thank you very much," she replied, with cool courtesy.

"If there's anything at all I can do for you, Miss Schnee, you only have to ask."

Weiss looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. "Really? And what would you like me to do for you in return?"

The cop didn't even have the grace to look ashamed of himself. "Well, I've heard the money is a lot better in the private sector and I figured an experienced detective like me might find a good home in the Security division of the Schnee Dust Company."

Weiss expression didn't alter by a jot. "I'll be sure to pass your name along, detective."

Sunset was absolutely convinced that if Weiss did pass this guy's name along it would be with instructions to never give him so much as an interview.

Nevertheless, the cop looked pretty satisfied with the answer he'd just gotten. In fact he looked pleased as punch as though he'd already gotten the private sector job he craved. "Are you all in?"

"Yes," Pyrrha answered for all of them.

"Good luck in there, Rubes!" Yang yelled from outside the bullhead. "I'll be there rooting for you!"

Ruby looked like she might be sick, and unlike Jaune it probably wasn't because of the flying. "You...You don't have to, you know."

"Maybe not, but I'm gonna!"

Ruby mumbled something that sounded distinctly unhappy at the prospect. "I wish we didn't have to do this."

Pyrrha put her free hand, the hand she wasn't using to hold on to the ceiling strap, on Ruby's shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"I'm...not so good with people," Ruby said.

"Join the club, if it'll make you feel better," Sunset said. "This isn't exactly a team of social butterflies."

"Yeah, but now people are going to be staring at me and asking me questions and-"

"And we'll all be there with you, and Yang too," Jaune said. "We're all in this together."

"Right."

"Besides," Sunset said. "We're prosecution witnesses, so we'll probably get a lot of softball questions so they can lock these guys away."

Pyrrha leaned down a little. "In tournaments, the crowd goes away once the match starts. Just focus on the one person you have to focus on, the one thing you have to do, and exclude everything else. Block it all out, and it will have no power to disturb you."

Ruby smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Pyrrha. I'll give it a try."

"Take off!" the cop said. "Let's go!"

The bullhead lifted up into the air; its VTL engines whirled and whined and blew into the faces of Sunset and the others as it rose off the landing pad. Yang remained, growing smaller and smaller beneath and away from them, waving to Ruby even as the aircraft carried her away and out of sight.

The plane carried them over the city blocks of Vale, over high rises of steel and glass and slum districts where low houses looked on the verge of ruin. There was no mistaking where the Vale of haves ended and the Vale of the have not began; the two kingdoms of the rich and poor lived side by side but worlds apart, ignorant of one another's habits and customs, probably hating and fearing one another too. Sunset found herself idly wondering, as she looked down, what Princess Celestia would have made of such a separation; even Canterlot was not as bad as this.

But then, Sunset couldn't imagine that many societies prized harmony as an end in itself the way that ponies did. And it wasn't as if Vale had an immortal ruler pulling all the strings to achieve said harmony. Mistakes would happen when you left the little people to run things.

Thinking about Celestia reminded Sunset that the former still hadn't replied to her apology. Did she not care, or just not realise how important this was to Sunset?

She turned her thoughts away from such things, and from the city passing beneath her, and looked at her companions on the plane: Jaune was carefully avoiding looking down, and even so he looked green about the face. Weiss' skirt - they were all wearing their school uniform - was bouncing a little from the updraft; Ruby still looked nervous; Pyrrha was serenity itself.

It was as Sunset was looking back, at her team mates and Weiss, that she spotted the second bullhead falling in behind them as they flew.

"What the-?" said the cop. "This flight path is supposed to be restricted, who-"

The other bullhead gave him a partial answer as, with a loud, repetitive thudding sound it opened fire on the police aircraft. Yellow trader rounds flew in a straight line from the guns on either side of the bullhead's nose to slam into the starboard engine of the plane carrying SAPR and Weiss.

The plane lurched sideways and began to spin violently like a top for children to play with. The cop's cry as he was flung out of the bulhead and into the sky was lost to the wind. Sunset could feel the ceiling strap digging into her palm even through her aura as she clung to it for dear life. Ruby and Jaune weren't so lucky; they both lost their grip and tumbled towards the open hatch on the side of the craft.

Pyrrha caught Jaune's flailing hand; Sunset grabbed Ruby by the hood just before she could fall. Sunset could see the strain she was feeling to hold on mirrored on Pyrrha's facee as they fought against gravity both to hold on to their partners and keep themselves from falling.

"Hang on!" Weiss cried.

A black glyph, pulsating gently, appeared beneath their feet, sticking them to the surface; it felt like someone had glued down the soles of Sunset's boots, she no longer felt in danger of falling.

But of course it didn't change the fact that their ride was falling out of the sky and the ground was getting ever closer.

"Sunset, can you teleport us out?" Pyrrha asked.

Sunset shook her head. "I can't carry this many people with me."

"What about multiple trips?" Jaune suggested.

"The speed this thing is moving I'd never be able to get back," Sunset said. If she tried she'd either teleport into empty air or side herself into the middle of the metal. It would never be exactly where she’d calculated when she made the jump.

"Then you should get Ruby and yourself out," Pyrrha declared.

"No way!" Ruby said. "We're not leaving you, right Sunset?"

"Right," Sunset said.

"There is no need for us all to die-"

"I have no intention of dying!" Sunset yelled. "Before we impact I'm going to throw a shield up around the compartment, it should protect us from the worst. Weiss, can you maintain this glyph?"

Weiss’ face was starting to show signs of strain, but she nodded nevertheless.

"Great," Sunset said. "Because I need both my hands for this."

Sunset flung her arms, and stretched out her magic as far as it would go in obedience to her will, and upon her command a bubble of green magic enveloped the passenger compartment as the bullhead fell, spinning, down to earth.

"Hold on to something!" Jaune yelled as they hit the ground.

Sunset could barely remember what happened next. She felt her shield shatter under the blunt force impact of the fall, then felt the bullhead itself shatter beneath the same. She heard someone- could have been Weiss, could have been Ruby - cry out, and then Sunset was being thrown through the air. Sky and buildings whirled before her eyes for a moment before she hit the ground, bouncing twice. Sunset felt and heard her aura break before she hit the ground head-first for the last time.

She had almost forgotten how much it hurt, how much it really hurt, to take a hard knock without aura. As Sunset lay on the ground, face up, looking at the sky as consciousness slipped away from her, she wasn't particularly glad to have been reminded.

The last thing she saw before everything went black was a bullhead, probably the bullhead, descending upon her.

When Sunset came to she was in darkness.

She groaned as she sat up. Her head still hurt, there was a drum-beat throbbing going on inside it for all that her aura should have started repairing any damage. Perhaps the repairs were what was giving her such a headache.

Sunset shivered. It was cold in here, wherever she was. Cold and dark. The only light was some moonlight shining in through small windows set high up in the ceiling. Not enough light to see more than bare and barren floor. Where was she?

Where was her team? Where was Weiss?

"Ruby?" Sunset called. "Pyrrha, Jaune? Weiss?"

There was no answer. There was not even an echo of a reply.

Sunset crawled forward along the floor, calling out the names of her friends, until she struck something. Cold, metal...bars. Metal bars, was she in a cage? Had the White Fang - Sunset had no doubt that it was them - caged her? Like some kind of animal? Anger roared through Sunset's veins, clearing her mind and sharpening her thoughts with certain purpose. First she was going to get out of this cage, and then she was going to rescue her team, and then she was going to find whoever had thought that they could put Sunset Shimmer in a cage and get away with it and she was going to wring their neck until it snapped because no one treated Sunset Shimmer that way! Not even the Atlesians had treated her that way!

A door opened. Sunset couldn't see it, but she heard it creek just as she heard footsteps light upon the floor.

"I see you're awake."

The voice was male, calm but harsh nevertheless. Sunset couldn't see the speaker - actually, she could; she could see his feet anyway. The moonlight illuminated his black boots even as the rest of him remained in shadows.

Sunset decided that it wouldn't be in her interests to teleport out of the cage until she could see whom she would have to fight once she got out. "A gentleman would turn on the lights."

"We are all born in darkness," the man said. "It is our natural state. We are born into darkness, and the darkness claims us when our fight is ended."

"I was born in a well lit hospital,” said Sunset, omitting to mention that this had been in Canterlot, and nowhere in Remnant.

"It is the darkness of subjugation of which I speak!" the man - the male faunus, unless Sunset missed her guess - declared. "We are born into the shadows of oppression even as humanity frolics under the sunlight of liberty. But soon we will rise up from the shadows and claim our rightful place in the sun!"

"You're White Fang."

He stepped into the moonlight: tall and broad-shouldered, with hair of burnished red and an innately stylised mask. "My name is Adam Taurus." He smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Sunset Glimmer."

Sunset rolled her eyes. "It's Sunset Shimmer actually. The news got it wrong."

Adam snorted. "Of course they did, you're a faunus."

"I suppose I am," Sunset replied.

"And because you are one of us you will never be worthy of so much as the common courtesy of your own name."

"Whereas you putting me in a cage is what?" Sunset demanded with sulphuric acid on her tongue. "The height of politeness?"

Adam reached out, and ran one black-gloved hand down one metal bar. "This cage comes from a circus. Animals were kept in here. But not so very long ago cages just like these were used to hold those thought no better than beasts." It was hard to tell his expression due to the mask he wore, but in the moment of pause Sunset thought that he seemed pensive. "My grandmother was born in a cage just like this one."

Sunset said nothing. These were not her people, this was not her history; the Great War and Faunus Rights were nought but words in a book to her, but to her captor they were memory and blood, they resonated with him in ways that she did not and could never understand.

Yet she didn't dare to let him know that. If she hadn't let her friends know that she certainly dared not tell it to her enemy.

So she stayed silent, and like a serpent waited for her moment to strike.

"She used to tell me stories," Adam went on. "About the cages and the work gangs, about the mines; about how she lived when she was young, before the Valish King set her free. But the truth is that she was never free at all. The cage was still there...the bars were just wrought of something other than steel."

"Your grandmother might disagree," Sunset observed plaintively.

Adam chuckled. "Perhaps. She was such a trusting old lady. Right to the end...you realise that you're on the wrong side of this fight."

"I like to think that I'm on my own side."

"You're defending the edifice of human power, of their supremacy over us."

"I lead humans into battle," Sunset said. "Famous names and lineages old in honour but they follow at my heels and leap up in obedience to my commands: mine. Where are they, anyway? Where are my team, where are my friends?"

"Friends," Adam spat the word scornfully. "Do you think any of them give a damn about you? If I put my blade to your throat and offered them the choice to save you or a random old man dragged in off the street who do you think they'd choose?"

"Try putting a blade to my throat and you'll have to worry about yourself."

Adam laughed. "They would choose their fellow human every time. Like calls to like."

"I daresay it does," Sunset said. "But as it happens me and Pyrrha are a lot alike. Where is she?"

"Somewhere else."

"Nearby?"

"Why should I tell you that?"

"Why should I listen to a word that comes out of your mouth?"

Adam was silent for a moment. "You know that I'm right. You've been betrayed before, haven't you? You've been abandoned; you've known those that you thought that you could trust turn against you. You know the pain that comes from being of our race. Don't deny it; I see it in your eyes."

Sunset thought of Flash, she thought of Celestia, she thought of the destiny that she had lived for, worked for, only to find out that it was nothing but a lie this entire time. She thought of all that and she shivered.

She shivered, and decided that she was done talking.

In a flash of light she had teleported out of the cage and reappeared behind Adam, her hands around his neck.

"That heat you can feel," Sunset said, as her palms began to glow with magic held in readiness to strike. "That's going to get a lot hotter and a lot more painful if you don't tell me where my friends are, now!"

"Impressive," Adam murmured. "I can see why she's interested in you. I'm pretty interested myself."

"Where are they?" Sunset snarled.

Adam elbowed her in the stomach. Sunset gasped as her grip on his throat weakened. His hand snapped up to hit her in the face as he twisted out of her grip and hit her again, following up with a spinning kick to the side of her head. Sunset reeled backwards, her hands up in front of her both as a defence and for her magic.

Adam didn't pursue her, nor did he draw his sword. "What else can you do besides teleport? I've heard stories from the brothers we rescued, but I always prefer to believe my own eyes."

"Rescued?"

Adam smirked. "Didn't you know? We hit the convoy escorting our brothers to the courthouse and rescued them. And we bombed the courthouse to show that human law, fashioned for the oppression of our race, will no longer hold away over a free people."

"You've had a busy day."

"The revolution never sleeps," Adam replied. He put one hand on the hilt of his sword. "Now then, Sunset Shimmer, why don't you show me what you're got?"

"Adam, no!" cried Blake Belladonna, as she leapt out the darkness with her sword drawn (And her habitual hair bow missing, with in their place...cat ears? She was a faunus? She'd been a faunus this entire time?), to stand between Sunset and Adam.

Adam was silent for a few moments. His mouth was agape, he seemed for the first time genuinely lost for words. "Blake," he whispered, as if afraid that if he raised his voice the illusion of her presence would shatter. "My darling?"

"Let her go, Adam," Blake said. "Let them all go. I'm the one you want."

"Good evening, I'm Lisa Lavender with a breaking update on today's top news story: The terrorist organisation known as the White Fang has claimed responsibility for a day of chaos on the streets of Vale that has left the Kingdom in shock. Earlier today a police convoy escorting twelve White Fang terrorists to their trial at the Central Criminal Court was ambushed and all suspects freed. At least six police officers are reported dead and four more are in critical condition. Also this morning a truck loaded with dust was driven into the Central Criminal Court and detonated. Authorities have not yet confirmed the death toll.

"Meanwhile, concern has grown over the whereabouts of Weiss Schnee and Pyrrha Nikos, key witnesses at the trial who have not been seen since they departed Beacon Academy under police escort."

"Weiss? Pyrrha?" Yang demanded futilely of the woman on her scroll. "What about my sister?"

"Weiss Schnee is the daughter and sole heir of Jacques Schnee, president and proprietor of the Schnee Dust Company," Lisa Lavender continued, as an old picture of Weiss was displayed beside her head. "Pyrrha Nikos is the great grand-daughter of the last Emperor of Mistral, and is the four times winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament; a popular favourite amongst tournament enthusiasts, her decision to attend Beacon Academy rather than Haven was widely reported.

"We have just received a video claiming to be from the White Fang, claiming credit for the attack, the bombing and the kidnapping of Miss Schnee, Miss Nikos and three other witnesses in the case against the terrorists. We have watched this video to confirm it did not contain any shocking content, and we now broadcast it in full."

Weiss's face took up the whole of the screen; barely any background was visible behind her, just a wall and one small window. She didn't look hurt, but she did look a little unnerved by something that Yang couldn't see, something at the edge of the screen, or on the other side of the camera.

There was a rustle of paper, and someone said something indistinct.

"My name is Weiss Schnee," Weiss said. "I am the daughter of Jacques Schnee, and I am..."

There was another indistinct sound from off camera. Weiss scowled. "And I am an oppressor of the faunus. I am being held captive by the White Fang, the army of...The army of liberation for the faunus across the Four Kingdoms. Today..." Weiss stopped again, and when she resumed each word was forced through gritted teeth. "Today the White Fang has struck a great blow against one of the four great oppressors, a reminder that the desire of the faunus for liberty will not be denied. Despite my crimes I and my companions have been treated well, and will continue to be treated well so long as no attempts are made to rescue us. I will be released upon payment of one hundred million lien from the Schnee Dust Company. Pyrrha Nikos will be released upon payment of ten million lien from the Nikos family or the Mistralian government. Sunset Shimmer, Jaune Arc and Ruby Rose will be released upon payment of a hundred thousand lien each from any interested party-"

"Dammit!" Yang yelled, throwing her scroll down upon the table hard enough that it bounced onto the floor.

Blake watched from a short distance, helpless, as Yang's entire body was wracked by a shudder. Smoke rose from the blonde's body and her hair, but as she put her head in her hands it looked to Blake almost as though Yang Xiao-Long was sobbing.

Did she know that her sister was as good as dead already, Blake wondered as her stomach churned with a sickening mixture of fury, fear and complicity; or was it simply her helplessness to do anything that led her to despair?

They were in the dining hall. The First Year teams were all sat close together - though YRDN and WSTW were closer, with BLBL more on the fringe of things - being given a wide berth by the other years.

Team WSTW looked stunned by what had happened to their team leader; Flash sat with dazed and empty eyes, staring at nothing. Of Blake's own team, Sky's look was dark, while Lyra and Bon Bon were clutching one another's hands for comfort.

"Poor Yang," Lyra murmured.

"Poor Ruby," Bon Bon replied.

Blake scowled. She hadn't known Ruby Rose very well - she hadn't known any of them very well - but she remembered the way she smiled, how bright-eyes she was, how full of energy.

Blake's sickened feeling only got worse when she realised that she slipped into thinking about Ruby as though she were already dead.

Because she might as well have been.

Blake felt as guilty as any of the faunus who had done this because she had been there when this started. She had been there when they kidnapped the SDC Vice-president in charge of labour management and she hadn't protested because the man had been making a fortune out of the oppression of their people. She had kept on not protesting as the targets of their kidnappings got less and less deserving, until they were snatching Atlesian princesses on their way to prom so they could extort money from the girls’ rich fathers.

And they rarely returned the hostage alive. And it had only gotten rarer as time went on.

Blake had been there when it started, and even if she couldn't have stopped it she could at least have stood up and said that this was wrong, immoral, unconscionable.

But she hadn't, and that made her as guilty of this as anyone.

Ruby's death, all their deaths, were on her.

Their certain deaths. Even if Ruby's family could find a hundred thousand lien, even if Weiss's father paid the astronomical sum, even if Pyrrha's family had ten million lien to hand, there was no way they were getting out alive. Weiss especially. Adam wouldn't pass up the chance to kill a blood Schnee.

There would be an empty chair at the Arc family table. They would look for Pyrrha Nikos from the highest tower in Mistral but she would not return.

They were all dead, even if they yet lived.

Unless...Unless she saved them.

Blake rose unsteadily to her feet. She still felt sick, but she could control the nausea rising from her stomach with a sense of action. She had been lost, mired in purposes, directionless, listless, helpless inaction, decrying the fall of the White Fang but unable to see a way to act upon her feelings. But now, now at last she knew what she had to do.

All her life Blake Belladonna had been a coward. Not a physical coward, perhaps, but a moral one certainly. She had run from Adam rather than confront the fact that the man she loved was becoming a monster before her very eyes; she had run to Beacon rather than confess to her parents how far she had fallen. She had thought to hide away as though her past would never find her here. But it had found her, and most likely Blake would have to run away again when all of this was over.

But before she ran, this time, she would stand up.

And she would save the hostages, not because they were her friends but because it was the right thing to do.

She stalked out of the cafeteria without a word to anyone. What would have been the point in speaking? Nobody wanted to here from her right now, and what would she have said anyway? Goodbye? How would she have explained that?

So she walked away in silence, leaving them all behind. Perhaps, if she brought Ruby and the rest back safe, then they would think well of her, in spite if everything.

Blake left the dining hall and wandered out into the courtyard, which was empty at this time in the evening.

She looked up at the moon, as shattered as the lives of all those touched by the malice of the White Fang.

A soft sigh escaped her lips as she remembered the idealism of their early days, before Adam's devotion to the cause of their people had curdled into a desire for any scrap of vengeance he could extract from men.

Slowly, hesitantly, she removed the bow from her hair. She wouldn't need it were she was going.

"I knew you'd look better without the bow."

"So let me get this straight," Sun - he'd insisted on giving her his name, Sun Wukong, even though she hadn't asked for it just as she hadn't asked him to join her - said as he jogged at her side down the streets of Vale. "You used to be in the White Fang-"

"Keep it down!" Blake hissed.

"Sorry, sheesh," Sun said. "But anyway, you left...And now they've kidnapped your friends and we have to save them?"

"They're not my friends."

"So we're rescuing not-friends, got it; I mean, that's cool too."

"We're not doing anything," Blake growled through slightly gritted teeth. "This is something that I have to do."

"I'm right here, aren't I?"

Blake glared at him out of the corner of her eye. Yes, he as right here, whether she wanted him to be or not, with his shirt open and his abs on display as though he was a walking advert for body spray for men. He seemed to have trouble grasping the fact that this was something Blake had to do alone.

"This is going to be dangerous," Blake said. "You don't have to get involved."

"I know," Sun said nonchalantly. "I guess I'm just not capable of ditching a beautiful woman in need."

Blake stared at him. Sun smiled, in a manner that was probably supposed to be charming.

It was actually just infuriating.

"Ugh," Blake groaned. But she didn't try to lose or outpace him because, well, it was good to have someone beside her who knew the truth and didn't judge her for the things that she had done, whose only concern was how he could help her.

It was refreshing. It was...kind of nice.

Blake, with Sun at her side, headed to Tukson's Book Trade. It was closed at this time of night, but Blake banged on the door until a light came on and Tukson cane to the door. His expression of annoyance faded when he saw who it was that had dragged him down here.

"Blake," he said, the word itself conveying his concern. "What are you doing here? Are you okay?"

Blake walked inside, and Sun quickly followed. "I'm...okay. But you've heard the news?"

Tukson nodded gravely. "A lot of faunus are worried about the blowback from this."

"Those morons only make it harder for us," Sun grumbled.

"Who's this?" Tukson asked.

"A friend, sort of," Blake said. "Tukson, I need to know where they're keeping the hostages."

Tukson's eyebrows rose. "Blake...I'm ex-White Fang, remember? I left, same as you."

"I know you still have contacts in the organisation," Blake said. "Or how do people find you who want out? They helped me get in touch with you. You must know someone who knows something."

Tukson scowled. "Blake...what you're asking for...maybe I do know a guy, but...What are going to do, mount a rescue? Call the cops? If you do that they're going to know there's a rat. My guy could be killed, I could be killed. So could you if you go in there by yourself-"

"Hey," Sun protested. "I'm standing right here."

"No offence kid, but I don't know you and I don't trust people I don't know. Blake...why are you asking me for this? Do you really think these kids, a Schnee, are worth risking what I've built for?"

"I think it's not enough to just walk away from wrong," Blake said. "We have to fight for what's right, too."

Tukson stared down at her. His expression softened, but didn't lose its concern. "What makes you think you can stop it? You and...this guy?"

"I've got a plan," Blake said, although she didn't disclose what the plan was because he wouldn't like it and neither would Sun. But it was the only way. She couldn't take on Adam and all his men single handed. She was good, but she wasn't that good. "I just need to get inside."

Tukson shook his head. "Okay, let me make a call."

He disappeared into the back room. Blake didn't follow, she trusted Tukson not to betray her and she wasn't about to force her presence on his contact within the White Fang.

Besides, waiting no longer felt so intolerable now that she had something she was waiting for.

Sun swung his arms back and forth, and whistled a few bars to fill the silence. "A lot of books in here."

"Bookshops tend to have those," Blake said. She smiled. "Is this your first time in one/"

Sun snorted. "No. I went in one...last year. And I'll have you know that Haven has an excellent library!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! Neptune spends...uh, I mean I spend all day in there sometimes...reading, you know, books and stuff."

Blake made a sound that committed to nothing and admitted nothing.

Tukson returned. "Okay, I know where you need to go."

Even the busiest parts of the Warehouse District had shut up shop by nightfall, and the place where Blake and Sun had been directed was one of the busiest. It had once housed the warehouses of a Valish dust conglomerate, but the SDC had driven them under years ago and the warehouses had been vacant ever since.

A good place to hide the dust that you were stealing.

A good place for a hideout.

Since this whole area was officially derelict, and there was little call for it at the best of times in this part of the city, the streets were unlit and it was only due to Blake and Sun's night-vision that they were able to find their way so easily to their objective.

They met Tukson's contact, a mouse-tailed faunus with salt and pepper hair, on the roof of the next warehouse over, looking down and across at the place where the Beacon students were being held.

It was a dark, unlit place with the forbidding air of a fortress about it. Blake could see guards on the roof, and she had no doubt that there were many more inside.

"Blake?" the mouse faunus said as they crept closer to him. "And...Sun, right?"

"That's us," Blake replied, speaking in a low voice. "This is the place, isn't it?"

He nodded. "They're all inside."

"Adam hasn't killed them yet?"

The mouse faunus shook his head. "He can't. Somebody wants to see them first."

"Sienna?"

"No, someone else, some big secret. Nobody knows who she is, but everybody knows she's got Adam's nuts in a vice and the White Fang in her pocket. It ain't like the good old days Blake; this ain't the White Fang we joined."

"It was never the good old days, except in our excuses," Blake replied quietly. "How do we get inside?"

"There's a door on the right side. I'm supposed to be guarding it, but I'm not. You go in that door, there's a corridor that leads straight to where they're keeping the faunus."

"Sunset?"

"If that's her name. Pony. Ears and tail."

"What about the others?"

"Somewhere else, I don't know for sure."

"We'll find them," Blake said. She glanced up into the eyes of the Fang member. "Thank you, for taking this risk for me. And for them."

"If Tukson's willing, I can't do less," he said. "Good luck, both of you. You might need these." He pressed a pair of masks into Blake's hands, and skulked off into the shadows.

Blake put on one mask, immediately restricting her vision to the two slits set in the White. The other mask she handed to Sun, as best she could see him.

He plucked it from her hand. "Why the grimm masks anyway?"

"To make our enemies fear us as they feared the grimm themselves," Blake murmured. "But, in fighting against being seen as monsters, we became the monsters everyone was so terrified of."

Sun said. "You know, I'm sorry things had to end up like this, for you."

"I'm fine," Blake lied, and kept her purpose at the forefront of her mind and soul. Tomorrow she could run, if she were granted a tomorrow. Tomorrow she could turn coward again if she survived. Tomorrow...Tomorrow she would have choices, but tonight she had only the task that she had given herself of taking a stand against the White Fang and the wickedness that had consumed them.

And him. Always him.

"Do we have a plan?" Sun asked. "Cause you know it's cool if we don't. I love improv."

Blake gave him serious side-eye. "The plan is we sneak in free everyone, and we do it without starting a fight. That's the plan."

"Good plan," Sun said. "Short and snappy."

"Let's just go," Blake said sharply.

Blake led the way down to the street level, and to the side door that their conscientious contact had left unlocked and unguarded for them.

Blake paused, her back pressed up against the wall.

"What's up?" Sun asked.

Blake didn't reply. Instead, she pulled out her scroll and turned it on. Dozens of missed messages: from Bon Bon, from Lyra and from Sky. All of them asking some variation on the same question: where are you?

Blake replied to all three of them at once: Have confirmed Ruby, SAPR and Weiss being held at old Standard Dust warehouse on ninety-second. Am going in, call cops.

Then she turned off her scroll again. If something happened, and it probably would, then at least someone else would rescue the hostages.

"Let's go," she said, and led Sun inside through the unguarded doorway.

The lights in the corridor were out and there was little moonlight getting in, but that wasn't a problem for the two of them as they crept down the corridor with weapons drawn. Blake had Gambol Shroud in its sword configuration, the black blade reassuring in her grip. If it came to a fight the sword would be more discreet than shooting with the pistol. She held the sharp scabbard in her free hand, and the black ribbon trailed from the hilt of her sword to brush against the floor.

As Blake crept forward, as silent and soft-footed as a cat, she began to hear voices raised in anger: Sunset Shimmer's voice...and Adam's.

Blake quickened her pace. She knew what Adam was capable of in his wrath as few others did, and Sunset was combative and pig-headed enough to set him off.

"Whatever happens next, stay here," Blake told Sun as she pushed open the door leading to the room from which the voices come. "If anything...just find the others and get them out."

She looked through the doorway, staring out of the shadows and into the patch of moonlight in which Sunset Shimmer and Adam faced off against one another. Adam had one hand resting upon the hilt of Wilt, Sunset's hands were raised to deploy the semblance on which she over-relied.

"Now then, Sunset Shimmer, why don't you show me what you're got?" Adam snarled.

"Adam, no!" Blake cried, as she rushed out of the doorway to throw herself between the two of them before they could begin to fight in earnest and Adam could cut down Sunset Shimmer as Blake knew he would do if it came to it. Sunset's mighty semblance would not avail her against Adam's bloody blade.

Adam stared at her in awed amazement. He was stunned briefly into silence, his mouth moving but no words emerging.

Adam never took off his mask, not even when they were alone together and he would lecture her about his plans for their people. As a result, Blake had learnt to read his boy language, which was as shocked by her appearance as his expression made him seem.

"Blake," he whispered, when he was able to talk once more. "My darling?"

Blake lowered her sword to her side. "Let them go, Adam. Let them all go. I'm the one you want."

Adam stared at her. Silently, he took a step towards her. "You left."

"I made a mistake," Blake said. "But I'm here now. I'm back."

"For them."

"For you," Blake insisted. "Don't do this, Adam. There's no need. These people haven't done anything to us."

"Humans and house faunus, our enemies."

"Not all of them," Blake said. "I'm sorry, Adam. I'm sorry that I couldn't help you to see that. I'm sorry that I couldn't save you, or even see how to try."

Adam took another two steps towards. "I don't need saving. I only need you."

"You can have me," Blake said. "All you have to do is let them go."

Adam's chest rose and fell slowly with his breathing. "Beacon. You've been hiding at Beacon Academy."

"I'm not hiding any more."

Adam reached out slowly, tentatively, as if he was afraid she would turn out to be a dream or an illusion. He ran one single finger across Blake's cheek, and she pretended that the tender gesture didn't make her want to shudder.

"You will give yourself to me," he murmured. "Freely, of your own will."

Blake mastered her reflexive disgust to close her eyes, and press Adam's whole palm against her cheek as though she hoped to melt into his touch.

"I choose you," Blake said, choosing to remember the good man he had once been, the hero of his people, the champion of faunus-kind. The man she had fallen in love with before hatred and bitterness devoured him. "I'm sorry, Adam," she whispered, as she stabbed upwards with Gambol Shroud.

Adam caught her wrist in a grip as firm as a vice, and the hand that stroked her cheek descended to embrace her throat.

"How stupid do you think I am, my love?" Adam snarled.

"You want an honest answer, buddy?" Sun yelled as he leapt out of the dark, his bo-staff swinging. He cracked Adam hard across the face and made him cry out, releasing Blake as he retreated.

Sun and Blake both pursued, with staff and Gambol Shroud. Adam drew his crimson sword, frantically parrying first Blake and then Sun, using Blush as a second weapon to block while tried to find an opening to strike with Wilt.

Sunset teleported behind him with bolts of green energy flying from her fingers; Adam deflected them with his sword before sending Sunset flying backwards with a kick to the stomach. Sun's staff split in half becoming a pair of nunchuks which he wielded in fluid, rapid spinning motions, while Blake used her hilt as a weapon just as Adam was doing. Sunset tried to assist, but the dance that Blake, Sun and Adam were engaged with was too fast and whirling and frenetic for her to get a clear shot from range, and when she got up close she was too poor a hand to hand fighter to stand up to Adam.

Sun's gunchuks roared as he emptied them into Adam at point blank range. Adam blocked with his sword, but this left an opening for Blake to land a trio of slashing strokes along his side

Nevertheless, as Adam retreated, he smirked.

When she heard the footsteps approaching Blake understood why he looked so cocky.

The other door into the room burst open as members of the White Fang began to pour in. Sunset brought down the first three with her semblance but missed the fourth who bounded into the room with sword drawn.

He started towards the melee.

There was a gunshot. A high window shattered and the sword-faunus went down.

More windows shattered as a pony faunus with rainbow hair flew in on a pair of mechanical wings.

Rainbow Dash scowled as the video finished. This sucked. Everything about the White Fang sucked - not least the way that ordinary decent faunus were always the ones who suffered most from their acts of villainy, a fact which the self-proclaimed champions of faunus-kind never seemed to look down and notice - but this really sucked right now.

Penny's friends, and Specialist Schnee's sister.

And they'd seemed like good people. Nikos was good people, Rainbow didn't believe you could fake it in front of a whole hospital full of children; you couldn't feign to possess that kind of compassion, and who would even want to? Ruby and Jaune seemed nice enough, and Sunset...well, Rainbow wouldn't wish this on enemies far worse than Sunset Shimmer.

Rainbow's magenta eyes swept across the living space where Team RSPT was gathered, having just watched the news on Twi's scroll. Twilight was sitting on the couch, her face pale. Ciel was standing behind her, arms folded, expression inscrutable. And Penny...

Penny was wearing an incredibly human look of distress, eyes wide, mouth agape, hands clutched over where her heart would have been if she'd had one. "Ruby...my friends..."

Rainbow reached out tentatively. "Penny-"

"Rainbow Dash," Penny said. "If...If the White Fang receive a hundred thousand lien, will they let Ruby go?"

Rainbow hesitated. Penny was familiar with the concept of lying, even if she wasn't good at it. "Probably not."

"In any case," Ciel added, firmly but not without sympathy. "Under the Mantle Accords the Four Kingdoms have jointly agreed neither to negotiate with terrorists nor to ransom hostages in these circumstances, so as not to encourage further hostage taking. No one is going to pay any ransom anyway."

"Ciel," Twilight murmured.

"If she's going to know the truth then she should understand it as well."

Penny blinked rapidly. Rainbow felt certain that she would have been crying if she were capable of it. "Then...Ruby is going to die? They will...kill her won't they?"

No one answered. They didn't have to; their silence was answer enough.

"We need to rescue her!" Penny cried. "Ruby and the others, I need to save them!"

Rainbow's mouth flopped open. She wasn't sure what she'd expected but she hadn't expected this.

"Penny-" Ciel began.

"I know that I still have a lot to learn, but how am I supposed to save the world if I can't even save my friends?" Penny demanded.

"What you're talking about is dangerous, Penny," Rainbow said. "The White Fang doesn't mess around. Do you get that?"

"Rainbow Dash," Penny said. "Is Twilight Sparkle your friend?"

Rainbow frowned at the apparent non-sequitur. "Yeah. She's one of my best friends."

"And what does that mean, to say that she is one of your best friends? What does that mean, best friends?"

Rainbow was silent a moment, as she thought about Twilight and how it was Rainbow's job to keep her safe so she could great things with that egg head of hers. She thought about Fluttershy, in south-east Vale somewhere with only Applejack looking put for her. She thought about Pinkie, and Rarity, and Scootaloo, who didn't have to fight because Rainbow had taken that burden on herself.

"It means I'd die for them," she said.

"Ruby is my best friend," Penny said. "Please, Rainbow Dash."

"Leaving aside the question of whether this is something we ought to be considering," Ciel said. "We have no idea where the White Fang are holding the hostages."

"I might be able to work that out," Twilight said. She opened up he laptop, and her fingers flew across the hard light keys as she linked to her scroll. The video sprang up on the bigger screen, and Twilight froze on an image of Weiss Schnee. "And magnify…" Twilight murmured, as the screen was taken up by a blown-up fragment of the picture: the window in the wall behind Schnee. "That is a view out of the window wherever the White Fang are keeping the prisoners. By running this image through an algorithm database I can compare it against images of Vale until we find a match to that skyline. That will give us a location."

Rainbow's eyebrows rose. "You can do that? Two, that sounds like some serious CSI: Vacuo level BS; I thought they could only that stuff on TV."

Twilight shrugged. "Computers are very advanced these days, although..."

"What?"

Twilight looked apologetic as she said, "This computer doesn't really have the processing power to quickly perform a task like this, but if I can back in to Penny's main processing unit I think I can run the algorithm in about thirty minutes."

"Do it," Penny said. "Anything to help save Ruby."

Twilight looked at Rainbow.

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, do it." She looked at Ciel, daring her to object.

Ciel did not object. "I suppose we're trying combat trials a little early."

"That's it?" Rainbow replied.

"The Schnee Dust Company is an important partner of the Atlasian military, and the Kingdom of Vale is a strategic ally; assisting in this matter makes sense. And, in any case, it’s the right thing to do."

Rainbow grinned. "Twilight, Penny, you get on with...You know, the science stuff. I'm going to make a call."

"Sit down, Penny," Twilight said. "This won't hurt, I promise. It will feel...as if you're going to sleep."

"Oh. Will I dream?"

Rainbow didn't hear Twi's answer to that, if indeed she had or have one; she slipped into the bedroom to speak to Specialist Schnee.

Ciel followed her in, slipping through the doorway before it closed. "Are you sure about this?"

Rainbow said, "If it was Twilight out there, or Pinkie, I wouldn't hesitate." She snorted. "In fact, I wouldn't be nearly as calm as Penny about all this." Rainbow frowned. "What about you? Doubts?"

"As I said, it's the right thing to do," Ciel replied. "But if this goes wrong it will be both our heads. You do understand that?"

"Yeah, I get it," Rainbow said. "But we can't sit tight for the sake of our careers, right?"

"Obviously."

Rainbow opened up her scroll. "Do you think...what if Winter doesn't know?"

"I expect the consulate will have informed her as soon as they found out, as a professional courtesy."

"Right," Rainbow muttered, and she called Specialist Schnee.

Winter took a little longer than normal to answer, and when she did she looked a little less immaculately imperious than normal. She still stared at Rainbow Dash like she was pond scum, however.

"Rainbow Dash," she said wearily. "I'm sure you're aware that this isn't the best time-"

"I know," Rainbow said quickly. "That's why I'm requesting permission to launch a rescue op."

Winter stared at Rainbow as though she'd gone nuts. "Rescue...is this some kind of joke?"

"No, ma'am," Rainbow said, sounding and feeling hurt at the suggestion. Sure, she liked a prank in good fun but this wasn't the time or the place! "Twilight thinks she can locate the hostages, and I'd like permission to get them out."

"If you have a location then call it in to the Vale authorities."

"The White Fang probably have a man inside the police, that's how they got to them in the first place," Rainbow said. "Besides, ma'am, do you really want to trust Vale cops?"

Winter tensed. She breathed harshly in and out. "Do you have a solid lead?"

"We will have," Rainbow said. "Not sure if I could explain it, though."

"Ciel, is this genuine or some kind of hunch?"

"I have faith in the process, ma'am."

Winter hesitated. "General Ironwood will never go for this...do you really think you can save her?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Rainbow Dash.

"I concur, ma'am," added Ciel.

"Then do it, I'll keep the General off your back," Winter said. "What do you need?"

"A bullhead, doesn't need to be armed," Rainbow said. Twilight would be at the controls over the hot zone, and Twi hadn't trained in combat flying. "And access to Asset Twelve."

"Granted," Winter said. "I'll make the calls and get back to you about your bullhead. Schnee out." She disconnected.

"Asset Twelve? Is that realm necessary?" Ciel asked.

"Like they say, I'd rather have it and not need it," Rainbow said, as she walked over to the large metal trunk that sat beside her bed. It was a trunk that she'd hoped she wouldn't have to open up while in Vale, but like she'd just told Ciel she'd rather have stuff she didn't need than need stuff that she didn’t have.

Especially when that stuff was trunk full of guns, ammo, grenades and her wings.

Rainbow grinned as she popped open the trunk and lifted her flight pack out of the metal container. The pack was metallic - though Rainbow had decorated the back with her many-coloured lightning bolt - and looked like a hump of some kind. That was to hold the wings when they were folded up inside, as well as the thruster to get her off the ground. Rainbow buckled it across her chest like a parachute; the weight felt familiar to her, comfortable. It was the thought of intentionally heading into battle without it that would have felt strange.

Rainbow pulled a shotgun out of the case and offered it to Ciel. "You want this?"

"I'd prefer the DMR."

"It's bound to be tight quarters once we get inside."

"You'll appreciate a marksman to cover you before you get inside," Ciel said. "And besides, I still prefer the accuracy even at close range."

"Suit yourself," Rainbow said. She put the shotgun down on her bed, and dug out the DMR for Ciel out of the trunk. "What kind of grenade mix, do you think?"

"Fire dust and flashbangs."

"Sounds about right."

Rainbow's scroll buzzed. It was Winter Schnee.

"There's an unarmed bullhead standing by for you at Westlake commercial sky-dock," Winter said. "And Asset Twelve are on standby, awaiting your word. Make the call if you need them."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Don't thank me, just save my sister. Schnee out."

The door flew open as Twilight burst inside. "Girls, great news: I think I've found out where they are."

The bullhead cruised through the night sky, flying over the streets of Vale with all lights off. There was a risk of collision, but it would also make it a lot harder for any White Fang lookout to see them coming.

And according to the sensors the skies were clear. The current situation was keeping a lot of air traffic grounded, it seemed.

It helped that the part of Vale they were flying over was halfway to abandoned anyway. Nobody lived or worked here. Perfect place for a criminal hideout, but also not a bad place to fly over without disturbing the locals.

"We're approaching the target now," Rainbow said. At the moment she was flying, her hands gripping the stick firmly, but that wouldn't last. "Twilight, are you ready to take over?"

"Uh...maybe Ciel could-"

"I need to Ciel to come in with me and Penny," Rainbow said. She smiled. "You can do this, Twi. All you have to do is keep her steady. You can do that, right?"

"I, yes, I mean I'll try my best."

"You always do."

"So, to recap the plan," Ciel said, from the passenger section what she and Penny were holding on.

"You've recapped the plan four times!" Rainbow cried.

"Recap number five," Ciel declared. "Once we arrive over the target I will eliminate any targets on the roof before Rainbow Dash, Penny and I enter from there. Twilight will keep the bullhead on station while we search the complex, eliminate any hostiles we encounter, and retrieve the hostages. Once the hostages have been recovered we will exfiltrate via the roof and return the hostages to Beacon Academy."

"I guess we're about to see how combat ready you really are, Penny," Rainbow said.

"I'm ready," Penny said. "Although I wish I was meeting Ruby again under better circumstances."

"Yeah, I understand why," Rainbow muttered.

"But I don't understand," Penny said. "I don't understand why anyone would want to hurt Ruby."

Rainbow and Twilight exchanged a look of horror. How where they supposed to explain the White Fang to Penny, especially at a time like this?"

"Um," Twilight murmured, as she twisted around in her seat to see Penny better. "You see, the White Fang are faunus, and they, well, they think that they're different from humans like Ruby. And so...well, the thing is...people like the White Fang hate things they think are different from them-"

"Are they different?" Penny asked. "The same way that I'm different?"

"Faunus are no different from humans, and only fools or idiots think otherwise," Twilight declared hotly. "And, honestly, you're no different either."

A smile broke out on Rainbow's face as she started to tap a rhythm on the control panel. "Hey, Twilight."

Twilight eyes widened behind her spectacles. "You're not-"

"Hey, hey everybody, we've got something to say," Rainbow crooned.

"We may seem as different, as the night is from day. Come on, Twi, you know this one!"

"What are you doing?" Ciel demanded.

Twilight joined in as the verse continued. "But you look a little deeper, and you will see,

“That I'm just like you and I'm just like me, yeah!

“Hey-"

"Please stop," Ciel said.

"Should I be singing too?" Penny asked.

"No," said Ciel emphatically. "What was that?"

"Something from where we grew up," Rainbow said. "That was the song for shake your tail day, wasn't It?"

"I cringe looking back at that," Twilight groaned. "I've no idea how you weren't offended."

"Your hearts were in the right place," Rainbow said. "And you all looked kind of cute."

"Shake your tail day?" Penny said.

"When I started to get a rough time of it for being a faunus, Twilight and my other friends organised a day to show that humans and faunus weren't really any different. There was a song, and my friends put on these plastic pony ears and tails, and encouraged everyone at school to wear them to show that it was all just cosmetic anyhow. Deep down we were all just the same."

"So insensitive," Twilight groaned.

"Ah don’t be like that, the only person who had a problem with it was Sunset and she had a problem with everything."

They approached the target that Twilight had identified: a derelict warehouse from a bankrupt old dust company.

Penny held onto Ciel while the latter held her rifle to her shoulder, using the scope in lieu of binoculars. "I have eyes on the White Fang: three hostiles on the roof."

"They'll hear us if we get much closer," Rainbow said. "Can you get them from here?"

Rainbow looked over her shoulder. Ciel was silent, her expression intense. She breathed out slowly, and inhaled slower. She held her breath. Ciel squeezed the trigger once, twice, three times in quick succession, though the rifle itself made only a dull, muffled sound on account of the suppressor mounted on the barrel.

Ciel breathed out. "Taken care of."

"You were right to take the rifle over the shotgun."

"Obviously."

Rainbow guided the bullhead in closer, until they were hovering about twenty feet over the warehouse, an easy jump for huntresses with aura.

"You're turn, Twilight," Rainbow said as she vacated the pilot's chair. "Just hold her there until we get back."

"Right," Twilight said, not without nervousness but, at the same time, not so nervous that Rainbow didn't trust her to get the job done.

Rainbow patted Twi on the shoulder as she took the controls. "You're gonna be fine, and we'll be back before you know it."

Twilight nodded. "Good luck."

Rainbow grinned. "Nothing to worry about."

She pulled down her goggles over her eyes, and strode out of the cockpit to join the others.

Ciel was still looking into the scope of her rifle, scanning the window set high in the walls of the warehouse. "I can see a hostage!"

"Is it Ruby?" Penny asked.

"I think its Sunset Shimmer," Ciel said. "Engaging one hostile and two unknowns."

"What makes them unknowns?"

"The fact that I don't know who they are," Ciel said, slightly peevishly.

Rainbow took less than half a second to consider. "Change of plans, we're going in through the windows. We'll back up Sunset and then find the others. Ciel, give us cover from here for now."

"Affirmative."

Rainbow stepped to the edge of the bullhead. The wind ruffled her hair. "Ready, Penny?"

"Combat ready!"

Ciel fired, shattering one of the windows in the process.

Rainbow Dash leapt, holding her hands out in front of her as she sent a little pulse of aura surging through her body and expelling it through her palms. It wasn't much, but it was enough to shatter the glass in the other windows before Rainbow hit them.

She dived through the window-frames, her glorious wings unfurling on either side from out of her flight pack to turn a fall into a swooping controlled descent.

More White Fang were charging into the room and Ciel could only take them out one at a time. Rainbow pulled a fire-dust grenade from off her belt and threw it I to the doorway.

She didn't pause to watch the explosion as she swooped on the guy with the sword - he was the one in the grimm mask, and he was the one that everyone else was fighting, so nobody needed to tell Rainbow Dash who the bad guy was - like a hawk diving upon a field mouse. She drew her pistols and fired, getting a few hits in before he turned and started parrying with his sword. Impressive, but he just had too many people who wanted a piece of him and not enough arms to fight them all off. Rainbow slowed her descent, going from swooping head first to standing upright in the air as she lashed out with her feet one, two. The bad guy blocked her first kick, but then ran straight into the not enough arms problem as her second kick caught him in the side of the head and knocked him sprawling.

The next wave of White Fang charging into the room let out a great cry of dismay as they surged to his rescue, but before they could get close enough to cover him Penny had landed between them and him.

"Hello, I'm looking for my friend Ruby! And my other friends Jaune and Pyrrha." Penny said. "Do any of you know where she is?"

"Protect Adam!" yelled a faunus wearing glasses over his mask. He began to fire, even as he brandished a sword in his free hand. The other White Fang goons began to fire as well, spraying bullets in all directions across the room. The guy with the horns, this Adam, scrambled for the exit as Rainbow Dash - and everyone else - had to dive for what cover they could find in this room of cages. Sunset threw up a shield around herself because she'd always been a show-off.

"Adam!" roared a black-haired cat girl.

Adam paused in the doorway. "Perry! Suppression fire and fall back, we're leaving. Where's Walter?"

"Securing the other hostages."

"Good," Adam said, and it seemed as though he looked back at someone in the room and smirked before he fled down the corridor out of sight.

Rainbow scowled, but with the amount of shots being thrown their way there was nothing they could do until they had cleared the room.

Only Penny braved the fire of the White Fang without flinching. Her swords emerged from her back as she strode into the firestorm, and Penny weaved them in effortless arcs, blocking every bullet that was thrown her way as she advanced remorselessly upon the White Fang faster than they could retreat.

Penny raised her hands, and her swords flew forwards on their wires to strike into the heart of the White Fang, cutting a swathe through their formation as faunus were knocked down like bowling pins.

Rainbow got to her feet, roaring, and with her semblance charged into the midst of the remaining White Fang with a flurry of punches, pistol shots and kicks from her gun boots.

As Sunset and the two other faunus joined in, and as Ciel dropped in from the bullhead, the remaining White Fang joined their leader in flight.

Without a word - this really wasn't the time for introductions, but events had demonstrated who was friend and who was foe - pursued them down the corridor, following at their heels as they ran.

“I told you not to follow me,” the cat-girl berated the monkey-boy.

“Like I said, I just can’t leave a beautiful girl in trouble.”

“You’re impossible!”

They emerged into another large - larger than the first, much larger - open storage space where they found even more White Fang.

Rainbow went first, literally flying forwards with guns blazing. The two faunus Rainbow didn't know followed her, while Sunset hung back with her semblance - had she always been able to do so much with it - while Ciel covered Penny, who was using her swords both as swords and as lasers to clear out the chaff.

"Where's Ruby?" Penny demanded.

"I'm right here, Penny!" Ruby cried as she burst through a door at the other end of the room, with Weiss Schnee and the remaining members of Team SAPR not far behind.

Pyrrha's eyes opened upon darkness.

"Pyrrha! Jaune, Pyrrha's awake!"

"Ruby," Pyrrha murmured. Memories flooded back: the crash, Sunset flinging a shield up around them and that shield shattering on impact. She remembered grabbing Jaune to try and shield him from the hardest landing, she remembered her aura breaking...and she remembered nothing else until she came to here, in this dark place. "Ruby! Jaune! Are you-"

"We're okay," Jaune said. She couldn't see him no matter which way she looked, but his voice sounded as though it was at least somewhat close by. "Now, at least. We were getting kind of worried when you didn't wake up."

"I'm fine now," Pyrrha murmured. She sat up. She was on a stone floor by the feel of it. "Where are we? Is everyone here: Weiss, Sunset?"

"We don't know where Sunset is," Ruby admitted. "She wasn't here when we woke up."

"I see," Pyrrha said softly. That could mean anything, ranging from Sunset having escaped capture to her having...Pyrrha prayed it was not so. "And Weiss?"

"She was here," Jaune said, sounding angry about something. "They took her away. I tried to stop them but...I wasn't strong enough!"

"You'll get there, Jaune," Ruby said.

"When? And how many of my friends will suffer before I get there?"

"I understand how you feel-"

"No, you don't, none of you do!" Jaune snapped. "You're all so awesome; none of you could understand what it's like to be so...so useless! The White Fang has us locked in cages and I can't do anything!"

"We're all locked up in here, Jaune," Ruby reminded him in a tone of gentle reproach.

Jaune sighed. "I know, I'm sorry. I just...gah!"

"I get it, Jaune, I really do," Ruby said. "But we can't give up. We have to stay positive so that we can get out of here and rescue Sunset and Weiss."

"How?"

"Cages, you say," Pyrrha whispered. She reached out with one hand, feeling the cold iron beneath her fingertips.

A smile that no one could see flirted across her face.

"I can get us out of here," she said.

"You can?" Jaune said.

"Forgive me, I shouldn't have kept this from you for so long," Pyrrha said. "My semblance is polarity. I've always kept it a secret but...I shouldn't have concealed it from my comrades...from my friends."

The lights came on, temporarily blinding Pyrrha. When she opened her eyes she could see that she, Jaune and Ruby were all being held in separate cages, though next to one, with Ruby and Pyrrha herself held on either side of Jaune. The room in which they were held was largely empty aside from their cages, barren and devoid of content: bare walls and a cold stone floor.

Roman Torchwick stood before them, cigar clutched between his teeth. His assistant with the two-toned hair and the parasol stood beside him, smirking silently.

"So, the sleeping princess finally decided to wake up and join the rest of us? Have a nice beauty nap, your highness?"

Pyrrha frowned. "Where are our other comrades?"

"Your friend with the tricks up her sleeves is having a word with one of the White Fang bigwigs, animal to animal, you understand," Roman said. "Little Miss Schnee has been helping us out with a home movie project. I think it might even go viral."

"What have you done to her?" Jaune demanded.

"Sheesh, kid, calm your hormones," Roman said. "We haven't done anything, and we're not going to do nothing so long as Daddy Schnee and anyone who care about the two of you little brats coughs up the money to get you back home safe and sound."

"You can't honestly expect us to believe that you'll just let us go once you get paid," Pyrrha said. "That the White Fang will simply let us go."

Roman snorted. "What, you think that just because I'm a criminal I can't be a man of my word?"

"Something like that, yes," Pyrrha replied coldly.

Romans lip curled into a sneer. "You can look down your nose at me all you want, princess, but the truth is your kind cause far more misery in the world than I ever could have."

"What are you talking about?" Ruby demanded. "Pyrrha's never hurt anyone."

"Not now, maybe, but wait until she grows up," Roman said. He began to walk up and down in front of the three cages, twirling his cane in one hand. "Did she tell you that she's a descendant of the last Emperor of Mistral? Or did she forget to mention that she's genuine royalty."

"That's not-" Pyrrha began, but Roman wasn't done yet.

"I bet that's not the only thing that she forgot to tell you, is it?" Roman said. "Like the fact that she's loaded? Her ransom is ten million lien because we know she's good for it, yours is just a hundred thousand each. You think that someone like her really gives a damn about people like you?"

"I do care-" Pyrrha protested, but of course she had lied to them and now they knew it; she had concealed her semblance from all of them. What would that seed of doubt grow into, watered by Torchwick's words?

"About people like us? People like her, they'll screw us over in a heartbeat and they don't even need a good reason for it."

"I would never-"

"Unless we screw them first. You want to know what I'm doing here? I'm offering you a chance to get in on the ground floor of the revolution, kids. The people that I work for are going to change the world and when they do it won't be soldiers or cops or old-money bigshots making the calls, it'll be people like us who can finally rise as far as our talents will take us without-"

"Oh, shut up!" Jaune yelled. "You kidnapped us, you tried to kill us, you're a criminal and you're working with terrorists and you think we're going to listen to you rather than our friend? You think we'd ever choose you over Pyrrha?"

"Jaune," Pyrrha murmured.

"You say you want to change the world," Ruby said. "But how many people are you going to hurt to change the world the way you want it to be? How many people have you already hurt, Roman? Maybe Pyrrha didn't tell us everything, but so what? I don't need to know who her family is, or who she's descended from. I know that she's kind and brave and she always tries her best to help other people and I know that she's my friend and if...I know that the world isn't perfect, I know that life isn't a fairytale like the stories, but...but if losing someone as good as Pyrrha is the price for making the world a better place then I don't want the world to change!"

Pyrrha bowed her head. The relief that she felt, the sheer...joy was the only word that could describe how she felt right now in spite of their situation. She had been so worried, but they...when she first came to Beacon she wouldn't have believed that anyone would stand up for her like that.

"Ruby...Jaune...thank you. Thank you so much."

Roman stared at Ruby with a look of melancholy fascination. "Nice speech, kid. You kind of remind me of-" he stopped. "Whatever. If you won't join the party that's up to you, but you gotta understand that we can't let you off your friends get in our way for a third time. We have to protect our interests."

He levelled his cane at Ruby. Anxiety surged through Pyrrha's veins as she thrus out her hand, flinging out her semblance like a fist. Torchwick yelped in startled alarm as his cane jerked sideways and his shot struck the wall with a harmless explosion.

Roman stared at the charred wall for a moment, before he looked at Pyrrha with curiosity in his visible. "I see you've got a few tricks yourself, princess. You kids...I can see why you're so interesting to my employers."

Pyrrha began to pull at the bats of her cage, warping them with her semblance as she made motions of praising them apart. They resisted, groaning in protest, but Pyrrha's will in this inexorable. She was going to get out of here, and she was not going to allow either Ruby or Jaune to come to any harm.

Not while she lived.

An explosion echoed from outside somewhere, followed by the unmistakable rattle of gunfire.

"What the-" Roman began, before the big faunus that Pyrrha had fought in the dust shop burst into the room. He was deprived of the full face mask that he had worn that day, having to make do with a smaller mask that exposed the lower half of a really quite thuggish looking face. In place of his chainsaw he carried a double-headed axe.

"They've found us," he growled.

"Who?"

"Huntresses, we need to get these three out of here now." He walked towards Ruby's cage.

"Leave her alone," Pyrrha snarled as she continued to pry the bars apart. She wa almost there.

Torchwick laughed nervously. "As you can see, uh, one of our guests isn't proving very cooperative."

The White Fang leader huffed. "Guards! To me!" He opened Ruby's cage and dragged her out by the arm, ignoring her feeble punches as though they were tickles, pulling her without apparent effort in spite of her struggles.

But Pyrrha had bent the bars far enough now and she emerged, striding out of her cage to confront her enemies. Her blood felt as though it was boiling with anger, her chest felt it was constricting with fury at what these people had done and wanted to do to her friends, to Ruby.

She glared at the faunus with murder in her eyes. "I said leave her alone."

Roman laughed again. "Say, Neo...if you wouldn't mind."

The girl - Neo - took up position in front of Torchwick. Pyrrha punched the girl once, perfunctorily, and saw what she had expected to see: the illusion of their presence shattering into pieces. He had fled. Coward.

That left only the large faunus, the one still holding Ruby.

The one she was feeling especially angry towards.

Ruby might be a marvel in her own right with Crescent Rose in hand, but she and Jaune and Sunset were all precious to Pyrrha now, and that meant they were under her protection should they have need of it.

Pyrrha's hands clenched into fists.

The big faunus growled as he threw Ruby aside. "Okay, let's do this."

He raised his axe, but Pyrrha raised one hand - after what he'd already witnessed there wasn't a lot of point in being subtle right now - and pulled it out of his grip. She sent it flying behind her, burying it by the head in the far wall.

The faunus made a seething sound as he charged at her with his fists clenched.

Pyrrha's hair streamed behind her like a banner touched by flame as she charged forth to meet him in turn.

They met, their fist flying, colliding with one another knuckle to knuckle, fist striking fist over and over again as their blows like falling hammers met like tempestuous waves colliding on a storm-wracked sea. Pyrrha threw out her fists over and over again, trusting in her superior to do more to him than he could do to her in the same amount of time, punch after punch after punch breaking through his guard to land precisely where she meant to on his body as she hammered away at his aura. He was like an old tree buffeted by a hurricane: at first he stood against the raging of her storm, and then he bent against it, and then he cracked as Pyrrha bore him to the wall and pinned him by the shoulder.

"Where are Sunset and Weiss?" Pyrrha demanded.

"Why should I tell you anything?"

Pyrrha glared down at him. His own axe trembled a little where it was buried in the wall.

"Okay, the Schnee girl is in the manager's office just down the hall. The traitor is with Adam in the other side of the building." He chuckled. "You won't find Adam so easy to deal with."

"What about our scrolls?"

"Next door, but-"

Pyrrha knocked him out with one more punch. Silently, she turned to face Jaune and Ruby.

"Go Pyrrha!" Ruby yelled. "You rock!"

"That was totally awesome," Jaune said. "In a slightly scary 'I hope that I never upset you' kind of way."

Pyrrha felt her cheeks begin to burn. "You're both far too kind. Now, Jaune, let's get you out of there."

She extended both her hands, and closed her eyes for extra concentration as she asailed Jaune's cage with her semblance.

She knew that she had succeeded when she felt Jaune's arms around her shoulders, joined by Ruby's as they both enveloped her in their embrace.

"Thank you," Jaune said.

Pyrrha didn't want it to stop. She didn't want Jaune to let go of her, she didn't want this feeling and the wonderful sensation that came with it, to end.

It felt so good she wanted it to go on and on.

But it had to end, because they had a job to do and people who were depending on them.

"We should go," she said. "He said our scrolls were next door."

Next door was a small, damp, dingy little room with mould growing in the corners and rustling old filing cabinets taking up much of the space. There scrolls were by the door, on a small wooden. They were still on, and though the battery had been run down there was enough power left to summon their lockers.

While they waited for their weapons they could hear more gunshots and shouts of alarm coming from somewhere beyond.

"Who do you think that is?" Jaune asked.

"Yang, maybe," Ruby suggested. "No, that's not what Ember Celica sounds like. But...Yang wouldn't be left out if someone was coming to rescue us."

"We'll find out soon enough," Pyrrha said, as their lockers crashed through the ceiling and crushed several of the old filing cabinets as they descended.

They recovered their weapons - Ruby kissed Crescent Rose - and made their way down the corridor to the door marked 'Manager's Office.

They found Weiss tied to a chair inside, gagged too, and swiftly freed her from her bonds.

"Thank you, those ropes were starting to itch," Weiss murmured. She looked around. "Sunset isn't with you?"

"No," Pyrrha replied. "We haven't found her yet."

"Thank goodness, I doubt she'd ever let me live it down if I had to be rescued by her," Weiss said. "And that noise?"

"A rescue by somebody, we think," Ruby ventured.

Weiss adjusted her ribbon tie. "Is that so? Well, it would be rude to keep them waiting any longer, wouldn't it?"

They ran towards the sounds of the fighting, weapons ready. As the noises of battle intensified on the other side of the wall, they all heard Penny demand, "Where is Ruby?"

"I'm right here, Penny!" Ruby yelled as she burst through the door at the head of them all.

Finally they could see who the rescue party consisted of: Penny, Rainbow Dash, a young woman Penny didn't know, Sunset - the others must have found her first- a monkey-tailed boy who was another stranger to Pyrrha and...

Had Blake Belladonna been a faunus all this time?

Battle raged all across the former warehouse. Sun whirled his gunchuks in his hands, darting below and leaping above the strokes of his enemies as he blasted them in face and chest. Rainbow soared over the battlefield, descending to deliver vicious kicks before rising up again beyond the range of retribution. Weiss used her glyphs as barriers, and conjured a blue energy shield around herself while with other glyphs she fired beams of energy at her enemies, or dilated time under the feet of Pyrrha, Ruby or Penny to enable them to attack even more swiftly. Sunset used her semblance to dread effect, taking out enemies left and right. Ruby cut swathes through the White Fang with her scythe, and Penny did much the same with her swords but on an even grander scale. Ciel covered Penny's back with rifle and pistol. Pyrrha was a goddess of war against whom none could stand. Even Jaune found that he was the equal in skill to some of the White Fang, able to knock them down in a one on one fight. Pyrrha made sure to check up on him every now and then, however.

Blake watched it all: the way that what had started out as a rescue mission was turning inexorably into a victory. The White Fang had skilled fighters - had possessed such when she was a part of it at least - but these warriors here were not amongst them. There were no elites here, only the dross of their movement. They fought with a certain courage born out of fanaticism, but they were no match for the skill of the huntresses (and Sun and Jaune) against whom they were arrayed. Even their numbers were availing them little: none of Blake's allies seemed on the verge of losing their aura through tiredness.

Only Adam might have turned the tide of this battle; he was was as strong as Pyrrha and nearly as fast as Ruby. But when Blake caught side of her old mentor, distinguished by his burning hair like a crest upon an antique helmet, he was not in the thick of the fighting but to the rear, giving orders to Perry.

A surge of contempt flashed through Blake as she began to charge towards him. She used her clones to avoid any fighter who sought to waylay her on the way to him, not out of fear but put of impatience. She knew how skilled Adam was better than most but if she could capture him, if she could defeat him here then how much future evil might be avoided?

And she wouldn't have to spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder waiting for him to reappear in her life.

"Get the bullhead in the air, and bring in the warhorses to cover our retreat."

"But, Adam they're not-"

"We have those pieces of junk for a reason, so get them in here!" Adam yelled, grabbing Perry by the collar and shaking him like a rat. "We're finished here anyway."

"Adam!" Blake cried as she leapt above the press to descend on Adam with blade in one hand and hilt in the other.

Adam shoved Perry away, before he parried Blake's first stroke. He countered, but hit only one of Blake's clones.

Blake pressed him from the right, driving him back a pace before their blades locked.

"So, you're finally facing me alone," Adam snarled. "No friends to back you up. Do you think I'm so weakened that assistance is unnecessary or have you just found your pride as a warrior?"

Blake pushed against him. "It's over, Adam."

Adam laughed. "Oh, darling. This has only just begun." He pushed, bearing her back with his greater strength. He attacked in a flurry of slashing strokes, his sword a crimson blur in the low light, cutting down two of Blake's clones in lieu of Blake herself as she struggled to keep up with his ferociously swift movements. He might have - must have - lost a lot of his aura but that in itself wasn't enough to slow him down.

"Why, Adam?" Blake demanded. "Why are you working with a man like Torchwick? Why are you kidnapping children, why are you doing any of this?"

"You never could see the bigger picture, could you Blake?"

Blake counter-attacked, but she could not break his guard no matter how many clones she used as a distraction. He'd always been too good at figuring out which was the real her, even when they were allies. "I see that you've lost sight of everything that we used to stand for. Don't you remember when we used to fight for equality?"

"Equality?" Adam roared, as he forced Blake onto the back foot. "Equality is just another word used by humans to keep us on our knees. I'm willing to do whatever it takes for the future of our people. I'm willing to make the hard choices that others in their weakness shrink away from."

"You're a monster."

"I'm the only reason the faunus have a chance to survive what's coming," Adam growled. "You may not agree with my methods, Blake, but I'm doing this for our people."

"What are you talking about?" Blake demanded. "What's coming?"

Adam kicked her in the chest to send her flying backwards against the floor. He pursued, Wilt raised to strike her down...

And then he hesitated. His blood red blade seemed stuck in the air. His face showed confusion, even uncertainty. His sword was raised, but it did not descend.

Adam turned abruptly, using his sword to parry a beam of energy fired from the palms of Sunset Shimmer’s hands. Wilt took the beam, and when it ceased the blade was glowing a bright crimson. So was Adam's hair, and all the red on his outfit.

It was then that Blake remembered with a growing sense of dread how much Adam had been parrying all kinds of attacks with his sword tonight.

Adam smirked. "Thank you," he said, as he charged Sunset.

As soon as she saw Adam start to glow everywhere about him that was red Sunset had the feeling that she had screwed up.

She wasn't entirely sure what she'd done or if there was any way she could have seen it coming, but she guessed he wasn't lighting up like that to attract a mate.

And then he smiled at her the way that a shark might smile at a minnow or a cat at a mouse and Sunset knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had screwed up.

And then he charged.

Sunset had know fear before. The first time that she'd ever seen a grimm she had been terrified. She'd been afraid every time she had to walk home in the dark and there had been any human men close by. But nothing, absolutely nothing, compared to how afraid she felt in that moment as her whole world turned as red as blood save for the man who came to kill her. Everything slowed, everything but Adam himself, rendered as dark as death against the crimson that had consumed the world, bearing down upon her swifter than he had ever moved before.

Sunset was rooted to the spot. She couldn't move, couldn't defend herself, she could only watch with mounting terror as Adam descended on her and know, know with absolute certainty, that her blood would soon be used to paint the world as red as it now seemed to her.

"Sunset, no!" Ruby cried, as she struck Sunset in a burst of rose petals, pushing her out of Adam's path.

She was not quite fast enough - or Adam was too fast and his semblance made others too slow - to get fully out of the way herself.

Ruby shrieked in pain, her voice as high as a whistle, as Adam's sword clove through her semblance and sliced through her side.

Ruby struck the ground with a solid thump, her lifeblood pooling around her.

Already her skin was starting to pale, and the rose petals that now fell to the ground around her were all wilted.

"RUBY!" all the members of Team SAPR cried, but the loudest and most agonized cry of all, the cry that contained the most piecing sorrow and raging fury came not from Sunset, or Jaune or even Pyrrha.

It came from Yang Xiao-Long where she stood in the hole in the wall that she had made when she arrived on the scene.

She had come to rescue Ruby, but arrived just in time to see her fall.

"Dammit!" Yang yelled, as she threw down her scroll so hard upon the table that it bounced off and onto the floor.

She was aware that people were staring at her, not only her own team, WSTW, BLBL, but the older years who were giving them their space as well.

Yang didn't care. She was too full of other care to be bothered by such trivial things.

She was so full of wrath. She was so weighed down by fear and sorrow. They warred within her soul, fury and terror locked in combat for the mastery of her heart. The rage she felt at these monsters of the White Fang who had dared to pay a hand on her beloved Ruby set a fire roaring on her skin, and then the knowledge that there was nothing she could do to help her sister doused the flames as swiftly and reduced them to mere smouldering embers.

She was the older. She was Ruby's big sister. It was her job to watch out for Ruby, she had always watched out for Ruby. When Dad had been lost, sunk in grief over losing Mom and Mom in quick succession it was Yang who had taken care of Ruby. And, though Ruby wasn't the little who needed to be tucked in with a bedtime story any more, nevertheless she was still Yang's responsibility.

And Yang had failed in that, and now Ruby was...

Yang collapsed into her seat, head bowed, her great mass of hair falling down around her face. Smoke rose from her body even as a sob wracked it with convulsions.

"Ruby..." Yang whispered.

She felt a great calm pass over her, dousing rage and drying blind panic until there was an empty void inside of her that allowed some clarity of thought to emerge past blind and blinding all-consuming feelings. Yang looked up, to see that Ren had his hand upon her shoulder.

"Losing yourself isn't going to help Ruby," he said.

Nora sat down opposite Yang, and reached out to take her hands. "What about the ransom?"

Yang frowned. "Dad teaches at Signal. We don't have that kind of money."

Dove cleared his throat. "I, uh, I do."

Yang, Nora and Ren all looked at him where he sat unobtrusively on the edge of the table.

"Really?" Nora asked.

"It's not like I'm Jacques Schnee," Dove said. "But...after my grandpa died he left me half of everything he had and, after we sold the house, it came to about a hundred thousand lien. That's what they asked for, right?"

Yang blinked. "All you've got?"

Dove shrugged. "Maybe, but...come on, it's Ruby. What kind of a dick would I have to be to hold out on you at a time like this?"

"Dove, I..." Yang trailed off, because she didn't really know what to say in the face of an offer like that. It wasn't the kind of thing that she would have expected out of Dove, in all honesty. She hadn't really thought that they were close enough. They got along well enough, more or less, but this...did he think they were that much closer than Yang did or was he just that much of a cool dude that he'd drop his inheritance for anybody like that?

"Dove," she tried again. "Don't get me wrong, that's really nice of you...and if I knew it would get Ruby back I'd take you up on it in a heartbeat." She would have tried to pay him back...somehow, but she couldn't honestly say when she might succeed. "But the truth is even if I had the money for Ruby...how would I pay it? They haven't said anything about that. Do they even...ugh, I hate not knowing what's really going on!"

Her condition of deplorable ignorance lasted for several hours, in which Yang fretted, paced, punched things, threatened to punch people, yelled, ranted, had to be restrained by Ren and Dove from just leaving Beacon to wander the streets looking for some sign of Ruby and got calmed down several times by Ren's semblance only to work herself into a lather again in short order because this was Ruby, and Yang had no idea where she was or what had happened to her and oh my-

There was a banging on the door to the YRDN dorm room to which they had retired.

"Yang?" demanded a voice which belonged to one of the BLBL girls, Yang couldn't tell which one from voice alone, from the other side of the door. "Yang, we need to talk to you."

Yang went to the door, opened it, and got a scroll shoved in her face by Bon Bon. Lyra was that to, standing just behind her alongside Sky Lark. All of them were dressed for combat: Bon Bon in her all-enclosing - or it would be once she put her helmet on - armour of gleaming white, trimmed with gold, that not only embraced her whole body but made her seem about twice as big as she actually was; Lyra in her red cloak and plumed, broad-brimmed hat with a sword at her and a harp smiling across her back; Sky in his functional grey armour and his halberd in his hands.

"We know where she is!" Bon Bon exclaimed.

"Wait what?" Yang yelled. "You're talking about Ruby?"

"Blake just sent us this message," Bon Bon clarified. "Read it."

Yang plucked the scroll hastily out of her hands, her violet eyes reddening as she read it. If it was true, then... "How did Blake find her?"

"We don't know," Lyra said.

"That text is all we know," added Sky.

"Blake disappeared a few hours ago, we couldn't get hold of her...and then we got this," Lyra said.

Yang felt a wonderful moment of calm greater than anything forced on her by Ren's semblance settle over her. Because no longer did she need to feet, no longer did she need to worry, she had knowledge and she could act upon it.

And she could vent the anger that had been building up inside her up on someone who really, truly and thoroughly deserved it.

"Did you call the cops?"

"No," Bon Bon said. "We-"

"Good," Yang said. She turned to her team. "I don't have-"

"Oh, come on, like you need to ask," Nora said, with a vicious-looking smile on her face.

Yang looked from Nora, to Ren, to Dove. All their expressions were resolute and unwavering.

"Thanks, guys," Yang said. "Did you tell Wisteria about this?"

"No."

"May as well, Weiss is their team leader. And you know what they say: the more the merrier, right? Call them, and we'll gear up and meet you outside. And don't let Goodwitch see you."

"I haven't seen her all night, or any professor," Lyra said. "It's weird, like she's not even here tonight or something."

"Get up, Cardin," Flash commanded.

Cardin wasn't actually asleep, but he was sprawled across his bed like some kind of lizard, incapable of movement in the cold of the night. Russell thought that was lizards, anyway; he had dim memories of some tv programme about Vacuo deserts that he'd left on one night while he worked on his knives.

Russell pulled on his hoodie while he - and Flash - waited for Cardin to move.

"Cardin!"

"What?" Cardin demanded. "Who put you in charge with the ice queen away?"

"Team Bluebell has a lead on Weiss and the others," Flash explained quickly. "We're all going down to the old warehouse district to get them out so come on, get up, we don't have much time."

"We?"

"Iron, Bluebell and us, who do you think 'we' are?" Russell snapped. "Now come on, man, let's do this!"

Cardin was silent for a moment. "Pass."

"WHAT?" the word exploded from the lips of Russell and Flash simultaneously.

"This is no time to be kidding around, dude," Russell added.

"Who's kidding?" Cardin asked as he rolled over and put his back to them. "Without that pony around my life would be so much better, and it isn't as though our great leader has-

Russell's face was stone as he stalked over to Cardin's bed and shoved him hard enough to tip the bigger guy out of bed and onto the floor with a squawk of surprise.

"What the-"

"Dude, I have had it with this, okay," Russell shouted. "I'm done, seriously. When we first met I thought you were cool but this...I'm done with all of your whining and moping and all of it! Like, I don't really like faunus myself but come on! Get over it! You want to just leave Weiss to get murdered by those animals? Why are you even here? No, don't answer that, answer this: how long do you think you'll last here when the whole academy finds out you were the only first year too chicken to go rescue his own team leader?" Russell let that sink in for a couple of seconds, but kept on talking before he could reply. "So gear up, nut up and let's go save the girl, okay?"

Cardin was silent for a moment. His jaw clenched. "Fine. Fine, let's go." He stomped past Russell and Flash on his way out of the dorm and down to the locker room.

Flash stared at Russell in surprise.

"That's been a long time coming," Russell said by way of explanation.

"Sure has," Flash agreed, as they followed Cardin out the room.

It was not long after before all ten student huntsmen and huntresses were gathered, armed and ready for a fight, in the Beacon courtyard. Yang looked at them: the ones she knew, the ones she lived with every day, and the ones she hardly knew at all. But ultimately it didn't matter how well she knew them, or how well they knew her; or even how well they knew Ruby or Weiss or the members of Team SAPR. They were all Beacon first years, and that was enough.

"Thanks for coming everyone," Yang said. "This isn't going to be a big speech, because that stuff isn't my thing, but I just want to say...that I appreciate this. Whether you're here for Ruby, or you're here for Weiss, or you're just here because you've got nothing better to do tonight, thanks. I won't forget this."

Yang raised her fist in the air. "Now let's kick some ass, and show the White Fang that when they mess with one of us they mess with all of us, who's with me?"

The defiant roar from nine other throats was all the answer she required.

They made it into Vale, ten huntsmen and huntresses in a mission as Yang led them through night streets that were half-empty at the best of times. Perhaps fear if the White Fang had driven all the ordinary people off the streets and in to their homes at night, but whatever the reason there were few people for them to encounter on their way to the location Blake had given, and no one challenged the young huntsmen on their way.

As they moved out of the residential areas and into a district of shuttered-up shops, derelict warehouses and monuments to a prosperity that had passed by some time ago, a niggling feeling of doubt began to assail Yang's mind. How did Blake know where Ruby and the others were being held? How did BLBL even know that it was Blake who had sent that message and not some impostor who had taken her scroll to...what? Lure the rest of the first year into a trap. If that was so then they would find it harder to take them then they might have imagined, but she had to admit that it seemed like a far-fetched kind of plan.

But all the same, she continued to feel doubt whispering at the back of her neck because just how had Blake found put, anyway? She would have felt reassured if she knew the answer to that.

As it was reassurance came from a different direction: from four rocket lockers soaring overhead from Beacon, leaving blue trails like comets across the night sky and headed in the exact same direction as they were headed.

"It's them!" Yang shouted, pointing where the locker and their smile trails led the way. "They must be fighting back somehow! Great job, Ruby!" Yang turned to the other students with a fire in her eyes matching that which was beginning to consume her golden hair. "Pick up the pace, everyone. Let's back them up."

She picked up her pace, her long legs carrying rapidly through the streets though not so rapidly that Flash Sentry wasn't able to keep pace with her.

"Do you think it's really them?" he asked as they ran side by side.

"I can't think who else it could be, can you?"

"I guess not," Flash replied. He sighed. "I just wish we'd seen five lockers instead of four."

As they ran, Yang reached out to him. "We'll get her back, Flash. We're going to get them all back." She looked ahead, and thought of Ruby, and the flames burned higher all around her as she thought of all that she would do to those who had dared to do this.

As they approached the warehouse Yang could hear fighting going on inside. She started to sprint, flames raging all around her as she burst through the wall and into the warehouse with her sister's name upon her lips.

Just in time to see her sister fall to the ground, pale, cut and bleeding, with wilted rose petals descending all around her.

Yang stared in horror at the sight before her. Ruby, her sister, the person she had promised to protect, cut down amidst wilting rose petals. She barely heard Nora gasp in shock behind her as the others that she had led hers- too late, much too late! - piled up behind her and beheld that which held her petrified.

Ruby was Yang's to protect and Yang had failed her.

"RUBY!" the cry was torn from Yang's throat louder than from Jaune or Sunset or Pyrrha. She barely heard them at all. She barely as the battle raging all acr9ss the warehouse.

All she saw was her sister, wounded so badly, and the monster in faunus skin who had done it to her.

And he was smirking. That...This was funny to him? He cut down the kindest, bravest, sweetest girl and then he smiled? Like this was some kind of joke or a game?

"YOU MONSTER! I'LL KILL YOU!" Yang roared, because if she could isn't protect her sister then she would brand the name of Ruby Rose onto the skin of him who'd hurt her by the time she was done.

Ruby's attacker was still smiling, even as he turned to run; it was as though the cowardice of the act meant nothing to him, as though even flight was victory as far as he was concerned.

He ran, and Yang pursued. She pursued because there was no way she was going to let him get away with this, because he had hurt Ruby and he had to pay, because she wanted to kill him for what he'd done, because she was fey and fierce in her despair and a madness of grief was upon her, because...

Because if she didn't go after him then she might have to watch her sister die, and she didn't have that kind of courage.

So she pursued, punching aside any member of the White Fang dumb enough to get in her way, she pursued him as he ran from the room and dropped down a hole in the floor into the dark.

And Yang followed him down there.

Adam fled, and Blake pursued him.

She pursued him because he had stopped and caught and made to answer for the things that he'd done or else all of this would be meaningless. Because this would never be over so long as Adam Taurus remained at large; even if the entire rest of the White Fang in Vale were caught he would simply raise new followers for the cause and continue the fight until the whole kingdom burned. Because neither Blake nor anyone else would be safe so long as Adam remained free; he would hung them down, every last one of them: Blake, Sun, team SAPR, Weiss, all the first years who had come to their aid - and how had 'call the cop's become 'Get all the trams together and come down for a fight'? He would stalk them through the darkness and the shadows, and out of the shadows he would strike them down for the crime if having thwarted and bested him and he would not stop until they had a perished for their insolence.

Unless Blake stopped him now.

And so as Adam fled, Blake pursued him, and when he ran from the room and leapt into a hole in the floor leading down into darkness, she followed him there.

Adam fled, and Sunset pursued him.

She pursued him because he had hurt Ruby and Ruby was hers and she wouldn't suffer the things that were hers to be hurt by others. Because Ruby had taken a hit meant for Sunset and the only way that Sunset could think to repay that debt was to catch him who had dealt the hit. Because Ruby was her friend, because the memory of Ruby's arms around Sunset's neck still warmed her, because she was her friend and she was hurt and Sunset felt the need to avenge the hurt, to show Adam Taurus why you left this who belonged to Sunset Shimmer well alone. Because she wanted to do something and raining down magic on the pawns while the king escaped would not have satisfied.

Because she wanted to do something, because she couldn't bear to just wring her hands in helplessness like Jaune.

Because she had never studied medical magic. All her magic was to hurt, so she would hurt Adam Taurus.

So she pursued him, even into the dark hole sprang from the floor into which he jumped.

Even there, Sunset followed him.

As the battle raged around them – the arrival of the rest of their Beacon classmaters having pushed the White Fang back even further – Jaune, Pyrrha and Penny gathered around Ruby.

Pyrrha and Penny stood over her, casting their long shadows over her pale form as her blood lapped at the edges of their boots. Pyrrha’s mouth was an O of trembling disbelief, while Penny’s hands were clutched over her heart.

“Please, no,” Pyrrha whispered.

Jaune knelt by Ruby’s side. Tears filled his blue eyes, making it difficult for him to see. He wiped furiously with the back of his hand, but the tears always returned as soon as he stopped wiping.

It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair! Why was Ruby about to…why had Ruby been injured like this? Why was Ruby the one who was suffering? Why was she the one about to leave the team behind, when she was so brave and…so nice and so…

Why was Ruby leaving them, when someone as useless as him was still right here?

“Jaune?”

Jaune gasped. That was Ruby’s voice, faint and quiet and softer than it ever was before, but it was still Ruby’s voice. He wiped his eyes free of tears again, and he could see that she…she was smiling at him. It was the strangest thing. The stupidest, weirdest…sweetest thing. Ruby was…but she didn’t care. She only cared that he was upset, and so she smiled.

“Don’t cry, Jaune,” she whispered. “It’s alright.”

“No, no it isn’t!” Jaune yelled. “This isn’t fair! It isn’t right!”

Ruby’s smile didn’t falter not for a moment. “Don’t cry,” she repeated. “Please don’t cry. You’re so much cuter when you’re smiling.” She blinked, and Jaune could see that there were tears in her eyes too, water welling in those silver eyes that burned so brightly. “Smile for me, Jaune. Smile…and help me to be brave.”

Jaune tried to smile. He really did, he tried to honour her request. But his friend was dying in front of him and he couldn’t help her and he couldn’t save her and he couldn’t help her to be brave when he couldn’t even be brave himself. He tried to smile, but it probably came out as more of a grimace.

Nevertheless, Ruby said, “That’s better. Thank you, Jaune.”

“Ruby, I-“

“Is everyone here?”

Pyrrha knelt by Ruby’s side, and gently reached out to take her hand. “I’m here, Ruby. But Sunset, and your sister, they’ve gone after the person who did this to you.”

“So you have to hold on, okay?” Jaune yelled. “You have to hold on because…because they’d want to say goodbye.”

“I…I don’t know if I…”

“You have to!” Jaune repeated, shouting even louder now, shouting to be heard over the gunfire and the sounds of weapons clashing all around them. The fighting didn’t come close, it burned all around but they did not feel the heat of it, as though the sanctity of this moment had thrown up a shield around them more powerful than Sunset’s semblance. “You have to,” he repeated with a sob, a childlike sob that begged for the reassurance of an adult to tell him that everything would be alright, that Ruby would be back on her feet and fighting fit by the next chapter.

Jaune had thought, and Ruby had thought too, that if they only lived like the heroes from the books and from comics then they could become just like them, that even if life and the real world weren’t fairytales maybe, if you acted as though they were, you could make the world that way at least a little bit. But this was surely the part of the story where a kid would say ‘shut the book now, Mom; we don’t want to read any more. Shut the book, but tell us that it all works out okay in the end’.

But Jaune couldn’t shut the book because this was his life, his life and his friend and he couldn’t do anything about it! He was useless, pathetic, pointless loser!

“I’m sorry,” he sobbed, closing his eyes and clenching them tight shut.

“Jaune-“ Pyrrha began.

Jaune shook his head to dismiss the comforting bromides that might be about to sally from her lips, the comforting platitudes in which Ruby and Pyrrha had both wrapped him to shield him from the harsh reality of his situation. Sunset had seen it, Sunset had tried in an imperfect way to confront him with the truth, but even she had pedalled back on it in the end, even she had decided that being nice to him was better than being right, even she had decided to humour his incompetence in the name of his ambitions. And this was the result. Perhaps…maybe if Ruby had had a fourth team-mate who actually knew what he was doing then she wouldn’t be…

Maybe a better man, a real hero, would have saved her.

“Please, Ruby,” Jaune begged, clutching her hand as though he could physically hold her back from death. “Please, you…you can’t go you have to stay here, with us. You…you’ve brought everyone here to save you because we…please, Ruby, just hang on!”

As he spoke, as he begged, as he pleaded, Jaune felt a tingling sensation in his hands, a feeling like water was pouring of him; not like sweat, more like he was a skin filled with water that was slowly draining out of him and into another vessel, as though the great bowl of his own power was emptying out to fill another cup beneath.

“Jaune,” Pyrrha whispered, awe-struck.

Jaune opened his eyes. He could see that around his hands a silver light glowed, rippling and running like the water that he felt inside of him, and it was flowing over Ruby, gradually enveloping her like a cocoon, covering her wounded side, her whole body. And, as Jaune watched with eyes wide and drying out of tears, the dolorous blow that had been dealt to Ruby began to heal, closing up before his very gaze.

Then she gasped, and began to twitch and jerk and writhe.

“What’s happening?” Jaune demanded.

“Don’t stop!” Pyrrha cried. “You’re stimulating her aura to heal her body, it might be painful, but it’s what she needs.” She looked up at him. “I think…you’ve just unlocked your semblance, Jaune.”

Jaune boggled. A day ago, even a few moments ago, and he would have been ecstatic at the news but now…now all he could think of was the girl in front of him, and whether she would live.

“So…Ruby’s going to be okay?”

“If you keep doing what you’re doing, she’ll be absolutely fine,” Pyrrha said. “Penny, can you help keep Ruby restrained until Jaune is finished?”

Penny knelt, and pushed Ruby down with both her hands, holding her still as her body healed itself of her terrible injuries.

Pyrrha got to her feet, picking up her sword and shield as she did so. She looked away from Ruby, in the direction that Sunset, Yang and Blake had gone in their pursuit of that White Fang guy.

“Go,” Jaune said.

Pyrrha glanced back at him. “Jaune?”

“Go,” he repeated. “Back up Sunset, that’s what you were thinking, wasn’t it? Don’t worry about Ruby, I got this.”

“But-“

Nora and Ren stepped in front of Jaune, Ruby and Penny.

“Nothing is going to get near her,” Nora said. “That’s a promise.”

Pyrrha nodded. “Thank you. Take care of them.”

And then she was gone, dashing through the fray in pursuit of the others.

Jaune watched her for a moment, before turning his attention back to Ruby as the silver waves of his semblance continued to wash over her like the gentle and renewing waves of some mystical sea.

“Hold on, Ruby,” he whispered. “Just hold on.”

Roman Torchwick sat at the controls of bullhead as he flew away from the now-compromised hideout.

It wasn’t a total loss; they’d already sent the dust to Mountain Glenn and they had other safehouses in Vale that they could switch to their primary HQ in the kingdom, but all the same…he didn’t like it.

He sighed. “I hope Cinder got what she wanted out of all this, because it was an absolute bust otherwise.”

Neo sat beside him in the cockpit, legs crossed, toying with her parasol. She looked up at him, her mismatched eyes guileless. She signed, But we got out. Isn’t that all that really matters?

Roman chuckled. “Yeah, I guess that is all that matters in the end, isn’t it? Not sure that the animals will see it that way…or that Cinder will, come to it.” The opinion of the White Fang on the outcome of this business didn’t unduly bother him, but the potentially capricious attitude that Cinder might hold towards the outcome of this business…that, he confessed, did concern him somewhat.

But it was her choice, Neo signed.

Roman shook his head. “You’ve got a lot to learn about the way the world works kid. If she decides to get mad about this little experiment then the fact that it was her idea isn’t going to matter a damn, or save whoever she decides to blame for it all.” He reached into his breast pocket for a cigar. “There ain’t nothing so capricious as a woman.”

Neo folded her arms and pouted her lips.

Roman chuckled. “No offence intended, kid.”

The pout faded from her face, but Neo continued to look up at him with curiosity in those colour-changing eyes.

Roman clenched the cigar between his teeth as he gently banked the bullhead towards their next headquarters. “Something on your mind, Neo?”

Why did we cut and run so suddenly? Neo signed.

“You ask me that as if it isn’t what we do,” Roman replied. “We’re thieves, Neo, criminals; we’re not soldiers, we’re not huntsmen, we’re not fanatics. We stay alive. Dying for a cause is for suckers.”

I know, Neo replied. But maybe we could have taken those three.

“Maybe,” Roman conceded. They hadn’t had their weapons, after all. “But why take the risk?”

Is that all?

Roman reached for his lighter. Funny, it wasn’t in the pocket where he always kept it. With one hand steady on the stick, Roman patted down his other pockets only for them all to come up empty. Where was that-

Neo flipped the lid open on his lighter, and then snapped it shut again. The smile on her face was feline in its smugness.

Looking for this?

“That’s it, you’re not spending any more time with that Emerald girl,” Roman grumbled as he snatched the lighter out of her hands and lit up his cigar.

You’re not supposed to smoke in flight.

“Smartass,” Roman muttered. He breathed the nicotine into his lungs. “You’re getting good. I could almost believe you’d be able to make it on your own out there.”

But I’m not alone. I’ve got you.

“Yeah, you do,” Roman murmured. That was why they were both still alive and free after all this time. Guys like him, in his line of work, didn’t have families. Roman’s marriage hadn’t stood up to the test of his move into criminality; he hadn’t seen his kids in years. Your work was your life when your work included staying one step ahead of the cops twenty four-seven; guys like him didn’t have families, it was a career choice for loners.

But Neo was different. He had her and she had him and they watched each others backs and no one had ever gotten close to them.

But he couldn’t say for certain how long that might last. Not with Cinder and the White Fang and everything else that was going on. His life had gotten a hell of a lot more complicated recently, and he had no idea how it was all going to end.

You never answered my question, Neo signed.

Roman shrugged. “I’ve forgotten what it was.”

Why did we leave so soon? Why didn’t we fight?

“Because…” Roman trailed off, wondering if he ought to say what was on his mind or not. Ah, hell; if he couldn’t tell Neo the truth then… “Maybe I wasn’t that unhappy that the princess stopped me from killing little red. Maybe, just maybe, I got out so that I wouldn’t have to try again.”

Neo smirked. I knew it.

“Oh, you knew it, huh? What did you know?”

You like her, don’t you?

Roman snorted. “She’s a little young for me. And I prefer blondes.”

You know what I mean.

“I guess I want to see her grow up, you know,” Roman said. “She what she turns into when she opens up those eyes of hers and sees what the world is really like. I mean, don’t get me wrong, she’s an idiot, but…she kind of reminds me of me when I was that age.”

Neo cocked her head to one side.

“That’s right, I was an idealistic dumbass once, too,” Roman said. “Shocking, I know, but I wasn’t always this suave, sophisticated man of the world you see before you now. I used to think…and then I learnt better. When that kid learns the hard way, when she learns what I learned…I wonder what she’ll do.”

Should I be jealous? Neo asked playfully.

“Of little red? Come on!” Roman replied. “Wherever she could go, you’re already there.”

Neo smiled in self-satisfaction. Can we get ice cream after we land?

“Sure,” Roman said. “What flavour do you want?”

What do you think?

Sunset walked through the darkness, a glimmering ball of green magelight hovering above her head and the sounds of her boots echoing upon the concrete floor.

When they weren’t squelching through something that Sunset was quite glad she couldn’t see.

She didn’t rush. She advanced cautiously, with one hand upon the cold, damp, slightly sticky wall of the dark, enclosed warren in which she found herself. She had lost sight of Yang and Blake; or rather she hadn’t seen them once she dropped into the dark. Perhaps – most likely – they had taken a different direction to her because this place was a labyrinth, with three different paths confronting her the moment she dropped down the hole. That was why Sunset walked with one hand on the wall: with a little touch of magic she was burning a line into said wall with her fingertip, a line that she could follow to find her way back again once her task was done.

She was angry, but it was not a wild rage that gripped her; Sunset had not lost all her reason in the throes of a berserker passion. It was a cold fury that was upon her, a wrath like ice that had encased her heart but did not – greatly – impede her reason.

She had followed Adam Taurus into this dark place, but if he thought to trap her here by leading her by the nose until she got lost beyond all hope of finding any way out he was very much mistaken.

She would avenge…she would revenge herself for what he had done, and then she would return to her team.

Return…and find out whether the youngest member of their team yet lived.

Sunset’s face contorted into a snarl and her free hand – the one not scraping a line along the wall to follow home – clenched.

It was dark down here, lightless. The circle illuminated in a dull green glow by the magelight that hovered above her like her own personal fairy was the only thing in this place that Sunset could really see. She couldn’t see in front of her, she couldn’t see behind; she could barely see the wall that she was touching.

If there was one thing that was making her nervous it was that lack of vision. But she had had no choice, she couldn’t just let him go, not after what he had done. Behaviour such as his had to be made an example of.

And besides, he only had a sword. If he wanted to close with her he would have to come where she could see him.

Sunset stopped. She heard something, a scuffling against the floor. It could have been a rat, it could have been a mouse, it could have been a reptile flushed down the toilet and left to mutate into a horror movie monster but Sunset doubted it.

More likely it was the monster she had descended into this labyrinth to hunt.

Slowly, she drew her hand away from the wall. Both her hands began to glow as she funnelled magic to her finger tips.

“You’re very bold to come down here alone,” Adam said, his voice echoing from out of the darkness.

Sunset’s lips twisted into a sneer of contempt. “Tough talk from a man who cut and ran, abandoning his own men.”

“Perry will get them out, I’m sure,” Adam replied. “But in any case, you’re one to talk aren’t you?”

Sunset’s eyes narrowed. She couldn’t tell exactly where his voice was coming from, she couldn’t see a thing and the way the echoes worked in here she couldn’t rely on her ears to be a sound guide either. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What are you doing here but running away?” Adam asked. “Abandoning your team-mate-“

“Don’t talk about her!” Sunset snapped. “Don’t you dare say a word about Ruby! You don’t have the right!”

“Ruby? Was that her name?”

“Shut up!” Sunset yelled into the darkness, baring her teeth in a snarl. She took a deep breath. She was playing into his hands, letting him rile her up with the mere mention of Ruby. That was what he wanted, to put her off balance, off her game. But she had to play the game as well. He had to have weaknesses of his own, if she could find them.

“Shut up,” she repeated, more quietly this time and more coldly too. “Shut up and let your sword do the talking. Unless you’re afraid of a house faunus like me?”

Adam was silent for a moment. “Were you afraid to confront the consequences of your mistakes? Is that why you followed me here?”

“Perhaps I wanted to see you dead that badly.”

“Dead by your hand?” his voice sounded amused as it drifted out of the dark. “Do you still think you have it in you to kill me?”

“I don’t think, I know,” Sunset said. “I swear that if it takes me a day, a year, or the rest of my life I’ll see you burn for what you did to Ruby. And then I’ll take your red sword and sling it across my back so that everyone will know that I’m the one who finished you.”

Adam chuckled. “You want a trophy? That’s practically barbaric. I can appreciate that. But do you think they will?”

“They?” Sunset snapped. “Who’s ‘they’?”

“Humans,” Adam said. “Your team-mates, your fine friends. Do you think that killing me will make you a hero in their eyes?”

“I think it can’t hurt.”

“I don’t want to fight you, Sunset.”

“Then you shouldn’t have cut down my friend in front of me.”

“Your friend,” Adam said from out of the darkness. “Doesn’t it bother you that someone as powerful as you, someone truly gifted with such a versatile semblance as you, is valued only on the level of children such as those you lead, if that?”

“If that?” Sunset said. “If that? I’m not on their level, I’m their leader.”

“A leader of children, treated as a child,” Adam replied. “Or else a weapon in someone’s armoury, a tool for someone else to claim the victory. Is that all that you want?”

“A petty thug like you wouldn’t be able to comprehend what I want.”

Adam laughed. “Try me.”

“I’d rather blow your head off.”

“Yes, but you’d need to be able to see me to do that, wouldn’t you?”

“Why don’t you come out and let me see you?”

“And why would I do that?” Adam asked. “I am not your enemy, Sunset Shimmer. The White Fang is not your enemy.”

“No?”

“No,” Adam whispered, sounding so close that he might have been standing right behind Sunset, about to run a hand through her hair. “You…intrigue me. Your power, your passion…what could you not do if you were only willing to stand beside your brothers and sisters.”

“The White Fang can’t offer me a single thing that I want.”

“And what is it that you want? To serve lesser men? To defend the Kingdom of Vale? Tell me, Sunset, what is it that you want?”

“Everything,” Sunset said. “I want the world and all its glories, I want the kingdoms of the world spread out at my feet, I want to shine in every light and be the name on every pair of lips, I want it all. I want the destiny that was promised to me long ago.”

From the dark came only silence. Then, after a little while, Adam spoke again, calmly and softly. “Would you believe me if I told you that that’s what I want too? Not just for myself but for our people? Our rightful place in the sun is all that I desire.”

“My glory is not for sharing with an entire race?”

“But it is for sharing with three humans who will take the lion’s share and leave only scraps behind?”

“You really want me in your club, don’t you?”

“The White Fang will always be a refuge for the broken and the damned.”

“What makes you think I’m either?”

“Maybe you aren’t, yet,” Adam allowed. “But you will be. Dreams as grand as yours…someone with your ears and your tail will never allowed to touch the sky; we are not meant to soar as high as heaven. The pits as hot as hell itself, that is our place as far as they are concerned. You…you will never be as great as the Mistral princess in their eyes, nor the girl Ruby if she lives; I hear she’s something of a young genius. And you, for all your talents, for all your extraordinary abilities, no matter what accomplishments you amass to your name, even if you should strike me down and kill me…you will never be as great as them because you are a faunus.”

Sunset shook her head. “You’re wrong.” I am no faunus by birth, I was not born into ruthless subjugation; I came into the world a unicorn amongst a city of unicorns and as a unicorn…as a unicorn I failed.

So she thought, and thought truly…but all the same…a unicorn in a city of unicorns, to be sure, but a poor unicorn all the same; a poor unicorn in a city of the rich and powerful, a mare of no family whose mother had died bringing little Sunset into the world and whose father…what was Twilight Sparkle’s family? Was she a foundling, or did some august and ancient line wait in the wings chinking coins to grease the path for the Princess of Friendship?

No amount of money could buy the ability to complete Starswirl the Bearded’s unfinished spell. Nor even gain access to it.

Have I not made my peace with that, and with Twilight Sparkle too?

Apparently not if a few words from this creeping, skulking, fleeing villain can set me into turmoil.

Sunset shook her head. She was past that, she was beyond such things, she had moved forward and accepted her flaws and vowed to do better afterwards. She would be wise hereafter and seek for grace in her ambitions; or so she’d told herself. So she had convinced herself.

So she had lied to herself, at least in part, it seemed. It was still there, the instinct to blame her birth, her place, her station for all the misfortunes and disappointments of her life. The flaw was in Sunset’s stars, not in herself. Even if it was not so, even if it only led to further disappointments…it was very tempting.

It was tempting to blame the world for not laying at her feet all the honours that were her due.

It was tempting to scorn Pyrrha and Ruby and Jaune. Tempting…but wrong. She knew that now, and though she was not beyond it she could see…she would not be drawn into that mire again, not by a man like Adam Taurus.

I could have been a princess. I could have been the paragon of my race but…I failed. It may pain me to admit it but I failed in my quest and strayed from my path. I failed. I will not fail again.

Though this is not my home and the faunus are not my race, yet I will be the champion of it.

“You will not turn me from my destiny,” Sunset declared. “Your bitterness will not infect me, your hatred will not corrode me. My destiny does not lie in your camp or murderers and cutthroats. My name is Sunset Shimmer, and one day your sword will belong to me.”

“I see,” Adam murmured, sounding almost regretful to hear it. “Is that your last word?”

“Yes,” Sunset growled. “Now come out, and answer for what you’ve done to my friend.”

“If that is your last word, then let this be mine,” Adam said. “Goodbye, Sunset Shimmer.”

He emerged out of the darkness and into the light, head bowed like a bull as though he meant to skewer her on his horns. He was running, and he ducked beneath Sunset’s hasty shot from her right palm as he drew his sword and slashed at Sunset’s side.

Sunset recoiled as she felt a piece of her aura sliced away, the impact of the blow staggering her sideways as Adam retreated once more into the protection of the darkness.

“Your semblance is powerful and versatile,” Adam declared. “But you need to be able to see your opponent before you can hit them.”

“I thought we’d already had your last word,” Sunset groaned. She looked before her, and behind, and saw nothing either way. She turned to the side, one hand facing each way.

Maybe she couldn’t see him, but that didn’t matter. Where could he go in a tunnel?

She fired a pulse of magic in each direction, aimed down the very centre of the passage in both directions.

Adam emerged from the shadows again, his crimson sword swinging. Sunset turned to face him, raising her hands to conjure a shield before her, but before she could do it he was right on top of her. He slashed across her midriff once, twice, driving Sunset back as she felt the blows through her aura like gutpunches.

He hit her on the head with his scabbard, hard enough to knock her down onto the cold, slimy floor.

Sunset teleported. It was risky since she couldn’t see where she was going, but it was a straight line tunnel so she should probably be alright. She materialised about a dozen feet away. The magelight that had flickered above her disappeared, and she was plunged into darkness.

As she climbed slowly to her feet she could see nothing at all.

But she could hear the scraping of Adam’s sword upon the wall, hear the tap-tap of is boots upon the floor.

She could hear him coming.

“Do you think that you can hide from me in darkness? In the shadows where I was born?”

Sunset took a deep breath, and spread her hands out until she was touching the walls on either side of her. She’d used a fair amount of magic already, but she still had enough juice left for this.

She conjured spears of magic, glowing bolts of green energy all around her pointing straight down the tunnel.

Parry this.

Sunset released them, first one at a time and then in a great rush, vorpal spears flying through the air, magic like darts ripping through the darkness, chasing it away.

She took delight in the lock of shock on Adam’s face, briefly illuminated, before the bolts struck home.

Some of them, at least. A few he managed to parry with his sword before the rest slammed into him. They exploded in a burst of green, and she heard Adam cry out as he was thrown backwards.

Sunset advanced, cautiously but confidently enough to conjure more magelight. He had to have broken his aura by now, unless he had ridiculous levels like Jaune and even Jaune would have struggled to bear up under the amount of punishment that Adam had been taking tonight.

She found him lying on the ground, face down, unmoving on the grey stone. As her magelight illuminated him, Sunset could see that the back of his jacket bore a wilted rose design. Strange coincidence.

He didn’t move. It was like he was down for the count.

Not much to do then, except…finish this.

Sunset’s hand glowed with magic. One blow would be all that it took with his aura down. One blow…to take a life.

Not something that she’d ever done before. Grimm didn’t count, they weren’t really alive to start with but this…

Dear Princess Celestia, today I became a killer.

A killer of killers. A killer of a man who tried to kill my friend, who might have killed them for all I know.

This is revenge. This is justice.

This is all an animal like him deserves.

All the same, it wasn’t something she’d been taught to do in either Canterlot. Even her huntress training so far had focussed on tournament fighting and killing grimm. Killing men was something else, and not something that there’d been much talk of.

This is justice. This is just deserts.

Sunset turned her palm so that it was facing Adam, and prepared to blast the life out of him.

His hand shot out and grabbed her ankle.

Sunset squawked in alarm as she was pulled off balance and to the ground, her magical blast firing into the ceiling and knocking shards of stone down upon the pair of them.

She would have teleported away but Adam still had hold of her, in fact he didn’t let go even as he threw himself on top of her, only when he’d grabbed hold of another part of Sunset did he let go of her ankle.

“You can’t get away if I don’t let go, can you?” he asked, as he punched her in the face. And again, and again his fist rose and fell, pummelling her aura like a hammer descending upon stonework to smash it into splinters.

He picked her up and slammed her into the wall, then hit her again: once to the face, once to the gut.

Sunset punched him, a swing to the face that caught him on the jaw. It didn’t faze him. He didn’t even flinch. In fact he smirked.

“You rely too heavily upon your semblance,” he said, and punched her in the gut again. “Without it you’re not so impressive.”

Sunset raised her hand, magic glowing in her palm, but he grabbed her wrist and twisted her so that her hand was pinned behind her back.

Then he slammed her face into the wall once, twice, three times. He spun her around again, grabbing her by the sides of the head and forcing her face down while he drove his knee upwards into it.

She didn’t know what state his aura was in but she could feel hers getting weaker with every blow.

“And you thought that you could defeat me, kill me, here in the darkness where I live,” Adam snarled as he threw her to the ground. He was on top of and astride her now, his teeth bared in an angry snarl. “Arrogance!” He picked up his sword from where it lay on the floor, and his scabbard too. When he pointed it at her head Sunset realised that the scabbard was also a gun.

Sunset tried to summon magic, but Adam spotted it and shot her in the hand before she could amass any power at all. Sunset winced in pain.

He took aim at her head again. The tip of his sword was resting between her breasts.

“Without your semblance what do you have left?”

“Me,” Pyrrha cried as she leapt of the darkness, her red hair flying. Sunset’s magelight glimmered upon her burnished shield as she swung it at Adam’s face. He blocked with his sword, but this left him open to the jab of Pyrrha’s spear. Milo changed to a sword as Adam scrambled backwards. Pyrrha pursued, slashing with her sword and hitting out with her shield. Adam was able to keep up with her, but she forced him back all the same, driving him away from Sunset like a bear driving the hunters away from its cub. And once Adam had retreated, melting back once more into the darkness, Pyrrha stood over Sunset like a guard and did not pursue him further.

“Can you stand?”

Sunset got rapidly to her feet. “Yes.”

“How’s your aura?”

“Somewhere in the yellow, I think.”

Pyrrha tensed. “It was foolish of you to come down here. Yang and Blake?”

“I don’t know,” Sunset said. “I haven’t seen them. How did you find me?”

“I saw that someone had left a trail along the wall, and I guessed that that was you,” Pyrrha replied.

Sunset nodded, for all that Pyrrha had her back to her.

“We should go,” Pyrrha said, speaking softly, barely louder than a whisper. Milo transformed into rifle form and she rested it upon her shield, which she held up to protect her chest. “I can’t fight what I can’t see, and your semblance is a poor match for his…his semblance or his sword, one of the two.”

“You want to let him go?”

“I almost think,” Pyrrha murmured. “That the question is whether he will let us go.”

Neither of the two said anything else, not for a while. They waited, Pyrrha on guard and Sunset behind her, listening.

But there was no sound. Adam said nothing, nor could they hear him moving out there, somewhere in the dark beyond their sight. It was as though he had just melted away, into the shadows.

Sunset let out the breath she hadn’t even realised that she was holding. “He’s gone.”

“So it would seem,” Pyrrha replied. “He must have been too weak for a renewed confrontation. We should return to the others.”

“Ruby,” Sunset murmured. “Is she…”

“Ruby will be fine.”

Sunset blinked. “Fine? Fine like...fine?”

“Jaune was able to stimulate her aura to heal her injury.”

“Jaune?”

“He’s awakened his semblance.”

Huh. I guess I’m the only one who hasn’t now, then. Good on Jaune, I suppose.
And good for Ruby, too.

Sunset was silent for a moment longer. “Thank you, for coming after me. You probably-“

“Don’t mention it,” Pyrrha said gently. “I did…I couldn’t have done anything else. Now, we really should get back to Ruby and Jaune.”

It rankled with Sunset, to turn tail, but Pyrrha had a point. A very good point in fact. If Adam had gone they’d have a hard time finding him again and if they did…this wasn’t the place, this wasn’t the ground. In sunlight, where they could see him coming, then they would defeat him but here…how could you fight what you couldn’t see.

Sunset would have that red sword somehow, but not here. And not tonight.

“Hey, Pyrrha?”

“Yes?” Pyrrha asked as they began to retreat.

“Can you teach me to fight hand to hand?” Sunset asked. “And maybe…with a sword?”

Yang ran through the dark tunnels. She couldn’t see her quarry, she could barely see in front of her, but she ran anyway because if she stopped, if she let him get away, then she might have to confront what he had done to Ruby rather than simply vowing to avenge it.

Her Ember Celica were ready on her wrists, as soon as she got close enough he wasn’t going to know what hit him.

If she could find him. If she could see him in this darkness.

The fire from Yang herself, the flames of her rage, provided a little light but barely more than a circle around her. Her shadow danced upon the walls, illuminated by her own fire, as she stopped at a crossroads intersection between two tunnels.

She had four different ways to go, and no idea which path the monster that she hunted had taken.

“Where are you?” she howled, as the flames that engulfed her leapt higher for a moment as she turned this way and that. “Where are you? Come out and face me, you coward!”

“He can’t hear you.”

Yang spun, raising her arms in front of her face ready to either block or punch as required, as a portal opened up in front of her. It was dark, and in this dark place she would hardly have seen it if it were not the crimson border, pulsing with malevolence, that surrounded this tear, this hole in the world.

This hole from out of which strode a single figure. She – judging by the shape of her figure and the undulating waves of black hair, as long and thick as Yang’s own golden locks – was clad in ornate, Mistralian-looking armour of black and crimson, with a helmet that reminded Yang uncomfortably of the masks worn by the White Fang; but while their masks only bore a superficial resemblance to the creatures of grimm, if Yang hadn’t known better she would have sworn that the helmet that this newcomer was wearing – the helmet that concealed the entirety of her face from view – had been cut entire from the head of some grimm that she couldn’t put a name too yet.

She was carrying a large sword at her hip, a dust-blade like the one Weiss carried but much, much bigger. One of her armoured hands rested casually upon the hilt.

Who is this? Is this their big boss or something? Is this who the White Fang works for?

Yang gritted her teeth. Whoever she was, if she wanted a fight then she’d come to the right place.

“If you’re looking for the big bull faunus with the sword I’m afraid you’re out of luck,” the woman said. “He’s not here. He had a run in with your Ruby’s team-mates and decided that he’d had enough for today. And you weren’t on the right track in any case.”

Ruby’s team-mates? Like, plural? Did they all just ditch Ruby to come in here after Adam? Yang felt a twitch of anger towards them, which was only slightly dampened when she realised the hypocrisy involved in feeling angry towards them for doing what she’d done herself.

“Why should I believe you?” Yang demanded. “I mean, you’re White Fang too, aren’t you? Why should I listen to a word out of your mouth?”

“Because if I were White Fang you’d be dead already,” the woman declared. “I don’t waste my time talking to my enemies.”

“If we’re not enemies then what are we? Who are you?” Yang repeated.

The woman was silent for a moment. Though her face was hidden behind the mask, Yang had the impression that she was studying her.

“You were very brave to come down here, and even more reckless,” the woman from the portal said. “You didn’t get that from me. But then…it was always clear that you had more of your father in you.”

Yang’s eyes widened, and in spite of herself she lowered her hands, if only a little. Her breath caught in her throat because…because who else would say something like that. When her voice came again it was quieter than it had been before, and a little less angry for now not because she wasn’t angry – and gods knew, if this was who she thought it was – but because right now she could hardly believe it.

She hardly dared to believe it.

“Who are you?”

The woman took off her helmet, revealing a pale face that was so alike to Yang’s own that it was like looking in a mirror. Her eyes were red, as red as Yang’s became when she was angry which meant that they were as red as Yang’s eyes were right now.

“Coming down here was foolish, but I’m glad that we have this chance to talk alone. We have a lot to talk about.”

“Raven,” Yang breathed.

Raven smirked. “I suppose it’s asking a little much for you to call me Mom.”

“We have a lot to talk about?” Yang shouted, and she gesticulated furiously with her hands as she advanced a pace towards her…her mother, the woman she hadn’t ever seen with her own eyes before. “We have a lot to talk about? You just show up like this and that’s what you have to say? You’re damn right we have a lot to talk about, how about we talk about where you’ve been for the last sixteen years and why you walked out on me and Dad and-“

“Yang, do you love your sister?”

Yang halted, stunned into momentary silence by the unexpected question. “What?”

“Do you love your sister?” Raven repeated.

“What kind of a question is that? Yes, I love my sister, why-“

“Well, you wouldn’t have a little sister if I hadn’t left your father and Summer free to consummate the tension that had existed between them since the day they met,” Raven said casually. “So you could say that it all worked out for the best.”

“It all worked out?” Yang repeated, in a voice that was as sharp as ice. Her voice rose like an inferno climbing the walls of a tower block. “It all worked out? Do you have any idea what we all went through after-“

“That wasn’t my fault,” Raven said sharply. She scowled for a moment. “I thought that I was leaving you with the kindest, most generous people that I knew. I loved your mother, Yang.” She glanced away for a moment. “I loved her as much as I loved your father, in spite of her…I loved your mother; I wept to hear that she was dead.”

“I’m sorry that it upset you,” Yang growled.

Raven met her eyes again. “Our time here is not unlimited, Yang, I didn’t come here to have my decisions questioned.”

“Then why did you come here?”

“I understand that you must-“

“No,” Yang snapped. “No, you don’t. You don’t know me. You weren’t there. You were never there.”

“Don’t mistake invisibility for absence,” Raven replied. “I’ve been watching over you almost every day since your mother died.”

“Really?” Yang said. “How about the day when I went looking for you to that cabin in the woods? Where you there watching me walk through the cold and the dark with Ruby in the back of a wagon, trying to find you? Where you there when I arrived at the cabin and all I found were beowolves.”

“If Qrow hadn’t come I would have stepped in to protect you.”

“Why didn’t you show yourself!” Yang demanded, a screech of rage that had been almost seventeen years coming bursting out of her mouth like a racehorse out the gate. “I was looking for you! If you were there then why didn’t you let me find you?”

Raven’s expression was almost inscrutable. Only the slightest tremor betrayed any hint of guilt for what she had done or not done. “If you want answers about your past, then come and find me. If you can do that, if you’re strong enough to do that, then I will give you all the answers that you demand.” She smiled. “You can even try to kill me, if you’re still angry enough when we’re finished.”

How can you say something like that? Is this all just a big joke to you, or is that the kind of person that you are? Yang shook her head. I don’t want to kill you, Mom. This isn’t about…I never wanted revenge.

I wanted my mother.

When she had been a kid, after Mom had died, she’d thought that…she’d hoped…it was stupid, but she’d been so young so she was probably allowed to be stupid, she’d thought that if she could find her mother then she would come home with them and be Ruby’s mom too the way that Mom had been Mom for both of them and she’d be with Dad and everything…and everything would be better.

Stupid, childish. Now she mostly wanted to know why…but there was a part of her that still wanted to have someone she could call mom again.

Forgive me, Mom, she said, thinking of Summer Rose.

“Why are you here?”

Raven stared at her for a moment. “I’m here to tell you to open your eyes. You’ll need to see clearly if you want to understand what’s coming.”

“What?”

“Watch Ozpin,” Raven continued. “Don’t trust him. Ask yourself why he decided to admit your sister to Beacon two years early, why he couldn’t wait until she was old enough. Ask yourself why there were no teachers around to stop you going on this little expedition of yours.”

“There,” Yang stopped, hesitated because it was a pretty big stroke of luck. She hadn’t questioned it at the time because they needed luck and Ruby’s life had been on the line but now that Raven forced her to look at it…it was odd. Where had Professor Goodwitch been, why hadn’t there been anyone to catch them? Why had they been allowed to get out of Beacon and into Vale so easily? “Are you saying that Professor Ozpin let us go? Why would he do something like that?”

“How much have you seen of your headmaster?”

“Not a lot.”

“It hasn’t started yet then, good; you’ll notice when it does.”

“When what does, what are you talking about?”

“Ozpin plays favourites,” Raven explained. “When I was at Beacon it was Team Stark, every few years it’s someone else, this year…how much do you know about Silver Eyes?”

Yang’s own eyes widened. Of course, she was Mom’s team-mate. “What does that mean?”

“I can’t explain it, but while you’re thinking about all those other questions here’s another: do you think it’s a coincidence that a prodigy with silver eyes happened to be the girl picked to attend Beacon early? Or that she ended up on a team with two of the most talented huntresses to attend the academy since Summer and me? I guarantee that he’s already taken an interest in them, and soon he’ll start to show it: extra training missions, indulgence for breaking the rules…and then he’ll pull back the curtain and show them a little of the truth he hides from the rest of the world.”

“What truth?” Yang demanded. “Why can’t you just explain what the hell you’re talking about?”

“Because the things I know would shake the foundations of your world and you wouldn’t believe half of the things that I could tell you.”

“Why should I believe a word out of your mouth now?” Yang yelled. “You’ve never been a part of my life and now you just show up here of all places, saying a lot of vague stuff and I’m supposed to just buy it? What are you saying? Why are you here?”

“I’m trying to arm you!” Raven snapped. “You don’t believe me? Fine, you don’t have to. I know that you have Summer’s journal. Keep reading, you ought to believe her when you wouldn’t believe me. All the answers are there, the answers that your father and your uncle won’t tell you: about Silver Eyes, about Ozpin…about why Summer died. You just have to keep reading and when you’re not reading then watch. Ozpin might try to recruit you as well, be on your guard.”

Yang felt as though her head was spinning. This was all happening much too fast, and too unexpectedly, for her to really process half of what she was being told. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I’ve been watching you,” Raven replied. “I know that if Ruby is drawn into Ozpin’s war the way that our team was drawn into it then you’ll follow her to the ends of the earth, into the mouth of hell if you have to. I don’t want that for you.”

“I’m not going to abandon Ruby,” Yang said, even as the words felt hollow in her mouth because of course she had abandoned Ruby to come down here, where her mother had found her.

“Then make sure you’re protecting her from everything,” Raven said. She drew her sword, and began to turn away. “I have to go.”

“Wait!” Yang shouted, reaching out with one hand. “You can’t just go! You can’t just show up, dump all this stuff, and then just…leave!”

“You shouldn’t take my word as truth any more than Ozpin’s word or the words of your Father or Qrow. Keep your eyes and your ears open and decide the truth for yourself.” Raven said, slicing her sword through the air to create another portal. She smirked briefly as she put on her helmet and concealed her face once more. “Oh, and by the way, Ruby’s going to be fine.”

“WHAT!?” Yang bellowed at the top of her voice. “How could you just…how do you even know that?”

“As I said, I’ve been watching,” Raven replied. She began to step into the portal. “Your friend can show you the way back, I’m sure.”

“No, wait, come back,” Yang yelled, but already the portal that Raven had sliced through the fabric of the world itself was beginning to close. Yang dashed forward, hand outstretched…to close on the empty air as the portal disappeared as completely as if it had never been at all.

Perhaps it hadn’t. Perhaps all of this was nothing more than a hallucination, a vision of her mother brought out of desperation and despair.

That might actually have been preferable to the idea that her mother – the woman who had given birth to her, at any rate – had shown up to tell her…what? Aside from the fact that Ruby was okay, delivered in so blithe and offhand a manner that it would have been infuriating if Yang could have been certain in believing it, everything else was so damn cryptic that Yang didn’t know what to think. She barely knew where to begin thinking. Don’t trust Professor Ozpin? The headmaster was going to start…what, keeping an eye on Ruby like it seemed he’d kept an eye on Mom? He hadn’t yet, but Raven suggested that he would start. But why? And why was it a bad thing?

Keep reading Mom’s journal? Thanks, but they’d already planned to do that. Don’t listen to Dad? At least he’d been around all her life even if he hadn’t always been a lot of help.

I loved your mother; I wept to hear that she was dead.

Why should I believe you? Why should I believe anything that you say? You left me and you’re not sorry for it; why should I listen to a word you say?

Why would you show up out of nowhere for no good reason?

Yang’s hands clenched into fists. If Ruby was okay, if Yang could breathe again in relief that she still had a younger sister and a hero to look up to, if the weight was lifted from her shoulders, if she got out of this tunnel and found Ruby alive and well then…then she would do what she had always done, and take care of her.

If it was true then she wanted to sob with relief; she wanted to collapse on the floor in tears of joy at the escape; she wanted to hug Ruby so hard that her aura broke all over again. She wanted to chain them together so that this couldn’t happen again.

She wanted to see her again. But with a cooler head Yang was forced to confront the fact that she was a little bit lost.

“Yang?”

Yang whirled around, fists rising momentarily until she saw that it was Blake, advancing warily towards her.

“Blake.”

Blake lowered her gun. “I heard shouting. I thought…I thought you might have found him.”

“Sorry,” Yang replied. “I think we might have missed him.”

“I’m not surprised, these tunnels are a mess. There are a dozen different ways he could have gone and we’d never know.”

Yang was silent for a moment. She could barely see Blake now, what with the flames that had once lit up the space around her dying down as her anger cooled. The other girl little more than a shape to her, a shadow in the darkness, and even that was fading as she blended in with the other shadows all around her.

“Uh,” she said. “Are you still here?”

There was silence, but Yang felt a warm hand brushing against her fingertips as something, a length of ribbon, was wrapped around her hand.

“Hold onto that,” Blake said. “We should probably…go back. I’m sure that you’re missed already.”

“I’m sure both our teams think we were pretty stupid to come down here,” Yang said with a slight chuckle.

“We were a little rash.”

“So I’ve been told,” Yang murmured. “Can you find the way back?”

“I think so. I…I’m not completely blind down here.”

“Lucky for me,” Yang said. She felt a tug upon the ribbon in her hand, and began to walk forward.

Silence lay between them for a moment before Blake spoke. “I’m…sorry, about what happened to Ruby.”

“I…” Yang trailed off. What could she say; that her mother had appeared and told that Ruby was going to be fine? She didn’t know if she believed that herself, she couldn’t ask Blake to believe it. “Thanks,” she said. “Hey, Blake?”

“Yes.”

“You’re the one who found this place first, how did you do it?”

Blake took a moment or two to answer. “A friend of mine risked his life to find this place for me.”

It was Yang’s turn to hesitate, because it took a while to work out what to say to an answer like that. “Why?”

“Because it was the right thing to do,” Blake said. “Ruby, the others, they didn’t deserve what was going to be done to them. They’re innocent in all this.”

“Blake?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you,” Yang said, putting every once of sincerity that she could muster into the two simple words. “If you ever need anything, anything at all…you can always count on me.”

There was no response, not even though the seconds ticked by into double figures.

“Uh, hello?” Yang called. “You still hear me up there?”

“Yes, I can hear you fine,” Blake said. “That’s…kind of you.”

“Nah, what’s kind is what you did to earn it.”

Blake lapsed once more into silence before she said, “Yang?”

“Yeah?”

“Who were you shouting at up there?”

Yang frowned. “Nobody,” she said. “Just…a ghost from my past.”

A ghost who had given her no answers, but who had left Yang with a lot of questions.

The last time Sunset had seen Ruby, she had been bleeding out on the ground.

She had been grievously wounded and Sunset had left her. She had chosen to pursue a quixotic fantasy of vengeance rather than stay with the girl who had trusted Sunset with her life and confront the fact that she, Sunset Shimmer, had failed in her duty as leader of Team SAPR.

Now, as with Pyrrha’s help she scrambled up out of the hole into which she had leapt to pursue Adam, Sunset set eyes on Ruby Rose again.

She was up, or sitting down on an upturned box actually which was still a lot better than she had looked the last time Sunset had seen her. She looked a little pale – even more so than usual – and there was a rend in the side of her jumper, but through that rend Sunset could see not blood but fair and unmarred flesh.

Jaune was with her, one hand upon Ruby’s shoulder as he stood by her side. On the other side Ruby was flanked by Penny, Rainbow Dash’s strange team-mate (Rainbow Dash, and a dark-skinned girl with a rifle slung across her back stood a discrete distance away with their eyes on Penny). Ruby was talking to one or both of them, but in a slightly subdued way judging by the way that her head was a little bowed down and, overall, Ruby didn’t seem as exuberantly over-animated as usual. It wasn’t too surprising, she had been quite severely injured, and even if Jaune had managed to repair all of the damage…she’d been through a lot today.

They’d all been through a lot today, but the youngest of them had definitely been through the worst of it.

And Sunset had left her. Failed her and then abandoned her.

Some team leader I am.

Sunset shivered.

She felt Pyrrha’s hand upon her arm. “You see? She’s fine. She may need a little extra rest, but…as you can see, there’s no permanent harm done.”

Pyrrha began to walk towards Ruby and Jaune (and Penny, she supposed), by her example forcing Sunset to follow. Which she did, if at a slower pace than she might have done. Her legs felt as heavy as lead, her feet were encased in concrete blocks fashioned from her shame. Though there was a part of her which rejoiced in Ruby’s safety, a part of Sunset that wanted to run across the warehouse to her side, the part of her that knew that she had done wrong in this and yet at the same time feared to be censured as she deserved to be won out, and slowed Sunset’s progress.

The battle was over: Russell, Sky and Dove were tying up members of the White Fang that had been defeated and take captive; Cardin was standing around looking as aimless as a lost lamb; Nora was telling a story while Lyra and Bon Bon listened with enraptured expressions on their faces; Weiss was practicing her glyphs with an intense expression on her face, her sword weaving through the air as the many-coloured glyphs appeared all around her. Sunset could hear police sirens in the distance, getting closer. Through all of this activity Pyrrha and Sunset moved like phantoms, unnoticed and unremarked upon. Nobody stopped them, nobody hailed them, nobody seemed to mark them at all.

Or perhaps they were giving them space, knowing where they were going.

There was a part of Sunset that wished somebody had stopped her. Because, as slowly as she walked and with such heavy tread, there came a point at which she reached her team-mates. The team-mates she had left behind.

She was glad, so glad that Ruby had made it; but at the same time she was now horrified at what she had done.

Ruby looked up. “Pyrrha! Sunset! You’re okay!”

“You’re saying that to us?” the words were out of Sunset’s mouth before she could stop them.

“Did you get him?” Jaune demanded.

“Did you see Yang?” Ruby asked.

“No, and no, unfortunately,” Pyrrha said. “We didn’t see your sister, and although we caught up with Adam briefly…in the dark it was too risky to pursue him further.”

“Right,” Jaune said, and both tone and expression spoke of a disappointment that he was trying to suppress.

“Yang,” Ruby murmured.

“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Pyrrha said.

“Y-yeah, sure she will,” Ruby said. “Yang’s tough, she can take anything.” She looked from Pyrrha to Sunset and then back again, and her eyes were completely free from any offence, any hurt, any kind of anger. There was nothing there at all but concern.

Is she really not mad at all? Sunset marvelled. How does a person like this exist in a world like this?

“I’m so glad you’re both okay,” Ruby said. “When Jaune told me that you’d gone down there by yourselves…maybe it’s stupid, but I was a little worried. I mean, we’re supposed to be a team, right?”

Sunset stared at her; if her eyes boggled any further they were going to plop out onto the floor.

“Uh, Sunset?” Ruby asked. “Are you okay?”

“That’s it?” Sunset demanded.

“What is…what?”

“After what…” Sunset trailed off. “How can you be so…so you?”

Ruby shrugged.

Sunset sighed. Her head bowed, her chin briefly touching her collar. “Ruby, I…I shouldn’t have…I didn’t know what to…I’m sorry. I should have been here, instead of…instead of…“ Sunset struggled to define in words the folly of what she had done, and what it had almost cost her.

Her words were cut off by the feeling of arms around her. At first she thought it was Ruby, giving her another hug, but when she opened her eyes she saw that it was not just a hug but a group hug, Pyrrha on her left and Jaune on her right and Ruby herself embracing the two of them from the box where she sat.

Ruby smiled. “You know, it’s not complete if you don’t raise your arms too.”

Sunset hesitated for a moment, still half at a loss as to what had brought this on, before she raised her arms to embrace Pyrrha on one side and Jaune on the other. She could feel Jaune’s armour plate under her arm, and her hand snaked through Pyrrha’s soft, red hair.

Her arms crossed over Ruby’s headed the other way.

It was…nice. Surprisingly nice, with their backs bent and their foreheads nearly touching and the warm of their arms upon her as they were joined together like ouroboros. It was nice.

It was something she wanted to protect.

I’ll get stronger from here on out. I will strengthen my magic but I won’t rely on it. I’ll improve my aim, I’ll learn how to fight with my hands, my feet, with a sword.

And I’ll take that red sword one day too.

And I’ll protect them. This won’t happen again.

“We made it,” Ruby said. “We’re all here and we’re all okay. We survived.”

“You say that like it’s a win,” Sunset said.

“Sometimes survival is a victory,” Jaune said. “I mean, look at mankind, right? We survive the grimm, and we call that winning.”

“Considering the circumstances,” Pyrrha said. “That we are all still here is nothing to be ashamed of, even if we did require copious assistance.”

Sunset closed her eyes for a moment. “We’re going to get that guy one day, I promise.”

“Sure we will,” Ruby said. “But we’ll do it together. Because we’re Team Sapphire, and they made a big mistake when they messed with us!”

Sunset smirked. “Team Sapphire; yeah, they won’t know what hit them.”

“Team Sapphire,” Pyrrha said softly. “I’m very proud to call each of you my team-mates.”

“Team Sapphire,” Jaune said. “You guys are awesome.”

“You’re not so bad yourself, Jaune.”

“Yeah, I here somebody unlocked their semblance,” Sunset said. “Congratulations, you’re a real asset now.” She locked eyes with each of them in turn: first Jaune, then Ruby, and finally Pyrrha last of all and for the longest time.

We’re a team. My team. Team Sapphire.

And we’re going straight to the top.

All of us, because I don’t think I could do it without them.

“We’re going to do great things, the four of us,” Sunset said. “I guarantee it.”

"RUBY!"

Sunset barely had time to register the voice, loud as a bugle call, behind her before she was grabbed by the scruff of the neck and bodily thrown to one side. She landed on the floor with a squawk of alarm and a loud thud, looking up to see that Yang had shoved Pyrrha and Jaune aside - although they had been lucky enough to escape being tossed like a basketball - to wrap Ruby in her arms tighter than shrink wrap.

"Ah, Yang," Ruby moaned, as she squirmed fruitlessly in her elder sister's vice-like grip.

Yang bent her head, so that her forehead was resting upon Ruby's hair. Her eyes were closed, and she looked as though she might cry. She started to stroke Ruby's hair with one hand as she murmured. "You're okay. You're really okay."

"I'm having a little trouble breathing right now."

"I love you," Yang said. "I love you so much."

"I love you too," Ruby squeaked. "Thanks, for coming to get me."

Yang released her sister - from the embrace, at least, although she kept her hands on Ruby's shoulders as though she might disappear, or turn out to be an illusion, the moment that she let go - and took a step back. "Did you ever doubt I would? Come on, I'll always be there for you, sis, you know that."

"Yeah," Ruby said, a smile upon her face. "Yeah, I know."

Yang stared down at her younger sister. "Ruby..."

"Yeah?"

Yang frowned, if only for a moment. "Nothing. Just...don't scare me like that again, okay? It's not cool."

"I'll be careful," Ruby promised. She looked around. "Hey, where did Penny go?"

It was only when Ruby drew attention to the fact that Sunset noticed that Penny, Rainbow Dash and their as-yet unintroduced team-mate were all gone. They had stolen silently away, without a word or sound; and it seemed like no one had noticed them going.

"Did we have to go so soon?" Penny asked, her expression downcast as the bullhead carried her and the rest of Team RSPT over the skies of Vale. "I would have liked to have talked to Ruby some more."

"We can try and set up another play date later," Rainbow said, as she took the controls of the bullhead from Twilight. "Right now we need to get out of here."

"Considering that our presence in Vale is unofficial, and your status has not yet been acknowledged by the government, it would be unfortunate if we were discoverred at the scene of the fighting by the Vale police," Ciel explained. "It could cause embarrassment for General Ironwood and difficulties with the Vale Council if the Atlesian military was found to be operating secretly on foreign soil."

"Even though we absolutely do operate secretly on foreign soil all the time," Rainbow said, thinking of Fluttershy and Applejack and the operation they'd been roped into in the South-East of Anima.

"Of course," Ciel said. "But we don't get caught doing it."

"No we don't," Rainbow agreed. She guided the bullhead in the direction of the commercial sky-dock they'd picked it up from in the first place. "So, what do we think? I'd say that was a pretty successful combat outing, wouldn't you?"

"The presence of unexpected variables like the arrival of the other Beacon huntsmen makes a full and objective assessment difficult," Ciel said. "But all our objectives were achieved, the hostages were rescued, and Penny suffered no damage. I'm confident in calling this a successful operation, regardless of how little useful data was obtained."

"More than you might think," Twilight said, from the co-pilot's seat. "I set Penny's diagnostic systems running before we left for the bullhead, she's been recording data all night for analysis."

"Excellent work, Twilight," Ciel declared.

"Yeah, nice one Twi," Rainbow said. "So, Penny, how did you find actual combat?"

Penny was silent for a moment. "I...I didn't really think about it. When we were in the warehouse, all I could think about was protecting my friends by defeating the enemy as quickly as possible. I didn't really think about what I was doing at all. Is that normal?"

"It is for me," Rainbow replied. "It's called instinct, and all the best warriors have it: you think of what you have to do, and your body thinks about how to do it."

"Personally I prefer to keep a clear head in battle," Ciel said. "It's better not to rely too much on instincts that can betray you. For all that technology advances our minds are still our most powerful weapons."

"Penny," Twilight said softly. "Where you afraid?"

Penny blinked. "When Ruby was injured, when I thought that she might...then I was scared. Apart from that...no, I wasn't scared. Should I have been?"

"I don't know," Twilight replied. "I've never...Rainbow? Ciel?"

Rainbow's mouth tightened for a moment. "I...it's okay to admit to being afraid, Penny? I know I talk tough sometimes, but you don't have to worry that we're going to think badly of you or anything."

"I'm not lying," Penny said. "No hiccups, see? Does that mean I ought to have been scared?"

"That depends," Rainbow said. "Why weren't you scared?"

"Because I knew I could win," Penny said. "I remembered my training, and those faunus were not very formidable."

Rainbow smirked. "No, they weren't. Just remember, Penny, when we get into the real action, when you're not so confident that remembering your training is going to be enough...there's no shame in being scared, so long as you take heart and do what you gotta do anyway."

"Which is?"

"Protect the world," Rainbow said. "And the people you care about most of all."

"Right," Penny said. "I'll remember that." She looked back, and out of the bullhead, towards the warehouse from which they had so stealthily departed.

Back towards Ruby Rose.

Blake watched from the shadows as Yang re-united with her sister, having been pre-empted by Sunset and Pyrrha returning to their team. She watched Yang and Ruby, she watched team SAPR, she watched her own team, she watched everyone. They looked relieved, they looked happy, they looked flushed with success, they looked proud of their accomplishments. They looked immortal in the glory of their triumph.

They looked complete, without her.

Blake felt a twinge of regret. She didn't want this, but at the same time she couldn't possibly avoid it, not after this. Perhaps those who came with Yang had been too pre-occupied with the battle and Ruby's injury to notice her cat-ears, but such a thing would not have escaped Sunset's notice, nor that of her team. And Sunset knew more than she was comfortable with anyone really knowing about her connection to Adam. If she stopped to think about it - and from her observation, Sunset Shimmer struck Blake as the sort of person who enjoyed knowing the secrets of those around her - then it surely wouldn't take her long to unravel the mysteries of Blake's past.

She didn't belong here, amongst these young gallants so full of fire and vigour, untainted by past crimes and ill-judged associations, unburdened by the weight of the things that they had done, the spectres of those they had hurt. She did not belong with Ruby who smiled so adorably, with Lyra who sang so sweetly, she didn't belong with Sun who was so thoughtlessly noble in his impulses. She did not belong in such a company of budding heroes.

Darkness did not belong in the company of light. One stained and soiled as she was did not belong in the company of the spotless and the clean.

She didn't belong here. Probably she had never belonged here...but it had been a pleasant illusion to sustain, while it lasted. While she lived, wherever she went next, she would treasure the memory of Lyra's songs, of Bon Bon's kindness, of the acceptance that had been extended to Blake Belladonna, even if she had to wear a bow to obtain it.

But it was time to wake up now. This was not for her.

They would not notice she was gone for some time. Probably they would not miss her when they did notice. She was not needed here.

Silently, alone and unobserved, Blake slunk into the darkness and stole away into the night.

“Blake!”

Blake turned in response to the sound of her name, to see Sunset Shimmer following her at a jog, out of the warehouse and down the alleyway behind.

“Wait up a second,” Sunset said. “I want to talk.”

Perhaps Sunset shouldn't have abandoned her team again so soon after rejoining Jaune and Ruby, but she had caught a glimpse of Blake attempting to slink away into the darkness and been moved to follow.

It was a mixture of gratitude and curiosity that drove her feet onwards, out of the warehouse and on Blake's trail, that and a sliver of thought that there might be some advantage in confirming the truth and getting someone like Blake onside.

It might be useful to have a black knight in hand, for emergencies.

Sunset's mind worked swiftly, galloping over thoughts and memories to reach conclusions as swiftly as a Wonderbolt soaring over a race course. The faunus ears, the way that Adam Taurus had spoken to her and she to him, and of course the name of Belladonna stupid, stupid, Sunset felt like an imbecile for not putting the pieces together sooner.

Of course, considering that if she had put the pieces together sooner she probably would have tried to blackmail the other girl or done something equally deplorable then perhaps it was a good thing her mind had been working more slowly than it ought to have been. If she'd done that then Blake might never have come for them and...that hardly bore thinking about, did it?

"Blake!" Sunset called, making the other girl turn around to look at her. Sunset quickened her pace, breaking into a jog. "Wait up a second. I want to talk."

Blake did stop, just as Sunset had bade her do. But, though she stood still and waited for Sunset to draw near, it was a flighty sort of stillness that looked poised to break into renewed flight at any moment. Her golden eyes watched Sunset keenly, but also warily, as though Sunset Shimmer were as threatening to her as all the perils of the White Fang.

Perhaps I should be flattered.

"What do you want?" Blake asked cautiously.

Sunset shrugged. "Perhaps I just want to know where you're going in such a hurry."

"If I knew that myself, I might tell you," Blake said, with an emphasis on might that suggested it was unlikely.

"Anywhere but here?" Sunset suggested.

Blake was silent for a moment. "Something like that."

Sunset snorted. "I know how that feels." In response to Blake's slightly quizzical look, Sunset smirked. "What, you think you're the first person to ever run away from home? How bad were things with your parents by the time you left?"

Blake's eyes widened, and she looked as though she was about to leap away.

Sunset raised one hand pacifically. "Relax, I didn't mean to scare you off. Your secret's safe with me. All your secrets are safe with me."

Blake stared at her. "That's...unusually generous, for you."

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Look, I know that we haven't talked...ever, but in between whatever you saw that gave you such a negative opinion of me and now I really have been trying to turn over a new leaf. Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"I won't be humble," Sunset said. "But I will seek for grace; and I'm trying to be nicer on my way to the top."

Blake raised one eyebrow. Sunset shrugged. "Look, you can't expect me to change everything about myself, or even want to."

"I suppose I can relate to that," Blake murmured.

Sunset took a step closer to her. "We're not all bad, there's no need to throw out our virtues along with our vices. Some parts of our vices can even make us virtuous, it could be argued."

Blake was silent for a moment. "What do you want, Sunset?"

"Perhaps I just want you to come back instead of running off to...anywhere but here."

"I can't stay here," Blake replied. "If you know the truth about me then you know that I have to leave."

"I don't know anything," Sunset said. She leaned against one of the walls of the tight alleyway in which they stood, folding her arms beneath her breasts. "I have...educated conjectures." She smiled. "Of course, when you're as smart as I am you tend to guess right more often than not."

Blake stared at her.

"Surely that wasn't wholly unamusing?" Sunset asked. "Ah, forget it. You're the daughter of Ghira Belladonna, founder of the White Fang back when they were a pressure group; only I'm guessing that when he left...you didn't."

Blake was silent for a moment. "You're from Atlas, aren't you?"

Sunset took pause. "I...I'm not technically from there, but...yes, I lived in Atlas for a few years."

"How many times where you stopped by the police, even though you'd done nothing wrong?"

Sunset scowled. These weren't memories she wished to bring to the forefront of her mind. "Five times."

"I suppose there were stores that wouldn't serve you."

"Of course there were," Sunset said irritably.

"And when they would let you in I suppose you could feel them watching you, as if it was only a matter of of time before you did something criminal."

"Yeah."

"That's why I stayed in the White Fang," Blake said. "I believed...I still believe in equality, in justice for our people. And it worked." She closed her eyes, and a look of anguish crossed her face. "What kind of world do we live in where our violent methods got more results than my father's peaceful protest ever did?"

"Transient results," Sunset replied. "Like...you can cup water in your hands for a moment, but it'll slip through your fingers again before too long."

Blake looked at her, silent, watching.

"You can scare a store-owner into serving faunus by smashing his windows, or by burning down another no-faunus store across town," Sunset said. "But how many laws did your violence get on the books?" She frowned. "You asked me how many times I was stopped by the police? Two of those times they hauled me in, just like they hauled in every other faunus they could find in the aftermath of a White Fang incident. Stuffed us all in cells until they found somebody to pin it on. You might have thought that you were getting somewhere but from the outside...it didn't look that way."

"I know," Blake said. She sauntered over, and leaned against the wall herself, her shoulder resting upon the stone. "I realised that," she said, her expression speaking of a melancholy upon the verge of despair. "I realised that we weren't really making a difference...at about the same time I realised that we were becoming more wicked than all but the worst of those we claimed to be fighting. At the same time I realised how monstrous he had become."

"Adam," Sunset said.

Blake nodded. "He wasn't always...there was a time when he was the very best of us. The..."

"Paragon?" Sunset suggested.

Blake's eyes met Sunset's for a moment. "I suppose so. There was a time when...but then, he changed. The cruelty of the world...it made him cruel in turn. It made us all cruel."

Sunset considered prodding further upon Blake's relationship with Adam. Lovers, she was fairly certain, judging by the way that he had behaved; just as she gathered that it had not ended well between them. But, as much as she thought that she was right, she did not voice the issue. The time did not seem right for it, and Blake might bolt rather than answer such questions. That wasn't what Sunset wanted and so, to achieve the result that she desired, she held her peace on Adam Taurus. What would Blake feel when he was brought down, as Sunset was yet committed to do? Hopefully she'd feel relief, with luck there would be no sorrow left in her for the likes of him. Not that it would stop Sunset if it were otherwise, he had to pay for what he'd done.

But she would rather have Blake as an ally. "You don't have to go," she said.

"Yes, I do," Blake insisted.

"No, you don't," Sunset repeated. "In fact I'll go even further: maybe you shouldn't." She sighed. "I don't know you. I don't know what you've done. But I know running. I'm a runner myself. We run and run, you and I, we run from our pasts and the mistakes that we've made and we chase...I don't know; dreams, illusions, fantasies. But when we reach the place we were running too then everything we thought that we might find there turns out to be ephemeral, phantasmal, never really there at all. And all the while the things we ran from follow us, more persistently than any grimm. You can feel them, can't you, on the back of your neck. But we're both here. All our running has brought us to this place, this point. This destiny."

"I don't believe in fate."

"I do," Sunset insisted. "Long years ago the sun and moon ordained these things we are meant to be here, Blake Belladonna. Here is the place where our dreams can come true if we have the courage to reach for them."

Blake's face was unreadable. "You really do believe that, don't you?"

I'm seventeen years old and I'm already on my very last shot, Sunset thought. I have to believe it. If I didn't...I'd despair. "Do you remember initiation?"

Blake blinked. "Yes," she said, in a tone that suggested she didn't immediately see the relevance.

"I chose the white knight piece, my team chosen the white knights," Sunset said. "Do you know why?"

Blake shrugged. "Did you like the cute pony?"

As a cute pony herself, Sunset's eyes narrowed a little. "No, it's because the white knight is the hero; the shining figure that everyone looks up to; the one who leads the charge, the one who slays the dragon, the one who saves the world."

"And you think that's you?"

"It will be," Sunset said, in a voice that refused to admit of doubt or entertain the possibility of failure. She had the undefeated Pyrrha Nikos of far-fame upon her right flank, she had the young hero Ruby Rose with silver eyes upon her left, she had Jaune Arc of the aura-boosting semblance at her back driving them on...what could they be but the heroes of this tale, the ones to take the lead against all darkness? It was no coincidence that brought the four of them together; they were meant to be the tip of the spear, and Sunset the very point. "I chose the white knight as a statement of intent," Sunset said. "I chose the white knight...and you chose the black."

"Don't read too much into it," Blake said. "I didn't have your statement of intent in mind."

"There is providence in things that we cannot consciously know," Sunset said. "Beacon, Vale, Remnant...they need a white knight, but they need a black knight too. Someone to fight from the shadows."

Blake smiled ever so slightly. "I'm not sure the rest of my team are particularly...shadowy."

"But they're still your team," Sunset said. "You don't want to leave them, do you?"

"No-"

"Then don't," Sunset said. "Listen...you saved me in there. You saved my team. I won't forget that. And your secrets are safe with Sapphire, I guarantee it." Pyrrha was too honourable and Ruby too good-natured for either of them to go blabbing Blake's secrets once they understood that they were secret, and while Jaune might accidentally let it slip out of his mouth Sunset was confident that they'd managed to stop him in time.

"And the rest?"

"I doubt they saw anything in all the confusion," Sunset said. "Put the bow back on and nobody will even notice. Or don't. Just because you're faunus doesn't mean you're ex-White Fang. It just means you wanted an easy life, until you didn't."

"Except...I do," Blake said, pulling out a black hair ribbon.

"Suit yourself," Sunset said, feeling only slightly envious of Blake's ability to pass so easily. She could possibly have done something similar herself to hide her ears, bound up her tail in some way...but she didn't really want to. She was Sunset Shimmer, and she wouldn't hide the fact to please anybody. "That means you're staying then."

Blake nodded. "Thank you," she whispered.

"Don't mention it," Sunset said. We're not even yet. "Now, shall we get back before people start to worry?"

"Sure," Blake said, and side by side they walked back towards the warehouse where their teams were waiting for them.

Professor Ozpin sipped from his coffee as he gazed down at the live feed of his first year students beginning to return to school after their little excursion of the night.

Considering the circumstances, they had all performed most admirably. Although the presence of the Atlesians did perturb him somewhat. James, what are you up to?

Time enough to discover that later. If need be he could even ask James about it directly. In any event, there were more important matters to consider. With a touch of a button, Ozpin switched from the live feed images to a message from Qrow.

It was very simple: Queen has pawns.

Indeed she does. Ozpin sighed. They – the first years – had removed a few hostile pawns from the board tonight, but how many more of them had yet to be dealt with before they confronted the serious pieces, the knights and rooks?

Still, tonight was a victory. Considering the other ways in which it could have ended, this was a definite success.

The elevator doors opened, and Glinda walked into his office. Her heels clicked on the stone floor as she strode towards his desk.

“Ah, Glinda,” he said, gesturing to the other coffee mug. “Would you care to join me?”

“No, thank you,” Glinda replied. “It’s a little late, and I’d like to get some sleep tonight.”

“Suit yourself,” Ozpin said genially, taking another sip of the scalding hot coffee. “You’ll be glad to hear that the students are on their way to Beacon now. They should arrive before too long.”

Glinda was still and silent for a moment. “How are they?”

“Miss Rose sustained an injury, and though it seems to have been taken care of she should probably report to the infirmary to get checked out on her return. Other than that, they are all in fine fettle.”

Glinda’s sigh of relief was restrained, but noticeable to someone who had known her as long as Ozpin had. “That…that is excellent to hear. Thank you, I am glad to hear that. Although I’d be even more glad if you’d let me give them all detention for sneaking in the first place.”

Ozpin’s eyebrows rose. “Detention for all of them, Glinda? Surely you can’t be suggesting that Team Sapphire or Miss Schnee were at fault for falling into a trap of the enemy.”

“No, but you know very well what I mean, Professor,” Glinda said sharply. “Iron, Wisteria, Bluebell, none of them had any business-“

“Miss Xiao-Long’s sister was among the captives,” Ozpin pointed out. “I suspect that we would have had to chain to something particularly sturdy to prevent her from going to Ruby’s aid.”

Glinda gazed at him sternly over the top of her spectacles, looking at him like she would at a particularly unpromising student. “I don’t understand, Professor Ozpin. You withdrew the professors from the halls, you wouldn’t allow me to stop them…you wanted them to leave the school and go rescue their friends.”

“The fact that they were motivated to go gives me hope,” Ozpin said.

“There are proper authorities, Professor-“

“If they had simply waited meekly for the proper authorities to take action then I would have despaired,” Ozpin replied, cutting her off before she could finish. “If humanity has a chance to survive it is not because of armies or ships or dust munitions but because of the bonds of friendship that inspired our students to risk their lives for their family and friends. The ties that bind us together are our greatest asset against the darkness.”

“I understand,” Glinda said, although judging by the slight impatience slipping into her voice she didn’t understand as well as he might have liked. “But these are still children.”

“I’m well aware of that, and there are even times when it is good to see them behaving like children,” Ozpin said. “But there also times when it is good to see what kind of fine adults our children will become with our assistance.” He refilled his coffee mug from the porcelain pot. “She’s coming for us, Glinda; the days of childhood may end all too soon. Glinda, neither of us is going to be around forever.” He meant that, most sincerely. Once he had completed his quest and defeated Salem then the curse that bound him would be broken, and he would be free to pass on into…whatever else the gods had planned for him. He would almost certainly outlive Glinda and his other associates – it would take a miracle to defeat Salem within the lifetime of his current host – but he had no intention of living forever. “We need to be sure that the new generation is fit to take up our burdens when we’re gone.”

“And so you wanted them to try their strength,” Glinda said. “That’s why you let them go, why you didn’t call the police. Why you didn’t call anybody.”

“I was confident that they could handle the White Fang,” Ozpin said. “I would have taken steps if I had thought that there was any real danger.” He smiled. “You should be proud, Glinda; they all performed admirably. You’ve taught them well, I see.”

“You can’t distract me with flattery.”

“Nor would I ever seek to do so,” Ozpin reassured her. “All the hostages have been rescued, and our students have been buoyed in confidence by a small victory. Tonight…has been a good night.”

“Mhm,” Glinda murmured. “And what about Miss Nikos? Do you plan to tell her?”

“Not yet,” Ozpin said.

“Her performance in battle is exemplary,” Glinda said. “Honestly, I don’t feel as though she’s learning anything in my sparring class. She’s as ready as she’ll ever be.”

“I’m sure she is,” Ozpin said. Just as he was sure that Miss Shimmer was ready to look behind the curtain and find out some of the truth that he and his inner circle kept concealed from the world. “But, as you said, they are still children, and there is still time for them to enjoy a little more childhood yet.”

How much time exactly he couldn’t say, not with the mysterious Black Queen on the move and Salem’s hand guiding her, but considering the burden that he meant to place upon Miss Nikos’ shoulders…he was willing to give her what little time he could.

Sunset sat at her desk. The dorm room was currently empty: Ruby was with her sister, at this point it seemed like the only times Yang let Ruby out of her sight was when she was sleeping or going to the bathroom; Jaune and Pyrrha were sparring together.

The spring semester was pretty much over; in a couple of days it would be officially over and the spring vacation would begin. Which meant that it would be quieter around here, since Sunset was staying at Beacon over the break.

It wasn’t as if she had anywhere else to go, after all.

Regardless, the emptiness of the room – and her confidence that she wouldn’t be disturbed for a little while – meant that she could finally take out the journal and set it down on the desk.

Sunset looked down at the cover for a moment, her gaze lingering on the image of her cutie mark that embossed the brown cover. Her fingertips brushed against the red and golden sun before she flipped the book open to the first blank page.

There hadn’t been any reply since that night after the Forever Fall field trip. Sunset was getting pretty irritated, to be honest. It had been long enough, surely. If Celestia didn’t want to have anything more to do with her then that…well, it wasn’t fine, but if she believed that Sunset’s actions were beyond forgiveness then she could at least say so instead of giving her the silent treatment like she was a little filly again.

And someone who called themselves the princess of friendship ought to have the decency to write back instead of just blanking Sunset out because she didn’t want to give her bad news.

Sunset was scowling by the time she picked up her pen and began to scrawl in the journal.

You could at least write back you know, whatever the response is!

Nothing. There was no response. Not for a moment, and for longer. Sunset stared at the page but it remained blank, with nothing but her own irate line scribbled across it.

And then, after a minute or so, words in answer began to appear beneath her accusatory opening.

Oh my gosh, Sunset! I’m really sorry, I should have gotten back in touch sooner. It’s just been so hectic around here that I didn’t have a chance.

Sunset raised one eyebrow. Yeah, I’ll bet.

It’s true! Do you think that I’m lying to cover up the fact that I didn’t want to reply?

The thought had crossed my mind.

It really has been incredibly busy around here. What with the princesses disappearing

WHAT?

Sunset’s free hand slammed into the desk with a thud as loud as a drumbeat as Sunset sat bolt upright, cutting across Twilight’s line with her demand for more information. Princess Celestia has disappeared? A hundred scenarios whirled through Sunset’s mind, each one worse than the last: Celestia kidnapped, Celestia trapped in Tartarus, Celestia in the grip of eldritch horrors the like of which would drive you mad to even conceive of their existence. Celestia gone, vanished without trace.

Celestia disappeared? What do you mean she disappeared? Then why are you wasting time writing to me instead of finding her? Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?

No. No, Celestia cannot be gone. Sunset’s breathing was coming more quickly now, and through her mind pounding the last words that they had said to one another before Sunset had left, the last argument they had before Celestia had cast her out.

You’re not my mother, and I was a fool to ever forget that.

It was your choice to make me love you, but it was my choice to believe you loved me in return.

That cannot be how we leave it. That cannot be how she remembers me. That can’t be…can’t be the last thing that we ever say to one another.

Sunset, calm down

Don’t tell me to calm down when Celestia’s in danger! If you won’t do anything about it then I’ll just have to come and find her myself.

She wasn’t sure how she would do that, but she would. Celestia needed her, and clearly her new pupil was too useless or apathetic to be relied upon. She hadn’t kept track of the mirror’s opening cycles but she’d force it open if she had to, she’d pour every ounce of her magic into it until it opened up and made way for her. Of course, she’d have to get to Canterlot…Pyrrha was loaded, perhaps she’d be willing to lend Sunset enough money for an airfare.

She briefly considering asking Pyrrha to come with her, if the situation was dangerous then Sunset could do worse than have a superlative warrior backing her up…but how much of Pyrrha’s combat prowess would survive the loss of two hands and the gaining of two extra legs was up in the air, not to mention the loss of aura. And besides, this wasn’t her fight. This was Sunset’s mentor, and it was her responsibility to help her out.

She was already starting to rise out of her seat when more words appeared in the book in front of her.

Celestia’s fine! If you’d let me finish I was going to say that Celestia and Luna disappeared for a while, and then plunder vines appeared and started choking the whole of Equestria and that is why we’ve all been too busy to reply to you. However, there’s no need for you to worry because it’s all settled now. The princesses are fine, the plunder vines are gone, everything is back to normal now. You’re right, I wouldn’t be writing to you if we were still in the middle of a crisis. No offence, but I’d have more important matters to take care of.

Sunset stared down at the page for a moment, feeling like a bit of an idiot. Losing my mind like that without even waiting to find out what was really going on. Sunset: Well, you could have told me all that.

I tried.

Although I must say that I’m touched by your concern, my little sunbeam.

Sunset stared at the words on the page. A shiver ran down her spine containing dread and anticipation in equal measure. Her hand trembled as she wrote. Princess Celestia?

It is good to hear from you again, Sunset Shimmer.

Weiss Schnee could have emptied all the ice dust that she could fit in her rapier over Sunset and she would not have frozen her more completely than Sunset was frozen at the desk by the fact that her mentor, her teacher, her princess was on the other side of the magical journal.

She had wanted this, she was terrified of this.

She had asked for forgiveness, but now her heart quailed before finding out whether she had it or not.

She had faced grimm and the White Fang; she had risked her life in battle; but none of that frightened her so much as finding out whether she had, through her own faults and follies, wrung out every last drop of love and pity out of Celestia’s heart until there was nothing left for her but anger.

Sunset? Are you still there?

She must be afraid I’ve run away again, as I did before. She hastily began to write. Yes. Yes, princess, I’m here. How long

Sunset hesitated, wondering whether she really wanted to know.

have you been here?

Not long. Twilight happens to be in Canterlot assisting me with some tedious business. I came in and found her writing to you. I asked if I could take over.

There was nothing else. Celestia had come to the end of her sentence, and yet Sunset did not know how to reply. The things that had happened between them lay like a wall, keeping them more divided than space or the fact that they were in different worlds accessible only through magic.

What do I say? Where do I even begin?

I’m sorry.

Sunset’s eyes widened in disbelief. This…what…she didn’t understand it. She didn’t understand it one bit. You’re sorry? What do you have to be sorry about?

Everything. I did not do right by you, Sunset Shimmer.

No, princess, no, you mustn’t say that.

Sunset scrawled the words hastily, before Celestia could say too much. Had she been observing from afar then she might have appreciated the irony in the situation, but she wasn’t observing she was involved, caught in the moment and in the moment she…she didn’t want to hear this. She had accepted, or at least she was trying to accept, to at least some extent, that she had been a flawed pony, deeply, maybe even terribly flawed. She was trying to do better here in Remnant. She had asked for forgiveness, not for absolution.

She didn’t need Celestia to take all the burdens of responsibility of herself. She didn’t want that.

It was me, princess, I failed you, I let you down

Please, Sunset, let me finish.

Even at this remove, Sunset could not help but look chastened at the rebuke. She could hear Celestia’s voice saying it as though they were sharing the room.

Of course, princess. I’m sorry.

There was a pause, probably while Celestia considered her response.

It is true that the destiny that I once hoped for for you was not one for which you were suited. But the fault is mine, for placing too great a burden of expectation upon your shoulders at too young an age. With the benefit of hindsight I’m not sure that any filly’s ego could have survived being told that they were expected to ascend. That yours was unequal to the challenge says less about your faults than about my own poor judgement.

Sunset could not quite keep the envy and, yes, the touch of bitterness out of her pen strokes as she wrote back. Twilight Sparkle’s ego seems to have held up.

Twilight was completely ignorant of her destiny until she arrived at it. That was the lesson that you taught me: Twilight grew up knowing nothing of my hopes for her until she had achieved them.

Sunset could not help but let out a little chuckle. So what you’re telling me, princess, is that you messed up with me and then learnt how to do it right the second time around.

Yes, you could say that. And all I can do now is apologise for my failings as a teacher.

Sunset sighed. She closed her eyes, breathed deeply once, in and out, and then again a second time. Then she began to write. You have no need to apologise to me, Princess Celestia. Not for that, at least. The truth is, I don’t think it could have worked out anyway.

No? That was not your opinion when we last saw each other.

So, they had come to that at last. It was always inevitable. Celestia had been very kind in not bringing it up beforehand. But they couldn’t avoid the circumstances of Sunset’s departure – from Celestia’s tutelage, from the palace, and from Equestria itself – any longer.

But Sunset found that she did want to avoid it, for at least a little while more.

My best friend is a girl named Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos.

Pyrrha Nikos?

Sunset frowned. Yes. Some of the names they use here would be familiar to you, but others are a little stranger.

Extraordinary. Please, Sunset, continue.

As I said, she’s my best friend. You’d be amazed at how hard it was for me to admit that. Or perhaps you wouldn’t. Perhaps it doesn’t surprise you at all. Anyway, she’s great. A great warrior. Superlative. Even with all the magic at my command I can barely keep up with her, and if I didn’t have magic then she’d tear me apart without breaking a sweat like she does everybody else. And she’s kind and beautiful and she’s always willing to help others and she brings out the best in me. But she’s lonely. Even though she’s talented and lovely and kind she doesn’t have anyone she can open her heart to. Nobody told her that she was expected to ascend, there’s no immortal teacher making plans for her that have made her proud, because like I said she isn’t proud at all. But the very fact of her skill sets her apart, the simple act of being her in all her glory raises her up so far that nobody can get close to her. With the best intentions she doesn’t have a friend in the world.

It sounds like she has you, now.

Sunset cleared her throat; for all that Celestia couldn’t see or hear it. Well, yes, and she has Jaune and Ruby as well – they’re our team-mates – I suppose what I meant was that she didn’t have any. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that even if you’d told me nothing, it might not have made any difference. I still would have been mean, proud and vain and kind of awful now that I look back, and I still would have been in that place as your student, and so talented. Honestly, I’m not sure how Twilight Sparkle managed to make any friends when someone like Pyrrha couldn’t manage it.

To be perfectly honest, I had to send Twilight away to Ponyville before she connected with anyone sufficiently deeply.

Oh, so that’s what she’s doing in a place like that. That explains it.

Could you please tell me more about her? And about Ruby and Jaune, your other friends?

Really? Why?

I’d like to know what kind of people your friends are. I’m curious to know who they are who were able to open up your heart.

Sunset blinked, she felt as though she had something caught in her eye. You still care?

I always cared about you, Sunset. You may not have believed it, but that does not make it any less true.

But everything that I said, everything that happened. I was afraid

Sunset hesitated a moment before she finished that sentence. I was afraid you wouldn’t be able to forgive me.

There is nothing for me to forgive.

Nothing? Nothing at all.

You were angry, you had that right. But I was only ever afraid.

Afraid?

Afraid of what might happen to you in the world that lies beyond the mirror, afraid of what might happen to you; afraid, I must confess, of what your anger and impatience might drive you to become. But I had hope as well. I hoped, very much, that you might find your path. And it seems that you have done so.

I don’t know about that, although I am trying. Princess, can I ask you a question?

Of course.

When I was studying under you, you made me believe; or at least you allowed me to believe that I had a destiny. A great destiny. You made me believe it so much that I went all the way to another world looking for it. Was that a lie? Was it always a lie? Or is destiny like Pyrrha says: something that we control by our own actions and I just messed up that badly?

She wanted to know, and yet she didn’t; but ultimately Sunset knew that she had to ask. She would have no peace until she did.

She waited, expectant and afraid, for the answer.

I wish that I had an answer to give you, Sunset; I really do. But I do not. I believe in destiny. I have tried to build a society in which all ponies may fulfil their destinies but mark that: they need help in the fulfilling. Perhaps it is not so, perhaps destiny is fixed and immutable but if that is the case then what price any of our actions? Are we merely puppets, doing the bidding of some ineffable force?

I always thought you were the puppet master.

No, Sunset, I do not pull the strings, or at least I try not to. I merely try to set the course, so that the river may flow in the manner that is best for everybody. Of course, there is a possibility that you did not mention.

What’s that?

That you have a destiny, but I was mistaken about it where it lay. Not in Canterlot, but somewhere else. Sunset, are you happy where you are? Although there is no cause for you to return to rescue me, I want you to know that you will always be welcome in Equestria, should you decide that you want to come home.

You can’t know how it feels for you to say that.

She barely knew how it felt for Celestia to say that, only that was she glad that Celestia had said it.

But I don’t think I’m ready to come back yet. I’m not even sure I should be calling Equestria home. Back there I only had you. Now

Sunset paused for a moment.

Maybe my destiny is here. Or maybe it isn’t. But this world seems like it could use a hero, and my team needs me, and

Sunset, there is no shame in saying that you want to stay that you have found friends and a place to belong. If that is the case I could not be happier.

Sunset closed her eyes for a moment. It’s easier to be good when I’m with them.

They must be wonderful people.

They are. Pyrrha’s just great, and Ruby’s so sweet and brave and even Jaune, I have to give Jaune credit for courage, I probably wouldn’t have had the nerve to do what he’s done.

Tell me more. Tell me about your friends, tell me about the world you live in now, tell me about your life. Tell me everything, Sunset. I want to know what’s become of you since you’ve been away.

Sunset sucked on the end of her pen and pondered for a moment. I hardly know where to start…

“Princess Twilight, is everything alright?”

Twilight turned, to be confronted with a tall, golden unicorn mare with long, graceful limbs, striking green eyes and a long mane as red as fire, wearing the armour of the royal guard. Except that this mare wore no helmet, rather a gleaming circle adorned her brow just beneath her horn and wound its way around her head.

“Uh, yes, I’m fine, thank you for asking,” Twilight replied. “I’m just waiting for Celestia to finish her…business.”

“I see,” the unicorn said. “In that case, I apologise for disturbing you.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine, really,” Twilight said. “There’s nothing to apologise for, uh…”

“Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos,” Pyrrha said, with a courtly bow. “At your highness’ service.”

“Oh my gosh, is that the Princess of Friendship?”

“Ruby, I-“

A ruby-coloured pegasus, whose black mane ended in rose-coloured highlights, sped down the palace corridor trailing rose petals in her wake.

“Oh my gosh I can’t believe this it’s so great to actually meet you! I think that the way you’ve saved the world like four times now is so awesome!”

Twilight leaned away just a little from the big silver eyes that were staring at her. “I, uh…wait, did you say Ruby? As in Ruby Rose?”

Ruby gasped. “You’ve heard about me? Am I famous?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Twilight said. “Ruby…and Pyrrha.”

“That’s right, princess.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t happen to know anybody called Jaune Arc, would you?”

Ruby and Pyrrha looked at one another.

“Is Jaune in some sort of trouble, your highness?” Pyrrha asked cautiously.

“No!” Twilight exclaimed. “No, it’s nothing like that, it’s just, uh…” She wondered how she could explain it to them. She could barely start to explain it to herself.

But it was absolutely extraordinary.

“So you’re sure you don’t need me to get that?” Yang asked, gesturing to the red suitcase that Ruby was hauling up the gangplank onto the airship that was going to carry them back home. “Because I can totally manage both of them if you-“

“Yang!” Ruby moaned. “It’s fine, I’m fine. I didn’t need Sunset to levitate it for me, I didn’t need Jaune to carry it down from the dorm room for me and I don’t need you to carry it for me now! It’s fine, I’m fine, when is everybody going to get that I’m fine, seriously!”

Yang smiled fondly as she patted Ruby lightly on the cheek. “I can’t speak for your team-mates, but personally…give it a month or so, I should be fine by the time we get back for summer semester.”

“That long?”

“You gave us all a big scare back there,” Yang said. “If it helps, it’s only cause we love you.” She put one arm around Ruby’s shoulder – her grip was firm enough that Ruby didn’t even try getting out of it – and steered her on board the ship. “Of course, I can’t speak for how long it will Dad to get over it, either.”

Ruby groaned. “Do you think it’ll be bad?”

Yang shrugged. “Depends how you define bad. Not let you come back to Beacon bad…probably not that bad. We’re both grounded for the entire of vacation bad…yeah, I could see that happening.”

Ruby moaned wordlessly.

“Hey, Ruby!”

The shout from Sunset caused Ruby to turn around, looking out from the ship and onto the dock where the rest of her team were gathered, out of the way of the people still boarding, waving to her.

“Have a great time back home,” Jaune called.

“But not so great you don’t want to come back,” Sunset added.

Ruby laughed. “No chance of that! Have a great time in Mistral, you guys.” She wanted to go home, and she wanted to see Dad and Zwei again, but when Pyrrha had invited the team to spend spring vacation at her home in Mistral Ruby had been a little jealous of the fact that – unlike Jaune and Sunset – she hadn’t been able to accept.

She might have asked Dad if she could go – he was always telling her that she needed to make friends, right? So why would he have a problem with her spending the break with her friends? – except that Yang had informed her that, in the present circumstances, there was absolutely no way he was going to say yes this time.

“We will,” Pyrrha said hopefully.

Ruby kept waving to them until the airship door rose. Then, quickly stowing their bags in the passenger section, they made their way to one of the passenger compartments where Ruby leapt onto the seats that lined the windows. She could still see all three of them standing at the dock as the airship began to pull away, and it seemed that Sunset could spot her too because she pointed at Ruby and the other two began to wave to her. Ruby waved back, until the airship banked around and she lost sight of them completely.

She felt Yang’s presence beside her before she even heard her voice. “You know, I wasn’t sure about those three at first, but they really do care about you. You’ve got a great team there, Rubes.”

“I know,” Ruby said softly, a smile playing across her face.

Yang turned around and flopped down onto the dark-cushioned bench, spreading her arms out behind her across the windowsill. “Although I don’t know how you managed to luck out being on a team with Pyrrha Nikos and the girl with the most broken semblance in history. Talk about winning the lottery.”

“Hey, you have Nora. Don’t complain too much.”

“Yeah, my guys are cool,” Yang said. “I just…”

“What?”

Yang looked at Ruby for a moment, and then looked away. “It’s probably nothing.”

Ruby leapt off the seat, only so that she could turn around and sit down beside Yang. “Come on, spill it.”

Yang picked at the seats for a moment. “Ruby, you’ve got Mom’s diary with you, right?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“We should read some more.”

“Of course but…” Ruby’s eyes narrowed. “Are you changing the subject.”

“No,” Yang said. “I’m really not.” She hesitated. “When I was down in the tunnels, looking for Adam, I saw my mom.”

Ruby’s eyes widened. “Yang…really?”

Yang nodded. “She knew about the diary somehow, and she told me that we had to keep reading it. She said it was important, that it had answers we needed.”

“Answers?” Ruby asked. “Answers to what?”

Yang shrugged. “Answers to the questions we didn’t even know to ask, maybe? Look, my mom didn’t say much, but the woman who’s had nothing to do with me my entire life thought it was important enough to tell me this…so I think we should trust her.”

Ruby nodded. “But…was that it? Was that all she had to say to you?”

“Pretty much,” Yang replied. “Rubes…you don’t see much of Professor Ozpin, do you?”

“No, why?”

Yang frowned momentarily, but the looked passed as quickly as it had appeared. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s just read some more.”

“Right,” Ruby said, as she pulled the diary out from a pouch on her belt and flipped it open to the page where they’d left it. She placed the little book resting between her knees and her sisters, so that they could both see it as they began to read.

Dear Diary,

I don’t think Raven likes me very much.

Maybe that’s too hard on her. I get the feeling that she doesn’t really ‘like’ anybody that much. It’s strange watching the way she goes around the school: she acts as though she’s better than everyone else here, but there’s also this nervousness about her as though she’s afraid of other people. I don’t really get it.

Anyway, the point is that while she may not dislike me more than she dislikes anybody else, she doesn’t seem to like me very much either. She thinks that she should have been made team leader instead of me and she isn’t shy about letting me know it. She told me straight that the only reason I was made team leader is because of my powers

“Ugh!” Ruby grunted. “Come on, Mom, details!”

“I’m picking up a lot of details,” Yang muttered.

But that those powers aren’t any substitute for knowledge and experience. You’d think she was a pro-huntsman or something. I asked her if she’d lived outside the kingdoms, like I had; that seemed to take her by surprise, I think she thought I was from Vale or something. She didn’t answer my question, but I’m guessing that the answer is yes. I can’t think why else she’d think that she was so much more qualified to lead than me.

Qrow told me not to sweat it. He said that his sister acts like this around everyone.

Anyway, we started classes today. Professor Port’s Grimm Studies was a little weird.

Yang chuckled. “Hey, Ruby, you wanna bet that Professor Port was the same then as he is now?”

“Nah, that’s a sucker’s bet,” Ruby said. “Especially if you want me to take it.”

I’m sure that he was – that he is – a great huntsman, but he told us more about himself than he ever said about the grimm.

The teacher in our combat class is barely older than me, or any of us, and of course Raven asked her straight up why they should listen to anything that someone basically our age had to say. I was so embarrassed, I thought we were going to get detention or something.

But then Professor Goodwitch invited Raven up onto the stage and said that if she could beat her – if Raven could beat Professor Goodwitch – then she’d get a free pass from classes for the next four years and a top grade regardless. You should have seen the look on Raven’s face, she was so smug you could tell she thought she had this. But then Professor Goodwitch totally kicked her ass and it was so awesome! Okay, that sounded pretty mean but, honestly, Raven’s so full of herself she deserved to be taken down a peg.

The look on her face when she got up after Professor Goodwitch threw her off the stage with her semblance was hilarious.

“Wow,” Yang said. “Professor Goodwitch was a badass when she was young, and pretty cool too by the sounds of it. Do you think she’d fight me if I asked her too?”

“Why would you want to fight Professor Goodwitch?”

“I could see how good I was compared to my mom at my age.”

“I guess,” Ruby said, with a little reluctance. She brightened up as she added, “If you do decide to go for it, I’ll be rooting for you.”

I suppose I should probably admit that the reason I might sound – okay, the reason I sound – as though I don’t like Raven very much is that I was worried that what she said was right, that the only reason Professor Ozpin made me the leader of Team STRQ is that I have silver eyes. But Professor Ozpin said that that wasn’t true; he told me that I could use my eyes in any capacity in the team, and I suppose that he was right about that. He really made me feel better about myself, and about being the leader of the team.

I think someone must have said something to Raven, too, because she was trying to be nice tonight. Emphasis on trying, I don’t think she really knows how. But I’m going to give her a chance. She’s pretty tough, and pretty cool too; I’d like to be her friend.

I’d like her to think that I was worthy of being her friend.

Ruby and Yang spent the entirety of the trip home reading through the diary. Some entries they skimmed over – like when Mom started to describe how Dad had a crush on Raven and didn’t really seem to notice her; by an unspoken mutual agreement the two sisters decided that they didn’t really want to read that stuff, even if it was the reason they both existed – others they read in more detail. There was a wealth of information packed in here, even if a lot of it was familiar stuff about life at Beacon, the life that the two of them were living right now.

Ruby had always known that her mother and father and favourite uncle had attended Beacon, and she’d known on some level that they must have done all the same things that she and Yang and her new friends had done, walked through the same hallways, sat in the same classrooms. But reading it, hearing it in her mother’s voice made it real in the same way that finding the STRQ carving on the SAPR dorm room had been more powerful than merely knowing that they had slept in a room like the one that she was sleeping in.

When she read about her Mom, in Mom’s own voice, she could imagine them all as clearly as she could see the places in her mind’s eye: the hallways, the courtyard, the cafeteria. She could imagine them there, and she could imagine herself and her friends following behind them like shadows.

We had an absolutely epic food fight in the dining hall today, Team STRQ against Team DMND and we kicked their asses! Although Raven got a little carried away and nearly broke Nettles’ aura; but she said she didn’t mean any harm and I believe her. Or at least I’d like to. Professor Ozpin was really good about the whole thing, he said we should try to have some fun while we still can. He’s really cool about all this stuff, like the grandpa I never knew growing up…

Qrow asked me out today. He’s a cool guy, but I had to say no; I’m just not that into him. Tai told me I’d made a mistake…

Tai asked me for advice on how to ask Raven out. I didn’t know what to say. I barely knew where to look…

Raven and I were really in sync in sparring class today; we went up against Celestia and Luna from Team CELO. Although individually they’re not the best huntresses in our year, whenever they’re paired together they’re practically invincible, like they can read one another’s minds. But Raven and I beat them, it was incredible! It’s so awesome that we’re really starting to gel as a team, and I think Raven’s starting to warm up to me. She even smiled after we won the fight, although when I tried to give her a hug she pushed me away. I guess we’re not quite there yet…

Professor Ozpin called me to his office today for a special lesson; I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, but Raven looked so jealous that I had to tell her that it was about my silver eyes. She calmed down a little after that, since she knew that, although I’m getting special treatment, there’s nothing she could do to get it as well.

We worked on training my eyes, just like I thought we would: how I can use them more at will, and without tiring myself out as much as I do now. The same sort of thing that Dad tried to teach me only I think that, even if Professor Ozpin doesn’t have silver eyes himself, he knows more about them then my father does. Where we live, the way we live, all we have is scraps of half-remembered lore and some inscriptions that no one can decipher. Professor Ozpin knows things, he has knowledge, real knowledge. He gave me some books to take away with me and study: histories of my people. It’s fascinating, but with so much schoolwork I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to actually read these texts.

We had our lesson. You know, now that I’ve just complained that we’ve lost so much knowledge, I should probably write down some of it. I’m the last of my kind right now, or so Professor Ozpin says, but I don’t always want to be. I hope – and maybe it’s stupid of me to hope since the guy I like won’t even look at me – but I don’t want to fight until I die and leave nothing behind me. I mean, I’m prepared to die but what’s the point in fighting to save the world if you’ve nobody to leave the world too. I’d like to leave something, someone, behind me, and so for future generations of silver-eyed warriors I leave this, the basics as I understand them.

Ruby’s eyes widened. “It’s here, Yang! Mom’s finally going to tell us what it’s all about!”

We've forgotten most of where we came from. Our history has been lost to fairy-tale and myth and the half-remembered mutterings of old men. Maybe the Professor's histories will provide some answers, but I only got them tonight and I haven't had the chance to read through them yet. What I do know, is that those born with silver eyes used to be much more numerous than they are now - that wouldn't be hard considering it's just me and my father now - and we were chosen by destiny to lead the lives of warriors.

At least, that's what I've been told. Maybe there really is such a thing as destiny and my fate - like the fate of all my people - is to spend my entire life in battle. Or maybe that was just what people thought because so many silver-eyes became warriors. I don't know, and Professor Ozpin couldn't say for certain either. He tells me that I have a choice to make, whether I want to devote my life to the greater good of the world and its people or not, but a part of me would like to think that all of this was planned out and foreordained years ago. It would mean that I was definitely on the right path.

Although it would also mean that nothing I did or chose really mattered. This stuff makes my head hurt.

Anyway, the powers of the silver eyes come from, wouldn't you know it, our silver eyes. When we feel especially intense negative emotion - horror, fear, sorrow, anger - our eyes manifest in power unlike any other. Professor Ozpin called it magic, even though he told me not to call it that in front of anybody else.

"Magic," Yang murmured. "Like in airport novels or something?"

"I suppose Professor Ozpin had to call it something."

"Okay, but why call it something made up?"

"It isn't made up, Mom could actually do magic."

"You know what I mean," Yang said. "Of course Mom could do...something that she'll hopefully explain in a second, but why name it after something made up? It makes the whole thing sound ridiculous."

"Maybe we'll find out if we keep reading?"

Yang chuckled. "Yeah, maybe. Sorry about that."

I asked the Professor why he called it that, when everyone knows that magic didn't exist, and he just smiled and said that not everything that everybody knows is correct. Professor Ozpin has been really kind to me, and it's great that he's teaching me how to master my gifts, but I swear sometimes it's as if he's trying to be mysterious on purpose.

The point of our lesson tonight was about control, I think that's what all our lessons are going to be about for the foreseeable future. Professor Ozpin showed me a video of me using my eyes against the grimm during initiation; it was the first time I'd ever seen what other people see when I use my powers and let me tell you, if they weren't my powers, if I was watching someone else do this I'd think it was so incredibly awesome. Light comes out of my eyes like wings, burning the darkness all away. But Professor Ozpin warned me that my powers come at a cost: they use so much energy that I'm really vulnerable after using them, and because my powers are activated by extreme negative emotion they could attract even more grimm. Apparently more than one silver-eyed warrior has died after being incapacitated by their own powers, devoured by grimm attracted to the emotions that led them to use their powers in the first place. Professor Ozpin's tuition will focus in parallel upon restraining my negative emotions, while at the same time being able to use my powers without the need for them, calling on the ability at will. Once I can do that, then we hope that practice will mean I'm not so worn out by exercising my ability.

Yang put one arm around Ruby's shoulders. "Ruby," she said. "That...I gotta be honest, that sounds kinda dangerous."

"Chosen by destiny to lead the lives of warriors," Ruby murmured.

"Huh?"

Ruby looked up into Yang's confused-looking face, and smiled. "People with silver eyes were destined to lead lives as warriors. So I was meant to come to Beacon, just like Mom was."

Yang grinned. "And to think, when semester started somebody didn't want to be special. Now who has normal knees?" The smile faded a little. "All the same, you can be special and you can be a huntress and a hero without knowing anything more about your eyes. You can fight the grimm and save people with Crescent Rose and your semblance."

"Yes, but I could save even more people if I knew how to kill a whole bunch of grimm at once and-"

"And then what?" Yang asked. "You read what Mom wrote, after you did that you'd be vulnerable and attracting more grimm."

"My team would be there," Ruby declared.

Yang didn't reply to that, but her expression spoke of scepticism even if she wasn't quite willing to express it out loud.

"Do you want to stop?" Ruby asked, even though she didn't want to. She wanted to read more, and find out more about how Mom had learned to master her abilities. But even more than that she didn't want to fight with Yang. If this was starting to make her sister uncomfortable then she was willing to leave it, for now.

Yang hesitated. "I-"

The internal speaker on the airship chimed before an automated female voice filled the compartment, and probably the entire airship. "Landing in three minutes. Please ensure that you have all your belongings with you before you depart. We hoped you enjoyed travelling with Maiden Skylines and wish you a safe rest of your journey."

"Guess we're done after all," Yang said.

"Yeah," Ruby murmured. Maybe it was true what Yang said. In fact it was almost certainly true what Yang said; if she'd never heard of silver eyes she would never have questioned her ability to achieve her dreams without them. But now that she had heard of them, now that she knew that her inheritance from her mother was a precious gift, just ignoring that fact seemed, well, wrong somehow.

Mom hadn't left her an ancestral sword like Jaune's great-grandfather; but she had left Ruby her eyes, a weapon passed down through the generations of their family so that they could fight against the monsters and protect humanity. Maybe it carried risks, but so did just picking up Crescent Rose and training to become a huntress. Going to Beacon was risky, fighting Roman Torchwick's thugs had been risking, crossing the street was risky. But if she could help people with her power, if she could save people that she wouldn't have been able to save otherwise then shouldn't she?

Consumed by these thoughts, she said very little as she and Yang retrieved their luggage and exited the airship, walking out onto a commercial skydock on the outskirts of Vale.

Dad was waiting for them, and as soon as he saw them he made his way across the dock towards them in silence, his expression stern.

"Uh, hey Dad," Yang said. "How's it going?"

Dad was silent as he put his arms around two girls, holding them tight as he knelt down in front of them. "I'm so glad you're okay," he whispered, before he looked from Ruby to Yang and then back again. "You two are both grounded."

Sunset had never been anywhere near Mistral before. She'd never even been anywhere on Anima before (to be perfectly honest, going to Beacon was her first time off Solitas) and even if they hadn't reached the city of Mistral proper yet she was already finding it fascinating.

The three of them had taken a Valish airship out to the Mistralian port city of Edo Bay before boarding a private Mistralian airship chartered for Pyrrha by her mother.

The private airship was understandably smaller than the commercial carrier that had carried them over the ocean, but it was not the reduction in size that interested Sunset so much as what she had already seen of Mistralian technology. While Atlesian and Valish tech gloried in its advancement and sophistication, this Mistralian airship - and what else of Mistral she had seen during their stop in the port - seemed designed to look less hi-tech than Sunset suspected that it really was. The wings of this airship, which Sunset could see as she stood on the edge of the airship's main compartment, one hand resting on the wall to stop her falling down to the world passing by beneath, might look as though they were fashioned of bamboo and canvas but that couldn't actually be the case. She doubted there was any different to the underlying systems that kept this craft in the air or powered their western equivalents, Mistral just wanted it to look as though there was.

It was interesting; it kind of reminded her of home a little bit: a foreign visitor to Equestria from some far off land might think Canterlot hopeless backwards, wallowing in the past while cities like Manehatten powered Equestria into a bright new future but it was not so; Canterlot was every bit as advanced as any other city in the realm, it simply rejected the hyper-modernised aesthetic of younger cities in favour of maintaining its archaic layout and classical architecture. But it was no more than a veneer, scratch that surface and you would find little enough authentic antiquity, and Sunset suspected that it was much the same in Mistral.

She wondered, as the wind blew through her hair, why the Mistralians felt the need to camouflage their advancement behind the appearance of tradition thus. In the case of Canterlot Sunset had always suspected that Celestia had something to do with it; while the princess could not be accused of retarding her nation's progress Sunset thought that she might prefer to live in a place that superficially resembled the world that she had grown up in, and who could fault her for that? But that didn't explain what was driving Mistral's seeming desire for superficial backwardness.

Sunset glanced over her shoulder at Pyrrha, who was presently comforting Jaune as his motion sickness got the better of him; in her armour - which Sunset had decided was almost certainly not true bronze, but probably steel or maybe even something stronger with a thin bronze layer over the top for effect - and with her weapons slung across her back she seemed rather an old-fashioned figure herself, and yet there was nothing truly antique about a sword which could become a spear which could become a rifle. More dressing up of the old in the trappings of the new.

But then Sunset thought of Pyrrha's words, clearly not made up but recited out of memory, when she had unlocked Jaune's aura; she thought of the mystical reverence which which Pyrrha approached aura, the way she talked of destiny in a way that Sunset had heard no Valeman speak; even the restrained manners which she displayed and by which she conducted herself, so different from the exuberance expressiveness of Ruby or Jaune. There was something old-fashioned there, without a doubt; there were times when Pyrrha seemed almost as alien to this world as Sunset: a product of a long-gone age of heroes plopped down in the modern world and armed with its most powerful weapons. Perhaps that was not just a Pyrrha thing but a Mistral thing; perhaps the reason Mistral cloaked its present in the trappings of the past was simply because it felt more comfortable there.

Sunset's ruminations were interrupted by the sound of Jaune throwing up.

I'm glad that I don't have to clean that up.

"Miss Nikos," the pilot said. "We're approached Mistral now."

Pyrrha's face lit up a little, and she started to rise from Jaune's side before hesitating. "Jaune, do you-"

Jaune waved her off. "I'm fine. Go."

Pyrrha smiled. "Thank you," she said, before she quickly joined Sunset looking out of the airship and out, before them, as the city of Mistral and the heart of the eastern kingdom hoved into view. Far off yet, it seemed, though growing closer with every passing moment as the airship bore them on, yet despite the distance it seemed already to be beautiful: fair and proud the city sat upon its mountain seat, with many towers rising up out of the lush greenery that covered the slopes of the peak like precious pearls set in an emerald broach. No tower was taller, or stood prouder, than the great palace which sat atop the very peak and crowned the city with a tower so high it pierced the very clouds themselves like a lance. As the airship carried them closer, Sunset began to be able to make out more details: she could see the waterfall that emerged from beneath the palace to flow down the side of the mountain, cutting through the centre of the city in a sapphire stream; she could see the way in which the city rose in steps, with the natural formation of the mountain slopes having been fashioned by the labour of long ages past into tiers and layers gradually ascending, plateaus half-formed by nature and half by the hand of man on which the districts and the towers rested, ascending up to grander and yet grander buildings until they reached the grandest of them all.

Though Mistral sat not upon a lonely mountain but upon one of a chain of lush green peaks, the citizens had made no effort to colonise the neighbouring rises, to sprawl their city out across the mountain range. Rather they had spread into the valleys that lay between the peaks, their satellite cities of Wind Path to the north and Kuchinashi to the south, and all the rest taken up with rich farmland nestling in Mistral's shadow and under the protection of Mistralian arms. Fed by the water thundering down the mountainside which, in turn, fed many rills which slithered serpent-like through the green, the fields and orchards over which they flew brought forth grain and fruit and vegetable for the consumption of the city, while on the slopes of the other mountains the herdsmen and husbandmen raised sheep and goats and cattle.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Pyrrha asked, from just behind Sunset.

"Yes, it certainly is," Sunset replied, even though as she replied she had only a single eye fixed on Mistral. Her other eye saw father still, and in her mind she saw another city built onto a mountainside layered over Pyrrha's home: Canterlot the many-towered, it's dreaming spires all crowned in gleaming gold, with many bright banners fluttering in the morning breeze; Canterlot the fair, the Canterlot the beautiful, Canterlot the seat and found of virtue and wisdom; Canterlot...her home.

The home that she had left behind, never to see again.

It was the right decision, and I have benefited from it. Had she not left Canterlot and her world behind then she would have remained a small and insignificant unicorn full of wasted energy, a failure who had betrayed her own potential and reduced herself to irrelevance in the scheme of things. If she had not left Canterlot and her world then she would never have met Pyrrha, or Ruby or Jaune; she would never have become a team leader; she would never have had this life which suited her so well.

I hardly know whether to be proud that you have chosen to devote yourself to the protection and service of others, or horrified at the fact that you live in a world that requires such devotion. So Celestia had written, when Sunset had explained the general state of Remnant to her and what her chosen path of huntress entailed. She might well be horrified, because it was pretty horrifying when you stopped accepting it as the status quo and started to look at it from the outside, still less tried to see it as one who had ruled over a nation in peace and harmony for a thousand years might do. But Sunset hoped, Sunset believed, that Celestia recognised that it was no unworthy thing she did.

The airship landed on a docking pad about three-quarters of the way up the city, a docking pad which Sunset was a little surprised to see empty as she dismounted. "No cheering throngs of adoring fans?"

"Not everything that I do is public knowledge," Pyrrha replied, as she helped Jaune down onto the docking pad.

Sunset grunted. "How are you feeling?" she asked Jaune, stepping backwards as he threw up again.

Jaune groaned. "I'll be okay, now that we've stopped moving."

"I'm sorry the trip was so rough on you," Pyrrha said. "I hope you'll find that it was worth it."

Jaune nodded, and tried to smile. "Totally. This is going to be great."

Sunset plucked a handkerchief out of jacket sleeve and offered it to Jaune to wipe his mouth; when he offered it back to her - stained with the vestiges of his vomit - she declined with a raised, warding hand. "No, you hang onto that until laundry day."

Sunset stood by her belief that beneath its facade of unchanging antiquity Mistral was every bit as modern and advanced as Vale, but she had to concede that in at least one respect the appearance of an older, more traditional way of doing things was more than just a veneer: there were no cars on the roads, for the simple reason that the streets were so narrow and winding that they not have accommodated them (the stepped, rising nature of the city probably didn't help either); she had first been surprised when Pyrrha started to lead the way on foot, and further when she noticed the complete lack of any sound of engines in the air, only of footfalls and conversation and the ever-present rumbling of the waterfall. Not a single car or bike or truck to be heard, let alone seen.

"As a city, Mistral is much smaller than Vale," Pyrrha explained, as she led them down a thoroughfare that passed between rows of large, expansive houses rising up behind sturdy walls that Sunset could only assume were intended to keep the riff-raff out. "And so it isn't so hard to travel on foot."

"But on the other hand the writ of the kingdom runs much further, right?" Sunset asked. "Outside the kingdom doesn't mean so much here."

"That's right," Pyrrha said. "Settlements across Anima acknowledge the authority of the Mistral council." She smiled. "Did you read up before you came here?"

"A little," Sunset said, although she'd already picked up a fair amount from history classes. "I didn't want you to have to answer every inane question that I might have.

They passed a couple of guards - or cops, but based on their dress Sunset couldn't help but think of them as guards - who were armoured like warriors of old in lacquered, lamellar plates of armour fashioned to look like plates of leather and metal jointed together regardless of what it was really made of, topped with tall, crested helmets. However they were also carrying very modern Atlesian rifles, which served to prove that Sunset had been onto something.

Pyrrha guided them to a grand house, rising up from behind a white wall, occupying the back of a cul-de-sac. The path beyond the wall was barred by a set of gates painted red - with an intercom system mounted to the right - but even beyond the wall Sunset could already tell that house was an inappropriate word for this place, mansion possibly being a more suitable choice. It rose upwards rather than sprawling outwards, even though the wall enclosed sufficient space that it could have done so. Sunset supposed that, much like Canterlot, to waste space was the highest statement of affluence in this city. The main house - white, with a roof of red tiles rising at a steep angle - was surrounded by several towers, and it seemed as though all of the upper windows led out onto spacious balconies.

Jaune's eyes were wide and his mouth was agape already. "You...you live here? This place is a palace!"

Let's not go overboard, thought Sunset, who unlike Jaune had actually grown up in a palace. It was an impressive place, to be sure, but a palace? Not quite. This was the townhouse of a wealthy family, nothing more. You only had to look up the hill to the actual palace in order to appreciate the difference.

Pyrrha looked abashed by Jaune's awe, looking away from him as her face acquired a slight red tint. "Yes, well...let's go in, shall we?" She walked - with a touch of haste in her gait - up to the intercom set next to the gate, and pushed the green button.

A screen at the top of the metallic panel flashed briefly before a voice issued out. "Welcome home, young mistress."

The gate opened, rolling backwards in both directions with a rumble of engines. Jaune gasped, and gasped again as Pyrrha led them through the gate - it closed again as soon as they were clear of it - and through the grounds towards the house. The space which the Nikos family was squandering by possession unbuilt-upon was not wholly wasted, for the path of white stone that led to the house cut through a lavish garden where cherry trees blossomed amidst many-coloured flowerbeds, where fountains burbled happily amidst well-ordered rock gardens, and where bronze statues of heroic figures armed and garbed for war brandished their spears from atop marble plinths upon the manicured lawn.

A fond smile played upon Pyrrha's face. "I'm glad that you could come here in the spring, when the cherry blossoms are in bloom," she said. Her smile faded a little. "It's a pity that Ruby isn't here to see this."

"There'll be another time," Sunset said.

"I hope so," Pyrrha agreed. "But will the blossoms still be blooming when that time comes?"

A gentle breeze dislodged some of the blossoms from the trees, scattering the petals across their path as they advanced.

"This is incredible," Jaune whispered, turning this way and that as he walked down the path.

"Do you like it?" Pyrrha asked anxiously.

"Of course!" Jaune replied, turning to face her with a beam on his face. "This is great!"

It was as if a great weight of anxiety had been lifted from Pyrrha's shoulders; she looked a little easier and her eyes gleamed a little brighter as she said, "I'm so glad! I really want you to enjoy this."

"These statues," Sunset said. "Purely decorative, or..."

"My ancestors," Pyrrha said. "I'd introduce you, but you should probably meet my mother first."

The door to the house was as red as the outer gate, with great gold door knocks which proved quite unnecessary as the doors swung open as soon as they approached. The three stepped upon a crimson carpet as they entered a spacious hall, decorated in marble and gold and lit by the flickering lights of many lanterns. The carpet led towards a grand, branching staircase, and on either side of the carpet were arrayed two rows of maids in uniform who clasped their hands together before them as they bowed and chorussed, "Welcome home, Miss Nikos."

Pyrrha's embarrassment returned swiftly and visibly as she looked down at her feet. "Yes, thank you," she murmured in a subdued tone.

"Welcome home!" this new voice came not from any of the servants in the hall, but from the woman presently descending the stairs. She looked to be somewhere in middle age, with hair that had once been as red as Pyrrha's now beginning to turn grey in wisps and strands and streaks. The years had begun to line her face as they had broadened out her figure somewhat, and she walked with slight limp, keeping one hand upon the bannister even if there was no sign of a cane. "Welcome home," she repeated, as she neared the bottom of the stairs. "My child, my daughter; mine and Mistral's greatest and most beloved champion. Welcome home." She was dressed in a flowing gown of crimson and gold, with long open sleeves that almost hid her hands and a long train which flowed behind her as she walked down to the carpet towards Pyrrha and the others.

Pyrrha bowed her head. "Mother."

The two were nearly of a height, Sunset saw as Pyrrha's mother drew closer, and both had the same green eyes. Sunset wouldn't have been surprised to learn that in her youth the older woman had looked very much as Pyrrha did now. Even now, though age had set its mark upon her without doubt, she had not aged wholly ungracefully.

Pyrrha's mother embraced her daughter for the briefest moment, and kissed her on the forehead, only then did she turn her gaze on Pyrrha's companions.

"Mother," Pyrrha said quickly. "Thank you for welcoming my friends into our home. Jaune, Sunset, this is my mother. Mother, allow me to present Jaune Arc."

Jaune smiled as he thrust out his hand. "A pleasure to meet you, uh, ma'am. You've got a lovely home."

The older woman regarded him rather like a kind of slime, her green eyes - they were the same colour as Pyrrha's, but lacked all of the warmth present in Pyrhra's orbs. Jaune's hand remained outstretched, reaching out into empty air, untaken.

Jaune's smile began to waver as his hand trembled slightly.

"Charmed, Mister Arc," she said, in a voice that sounded far from charmed.

Pyrrha looked so guilty you might have thought she was the one being insulting. "And this is my team-leader, Sunset Shimmer."

It had been a long time since Sunset had needed to have recourse to the high manners of the court, but as she reached for them now she found - somewhat to her relief - that she had not forgotten the lessons in etiquette and courtesy that she had learned during her tutelage at Celestia's hooves. Though unused they had been but lying dormant at the back of her mind, waiting to be used again. She did not clasp her hands together as she bowed, for it had been made clear that such was a servant's bow and Sunset Shimmer was no servant. Rather she spread her hands out wide on either side of her, and angled her face so that she could still see her host as she crossed one foot behind the other and bowed deeply from the waist. "Lady Nikos, thank you for extending your hospitality to me; I am honoured to be a guest in your home."

Jaune made a kind of choking sound, and when Sunset rose she saw that both he and Pyrrha were staring at Sunset as though she'd sprouted a second head.

What? Just because I don't do manners normally doesn't mean that I can't. I'm not a barbarian.

Lady Nikos stared at her for a moment, one eyebrow raised in curiousity. Her lips twitched momentarily. Sunset was surprised that the old woman's gaze did not linger on Sunset's faunus features, but of course Pyrrha had never shown any regard for such thing and she had to have acquired her tolerance from somewhere.

"Welcome, Miss Shimmer," she said. "Please consider the luxuries of this house to be your own, if you have any needs the servants will gladly attend to them for you. The guest rooms have been prepared and I imagine you are weary from your journey; dinner will be held at seven, I imagine I will see you then. My daughter has business to attend to, but Diana will show you both to your rooms so that you may rest."

One of the maids curtsied. "At once, my lady. Follow me, please."

Pyrrha placed a fire-dust crystal into the lamp, and the light illuminated her passage as she walked down the steps into the crypt.

This house had been renovated and re-modelled over the years, but it's frame was old. It had been built over a hundred years ago by a noble Mistralian family, but the line that had built it for themselves had tragically died out during the Great War and the house had been acquired by the Nikos family after her great-grandfather's abdication and the consequent vacation of the palace. This house was older than its occupation by her line.

What was not so old was the crypt.

The Nikos family had always kept their dead close by them; even now the underbelly of the Chrysanthemum Palace played host to the sarchophagi of many emperors and princes past back, so it was said, to the very founding of Mistral. Now they had a new home, and now the earthly remains of their line rested here beneath their living descendants.

"Revered ancestors," Pyrrha murmured as she reached the bottom of hte steps and entered the crypt proper. Here lay her great-grandfather, the last Emperor of Mistral, and the three sons that he had lost in the Great War; here lay her grandfather, the last prince to survive the war, and her grandmother too. Here Pyrrha's mortal remnants would lie, when her time came; though Pyrrha prayed to the gods of the household that that day was yet many years hence. Many years of joy, many years with her new friends, many years of love, many years to bear a child of her own and watch them grow tall and strong and kind. Many years.

The air in the crypt was musty and thick with ghosts, the spirits of her ancestors watching her as she walked through the darkness with only a fire-dust lamp to light the way.

Pyrrha stopped before the tomb of her father.

Achilles Nikos was rendered in stone as a man tall but lithe-limbed, clean shaven but with long hair descending past his shoulders. He was depicted in the armour of a huntsman, with a sword resting upon his chest; the sword and armour that were buried in the tomb with him. His countenance was youthful, the face of a man who had fallen before his time. His expression was stern, set in dignified repose, devoid of the smiles that had animated in life. Or so Pyrrha remembered at least; she had been very young at the time.

"Father," Pyrrha said, as she set the lamp down upon the floor of the crypt. "I...I've come home. Not permanently, of course, but for the spring vacation." She hesitated for a moment. "I've brought two of my friends with me, Jaune and Sunset. That's right, father, I have friends now. Three friends who trust me with their lives. It's wonderful, I've never felt before the way that I feel when I'm with them. Ruby couldn't come, but I believe that you'd approve of her: she's brave, earnest and kind, devoted to the cause of helping others. They treat me...they treat me like a person. When I'm with them I'm not the Invincible Girl, I'm not the champion of Mistral, I'm not a walking talking combat doll...I'm Pyrrha Nikos." Well, mostly. There were times when she could tell by the look in Sunset's eye that their team leader had already mentally decided where she was going to put the trophy from their Vytal Festival win, and suspected that her undefeated status played a major role in Sunset's calculation. But if you took the ambition out of Sunset then whatever you were left with would probably not be much like Sunset Shimmer, and so Pyrrha was inclined to forgive a little premature counting of chickens.

"I wish that you could meet them all," she said. "I wish that you could tell me that I've chosen well, that I'm as fortunate in them as I feel; I wish I could ask you how to talk to Jaune and you could answer. I wish that you were here, in more ways than you are." She knelt, and closed her eyes as she rested her forehead upon the stone. "I miss you, Father."

Jaune hovered outside of Sunset's room, hand up but not quite knocking on the door. The truth was that Sunset still kind of scared him, at least a little bit; she was on their side (for which he was very thankful) but he still got the feeling that...it was hard to explain, but if 'do the right thing' was a box to tick on a multiple choice test Jaune thought that, while Sunset might sometimes tick that box, it wouldn't be because it was the right thing. He knew that he was one to talk about doing the right thing, but it didn't change the fact that Sunset made him nervous.

The fact that it still felt as though she was having to make an effort not to treat him with contempt, and that sometimes her best efforts weren't sufficient, didn't help either.

But he needed her help, or at least to know how she seemed to know exactly what to do back in the hall, and so he forced down his nerves and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's me," Jaune replied. "I need to talk to you."

"The door's open."

Jaune took that as an invitation, and so he opened the old oak-panelled door and walked into Sunset's room. The walls were amber, with a band like golden marble, mottled with veins of black and grey, running around centre of the walls. The curtains, which were all that separated the room proper from the balcony beyond - there were no windows - were a rich crimson bordered with gold thread and equally golden tassel, and they rippled lazily in the afternoon breeze. A tapestry depicting some kind of heroic scene - a stylised battle against the grimm - hung on the wall opposite the bed, which was covered in soft silk sheets.

Sunset's case sat on the bed, half unpacked but with a few things still lying folded in the case itself; Sunset herself stood on the balcony, her back to the door and her hands resting on the sandy rail. The same breeze that shifted the curtains ran through her hair and it dance gently up and down.

"What do you think of Mistral so far?" Sunset asked, without turning around.

"What I've seen...it's a really nice place," Jaune said, as he shut the door behind him.

"Yeah, a really nice place," Sunset murmured. "I've heard that Mistral's almost as bad as Atlas for faunus rights, which is a crying shame. I..." She trailed off, turning to face Jaune and looking...embarrassed? What did she have to be embarrassed about? Jaune went back through what she'd said and couldn't find anything to be ashamed of, unless she wasn't embarrassed by what she'd said but what she'd almost said? It was all he could think of, but it still didn't make a lot of sense to him.

Sunset cleared her throat, and looked down at the balcony floor as she half sat, half leaned upon the rail. "Something that I can do for you, Jaune?"

Now it was Jaune's turn to feel the sting of embarrassment, when he thought of how Pyrrha's mom had looked at him he wanted to sink into the floor and when he thought of how he must have embarrassed Pyrrha it was almost enough to make him wish that he'd stayed at Beacon for the break. "How did you do it, Sunset? How did you know what to do?"

Sunset glanced up at him, her brow was furrowed just a little. "You'll have to be a little more specific."

"Pyrrha's mom!" Jaune exclaimed. "I mean, it isn't like I was trying to be rude or anything, but did you see the way she looked at me? I feel like I've messed up already. And you...how did you know to bow, for crying out loud? And what was that you said? Should I have known how to do that? Was I supposed to do research before I came here?"

Sunset's gaze was not without sympathy as she walked off the balcony and back into the room. "Ruby and Pyrrha have a tendency to tell you that things aren't your fault to make you feel better; but I don't, so I hope you can believe me when I say that that wasn't your fault. The truth is, if you'd been meeting Ruby's father then a firm handshake and calling him 'sir' probably would have got you where you wanted to go...but this isn't Vale and these people are different."

"Different how? Because they're Mistralian?"

Sunset spread her arms out to encompass the room. "Look around. Think of the house, the grounds, what do you see? What does it say to you?"

Jaune thought about it, the grand house, the lavish gardens, the opulently decorated rooms. "Money?" he ventured.

Sunset snorted. "Well, yes; I mean they might not be the Schnees but they're set for life. But that's not what I meant." She paused. "Your sword...it's an old family thing, right?"

Jaune nodded. "My great-great grandfather carried it in the Great War."

Sunset nodded too, slowly, thoughtfully. "And what about his great-great grandfather, who was he?"

"I..." Jaune hesitated. "I don't know."

"I'm not surprised," Sunset said. "I don't know who my great-great-grandfather's great-great-grandfather was either. I doubt Ruby knows on either side of her family. We know the relatives who are still alive, we have the stories that our parents and grandparents pass on to us if we're lucky enough to have them and everything else...is forgotten. It recedes into the mists and vanishes as though it was never there at all because memory fades. But families like this don't work the same way; they don't have memories, they have history. They're old."

"Old money?"

"Old blood," Sunset corrected. "There are statues of Pyrrha's ancestors on the lawn, there are tapestries of them on the walls; I bet you Pyrrha's mother knows who her great-great grandfather's great-great grandfather was. It's easy for them to remember because their family history is the history of the city, of the kingdom itself. They're old blood, and that blood is baked into this place. They're different."

"Pyrrha isn't."

"Pyrrha...Pyrrha's something else," Sunset allowed. "Pyrrha doesn't want to be set apart, not for her skill and probably not for all this either. But her mother...her mother knows what she is, I think. And she wants everyone else to know it too, and to respond appropriately."

"But how was I supposed to get all of that?"

"I said it wasn't your fault," Sunset said.

"And you," Jaune exclaimed. "How did you get all of that? How did you know what to do?"

"Because I grew up in a palace," Sunset said.

You could have hit Jaune over the head with a rebar and it wouldn't have stunned him as much as hearing those words come tumbling out of Sunset's mouth. He stared at her, his eyes boggling. "You...huh? You're kidding. You...you have to be kidding, right?"

Sunset smirked. "What, you find it so hard to believe?"

Jaune shifted uncomfortably in place. "...kinda?"

A snort escaped from between Sunset's lips. "You can believe it or not, it won't make it any less true. I once lived a life of ease and refinement, dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge." She sat down upon her bed and stretched out her arms over her head. "I was going to be a princess."

Jaune frowned. "Like...you mean you were going to marry a prince?"

"No, I...never mind. It's complicated, and you probably don't believe me anyway."

"Well, if it's true then...what happened?" Jaune asked. "Why would you give that up to be a huntress? To be treated like dirt in Atlas? Why would you give any of it up?"

Sunset shrugged. "What are any of us doing, putting ourselves in harm's way? Why does Pyrrha want to risk her life when she could live here in the lap of luxury until her teeth fall out? And what about you? I can't believe you grew up deprived, your life must have been okay."

"My life was boring and ordinary and I wanted more," Jaune said. "Pyrrha's the most selfless, generous person I've ever met. You...no offence but why would you give up a life of fame and luxury to die for other people?"

Sunset stared at him - almost glared at him - for a moment, and Jaune felt his heart quake as he feared that he had gone too far. But then she smirked at him and said, "Well, you got me there, I admit. That life...things didn't work out like I hoped. But I've got you now, and my team, so it all worked out for the best in the end, right?"

For the first time since he'd met her, Sunset seemed genuinely uncertain. She seemed as though she was asking him for reassurance, genuinely asking him because she wanted, needed, to be told that yes, it had all come good in the end.

"Yeah!" he said, maybe a little too loudly but no less genuinely for that. "We make a great team, don't we?"

"Of course we do," Sunset declared, rising to her feet. "We're going to win the Vytal festival this year and...and lots of other awesome stuff, too."

"Totally!" Jaune agreed. He hesitated. "Uh, Sunset?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you...can you teach me how to act the right way around here, around people like this?" Jaune asked. "I don't want to spend this whole vacation embarrassing Pyrrha in front of her mom."

Sunset was silent for a moment, her eyes gazing into Jaune's. "Sure. I'll teach you the basics. Sit down, and let's see if we can't get you part of the way there before dinner..."

Sunset panted as she got up off the mat. She and Pyrrha had been sparring down in the Nikos’ dojo for some time now, as the sun rose and cast its light in through the high windows.

Actually, no, that was not entirely accurate. To call it sparring would imply some measure of equality between them. It would be more accurate to say that Pyrrha had been kicking Sunset’s ass for some time now.

Hand to hand combat, it seemed, was not her thing.

That’s exactly why I need this. I can’t be caught helpless again like I was down in the tunnels.

Pyrrha looked barely ruffled by the exertion. “How’s your aura?”

Sunset raised her hands in a guard. “I could do this all day.”

Pyrrha didn’t look impressed by Sunset’s bluster. “How’s your aura?” she repeated.

Sunset huffed, and held out one hand. Her scroll, summoned by a small amount of telekinesis, flew into it. She checked her aura level. “I’m in the yellow.”

“We’ll take a break,” Pyrrha said.

“I can keep going for a little longer.”

“There’s no need to push yourself so hard, Sunset-“

“If I don’t push me, who will?” Sunset demanded.

Pyrrha was unfazed by Sunset’s snapped response. She looked so untroubled that Sunset could have been whispering as softly as a dove. “You can’t rush this. And I know that you know that.”

Sunset sniffed. “You sound like my old teacher.” You cannot rush this, Sunset Shimmer. The study of magic is the work of years, for some it is the work of a lifetime. Even you, as powerful and talented as you are, will not master everything you wish to overnight. That was what Celestia had told her after she had found Sunset passed out on the floor of the library, having exhausted herself practicing spells from the books. She had been only a little filly then, but in a way it gladdened Sunset to know that a part of her was that filly still: impatient, yes, but also eager and…good. Less corrupted by the spirit of the world.

“I’m sure that she was right,” Pyrrha said. “How long did it take you to master your semblance?”

“Years,” Sunset admitted.

“Exactly.”

“I haven’t got years for this.”

Pyrrha looked apologetically. “You realise that you will never be a master with your fists, your feet; nor with a sword.”

“I don’t need to be able to beat you, I just need to be able to hold my own against a reasonably competent opponent,” Sunset said. “I need…I don’t want to need you to rescue me again.”

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. “I understand, but I do think that you’ve done enough for now. And remember that you’re not my only student.”

“Yeah, right,” Sunset murmured. She didn’t really want Jaune to see this, at least not until Sunset was a little better at this than she was right now. “I, um, I’ll give you a second to catch your breath before he arrives.” Pyrrha didn’t look as though she needed that, but she was kind enough not to point out the fact as Sunset walked over to a bench that sat against the white dojo wall, and took a drink of water from the bottle resting there.

She looked round the room. All of the dummies and targets had been placed against the walls, jostling for room with rows of swords hanging from wooden racks. The floor was cleared for sparring upon reed mats, already stained by Sunset’s sweat and jostled where Pyrrha had knocked her to the ground. Even holding back as she was, the youngest scion of the Nikos line packed quite a punch.

Sunset took another drink, and let the cool water trickle down her parched throat.

The door into the dojo slid open, and Sunset expected Jaune to walk in – she straightened up expectantly, and tried to look less beaten than she was – but instead it was one of the Nikos family servants, who nodded respectfully to Pyrrha before turning her attention to Sunset.

“Pardon me, Miss Shimmer, but my lady requests your presence in her study.”

Sunset glanced at Pyrrha, who looked apologetic but said nothing. Sunset took a couple of steps across the reed mats. “May I bathe and change first or does Lady Nikos require me immediately?”

“Yes, Miss Shimmer.”

I see. It was possible that Lady Nikos didn’t know that Sunset had worked up a sweat, but it was equally possible that she was making Sunset call upon her in a lather to establish some form of dominance over Sunset.

If so, there was nothing Sunset could do about it; her presence having been demanded – to all intents and purposes – to refuse her host would have been an act of gross rudeness. So she nodded her head and said, “Very well, please lead the way.”

And so Sunset was brought to Lady Nikos' study, smelling a little of sweat, with her hair askew and her face glowing with exertion. Lady Nikos, by contrast, looked composed; she was dressed - draped might be a more apposite description - in a loose-fitting gown of subdued grey, while her slightly greying hair was bound up tightly in a bun at the nape of her neck. She sat behind an antique ebony desk which managed to be covered in things - a golden statuette of a warrior with spear and shield; two framed photographs with their backs to Sunset, their contents hidden from her; a sword with a silver hilt in a crimson scabbard, resting upon a wooden stand - without seeming cluttered. Sunset had the impression that everything was in its proper place, exactly where it was meant to be. The room itself was a little stuffy, enclosed; one wall was lined with old, leatherbound books, the other with framed pictures and newspaper cuttings which distance and time did not permit Sunset to study as she would have needed to for a sense of their contents.

Sunset bowed her head. "You wished to see me, my lady?"

Lady Nikos nodded, and gestured to a seat across the desk from her. "Please take a sit, Miss Shimmer."

Sunset sat down, clasping her hands together and resting them upon her knee.

Lady Nikos pushed a bowl of fruit across the desk. "You must be hungry after your exertions."

Sunset blinked. "Does my lady have hidden cameras in the dojo?"

"When I was told that my daughter and one of her guests had risen before daybreak," Lady Nikos said. "My first thought was that Pyrrha had been led into vice during her time at Beacon."

"I'm sure your ladyship was glad to find out that we weren't sneaking out to smoke weed behind the stable," Sunset replied dryly. "Although, with the greatest respect-"

"The words that follow 'with the greatest respect' are often inherently disrespectful at best, Miss Shimmer," Lady Nikos said. "I advise you to choose yours with care."

Sunset smiled, if only a little. "Pyrrha is not the sort of girl who could be so easily led into, as you put it, vices." It was true that Pyrrha was more a follower than a leader in many respects, but she was not without a strong sense of right; in many respects it was stronger than Sunset's own. She wasn't the kind of person to do things just because all the cool kids were doing it. She was, as the saying went, the knight without peer and beyond reproach; although Sunset did not say that out loud lest Lady Nikos think her a brown-nosing sycophant.

"A fact for which I am as glad as you say," Lady Nikos said. "Although the truth behind your early rising does not make my heart rejoice."

Sunset had an inkling of where this might be going, but was in no great hurry to arrive there. So she said nothing, and sat in her chair, and waited.

"I hope you can understand my bemusement, Miss Shimmer, at the leader recieving instruction from the subordinate. What should I think of that?"

"You could think it a testament to Pyrrha's skill that I chose to seek assistance from her, my lady."

"Testaments to my daughter's skill I have in great number," Lady Nikos replied. She glanced momentarily towards the wall with all of its framed pictures and articles. Sunset's eyes followed them there, and with the close distance even a swift glance told her that a great many - though not all of them - concerned the reported deeds and exploits of Pyrrha.

"Tell me, Miss Shimmer," she continued. "Why should my daughter - a champion of Sanctum, of the blood royal of Mistral - follow you?"

"A faunus?" Sunset asked, unable to keep a touch of pique out of her tone.

"I did not say so, nor will I," Lady Nikos said, without displaying any anger at the accusation. "My issue is with your inferior skill, not with your race."

Sunset held the older woman's gaze for a moment, before she bowed her head. "I apologise, my lady, I had no right to accuse you thus in your own home. I cry your pardon and your understanding."

"You have them," Lady Nikos said. "With the world as it is your assumption is not without grounds."

Sunset said nothing more to that, rather she said, "As to your true complaint with regards to my worth, my lady, it is true that I cannot throw a punch so well as Pyrrha can but I am not without talents of my own. They simply lie in other areas."

"Such as?"

"I am a good shot, my lady," Sunset said. "But principally I would base my claims on talent in my wit and in my semblance." She spread her arms out on either side of her, and closed her eyes as she called upon her magic. What she was attempting now was complex, not so much for the amount of raw power involved as for the fact that she was trying to do three different things at once. She drew in the ambient magic of the world around her to somewhat replenish her own reserves, even as she spent those same reserves more swiftly. With one hand she conjured a dozen magical arrows, green darts rising from her open palm to form a kind of deadly halo above her head. With the other hand she conjured up a shield of shimmering, translucent magic around the sword that sat on Lady Nikos’ desk. And lastly something new, something that she had been working on after her experiences down in the tunnels - one of a few new things that she'd been working, along with older things she was dusting off, but this wasn't really the right setting to show off her night-vision spell: a suit of armour, resembling the all-embracing steel plates of a knight but forged entirely out of magic, enfolding her form more snugly and securely than any shield spell ever would.

She hoped that all of this was as impressive as she hoped because it was already starting to give Sunset a headache. Performing multiple spells at once like this was one of the few aspects of magic that was easier in this world than Equestria - consequence of the lack of a horn through which all magic had to travel - but that didn't make it easy by any means. It was like trying to focus your attention on three things, not just split it but give each one a hundred percent of your attention. Sunset wasn't sure how long she could hold it. She blinked rapidly as her head began to rattle like a snare drum.

Fortunately, Lady Nikos seemed at least a little impressed by what she was seeing. Her eyebrows rose. "I take it these are not illusions?"

"Touch the shield, my lady, and you will find out."

Tentatively, Lady Nikos reached for the shield enfolding her sword. She pushed against it, and Sunset could see that she had met resistance. Her whole body glowed as she activated her aura, and she struck the shield with a single fist.

Sunset's shield did not falter.

Again, and again after that Lady Nikos struck the shield around her blade, and only on the fifth strike did it began to crack.

Sunset released all her magic, arrows and shield and armour all fading into empty air. She attempted to conceal the immediate weight that settled on her eyelids. "Not invulnerable, my lady," she said. "But durable in defence and powerful in the attack."

"If you can hit your opponent, I assume."

"Is that not the case with all forms of offence?"

Lady Nikos was silent for a moment. "I must concede the versatility of your semblance, although I must also question your use of it."

Now it was Sunset's turn to raise her eyebrows. You think you know how to use magic better than I do? "What does my lady mean?"

"Your semblance armour was fine looking, but I cannot see what advantages it offers over mere aura," Lady Nikos said.

Ah, of course. Semblance consumes aura. "It supplements my aura, my lady."

"But does not drain it."

"Not greatly, my lady."

"Have you considered that real armour might serve you better, if you feel the need for additional protection?"

Sunset was silent for a moment. "There are many things that might serve me well, my lady, but I concede my resources are constrained."

"I see," Lady Nikos murmured softly. "May I ask, Miss Shimmer, why a huntress in possession of such a semblance requires instruction in the basics of close combat?"

"I have been shown the need for it, my lady; as a last resort."

"A result of your captivity with the White Fang, I suppose."

Sunset nodded. "Yes, my lady."

Lady Nikos' face hardened, if only for a moment. "I did not like the news of that, for reasons that I am sure I do not have to elaborate upon. White Fang activity here in Mistral is practically unheard of at the present time, yet in Vale it seems practically endemic."

Sunset frowned. "You wish to pull Pyrrha out of Beacon."

Lady Nikos was silent for a moment. She pushed back her chair and got to her feet. "It was no mere maternal indulgence on my part that led me to accede to my daughter's preference for Beacon Academy."

Sunset kept her opinion, that she doubted Lady Nikos had ever demonstrated any maternal indulgence towards Pyrrha in her life, to herself. Lady Nikos walked over to the wall, and as Sunset's eyes followed she could see clearly that those photographs and articles which did not concern Pyrrha concerned her mother; they were older, more yellow and faded, yet the subject matter was much the same: of bouts and tournaments and trophies won.

"At the time," Lady Nikos said. "I was not convinced that Haven Academy was the right place for my daughter. Professor Lionheart is a small man, utterly unworthy of the great charge that the council has bestowed upon him; the decline of Haven under his mismanagement has been disheartening to witness. I told myself that my daughter would do better under the guidance of Professor Ozpin, whose skill and wisdom are beyond doubt."

"I cannot speak for Professor Lionheart's faults, my lady, but Professor Ozpin's virtues are as beyond doubt now as they were when your decision was made."

Lady Nikos turned away from her wall to look once more at Sunset. "My daughter has the potential to be the greatest fighter of this age," she declared. "There is no one she cannot defeat, no tournament crown she could not claim if only she possessed the will to reach for it. Yet even the mightiest warrior may be slain by a single arrow. Years of training at vast expense can fall to a ten lien pistol. I do not wish to see my daughter's destiny frustrated by the blade of a White Fang thug."

"No more do I, my lady," Sunset said. She, too, got to her feet. "My lady does not know me, and you do not know my team but I assure you with all due modesty that Pyrrha could find no better comrades to fight beside than we. Perhaps it is true that Pyrrha could drag two sacks of flower and a rock to victory in the Vytal festival but with us by her side she will not have to. I have run Pyrrha closer in combat than any other opponent by her own account; Ruby is a prodigy in her own right and only fifteen, when she is seventeen who knows what a monster she will be; the potential of Jaune's semblance is yet unbounded. Together we will not only triumph but bring such glory to our names that the world will resound to the sound of them and the talk of the world will be how brilliantly we fought. And we will protect each other, and thus as we survived the White Fang so will we survive all other darkness besides together. I am a stranger to my lady, true, but on my pride and on my dear ambition dear as life itself I swear to you: I have Pyrrha's back, and we have both her flanks besides."

Lady Nikos stared into Sunset's eyes. "It's true, I know you not, Miss Shimmer. And yet I would like to know you better. There is a part of me that wishes my daughter would speak thus of ambition. With respect, how does a faunus whose resources are by your own admission strained learn to speak thus?"

"I was not always that which I am now, my lady," Sunset said. "I was not born a faunus of the kingdoms' slums but in a proud and sovereign place."

"Menagerie? That would explain your manners, high as they are they are not of the kingdoms," Lady Nikos replied. "I will make no decision yet regarding my daughter's future. I do not know you or Mister Arc but I have time to come to know you both. When the end of this vacation draws near you will know my thoughts."

Sunset bowed. "I understand my lady, and I thank you."

"I will detain you no further, Miss Shimmer, you must be anxious to bathe," Lady Nikos said.

"Thank you, my lady," Sunset murmured, as she turned to go.

"Actually, there is one more thing," Lady Nikos said, before Sunset reached the door. "The Steward of the Council is hosting a soiree at the palace to which I and my daughter are invited. Should you wish to attend as my guests, I assure you that none will object."

A test? Perhaps, perhaps not. But whatever the case it would be rude to refuse. "That is most generous, my lady. We would be delighted."

The master of ceremonies banged his heavy gold staff down upon the floor before he cried out their names to the assembled company.

“Lady Hippolyta Nikos, her daughter Pyrrha Nikos, and party!”

And party? Sunset thought. And party? Would it really have killed you to have tacked on ‘, Miss Sunset Shimmer and Mister Jaune Arc’ at the end there, pal?

You will announce my name one day. It will ring out across this room, and all the rooms that I walk into.

For now, however, she had to settled for being part of ‘and party’ as she stood just behind Pyrrha and her mother in the doorway leading into the palace antechamber.

Sunset was dressed in white; specifically she was wearing one of her old prom dresses from Canterlot (not true Canterlot, the Atlesian combat school); the oldest one, in point of fact, but also the one that with hindsight looked least garish. Certainly the all white, disrupted only by a golden sash beneath her breasts, was the most suitable for an event such as this.

Jaune wore a formal suit, single-breasted with a grey waistcoat underneath and a red bow-tie. Pyrrha wore a gown of green, with a high neckline but no sleeves, matching the colour of her vibrant eyes; the gorget and circlet from her armour remained in place.

They had arrived fashionably late and before them the palace antechamber was thronged with people: the wealthy and well-born of Mistralian society milling around a shadowy room, dimly lit with braziers filled with glowing fire-dust crystals which, by accident or possibly by that same desire to appear antique that seemed to govern the Mistralian aesthetic, failed to produce enough illumination to fully light up the room just as a burning brazier of coal would have done. Men wore suits or robes, women wore gowns of many colours while bracelets glimmered around their wrists and diamonds sparkled around their necks. In amongst the throngs of notables the servants scurried, dressed in the uniformed livery of the palace, bearing trays of silver and gold laden with glasses and canapés. In the corner of the room an orchestra played soft and soothing music which lilted out across the chamber and beyond, for Sunset could see a door at the other end of the room leading to what looked to be an open courtyard, where yet more guests seemed to have congregated.

Because this was a high-class gathering – and if Sunset’s time in Canterlot (the actual Canterlot this time) had taught her anything it was that people like this were far too proud to admit that they were impressed by anyone, and certainly by anything so plebeian as celebrity or talent – Pyrrha’s arrival wasn’t greeted with gasps or squeeing or everyone rushing to take selfies. But Sunset could read a room well enough to notice the check in conversation in the antechamber, the way that people glanced their way out of the corners of their eye as if to confirm that this was she.

Or perhaps, in this company, it was her mother who was the famous one.

“Lady Hippolyta!” the voice that hailed Lady Nikos belonged to a tall, broad-shouldered figure, wearing a brown greatcoat over his suit, who approached them from the edges of the assembly. He bowed a little from the waist. “It is so very good to see you again.”

“Leo,” Lady Nikos replied coolly, and though she answered his bow with a curtsy of her own her expression was stony and still throughout.

Leo stared down at her for a moment, appearing lost as to what to do next for all that he had initiated this by approaching her. His eyes flickered away from Lady Nikos to alight on Pyrrha. “And of course, your daughter is as lovely as every.” With one of his hands he reached for Pyrrha’s, and she allowed him to raise her hand to his lips, which he brushed lightly against her knuckles. “A pleasure to see you again, my dear.”

Pyrrha smiled politely as she curtsied to him. “Likewise, Professor.” She gestured to Sunset and Jaune. “Allow me to introduce my Beacon team-mates, Sunset Shimmer and Jaune Arc. Sunset, Jaune, it’s my honour to present to you Professor Leonardo Lionheart, the headmaster of Haven Academy here in Mistral.”

Jaune managed to more or less execute the bow that Sunset had taught him. He forgot to move his feet but he did remember what to do with his arms. “An honour to make your acquaintance, Professor Lionheart.

Professor Lionheart is a small man. The scornful words which Lady Nikos had had for the headmaster of Haven returned to Sunset like a shot as she beheld the man himself. Obviously she hadn’t been speaking literally – physically speaking there was nothing small about him – but even at a mere glance Sunset could see why a person like Lady Nikos might form the impression that he was spiritually small. Professor Lionheart seemed to Sunset a very grey figure, most obviously his mane-like hair and beard but it seemed to have spread beyond that to have affected everything about his appearance. He looked like a dead man walking, and although it was not especially warm tonight he had sweat beading his brow.

It was easy to see why someone like Lady Nikos would despise a man like Professor Lionheart. Sunset wouldn’t be surprised if half of high society held him in such contempt. It might not be fair but that was the way it was: this world was no place for the meek, and nervousness was a sign for the jackals to move in. It was rather incredible that he’d managed to get the headmaster’s job in the first place, he must be hiding a ferocious talent underneath that unassuming exterior. A bit like Pyrrha, but without the ancestors.

She bowed. “Yes, Professor, this is a great honour.”

“Ah,” Professor Lionheart said. “Yes, uh, always a pleasure to meet huntsmen and huntresses in training, especially students of my old friend Ozpin.”

“The pleasure is all ours, Professor, to meet a huntsman of your skill and experience,” Sunset replied.

“You have a silver tongue, young lady; you might be more suited to politics than to the life of a huntress.” Lionheart laughed nervously. “I suppose you must be enjoying your studies at Beacon, Pyrrha; at least you must be getting along with your team-mates enough to have invited them here to Mistral.”

“Yes, Professor,” Pyrrha said. “I thought they might enjoy the sights of our fair city.”

“Indeed, there are so many,” Professor Lionheart replied jovially. “Still, I don’t mind admitting that I wish I’d been able to snag you for Haven. You would have been a great boost to our chances in the Vytal Festival tournament.”

“What a pity it is that Haven has produced no young warriors who could come close to rivalling my daughter in these last few years,” Lady Nikos declared acidly.

Sunset’s eyebrows rose. It was true that Beacon students had begun to monopolise victory in the Vytal festival recently, with their main competition tending to come from Atlas, but everything she had read seemed to consider that a positive reflection upon Professor Ozpin rather than a negative reflection on his counterparts at Haven or Shade; more importantly she was astonished at how brazenly rude Lady Nikos had just been. It wasn’t how these things were generally done but there was no subtle suggestion here: she had straight up insulted Professor Lionheart to his face.

Even more surprisingly to Sunset, Professor Lionheart just took it. He flinched. “I, uh, yes, well…Lady Hippolyta…” he cleared his throat. “Well, as I say, it is a great pity, Pyrrha that you chose Beacon over Haven; you would have been one of the star pupils at our academy without a doubt.”

“One of?” Lady Nikos asked.

“But as it happens I have found a young lady of great potential who is most anxious to meet you.” Professor Lionheart stepped out of the way to reveal that someone had been hiding behind him this entire time, waiting for the dramatic moment of revelation. “Lady Hippolyta, Pyrrha…forgive me young man, young lady…allow me to introduce my most promising new student: Miss Cinder Fall.”

“Charmed,” Cinder declared lugubriously as she stepped forward. She was dressed all in black, her gown descending sharply off her shoulders to reveal a great deal of cleavage even as her arms were enfolded by a pair of long black gloves. A plain black choker was wrapped tightly around her throat. Black swan feathers decorated the shoulders of her dress, but in her hair she wore white feathers which added a splash of colour to the others monochromatic outfit. Her eyes, as best Sunset could tell, were amber; one of them was hidden behind the fall of her hair. She smiled. “A pleasure to meet you, Pyrrha.” Her eye swept over Sunset and Jaune as she chuckled. “Forgive me, a pleasure to meet you all, of course.”

“Of course,” Sunset murmured.

Cinder’s smile widened momentarily. “I hope that we can talk-“

“Later, perhaps,” Lady Nikos said. “For now, I believe that we are blocking the doorway. Leo.”

“Lady Hippolyta.”

“Come, Pyrrha,” Lady Nikos said, brushing past Cinder Fall and Professor Lionheart as she led the way in, giving the three of them little choice but to follow her.

Shortly thereafter, however, Lady Nikos was drawn off into conversation by the Steward of the Council, and the three team-mates were left alone in the midst of the party.

“I’m sorry,” Pyrrha began, as the light from the dust crystal braziers glimmered on her circlet. “Come with me, there’s something that I’d like you to see.”

She led them through the crowd, passing between groups discussing politics, trade and the state of the kingdom, and into the large open courtyard, illuminated not only by the light of the stars up above but by a hundred paper lanterns hanging from ropes strung across the open space, that lay beyond the antechamber.

Here there were more attendees, more servants, and more music for those who couldn’t hear the orchestra in the other room; but it was less – or seemed to Sunset, at least – to be less crowded here than it had been in the chamber just beyond the palace doors, although that might have been a function of the greater space.

The floor was made up of a sequence of mosaics, running clockwise across the courtyard floor, depicting…Sunset was not entirely sure what it was depicting, to be honest, except that creatures of grimm and the slaying thereof figured prominently. But if there was a story behind the sequence, Sunset did not know it. Pyrrha would almost certainly know, but she had not stopped yet to be asked but carried, on leading Sunset and Jaune into the courtyard towards the fountain that sat in the centre of the space.

At first, Sunset thought that the fountain – fashioned out of gleaming marble, with four fish with gaping mouths surrounding a nearly-naked (his modesty covered by a loincloth) man with spear and shield striking a heroic pose set upon the very top – had simply been turned off, for no water was leaping from the fishes’ mouths. Then she saw that there was a good reason why the fountain had been turned off.

The water was...the best word that Sunset could find for it was dead; black, still, almost crusting over in places. It was so unnatural as to make it hideous to look at.

The fact that such a fountain was still there was baffling enough; the fact that it seemed to being guarded by four armed men, exhibiting the same combination of ancient armour and modern weapons that Sunset had seen in the streets that day, was stranger still

“You…you wanted to show us this?” Jaune asked uncertainly, as the guards made way for Pyrrha and her friends to approach.

Pyrrha stopped, a few paces away from the dead fountain. She looked down at the black, still water, a melancholy look upon her face. “I know it doesn’t look like much now, but it wasn’t always this way.”

Sunset pursed her lips together as she came to a stop by Pyrrha’s side. Whatever was so special about this fountain, it was clearly in need of more than just a good clean. “What is it?”

“The heart of Mistral,” Pyrrha murmured. “When our earliest ancestors climbed to the top of this mountain they found a spring that ran so clear, so fresh, so refreshing and so beautiful that they took it as an omen that this was the place they were meant to build their city. They built the city around it; later a palace was raised around it and the fountain too.”

Sunset frowned. Clear, fresh and beautiful were not words she would use to describe what she could see in front of her at this moment, and she wasn’t going to take a drink to see if it was still refreshing.

“There was a time, so the legends say,” Pyrrha continued. “When a drink of the water from this fountain could cure any injury.”

Jaune’s eyes widened. “What happened?”

“The Emperor laid down his crown at the end of the Great War,” Pyrrha said. “And when he did…the spring ceased to flow, and the water became as you see it now. It is said that the fountain will never flow clear again, nor the water be fit to drink, until an Emperor returns to the throne of Mistral.”

Sunset smirked. “That’s you, isn’t it?”

Pyrrha glanced at Sunset, and her cheeks flushed. “That is not the destiny that I desire.”

“Yet perhaps it is your fate regardless,” Sunset said.

“I don’t believe in inescapable fate.”

“If fate exists and it is truly inescapable then I hope that it believes in us, regardless of our views upon the matter,” Sunset said. She chuckled. “You become Empress and you can make me your grand vizier or something.”

Pyrrha shook her head slowly. “Now I know that you’re joking.”

“Pyrrha,” Jaune said. “Why would anyone still guard a dead fountain?”

“Because they still have hope that one day the waters will flow once more.” It was not Pyrrha who answered, but rather the silky voice of Cinder Fall as she drifted towards them. “Humans, after all, are such hopeful creatures, aren’t we? Hope for something better in the face of misery, hope for life in the face of death, these are the things that sustain us even in the darkest moments as individuals and as a species.” She smiled. “Please, forgive me; I hope that I’m not butting in.”

“No, of course not,” Pyrrha said quickly. “Although I’m not sure that I would agree with you.”

“About hope?” Cinder asked. “Why, what would we do without it? Isn’t hope what drives us on to do, to dare, to strive for more and better than we are and have?”

“I’m sure you’re right, in general,” Pyrrha said softly. “But in this specific case I think that the guard has more to do with tradition than hope. I’m not sure anyone is hoping for the return of the emperor.”

“Perhaps they should, even if they don’t,” Cinder replied. “It’s clear to me, even from a single semester of history, that Mistral has gone terrible down hill since the Great War, wouldn’t you agree?”

“True,” Pyrrha allowed. “But that has more to do with the losses of the Great War than with the end of the monarchy, don’t you think?”

“I think it has everything to do with where power lies, and who wields it, and who ought to even if they do not,” Cinder declared. “The kings of Mistral, Mantle and Vacuo knelt before the King of Vale and offered up their crowns to him. He could have become the ruler of the whole world, High King over all nations…but instead he chose to cast all those crowns, including his own, into the garbage. The rule of the four kingdoms was given over to lesser men. Weak men. Can it be right that the world is divided into four quarters, and each quarter rests in the hands of those unworthy of lordship.”

“No,” Sunset said.

Cinder’s gaze had been affixed on Pyrrha, but now she glanced at Sunset, turning her head a little more towards her. Her smile remained in place. “You agree with me…Sunset, wasn’t it?”

“Sunset Shimmer, yes,” Sunset said, as she folded her arms. “And I agree with you.”

“I’m delighted to hear it, so few people do,” Cinder said. “Some people are rather rude in expressing their disagreement.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised,” Jaune muttered.

“Don’t you chafe under this ridiculous system?” Cinder asked. “Why, most councillors don’t even have their aura unlocked. Why should people like us, gifted with immense power and abilities that ordinary men cannot even dream of, bow and scrape before those who are so inferior to us in all respects? Pyrrha, as a team leader, surely you agree with me that the strongest should lead, and those weaker should be content to follow.”

“I am afraid that you’re mistaken, I’m not the leader of my team,” Pyrrha said. “Sunset is.”

Cinder was silent for a moment, her one visible eyebrow rising gently as Sunset stared at her, and tried to control her rising chagrin.

Don’t get upset, it was just an innocent mistake that anyone could have made. Don’t get upset. Don’t snap. Don’t let her see that she’s upset you at all.

You have achieved a state of zen calm about the whole thing.

Except that zen calm was a lot harder to maintain when the person who had said the thing you ought to be calm about was smirking at you.

The smile on Cinder’s face suggested that she knew very well how Sunset felt. “I’m sorry, truly; I just naturally assumed that, well, she is Pyrrha Nikos after all.”

“It’s fine,” Sunset said, through teeth that were only slightly gritted.

“So…Sunset, Jaune, Pyrrha…” Cinder murmured. “I admit, I can’t guess the name.”

“Sapphire,” Sunset said. “The R at the end couldn’t make it.”

“Ah, I see,” Cinder said. “A little bit of a cheat not pronouncing the P, don’t you think? But then, my team name cheats a little itself.”

“Which is?”

“Clementine,” Cinder said. “C-L-E-M and then I’m afraid you just have to imagine the rest of the word.” She grinned. “The L, E and M went home for the holiday, along with everyone else.”

“So you’re the team leader?”

“Of course,” Cinder replied. “I am the strongest.”

“I’ve always believed,” Sunset said. “That the ideal princess should possess wisdom and strength united in a single form.”

“And do you consider yourself to be both wise and strong?”

Sunset licked her lips. “I try.”

Cinder chuckled. “I may get the chance to see for myself. Pyrrha, there’s a part of me that wishes that I’d had the opportunity to have you on my team, here at Haven. But there’s another part of me that’s glad that you decided to attend Beacon. Our two teams may get the opportunity to face each other across the coliseum. That might be a lot of fun.”

“Right up until you lose,” Sunset said.

Cinder’s smile was dragon-like in its enthusiasm. “I won’t pretend to know my destiny but I assure you, all of you, that if we do face one another in battle, I won’t be holding back.”

I don’t remember high class parties being this irritating, Sunset thought, as she stalked through the antechamber. She had gone back in, but after only a little while there she longed once more for the fresher air of the courtyard. No one tried to stop her. No one intercepted her. No one had anything to say to her at all.

Why would they? She was just a faunus from Vale by way of Atlas, born of no family and possessing no wealth. Why would such as these have anything to say to her.

All the same, she was sure that she didn’t remember Canterlot parties being quite this bad. True, she had been of low birth there as well: her late mother had been an actress, and the least said about her father the better. But all of that had been more than balanced out by her position as Celestia’s student, the personal protégé of the princess herself. It had made ponies eager to seek her favour, and to seek her friendship as a way to that same favour and that of the princess. Not that it had done anypony much good: she hadn’t seen a lot of point in friendship even before she realised that none of these ponies had any genuine interest in her; after she reached that conclusion her interest in making friends had been less than zero. Yet still she was tolerated, even indulged by those who still believed that they could worm their way into Celestia’s heart through that of Sunset Shimmer.

And then, of course, one had to remember Celestia’s influence upon Equestria. Whatever the faults of Canterlot, however much the stuffiness and arrogance of the nobility might be said to have corrupted the shining city and rendered it less than the ideal that it could and should have been, however much the reality did not match the gleaming light in Sunset’s imagination of that now far-off city, nevertheless it could not be denied that Celestia had done what she could to make a gentle and harmonious place.

Power united with wisdom. Sunset found it hard to disagree with Cinder’s assessment that a single ruler possessed of the strength to lead, the wisdom to rule well, and the charisma to be loved by those over whom they ruled, was a much better way to run a land than to divide it between several councils of politicking, ambitious nobodies. Celestia was such a one, the ideal monarch: the prosperity which she had brought to Equestria, and the universally high esteem in which she was held, were both alike testament to the righteousness of her rule and the benevolence of her influence.

All that influence was lacking from Mistral. So too was any status that Sunset might have possessed. She was nothing here but a hanger-on of Pyrrha Nikos, to be team leader meant less than nothing in this company. Sunset had been mistaken for a servant twice on no basis other than her faunus features, and those who didn’t mistake her for a servant, well…they had nothing to say to her whatsoever.

Nevertheless, Sunset kept her head high and her back straight. She had endured much worse than indifference in Atlas, and in any case there was a part of her which wondered if Lady Nikos hadn’t brought her here in order to see how she would react to this kind of treatment. Perhaps Pyrrha’s mother thought that she would throw a tantrum about it, or start attacking people.

Well, if she thought that then Sunset Shimmer was going to show her how wrong she was. Just because she might want to do those things – a little – didn’t mean that she was going to. She had enough self-control to get through this and more, and she was going to do it with all of her pride intact.

“You don’t seem to be particularly enjoying yourself.”

Sunset raised her eyebrows as Cinder Fall approached her from behind one of the pillars that lined the courtyard. “Miss Fall-“

“Cinder, please.”

“Very well, Cinder; someone more paranoid than I might think that you were stalking us.”

Cinder chuckled. “Perhaps it’s just that I’m not particularly enjoying myself either, and you’re perhaps the most interesting person here.”

“I’m flattered.”

“Don’t be, this is a very boring party,” Cinder said.

The two of them looked at one another for a moment before nearly-identical grins swept across their faces.

“Don’t be too disheartened, Sunset,” Cinder said. “Nobody wants to talk to me, either. You shouldn’t let it concern you.”

“I don’t,” Sunset replied.

Cinder’s smile widened momentarily. “As you say; I believe you.”

“You don’t sound like it.”

Cinder sniggered. “You’ll have to forgive me, but I find you easier to read than you might like.”

Sunset folded her arms beneath her breasts. “Is that so? And why is that?”

“You’re one of the few people to agree with me on the right of the strong to rule, for a start.”

“You remind me of myself,” Cinder said. “I think that you’re a lot like me, Sunset Shimmer.”

“No, I’m not.”

“No?”

“No,” Sunset repeated. “I’m the original; you’re just a lot like me.”

Cinder snorted. “Very good, Sunset. That’s just what I would have said in your situation.”

“Did you know it was going to be like this before you came? The party, I mean.”

Cinder nodded. “I was hoping to see the great Pyrrha Nikos. I’m afraid that turned out to be something of a disappointment.”

“If you wanted to see her fight then perhaps you shouldn’t have come to a party,” Sunset muttered dryly.

“I’m sure her combat prowess is everything that it’s described,” Cinder said evenly, but not wholly without insincerity. “I was referring to the fact that…well, she’s rather boring, wouldn’t you say?”

“No,” Sunset said, as her voice acquired a touch of the Atlesian winter’s chill about it. “I wouldn’t.”

Cinder’s eyebrow rose. “No?”

“No,” Sunset said again. “You see, I’m the team leader and that means that I don’t badmouth my team to outsiders; and I don’t let outsiders badmouth my team to me. I thought you would have understood that, since we’re both team leaders and so alike.”

Cinder was still for a moment, and silent. Then she closed her eyes and bowed her head. “Good evening once more, Lady Nikos.”

Sunset glanced over her shoulder to see Lady Nikos approaching from behind. “My lady, good evening.”

Lady Nikos nodded in acknowledgement of them both. “Excuse us, Miss Fall. My guest and I have matters to discuss.”

Cinder bowed. “Of course, my lady. Sunset, until next time.”

“You don’t know that there’ll be a next time.”

“Oh, I think there will,” Cinder said. “In fact I’m certain of it.”

She withdrew, walking backwards away from Sunset as the latter turned toward her host.

Lady Nikos looked down upon her, the older woman’s expression stern but at the same time not wholly without sympathy. “I feel as though I should apologise for bringing you here. You have not had the most pleasant time.”

“Without malice or insult, my lady, I ask was it not your intention that it should be so?”

“My intention was to test your conduct in a large gathering,” Lady Nikos said. “If you are to be my daughter’s companions then you must be able, at the least, to not disgrace her at such gatherings as these.”

“I fear, my lady, that I have disgraced her by my race,” Sunset said coldly.

Lady Nikos closed her eyes for a moment. “And for that oversight I must seek your pardon. I forgot that not all here share my views upon the faunus.”

“If I may ask, Lady Nikos, what are your view upon the faunus?”

“My view is that there have been great warriors amongst your race as there have been amongst mine,” Lady Nikos said.

Sunset clasped her arms together behind her back as they began to walk across the courtyard. “Can I ask if I have passed the test, my lady?”

“You have, tentatively,” Lady Nikos said. “Now, let us find my daughter and your Mister Arc and leave this place.”

“As you will, my lady,” Sunset said, because nothing would please her better right now than to be gone.

Jaune had no - well, very little - problem admitting that he was socially awkward. His dad had tried to give him advice (and the whole women appreciate confidence thing had worked out really well with Weiss, hadn't it?) his mom had tried to give him advice (or at least encouragement, encouragement that had not turned out to be particularly well-founded he had to say) his sisters had tried to give him advice but none of it had worked out. But that was okay. Well, no, it wasn't okay okay, in fact it kind of sucked that he'd so annoyed his crush that she'd gone to Sunset to get an informal restraining order on him - he genuinely hadn't realised that he was bothering her, he thought girls appreciated persistence in the chase; that was what his mom had told him - but he could live with the fact that he wasn't cut out to be the life and soul of the party.

He could certainly live with the fact that he wasn't cut out to be the life and soul of this particular party. True, he'd be lying if he denied that one of the attractions that being a hero held for him was that a heroic reputation might actually make him attractive to girls (as opposed to the kind of slightly pitying affection he seemed to inspire in Ruby and Pyrrha) but he wasn't so devoid of self-awareness that he couldn't tell that he wasn't there yet. Right now he was just good old Jaune Arc, Beacon student. Why would these people, the rich and the powerful of Mistral, have anything to say to the likes of him? So Jaune felt pretty much resigned to the fact, as he stood in a small and shadowy alcove, that he was pretty much painted onto the wall and was going to be so for the rest of the night. That was fine by him. As long as he could get through the night without making a fool out of Pyrrha by association then everything would be fine. She'd been so kind to him, from the moment when she'd saved his life in the forest, taking him under her wing, being understanding of his secret, of his unjustified pride towards her...she'd had the patience of winter towards him and he, well, he couldn't have borne it if he'd repaid her kindness and generosity by making her look bad through association with a loser like him.

But he was surprised, astonished even, when the crowd parted across the courtyard to let him catch sight of Pyrrha standing as alone as he was, looking as awkard as he felt, her head lowered a little and her eyes downcast. Why? He could understand why nobody wanted to bother with him but she was Pyrrha Nikos for crying out loud, and if that wasn't enough then her mom seemed to be a total big deal around here.

So why was someone as nice and beautiful as her standing all alone? It was a crime against...well, he wasn't sure what the word he was looking for was but he was certain that it was a crime against something!

Jaune made his way across the courtyard, twisting between clusters of people lost in conversation, apologising to the servants as he got in their way momentarily, until he he was bearing down on Pyrrha. She didn't seem to notice him until he softly spoke her name. "Pyrrha?"

She looked up, shock momentarily in her lovely green eyes to be replaced by recognition. "Jaune! What are you doing here?"

"Well, I saw you all by yourself and I didn't have anything better to do," Jaune said, and instantly regretted it. Great. Just great, you moron. Do you want her to think that you only came over here because you were bored?

Pyrrha looked away from him. "I'm sorry," she said. "I've really been very selfish. I hope that you can forgive me."

"Selfish?" Jaune asked incredulously. "You?"

"I brought you here," Pyrrha explained. "I asked you to come even though...you're not enjoying yourself and it's my fault."

"You didn't invite us to this party, your mom did," Jaune said. "I know that you would never do something like this on purpose. You invited us to spend time at your beautiful home in a beautiful city and that...that means a lot to me, really. And as for what happens here, for tonight...you can't take the whole weight of the world on your shoulders, Pyrrha. You don't need to take the blame for everything." He coughed, and cleared his throat and tried to remember what Sunset had told him about speaking in a place like this. It might sound awkward now, and it will sound awkward if you get it wrong, but when you get it right it's like speaking in poetry. It rolls, it has rhythm to it. Which was all very well except he'd never been very good at poetry. "I mean, uh, forsooth my lady you doth have nothing to worry about, I do declare that it's all-"

"Jaune, stop," Pyrrha said, with laughter in her voice.

Jaune grinned sheepishly. "That bad, huh?"

"No," Pyrrha said. She smiled apologetically. "Well, yes, but...you don't have to pretend to be anyone you're not. Not to me." She hesitated. "The fact that you're always yourself is, well, it's one of the things that I admire most about you."

Jaune said, "I...well, I'm nothing special, I mean...who else would I be?"

Pyrrha didn't reply for a moment. When she spoke, Jaune could hear her voice cracking with anxiety. "I feel as though I spend my whole life pretending to be someone else, wearing masks that hide...Jaune, can I ask you a question."

"Anything."

"If you take away the mystique of the Invincible Girl," Pyrrha said. "If you take away my victories, my skill...is there anything left? Is Pyrrha Nikos anything more than a shadow?"

"Yes!" Jaune declared emphatically, so emphatically that he almost yelled it out. A few people stared or even glared at him, but at this point he didn't really care what they thought. He didn't want to embarrass Pyrrha, but right now it sounded as though Pyrrha needed his help more than she needed him to make a good impression on her behalf. "Pyrrha Nikos is the nicest, most selfless person that I've ever met in my entire life. Pyrrha Nikos is the girl who saw an idiot with dreams that were a couple of sizes too big for him and when everyone else wrote that loser off you...you took pity on me. More than that you believed in me. You were the first person to ever believe in me...so now let me believe in you even if you can't believe in yourself. You're a hell of a lot more than just your trophies, Pyrrha. You've got heart, and it's a big one."

"Jaune, I..." Pyrrha closed her eyes for a moment, and then opened them to look directly into his own. "Thank you," she said. "You're the only person I can imagine saying that to me. I'm so glad to have you as a part of my life, and if I haven't told you that before I'm sorry. That's why I invited you here, I...I wanted to share this part of my life with you even if it wasn't the best idea. I suppose that I just didn't want to be alone."

Jaune paused, struggling to find an adequate response to a declaration so earnest, so heartfelt. He looked into Pyrrha's eyes. Had he noticed how beautiful her eyes were before? "I...I'm glad to be in your life too, Pyrrha. Although I, I am kinda confused."

"By what?"

"Why someone as great as you was all alone in the middle of the room like this when I came over."

It was the wrong thing to have said, Jaune realised that as soon as he saw some of the happiness drain out of Pyrrha's face. She turned away from him.

"I'm sorry," Jaune said. "I didn't mean to...I just meant..."

"It's alright," Pyrrha said softly.

"No, it's not, not if I've upset you," Jaune said. "I would never do that on purpose...not any more, anyway. I just...you always seem to be surrounded by fans and here...aren't these your people? I just thought that the guys would be all over you or, or something."

Pyrrha did not turn back. She remained with her back to him, although her face was turned in such a way that he could see her profile. Her long red ponytail, red like fire, hung down her back. When she spoke her voice was soft, quiet. He had to strain to hear her. "Always be the best, my child, the bravest; and hold your head up high above all others."

Jaune frowned. "I don't understand."

"The Mistraliad," Pyrrha explained. "An ethos that has guided life amongst the highest here for generations."

"But I still don't get it," Jaune replied. "I mean, you are the best, and the bravest person that I know. If anyone's earned the right to hold their head up high it's you."

"Perhaps," Pyrrha said. "But, although we are all encouraged to seek for greatness, too much greatness is dangerous. We all should rise like flowers towards the sun, but if any one flower grows too high...then all the rest are plunged into shadow. And that is something to be feared...and hated."

"Hated?" Jaune repeated in disbelief, because the idea that anyone, anybody at all could hate Pyrrha, it was...it was incredible. It was unbelievable. It was ridiculous. "People hate you because...because you're too good and it makes them look bad, is that it? That's crazy, and so are they!" Again his outburst drew accusing glances from around him but he didn't care. He really didn't care. These people deserved worse than to have to listen to him shout a little bit. They deserved to have him yell at them about how dare they treat Pyrrha this way. But now wasn't the time. Jaune didn't often get a bolt of inspiration from the blue but he felt as though he had one now. "Let's get out of here."

"Jaune?" Pyrrha asked as she turned back towards him.

"Let's go...anywhere, anywhere you want," Jaune said. "Let's get out of this place, away from these people. Or do you really want to stay here, all alone, being treated like this?"

Pyrrha smiled. "I'm not alone, Jaune. You're right here. And I feel...when I'm with you I feel as though none of the rest matters. So long as you're here I can...thank you, Jaune."

"For what?"

"For seeing me," Pyrrha said. "When no one else did."

"Pyrrha," Jaune whispered.

"Pyrrha!" Lady Nikos' voice cracked like a whip. Jaune turned to see Pyrrha's mom looking very intently at the pair of them. Sunset stood half a step behind and to the right, her expression unreadable.

"Mother-" Pyrrha began.

"We're leaving," Lady Nikos declared. Her face was stern, but she said nothing further. Rather she turned away and began to stalk out, leaving the rest of them no choice but to follow in her wake.

Whatever had happened or almost happened between Jaune and Pyrrha at last night's party (and while it certainly looked as though something might have been about to happen, Sunset was far from convinced that it would have; after all this was Jaune and Pyrrha they were talking about, and no offence to Jaune but Pyrrha could surely do better) Lady Nikos didn't directly mention it, leaving Sunset unsure as to what she thought and whether it had damaged Jaune's standing - and that of the team, by association - in her eyes. She didn't bring it up after they had left the party, nor the next day. In fact they didn't see Lady Nikos that day, which was spent - once morning training was concluded - on a tour of the upper levels of Mistral guided by Pyrrha. She led them past historic houses and ancient shrines, through fragrant and luxurious public gardens and old-fashioned open-air markets where items old and new were for sale from atop wooden stalls. On impulse, Sunset bought a black hand-and-half longsword, the blade looking as though it had been forged from ebony, from a purveyor of 'basic but high quality weapons'; as it was just a sword-sword with no transforming options she was able to get it at a price she could actually afford.

"What do you want with a sword?" Jaune asked.

"Am I not allowed to want something just because it looks cool?" Sunset replied, as the tour continued.

They spent the whole day exploring Mistral under Pyrrha's guidance, the city was as beautiful up close as it had seemed from a distance on the airship ride in. True, at a closer distance some of the imperfections were more visible, but there were few enough of those. No doubt this city wasn't perfect, nowhere was, but the way it felt, the way the air smelt in her nostrils...Sunset found that she preferred this place to Vale or Atlas. If she had a choice of where to live she would probably choose here, and not just because it reminded her of home.

They returned to the Nikos house shortly before darkness fell. Lady Nikos joined them for dinner, but said very little. Desert was almost concluded when a maid scurried into the ornately decorated dining hall.

"Begging your pardon, m'lady, but Professor Lionheart is at the gate, says that he must speak with you and Lady Pyrrha. Says it's very urgent."

Lady Nikos snorted. "Very well, show him in. Pyrrha, attend me."

Forgotten as Lady Nikos rose from the able and swept Pyrrha up with her, Sunset got up herself and motioned for Jaune to do the same. They followed Lady Nikos and Pyrrha, and if either of the two noticed them trailing behind neither of them said anything about it. If Professor Lionheart wanted a private meeting then he would no doubt say so.

But he did not say so. In fact, as Lady Nikos and her guests met him in the hall, he immediately began to speak. "Lady Hippolyta, thank you for seeing me. This is a terrible business, and terribly urgent besides."

"What business, Leo?" Lady Nikos demanded. "What is this about?"

"A grimm, in the mountains to the east," Professor Lionheart declared. "Several shepherds and their families have been killed, cottages destroyed, herds scattered."

"A solitary grimm, so close to the city?" Pyrrha asked. "Are you sure there aren't more of them?"

"I pray not," Professor Lionheart declared. "Nothing is certain but it seems incredible that a pack or worse could approach so near to Mistral without being spotted before now. I am sure you can understand that the council wishes this dealt with as a matter of urgency and so, Pyrrha, I ask you on behalf of Mistral: will you hunt down this creature and brings its depredations to an end?"

Sunset's eyebrows rose so high they almost disappeared under her hair. Sure, Pyrrha was good - great even - but in all of Mistral there wasn't one pro-huntsman they could tap to hunt down one single grimm?

Sunset kept silent, but Lady Nikos proved more than willing to air the question that Sunset had been content to think. "My daughter is a student, here to rest," she said. "Where are your huntsmen and your huntresses?"

"Scattered throughout the length and breadth of our territory," Professor Lionheart replied. "The teachers and students have gone home for the vacation, in all of the city there is not one huntsmen I can call upon."

"I will do it," Pyrrha said. "For the good of Mistral I will undertake this hunt."

Professor Lionheart breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Pyrrha. I'm certain that the champion of Mistral will have no difficulty in ridding us of this beast. I would go myself, but-"

"But you are a coward, I know that well without reminding," Lady Nikos said acidly. "And yet it seems your incompetence plumbs depths that I had not concieved of if you have left us so exposed that my daughter alone is all that stands between our city and the darkness."

"Not alone," Sunset said. "She will not go alone."

"Indeed," Professor Lionheart. "Young Cinder, the only student remaining at Haven, has volunteered to join her."

Sunset frowned, wondering if she hadn't made herself entirely clear. "I was actually talking about me and Jaune going with Pyrrha," she glanced at Jaune. "You got that, right? You understood that I meant me and you were going to go with Pyrrha."

"Yeah, I got it," Jaune said with a nod. "I mean, it's not as if we were just going to sit around and wait for Pyrrha to come back, right?"

"Thank you," Pyrrha said. "But without Ruby we could use a fourth man, and if Professor Lionheart vouches for her talent, then..."

Sunset shrugged. "I suppose she can come along too. The more the merrier."

"And I, too, shall go with you," Lady Nikos declared.

"Mother?"

"It has been too long since I saw you fight," Lady Nikos said. "Your companions I have not seen fight at all, a lack that I am offered the opportunity to correct."

"Lady Hippolyta-" Professor Lionheart began.

"Will it be said that we of Mistral refused to raise arms in defence of our own city and our land?" Lady Nikos demanded. "That we left our defence wholly in the hands of children, and outsider children what is more. I have made my decision, and neither you nor the lord steward himself could persuade me otherwise." Her eyes swept over the three young huntsmen in training. "You should all prepare yourselves for battle and get some rest. Leo, tell your Miss Fall to meet us here before dawn; we set out with the sun's rising."

Obedient to the command of Lady Nikos, the party of five set out at dawn the next day. Jaune yawned as they made their way down to the nearest skydock, where an airship was waiting to take them to the site of the most recent grimm attack, and even Sunset – who had been able to put off getting up by the simple if slightly pungent expedient of not bothering to wash before she got dressed – found herself struggling a little to shake off the fog of weariness from her mind.

The fact that she’d struggled to get to sleep last night probably didn’t help in that regard.

The fact that Pyrrha looked as fresh as ever was slightly irritating, and the fact that Cinder Fall looked not only well-rested but so well-groomed that she must have fallen out of bed and into her stylist’s office was even more so. At least Lady Nikos looked as though she could have used a little more rest than circumstances had allowed her.

Still, despite how she felt as they met Cinder at the gate and trudged down towards the dock, Sunset understood why they had to move quickly to put a lid on this thing: while it was easy to forget with her aura unlocked, the training that she’d received and the experience that she’d already acquired, even a single grimm was absolutely terrifying to most people, and while they didn’t know yet what kind of grimm it was, even one beowolf would be more than capable of slaughtering an entire family alone in their shepherd’s cottage on the hillside. Sunset could remember how scared she’d been when she first came to Remnant and found herself sharing the world with these monsters: so scared that she had come closer than at any point to crawling back through the mirror, kissing the hooves of Princess Celestia, and crying forgiveness for all the wrongs that she had done.

If they didn’t find and kill this monster quickly, if it was allowed to continue preying on the defenceless herdsmen and husbandmen, if it descended into the valleys and began to stalk the farmers there then the whole surround would descend into panic, and panic would bring even more grimm down on a Mistral that had no real huntsmen to defend it.

“Does Professor Lionheart have any way of summoning back any professionals to defend the city?” Sunset asked as they walked.

“Even if he could, would he?” asked Lady Nikos rhetorically. She wore armour similar to that of Pyrrha, except that there was less protection afforded to her legs and the cuirass was set with what might be either costume jewels or, considering the wealth of the Nikos family, perhaps even real ones. The armour no longer fit her perfectly, but evidently she had still been able to get it on. The sword with the silver hilt that Sunset had seen on her desk yesterday was strapped across her back. “I cannot understand what goes on in that man’s mind.”

“Perhaps an approach should be made to the Atlesian forces based at Argus?” Cinder suggested silkily. She was wearing grey pants and a beige, sleeveless jacket which she had left unfastened, revealing that she had – for whatever reason – decided to forsake a shirt in favour of binding up her breasts with bandages to preserve her modesty. Whatever, if she wanted to dress like that then that was her business. More important were the pair of scimitars and the bow that she carried, all three weapons strapped to her back across her waistline. “I’m sure that a cruiser could-“

“This is Mistral, girl,” Lady Nikos declared with a derisive snort. “Our strength is not so diminished that we are dependent upon the protection of Atlas. We address our own problems here.”

“I’m well aware of how Mistral solves its problems, Lady Nikos,” Cinder replied, and for a moment her voice lost its smoothness and acquired an edge of anger, but it was one that was gone as soon as it had come. “Still, I’m surprised to hear that you don’t trust Atlas. After all, they’re only here for our protection. Aren’t they?”

“Forgive me Miss Fall, my lady,” Sunset said. “But although you might have the energy for a spirited discussion on geopolitics and international relations I’m not sure that this is the time or the place.”

Cinder smiled. “Of course, Sunset, you’re quite right. A thousand pardons, my lady. Oh, and Sunset?”

“Yes?”

“Please, call me Cinder,” she said. “We’re all friends here, aren’t we?”

Sunset’s lips twitched briefly upwards. “Cinder, of course.”

They arrived at the skydock, the same skydock that they had docked at when they arrived in Mistral the day before yesterday, and boarded a smaller craft than they had flown in on. Sunset took it to be the Mistralian equivalent of a bullhead although of course, being Mistralian, it looked as though it was made of bamboo and canvas-cloth and had a visible propeller mounted to the back. Regardless of the sturdiness, or apparent lack thereof, of the vessel the five huntsmen boarded it without complaint and the vessel rose gracefully up into the sky and carried them over the stepped levels and the high towers of Mistral. As they flew east, towards the sight of the most recently reported attack, Sunset noticed that the land beneath them seemed emptier than it had seemed - albeit from a greater distance - only two days before when they flew into the city. Then, even from a distance, Sunset had been able to see not only the farms in the valleys but the shepherds on the heights of the surrounding mountains. But now, as they flew over the eastern mountains, the ridges seemed bare, empty of live save for the occasional goat or sheep wandering lost and abandoned across the rolling hills.

"Have all the people fled to Mistral so quickly?" Sunset asked.

"I hope so," Pyrrha replied. "As I hope they will be free to return once we have completed our mission. The alternative...is too hideous to contemplate."

"Some will not return," Cinder said. "Or else we wouldn't be here."

True enough, Sunset conceded mentally. But perhaps it would have been better if you hadn't said so.

"Does anyone have any idea what sort of grimm it is?" Jaune asked. He was standing in the centre of the airship's passenger compartment, far from the edges and the view of the ground; so far, while he looked a little green, he seemed to be keeping his motion sickness in check.

"Nobody knows, do they?" Sunset said, with a glance at Cinder. "Professor Lionheart didn't mention it to us, did he say anything to you?"

"No," Cinder said. The wind blew her long, dark hair this way and that, so that at times it was even possible to see her second eye. "The attacks have been on shepherds' huts, isolated farmsteads; there are never any survivors to describe the attacker, and the attacks are always at night so the beast isn't seen."

"If there are no survivors then who reported the attacks?" Sunset asked.

"A son coming home from the market to find his father's house broken into and all within killed," Cinder explained. "A neighbour, of sorts, who waited until morning to investigate the screams that he heard in the night. Just because there are no survivors doesn't mean that nobody ever finds out."

"So, there's still a chance that this just a beowolf?" Jaune asked.

"Could be," Sunset allowed. "But I doubt it."

"Do you," Lady Nikos murmured. "What makes you say that, Miss Shimmer?"

You can never stop testing, can you? Sunset snorted, although she hoped that Lady Nikos didn't notice. "To start with, this thing is smart: it knows that it can do more damage, spread more terror, by killing at night when it can move unseen. That means that it's probably old, and an old, smart beowolf would know that its odds are better as part of a pack. But if this is just one grimm it's probably from a species more comfortable alone: ursa, deathstalker, maybe a beringel. We'll know more once we get to the sight of the last attack. Jaune?"

"Yeah?"

"Any ideas?" Sunset asked, with a glance at Lady Nikos.

Jaune blinked. "Uh...if it's only attacking at night, then...that means it must be resting during the day, somewhere quiet. Somewhere it hides, like a lair or something. If we can find the lair, we find the monster, right?"

"Right," Sunset agreed. She watched as Lady Nikos' nodded in approval. I think we picked up a couple of points with that.

Shortly after, the airship began to descend close by a ruined wooden house, reduced to ruin.

"This is as far as I take you," the pilot called from the cockpit. "When you want pick-up, use the flair to signal and someone will come and get you."

"Understood," Sunset replied. "We'll see you soon."

The airship dropped to within a couple of feet of the ground, allowing the huntsmen to dismount easily and close by the house. It was clear immediately that this was the work of grimm, not only because all four walls of the house had been smashed in and the roof brought down, but also because not far from the house there was a paddock which was still full of sheep, baa-ing as they milled about trying, without success, to escape from their wooden restraints. No mere predator would have bothered to break into a house to kill those inside while leaving all those sheep un-devoured, but grimm didn't bother with animals unless the animals bothered them first. Presumably that was why the sheepdog had had its head ripped - or bitten - clean off. It had tried to protect its master and had paid the price for its canine loyalty.

"Spread out and search for tracks," Sunset said.

They did so, searching the area around the destroyed homestead, forcing themselves to go closer to the place then they might have liked, to the point where Sunset could see traces of blood amongst the ruins. While they were searching, Pyrrha sliced through the chain holding the sheep pen shut with Milo, and realed the creatures out onto the grass around.

"They'll starve to death with no one to feed them, otherwise," Pyrrha explained, when she caught sight of Sunset's inquisitive look.

Sunset thought that someone would have come and claimed as soon as the immediate crisis was over - which hopefully would be soon, she didn't intend to spend weeks hunting down this creature, but Pyrrha had a kind heart and there was no point protesting what she had done. Whoever came to claim the flock would simply have to round them up, that was all. Although Sunset would confess to a small degree of wry internal amusement when one particularly fat ovine repaid Pyrrha's trouble by attempting to eat her red sash. Pyrrha shooed it gently but firmly away before it could do any real damage.

It was Cinder who found the tracks: large, heavy prints belonging to a creature with what looked like three hooves on the ends of each foot.

"Not a beowolf, then," Jaune murmured.

"Nor an ursa or a deathstalker," Sunset said. "I'm not sure what that is." She tightened her grip on her gun.

"Nor I," Cinder said lightly, sounding very unconcerned. "But the tracks lead north-east. That's where we'll find the creature's lair."

"Agreed," Sunset said. "I'll lead, then Pyrrha, then Jaune; Cinder, will you bring up the rear?"

"Of course."

"As you wish, my lady, so long as it is neither ahead of me nor behind Cinder," Sunset said, in a tone that mixed command and respect in hopefully equal measure.

"I will not interfere with your dispositions," Lady Nikos said.

"Then there is no reason for us to remain here," Sunset said. "Let's move."

They walked all day. Sunset had had some doubts, she would confess internally if not aloud, that Lady Nikos with her injured leg would be able to keep up the pace, but it seemed that with her aura activated as it was now her limp didn’t trouble her as it had done inside the safety and security of her house. All to the good, because it seemed that this beast could move quickly across the country. More quickly than they could, for though they trekked all day across the Mistral mountainsides, across the slopes of the Caelian and the Esquiline mounts, they did not come to the grimm’s lair, nor catch up with it on the way to the same, nor even catch sight of it running ahead of them.

It was a little relief that they didn’t see any signs of the destruction the beast had unleashed either. They passed no more destroyed cottages, no more signs of death and destruction. Not on this route, anyway. They didn’t come across any other people, but if there had been other victims since what they had been told was the latest attack, they saw no sign of it. And, seeing no signs, they could tell themselves that there had been no other attacks.

They crossed the mountains, passing above valley villages that seemed quiet, farmland that seemed devoid of workers. The grimm might not have done any more damage along this way, but already terror had spread from it like a vicious miasma and overwhelmed the people who huddled behind their walls and their locked doors as though they would protect them from the grimm.

“When, of course, the only ones who can really protect them from the grimm are us,” Cinder said, as she came to stand by Sunset’s side. She smiled. “The ones with power, and the will to use it as we see fit.”

Sunset looked back at the other girl, over Sunset’s own shoulder. “How did you know what I was thinking?”

“Because I was thinking the same thing,” Cinder replied. “Little people, clinging to their walls, to their locked doors, to the so-called safety of their homes, to their plans to survive, their contingenices; clinging to false hope.”

“As you put it yourself, hope is what sees us through,” Sunset said softly. “Sometimes it’s all we have, however false or unfounded it may be.”

Cinder’s one visible eyebrow rose. “You mean that you would be as foolish in their position.”

“I hope to sun and moon never to be so helpless as those people are,” Sunset said. But I have been foolish in my desperation in the past.

Cinder stared down at her for a moment. Then she flashed her teeth in a brief. “No, you’re not helpless, are you? We are neither of us helpless. We’re the ones with the power. The ones who will decide the future of those below.”

Sunset had the distinct impression that she wasn’t just talking about their geographical location relative to the town below.

The sun was setting by now, and they had no way of knowing how much farther it was until they found the grimm’s hideout.

“We’ll make camp for the night,” Sunset decided. “It’s likely this grimm can see better in the dark than we can, not to mention that once it stirs from its lair we’ll have no way of finding it.”

“But if we stop,” Pyrrha said. “Won’t it go out and attack again?”

Sunset held Pyrrha’s gaze. “We can’t save everyone.”

The two of them stared at each other. Pyrrha didn’t quite argue against her, but it was clear from the look in her eyes that she very much wanted to. Even if her mind accepted Sunset’s point, her heart rebelled against it.

Sunset said nothing more because she knew she was right, and she thought that Pyrrha knew that she was right, and all she had to do was wait for Pyrrha to accept it.

For the first time since they had set out, Sunset was a little glad that Ruby wasn’t with them. She probably would have argued more vociferously that they had to press on, search through the darkness, do whatever it took. That was…it was the righteous thing to do. It might even be the right thing to do. But Sunset was certain that her decision was the smart and the safe one and so that was what they were going to do.

Depending on how much further the hideout was…if it looked like this hunt was going to go on for several days then she might consider night-marching to bring it to an end faster, but not tonight.

Tonight they would rest.

Pyrrha bowed her head. “Very well. You’re right, of course.”

Neither Jaune nor Cinder offered any objection, and Lady Nikos seemed to prefer watching what they did than interfering, and so they made camp out on the grassy mountainside as the sun fell and the darkness descended all around them.

Jaune, who had always excelled in the field craft class even before he'd started putting any work in at anything else, made their fire and cooked their dinner; as she watched him work, Sunset reflected that one of the advantages of operating straight out of Mistral on this impromptu little mission was that they'd been able to bring some fresh produce with them rather than having to rely on ration packs or MREs. Jaune had even brought some novel spices and seasonings in the Mistral market yesterday and was trying some of them out, adding them to the boiling pot with the chopped up vegetables.

"Smells good," Sunset said.

"Indeed," Lady Nikos murmured. "You appear to have some talent as a cook, young Mister Arc."

"Thanks," Jaune said. "My mom taught me to...I mean, uh," He cleared his throat. "Thank you very much lady, compliment gratefully...accepted."

"Hmm," Lady Nikos murmured, her expression leaving it quite up in the air whether she approved of Jaune's talent in this field or disapproved of anyone who wasn't wealthy enough to employ their own chef.

Cinder's amber eye seemed to glow in the descending light. "Isn't there any meat?"

Jaune glanced up at her. "Not in here, but I do have some sausages I can fry later. You see, Sunset-"

"I'm a vegetarian," Sunset explained.

"Ah," Cinder replied. "And you've imposed your choices on your team-mates. That's your privilege as leader, I suppose."

"To an extent, I suppose," Sunset said. "I've no problem with them eating meat I just won't have them forcing me to eat it as well. Do you want Jaune to make you some sausages?"

"If it's no trouble for you," Cinder murmured. "I confess that you've surprised me, Sunset; I didn't figure you for the type to feel compassion for animals."

Sunset smiled. "As an animal myself, eating them feels a little too close to cannibalism for my liking."

Cinder chuckled. "Wouldn't that make cannibalism that natural state of the word. All creatures prey on those weaker than themselves and humanity, as the strongest of all animals, preys upon all the rest and devours them."

"Except for the grimm, which prey on humanity and devour them," Sunset pointed out. "So who's really the dominant species around here?"

"That," Cinder declared. "Is a question that has yet to be answered, isn't it?"

"I suppose so," Sunset said. She paused for a moment. "Looking ahead a little: Jaune, you take the first watch. I'll take the middle, and Pyrrha the last." It was Sunset's opinion that the middle watch was the hardest, as you didn't get a period of uninterrupted sleep either at the beginning or the end of the night.

"I should take the middle watch, I'm fresher than you," Pyrrha said.

"Then you might as well stay that way tomorrow, I'll be fine."

"What about me?" Cinder asked. "I could take on all three watches, if you like?"

Sunset's eyebrows rose. "You don't need sleep?"

The firelight danced in Cinder's eye. "I am driven beyond the need for it. Have you ever felt so hungry that you can't sleep, because your stomach is paining you too much to let you?"

Sunset frowned, if only a little. "Once or twice, a little."

"I have a hunger in me that will not let me rest."

"Well, see how you feel after you've tried my cooking."

Cinder snorted. "That isn't the kind of hunger that I'm referring to." She glanced at Pyrrha for a moment, and then looked away again.

"I'd never be able to guess that you were an insomniac to look at you," Sunset said. "Thank you for you...kind offer, but I think we'll manage to keep our eyes open."

"You don't trust me to watch over you safely?"

"With me, I'm afraid trust takes a little while to be earned. It's nothing personal."

"Of course not," Cinder said. "Trust is a commodity too precious to be spent frivolously, or without thought. I'm sure that you'd agree, wouldn't you Lady Nikos? You don't trust Atlas enough to assist in this possible crisis."

"Trust is not the issue," Lady Nikos replied. "Dependency is. It is not wise for Mistral - or any other kingdom, for that matter - to grow too attached to Atlas for protection, to suckle like a babe at breast for the milk of their security. Atlas is not our mother, they have no love for us nor obligations towards us."

Cinder leaned forwards. "Surely you're not suggesting that there's anything sinister about the Atlesian military presence in other kingdoms? Aren't they only here to guard humanity?"

"Wherever Atlas goes they go to protect their interests, but what of it?" Sunset asked. "That would be as true of Mistral or Vale if the military boot were on the other foot."

"And besides, it's not as if they hurt anyone," Jaune said.

"So sure of that?" Cinder asked.

"What do you mean?" Pyrrha said quietly.

"Just that it's quite a coincidence," Cinder said casually. "A grimm appearing so close to Mistral, at a time when everyone knows that the defences are weakened what with Haven closed for the vacation and all the staff and students away. Why, if I hadn't decided to stay at Haven over the break, or if you had decided to stay at Beacon instead of coming home, Pyrrha, Mistral might not have been able to respond at all. And then what choice would there have been but to call in the Atlesian military. Some might call that suspicious."

Sunset snorted derisively. "And I suppose Jacques Schnee is funding progressive movements to advance his global agenda, too? No offence, but you sound like an online conspiracy theorist. Nobody can control the grimm, least of all Atlas."

"Perhaps you're right," Cinder said. "But if they could, wouldn't that be terrifying?"

"Maybe, but they can't," Sunset said. "There's enough to worry about in this world without getting worked up over hypotheticals."

Cinder tutted. "Come now, Sunset; practicality doesn't suit people like us. What are our dreams, our ambitions, but hypotheticals? Aren't we both dreamers, who with will and strength and sacrifice will make our dreams reality?"

"You're so certain that we are alike?" Sunset asked.

"I feel a kinship between us," Cinder responded.

Sunset took pause for a moment. "Perhaps there is. And perhaps you're right about ambition," she allowed. "But that doesn't mean that I have to worry about every wild possibility that my imagination conjures."

"Maybe not," Cinder said. "But my point is that perhaps you shouldn't be so quick to dismiss something as impossible. I imagine that many things seemed impossible once until someone dreamed it, and then made that dream come true."

"I suppose," Sunset said. "And what is your dream, that you will turn into reality?"

"Oh, you can't expect me to tell you that," Cinder said. "If you tell a wish it won't come true."

Sunset thought of everyone that she'd confessed or bragged about her ambitions too. "I very much hope that you're wrong about that."

The night passed. They heard nothing, saw nothing, and were left with no way of knowing if anyone had paid with their lives for Sunset's decision not to push on through the darkness or not. Sunset was not normally a fan of ignorance, but in this particular case she was thankful for it. Whatever she told Celestia or Twilight (she wasn't quite certain who would be answering the journal from now on) she wouldn't include that. It wasn't that it was the wrong decision, it hadn't been. But it wasn't the right decision either, and she had a feeling that her old teacher and Celestia's new protégé might not...appreciate the practicalities that had motivated her.

She didn't know the consequence. She didn't want to know.

Regardless, as soon as dawn broke the next day they broke camp and set off again, following the trail of the grimm with three hooves upon each foot. Sunset had flicked through a grimm bestiary last night, while on watch, but she hadn't come across anything that suggested to her what it might be. The print was familiar, scratching a kind of itch at the back of her mind, but she couldn't remember what it was and she hadn't been able to find the right entry in the bestiary that would detail it for her. She dismissed the idea that it was some novel, as yet undiscovered species of grimm; she didn't believe that their luck was anywhere near that bad. But all the same, she hadn't found the right entry in the book.

I know the answer, it's in here somewhere. So why can't I remember it?

Why can't Professor Port teach us some actual lessons about grimm instead of teaching us how awesome he was when he was a couple of decades younger and a few inches trimmer in the waist?

Calm down, this isn't about Professor Port, and by the end of the first semester you'd only expect to have covered the most common varieties of grimm anyway. Come on, you've read more than a year ahead on grimm types, you ought to know this.

Beowolf, no; ursa, no; deathstalker, no; boarbatusk, no; creep, no; manitcore, no, that can fly and so can a sphinx anyway, none of those have hooves. What kind of grimm has hooves?

The answer nagged at her, but also hid from her view in spite of her best efforts to drag it out into the light of conscious thought, as the party tracked the prints left in the ground until, a little after midday, they arrived at a cave, a gaping hole in he mountainside descending into the bowels of the earth. The mouth of the cave was wide enough to accommodate an old grimm, swollen with years, and even with the sun at its zenith the darkness seemed to begin close by the cave mouth, engulfing whatever lurked within in black as impenetrable as the depths of ocean. Anything might lurk within, even the entrance to a lost subterranean civilisation.

Or just a murderous monster of an as-yet unknown kind.

"That, uh, that sure is a cave," Jaune said, as they stared into its blackness.

"Mmm, very astutely put," Sunset muttered, masking her nerves with a touch of unnecessary cruelty. It's okay. It's just one grimm. It's just one grimm.

It's probably just one grimm.

Even if it is a few more, you've got this. You're you, and you've got Pyrrha and Jaune to recharge your aura and Professor Lionheart said that Cinder was one of his best students.

And it's just one grimm.

One old and clever grimm.

But you've still got this.

With Lady Nikos watching you can't afford not to have this.

Sunset frowned as she raised Sol Invictus to her shoulder. The feel of the rifle butt against her shoulder was reassuring, the weight of the wood in the hands comforting. "Okay, I'm fairly certain that this thing can't fly, because it walked all the way to its kill and back. Therefore we haven't much to loose by drawing it out into the light." She remembered her fight with Adam, and the mistake she'd made in pursuing him into the dark where he had the advantage. "So I'll go in and lure it out. The rest of you wait out here." Sunset discounted the risk of the grimm fleeing from them once it was outside the cave; while old and experienced grimm would avoid picking fights that they might not win, once battle was joined the creatures of grimm tended to fight to the death - theirs or someone else's. "Weapons ready, I don't plan on being long."

Jaune drew his sword, and extended his shield. "Do we have a plan for when it comes out?"

"Remember the drills we practiced, once we know what we're dealing with," Sunset said.

"Will you be alright in there?" Pyrrha asked, as she slung Milo and Akuou from off her back. "You can't see down there."

"Actually, I've been working on that," Sunset said. "I think I'll be okay." She took a last look at them: Pyrrha and Jaune with their weapons ready, Cinder with an arrow on her bowstring, Lady Nikos standing a little further away with her sword drawn. Then she looked back into the impenetrable darkness lurking within.

Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes and cast her night-vision spell.

She felt a tingling in her eyeballs as though she had pins and needles in them, and when she opened them again the world was tinted green, the sunlight was irritatingly, almost blindingly white in the corners of her vision. But she could already see a little way into the cave, enough to see the rough, uneven, stony surface within. Enough to see a few bones scattered around the cave mouth.

"Sunset," Jaune said. "Your eyes-"

"Yeah," Sunset said, guessing that the appearance of her pupils had changed. That was an unfortunate side-effect. "Wait here," she said. "I'll make this quick."

Sunset crept into the cave, rifle raised and held before her. There were no sounds but her own, and even the mildest scuffling sounds of boots upon the floor seemed to echo in the cave like thunder as she advanced.

She walked forward; but even with her enhanced vision she saw nothing, and even with four ears she heard nothing.

She slipped on something that she thought was probably, uncomfortably, a bone, and had to struggle to keep her footing. She dislodged some pebbles on the cave floor, with rattled as they bounced downwards into the dark. The sound of their bouncing echoed down the tunnel, down and down and down.

And then Sunset heard something. A thud, low and deep and heavy.

They hadn't missed their quarry, nor that they been wrong about it spending the day in hiding to avoid being seen. There was something here, something in the darkness, and it was moving somewhere out of sight. Thud. Thud.

It was moving quickly, and it was coming towards her. Thud, thud, thud. The whole cave seemed to shudder with the thunderous footfall.

And then she saw it. And once she saw it she knew exactly what it was.

"Karkadann!" Sunset yelled as the grimm erupted out of the darkness towards her at a flat run. It had the body and the hind-legs of a horse, but it's forelegs were immense, trunk-like things like great trees or the legs of a rhino, each with three hooves at the end of the immense, broad, heavy legs. Its equine head was a white mask, but also its chest and shoulders were protected by armour-like plates of bleached white bone, while a ridge of bony spikes erupted from out of his black back. Red eyes burned like fire in its sockets while a jagged horn, like the horn of a unicorn but crooked in shape, longer than a lance and with a serrated edge, emerged from out of the forehead between the eyes, a little lower than the placement of a unicorn's horn that Sunset was familiar with. The karkadann opened its mouth, revealing a row of sharp teeth, and screamed a high-pitched whinnying scream.

Sunset squeezed the trigger once, twice; the flash from the muzzle of Sol Invictus was blinding to Sunset's night-vision but she couldn't have missed, that thing was too big to miss.

But equally it was too big to be stopped by two bullets. Sunset dropped to one knee, planting her rifle butt on the ground like a pike and flicking the switch to extend the spear. The bayonet leapt forward on its eight foot pole, transformed into a full pike now as Sunset waited for the impact.

Blinded by her own muzzle-flashes as she was Sunset felt, rather than saw, the karkadann strike her out-stretched spear and she felt, rather than saw, her bayonet point skitter off the armoured bone protecting the grimm's chest and merely score its side making the demon shriek even louder in pain. As her vision return Sunset saw it continuing to charge straight towards her with a fury in its eyes.

Sunset teleported away, re-appearing at the mouth of the cave with the others in a flash of green light.

Sunset closed her eyes as she dispelled the night-vision spell, screwing her eye-lids tight shut before the of the sun could blind her. "Here it comes!" she yelled.

The pounding of hooves on the ground told them that the karkadann was not far behind her.

Milo's rifle barked twice, and Sunset opened her eyes in time to see Cinder loose an arrow into the darkness before the karkadann emerged from out of the darknesa and into the light with a great shriek as though to merely stand in sunlight caused it pain.

Sunset fired again, and Pyrrha's Milo changed from rifle to sword as she charged to meet the monster, her shining shield held before her. The karkadann's charge bowled them over, knocking them back and flying over the grass as the grimm stopped, prancing proudly as it gazed down upon them with contempt in its burning red eyes. Smoke gathered around it as though it were aflame.

Cinder loosed another arrow, which lodged in the grimm's flank but seemed to do little beyond enrage it so much that it let out another ear-splitting screech. Jaune charged with a great answering shout, howling wildly as she slashed equally wildly with crocea mors at one of the karkadann's immense forelegs. The karkadann roared and reared, preparing to bring its immense hooved forefoot down upon him.

Pyrrha was there in a flash, her red hair flying and the sunlight glimmering upon her bronzed armour as she shoved Jaune out of danger and thrust her spear upwards into the soft underbelly of the karkadann's foot. The karkadann howled, and Pyrrha leapt out of the way, her spear transforming into a sword as she sliced at where its hamstring would have been had it been a beast.

The creature retreated backwards a step or two as it swept its head down, using its great serrated horn like a sword. Pyrrha both blocked and parried, using her own sword and shield together as the karkadann's horn crashed into them. She was not overwhelmed but she was pushed backwards, her feet leaving track-marks in the earth as she tried in vain to stand her ground against its hideous strength.

Jaune, Cinder with her two swords, even Lady Nikos joined the fight, assailing the karkadann from the other side. Sunset teleported, emerging above the creature, descending the couple of feet to its back. She balanced precariously between the bone spikes jutting upwards, wobbling as the grimm shifted in place, and jammed her weapon downwards into the nape of its neck. Then she fired her fourth shot for good measure.

The karkadann roared, pain and fury mingling in its cry. Then it reared, immense forelegs thrashing, kicking at the empty air as its back became practically vertical. Sunset lost her grip on Sol Invictus, then upon the spine spike for which she had reached instead as she was hurled off the back of the karkadann and landed in a heap on the ground. Sunset scrambled to her feet as the karkadann slammed its forelegs into the ground so heavily that the earth trembled and all four of her companions of the hunt were jolted off balance by the trembling.

Jaune cried out, "Sunset, can you pull off an Arkos Spin?"

Sunset huffed. Can I pull off an Arkos spin? Can I do it? Yes, I can do it, have some faith in me! "Of course I can do it, get ready." Sunset bared her teeth in a snarl and she shouted in anger as she fired bolt after bolt of green magic into the monster's hindquarters. "Here! Here, come at me you sorry, stupid, pathetic fake imitation unicorn! Come and get me!"

Her magical attacks didn't seem to cause the karkadann visible harm, but judging by the way that it swung its head back to glare at her she'd certainly made it angry.

That as the general idea. This thing was tough. It was old and strong and their best hits didn't even seem to be slowing it down. They needed something special to kill it, something special like the 'finishing moves' that they'd started devising specifically for big, tough grimm just like this one. Ideally they would have used the Lancaster Spin - Ruby came up with the names, Sunset wasn't sure how - but with no Ruby around they would have to use Pyrrha for the finish instead, which meant that they needed to do it now while Sunset still had enough 'aura' (or magic) to play her part.

She had a feeling this was going to be a struggle as it was.

The karkadann began to turn its head back towards Jaune and Pyrrha, before Sunset hit it with another burst of magic from her palms. "Oh no you don't, I'm the one you want," Sunset growled. "Look at me, only at me." She continued to fire magical blasts, which did little except irritate the grimm (in fairness to Sunset, she wasn't exactly giving it full power; she had to conserve her magic for what was about to come) enough that it ignored everyone else and wheeled about until it was facing down Sunset, ready for a charge.

Sunset grinned. Watch closely, my lady, and marvel at what a great team we are.

She held out her hands and stretched out all her power, wrapping it around the karkadann's head like a lasso and pulling down hard upon it with her telekinesis. It was a struggle, it always was when you were talking about a living target, especially one as strong as this one. The karkadann fought back, it resisted, it tried to rear up, it tried to move its neck. But gradually, inch by excruciating inch and foot by exhausting foot as sweat dripped from her every orifice Sunset forced this monster's head downwards until...until the lance-like horn was pointing straight at her.

Pyrrha and Jaune were circling around the karkadann now, Jaune closer and Pyrrha at a greater distance, but the beast didn't notice either of them. No more did it notice Cinder or Lady Nikos, who waited warily but did not interfere. All that it noticed was Sunset, whom it stared at with naked hatred in its eyes.

And it charged at her. Sunset was only holding its head down, not the rest of it still. It charged at her, intent upon smashing through her aura and impaling her upon its massive horn.

Sunset let it come. She let it come as the earth shook and its feet pounded on the ground. She let it come and then, at the last moment, she turned aside and grabbed the onward-thrusting horn with both hands and she held on.

She held on as the serrated edge tore at her aura. She held on as the karkadann fought to raise its head. She cast a leaden-weight spell on her feet to weigh them down, she cast a heavy-gravity spell upon herself for good measure, she gasped and panted for breath as she felt her magic disappearing at an alarming rate and she held on.

"Pyrrha, now!"

For Pyrrha Nikos, time seemed to slow as she charged forward across the grass. There was no hesitation. No doubt. They had planned this, they had practiced this, and it was going to work. In a few heartbeats, this would be over. She felt as she had felt so often in the arena, when had she had seen with perfect clarity what needed to happen and all that remained was to make it so, when her heartbeat slowed to a calm pulse and all the world slowed with it.

One heartbeat, two heartbeats.

Her loping gait carried her across the grass. Akuou was slung across her back and Milo was in sword form in her hand.

Three heartbeats.

"Pyrrha, catch!" Jaune cried as he threw his own sword towards her. Pyrrha caught it deftly in her off hand.

Four heartbeats.

Pyrrha leapt into the air. Jaune lifted his shield up over his head, his knees bending.

Five heartbeats.

Pyrrha landed gracefully upon Jaune's shield, resting both her feet upon it like a diving board.

Six heartbeats.

Pyrrha's knees bent, and she felt - rather than saw - Jaune's semblance stimulating her aura, strengthening her legs, increasing the power at her command. He bent, and she bent, and her legs overflowed with power.

Seven heartbeats.

Pyrrha leapt. Jaune rose up, using his whole body to fling her upwards even as Pyrrha jumped with a strength enhanced by Jaune's stimulation of her aura.

Eight heartbeats, nine heartbeats.

Pyrrha rose into the air, a cool sensation washing over her face. She closed her eyes.

Nine heartbeats.

Pyrrha opened her eyes again as her leap carried her upwards. She began to twist her body with a grace that a gymnast or dancer might have envied.

Ten heartbeats.

Pyrrha began to fall.

And as she fell, she span.

She descended, spinning in the air as she did so, the light glinting off her swords as she fell like a thunderbolt from heaven upon the neck of the karkadann and spinning sliced clean through its neck until she landed with a pounding thump upon her feet and the grimm's lifeless trunk thumped to the ground beside her.

Sunset let go of the creature's head as it began to dissolve into smoke.

Then she whooped as she raised her hands. "And that," she declared. "Is how team Sapphire does it!"

Cinder clapped her hands together once. "A formidable performance," she said. "No doubt with your fourth member present you would be more formidable still."

Pyrrha's eyes narrowed. Cinder Fall had never been less than polite, but nevertheless there was something about her that Pyrrha didn't like. Actually there was more than one thing, and Pyrrha could name them: her arrogance, her unabashed contempt for other people, a philosophy that left Pyrrha wondering why someone like her would want to become a huntress...and perhaps too the many uncomfortable ways that she reminded Pyrrha of Sunset. What Sunset had been, what she might become again. Pyrrha didn't want to lose her friend to the influence of one who was too like her comfort; nor did she really want to be reminded of what Sunset had been. Sunset...Pyrrha meant no insult to say that she felt as though Sunset needed the company of the good to be good and Cinder Fall had too much about her that seemed not good to Pyrrha for Pyrrha to feel easy in her company.

Her thoughts were derailed from that, however, by the approach of her mother.

Pyrrha's back straightened. "Mother."

Her mother was silent a moment. "Your individual skill has not improved since I last observed you."

"No, mother."

"But that last...your forethought is to be commended as your coordination is to be envied. Well done. Well done, all of you."

It was all that Pyrrha could do not to sag with relief. "Thank you, mother."

"Yes, thank you, my lady, you honour us with your praise," Sunset said, bowing.

"I honour you with nothing but your deserving."

"That is kindly said, my lady," Sunset replied. She grinned as she straightened up.

"Something amuses you, Miss Shimmer?"

"I was just thinking, my lady," Sunset said. "How disappointed Ruby's going to be when she finds out she missed this."

Leonardo Lionheart slouched forwards, resting his head in his hands. “I, uh, I’m sorry that things didn’t work out like you planned.”

Cinder smirked as she sat on his desk. “Sorry, Leo? What do you have to be sorry about?” He was probably sorry about a great many things, starting with his decision to get involved in their cause, but he was smart enough – and too much of a coward – to say that to her face.

He looked confused. “You mean…you’re not upset?”

“Why would I be upset? What did you think I wanted to happen out there?”

“I thought…” Lionheart’s voice trembled. “I thought you meant to lure poor Pyrrha-“

“Poor Pyrrha?” Cinder asked mockingly.

“I’ve known her since she was a girl,” Lionheart murmured apologetically. “Must she-“

“Yes,” Cinder declared, because Pyrrha was the kind of person whose death she would enjoy, possessing the self-righteousness that only those born with silver spoon in hand possessed. The kind who reminded Cinder of her stepsisters. “You were saying?”

“I thought you meant to lure her out there so that you could…murder her.”

Cinder’s laughter was high and cold. “Oh, Leo. Sometimes you can be so narrow-minded. I didn’t bring the karkadann here so that I could kill them.” In truth, if the karkadann had stood on the verge of victory then she wouldn’t have been averse to finishing the three of them off while they were defenceless, but she had never considered that to be a particularly likely possibility. SAPR had already proved themselves to be formidable opponents to the White Fang, she hadn’t pinned all of her hopes on the idea that, even shorn of the R, a single grimm however powerful would be a match for them. “Do you really think that I was foolish enough to bet all my plans on the fact that ‘poor’ Pyrrha’s team-mates wouldn’t come with her? That they would stand idle while I lured their best fighter into an ambush?”

“Then why-“

“I wanted information,” Cinder said. “I wanted to see for myself what they were like, what they were capable of. And I did.” She felt confident in saying that she hadn’t seen everything from the SAPR box of tricks just yet, but she had seen a few of the good ones all the same. She had seen how fast they were, how strong, how well coordinated. She had seen enough of Sunset’s ‘semblance’ to know that it was magic, strong, but not as powerful as hers would be once she acquired the other half of the Fall Maiden’s power. Versatile, though; versatile enough for her to consider acquiring that power for herself if she could.

But that was for the future. For now…all three of them were going on the list. The list of those that might be useful pawns for the unwitting execution of her plans…and those that she would have to eliminate once they had come to the end of their usefulness to her.

It was a pity that Sunset would have to die. It was a strange thought, of a kind that did not often occur to Cinder Fall, but it struck her all the same. Jaune Arc’s life or death meant nothing to her, and Pyrrha Nikos was the kind of person that she hated the most, but Sunset…she was different. Looking at Sunset Shimmer, talking to her…it was like looking in a mirror. A slightly cracked and refracted mirror, but nonetheless…there were times she felt as though she was looking at the road not taken, or perhaps just someone…someone she could have called friend, had they met under different, earlier circumstances.

But it was too late for that now. Her course was set, her destiny was fixed, all that remained was to ride the coming storm and let it carry her to power.

And of course, that uncanny similarity between them was exactly why Sunset Shimmer had to die. The day was coming when Cinder Fall would look down upon the kingdoms of the world as the possessor of them, and all the people huddled down below would tremble in fear of her judgement. And when that day came she would suffer no imitators, no rivals, no lesser Cinder’s to detract from her light.

There would be only her, alone at the head of all things, Salem’s voice and right hand upon the earth.

A maiden for all seasons.

But until then…until it became necessary to eliminate her it might be fun to find out…what friendship felt like.

And after that, you might say, nothing much else really happened.

Not quite true, of course; plenty of things happened to fill up their days: training, seeing the sights and delights of Mistral, but nothing comparable to hunting a grimm across the pasturelands around the city, nothing worth an extended or a detailed telling.

Much as her fellow elites of Mistral might have hated Pyrrha for being the tallest poppy in the field - and Sunset found that she took a degree of bizarre and twisted comfort from the fact that such a fate could still befall you even if you were the nicest, kindest and most generous soul that ever lived, thus proving to her own satisfaction at least that she had not been loathed by the entire student body of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns solely or even entirely because of her obnoxious personality - this hate did not stop them from acknowledging or sucking up to the Nikos family, or from that family continuing to enjoy the kind of perks associated with the rich and powerful: complementary tickets to the theatre, invitations to galas and fashion shows and charity balls. While Sunset didn't join Pyrrha at all of them - and she used her experience of Canterlot to guide Jaune in which functions were likely to be fun and which intensely boring - it was nice to go along to some of these things and soak up the Mistralian culture, to dress up a little and remember a time when her life had been a blizzard of events just like these.

I think this place is making me homesick.

You know that the offer to come home is always open, right? I mean, as much as the magic mirror allows, I suppose. Do you know when it will be open next at your end?

No, but I'm sure Celestia knows when it will open next at your end. Not that it matters. There's a difference between being homesick and wanting to come home.

I know what you mean. I didn't realise how much I missed my brother until I found out that he was getting married.

That sounds more like jealousy to me.

I was not- you're impossible.

Oh, calm down, I'm just messing with you. How did you get on with the fiancée?

Great! It turned out she used to my foalsitter

I thought your foalsitter was the princess of love? Sunset blinked. Your brother married the princess of love, didn't he?

Yes

Sunset snorted. Very royal. Are you going to marry your children to their children so you can keep keeping it in the family?

That's disgusting, even if was just a joke. And besides, I'm not even thinking about a colt-friend yet.

When people say 'I'm not looking for a colt-friend yet' it usually means they can't get a date. Which surprises me, quite frankly.

Does it now?

Yeah, I thought you'd be getting offers all over the place, being a princess and all.

Nopony really cares about that.

They would if you moved back to Canterlot.

I don't plan on doing that any time soon. Not on a permanent basis, anyway. Sunset, can I ask you something?

I don't guarantee an answer to any question, but go ahead.

Pyrrha Nikos, Ruby Rose and Jaune Arc, those are your team-mates, yes?

Sunset frowned. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I already told you that. Did you forget?

No. It's just that Pyrrha Nikos and Ruby Rose are Royal Guards in Canterlot, and they have a friend named Jaune Arc who lives there too.

Sunset's eyebrows rose. Is he a royal guard too?

No, I gather that he tried to get in but failed. Apparently he's a Hero for Hire.

Sunset couldn't suppress the grin on her face. He's a what?

That's what he calls himself: Jaune Arc, Hero for Hire. Ponies come to him with their problems and he tries to help them. I think it's very admirable, really.

Sunset sniggered. Surely that depends on what the problems are. Is he rescuing kidnap victims or getting cats down out of trees?

Well, Ruby and Pyrrha told me they check up on him from time to time and make sure he doesn't get in over his head, so I doubt he's facing off against real villains, but frankly I don't see that that matters, so long as he's doing something to make life better for those around him.

Sunset considered that. In her mind it mattered because there was a difference between actually being a hero worthy of the name and just playing pretend, but she could also see Twilight's point, kind of. In Equestria there wasn't a lot of call for the kind of feats of arms that were expected from huntsmen and huntresses, so it was doubtful that the Jaune of Equestria would be facing off against anyone or anything truly scary, certainly not as frightening as the monsters that her Jaune fought against here in Remnant. Which was probably a good thing for him, all things considered.

Maybe, but Hero for Hire is still a pretty ridiculous thing to call yourself if you ask me.

It might work better in the plural. But that's not the point, the point is how amazing it is that there are doppelgangers of your comrades living here in Equestria!

It would be amazing if it was more than just coincidence.

I'm sure that you know as well as I do how improbable a coincidence like this is, but even if the names were a coincidence, then surely the fact that the Jaunes of Remnant and Equestria both have a desire to be heroes, that the Pyrrhas and Rubys of Remnant and Equestria are both driven to protect others even at the cost of themselves, that cannot possibly be a coincidence.

And you know as well as I do that three examples does not prove a pattern.

Aren't you excited by this?

I'm finding it very hard to wrap my head around the idea of this, whatever this is. She understood what Twilight was getting at but when she tried to comprehend it she just...it was too much. Everyone on Remnant had a counterpart in Equestria, and vice versa? How? Why? Were they not separate worlds, joined only by a single portal? Or were they separate planes of reality, intimately linked but with travel between them nigh-impossible. And how joined were they? Had the human and the pony Jaune, Ruby, Pyrrha been born at the exact same moment on two different worlds? Would they die at the same time as one another too? If Sunset's Pyrrha fell in battle then would pony Pyrrha drop dead at her guard post for no discernible reason or would she continue shorn of her double like a shadow without a body? It was too much, too much to take in, too much to think about, too much to contemplate all in a single sitting like this.

It was...it verged on horrifying. Sunset had always taken comfort from the idea of an inexorable destiny: that every step she took, every failure that she might seem to suffer was, in reality, leading her inevitably towards a greater and more glorious future. But this...Sunset could see now why Pyrrha took comfort rather in the idea of a destiny that she would create for herself out of her own choices and effort. Because if what Twilight was suggesting was true then what price agency? What control did any of them have over their own lives, when even the names they gave to their children were pre-ordained and put into their minds by some external force. It was terrible. And what of Sunset herself? Was there some other Sunset Shimmer out there somewhere, another her she hadn't met, living another life...or was it the same life, driven by the same ambitions which would inevitably come into conflict with her own. Was Sunset a usurper in this world, or worse? If the two Sunsets met would the paradox of their contract destroy reality or had Sunset destroyed her alternate by venturing into this world from her own? What was the meaning of anything that she had done, what was the point of doing anything else when...Can we talk about something else, please? I really don't want to think about this.

Twilight obliged, though Sunset could tell that she was a little disappointed that Sunset didn't share her intellectual curiosity; but as far as Sunset was concerned it was all very well for her, she wasn't the one having her world turned upside down. Or at least she wasn't the one who was thinking about it that way. Still, fittingly for a princess of friendship, Twilight did the friendly thing and let the matter drop and the two moved on - or back - to Canterlot and exchanging reminiscences of their time there, borne out of the way that Mistral stirred such memories of the place in Sunset.

She tried very hard to forget everything else about other Jaunes and other Pyrrhas and heroes for hire, all of it. She put it from her mind as she sparred, as Pyrrha showed them around Mistral, as she attended fancy functions.

Sometimes Pyrrha's mother watched them as they sparred, sometimes she even offered pointers to Jaune or Sunset. And then, one day near the end of vacation, she called Pyrrha into her study.

Pyrrha remained standing as her mother sat down, and her mother did not invite her to do otherwise. She stood with impeccable posture before her mother's desk and said nothing, and waited.

"I have decided," her mother said. "To allow you to return to Beacon for the Summer Semester."

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "Was that ever in doubt?"

"Considerably, when you first returned home," Mother replied without a trace of shame or embarrassment. "After what happened to you at Beacon I was far from convinced that it was the right academy for you after all, or that your team-mates were the right comrades for you for the next four years."

"They're not just my team-mates, they're my friends," Pyrrha said, because the thought of being yanked away from them now frightened her as no grimm or tournament match had managed to do. She felt as though she had only just begun to step out of the darkness and into the light of something brighter and more beautiful than she could possibly have imagined only to find that her mother had been contemplating shutting the door upon her this entire time that she had been back. Losing Jaune, Ruby, Sunset...the fact that it wasn't going to happen was almost irrelevant compared to the fact that her mother had contemplated doing this to her at all.

"You're feelings for them are irrelevant," Mother said sharply. "Friendship does not make a champion, or a warrior. No one will be remembered long after their death for how affable and good-natured they were, for how many friends they had."

"Their friends will remember them, with love and great fondness," Pyrrha replied.

"And when those friends are gone then so will all memory of the friend that they remembered so fondly," Mother declared. "But a light dedicated to the pursuit of glory will light a flame eternal."

"A cold fire, mother," Pyrrha said. "One that gives no warmth."

Her mother stared at her, her green eyes cold. "I think your team leader, Miss Shimmer, might disagree with you."

"I like and respect Sunset, but I don't agree with her about everything," Pyrrha said. "Do you...do you wish that you had a daughter more like her than you do?"

"You are my daughter, the greatest warrior born in Mistral for generations, a fact I would not chance for anything," Mother said. "I simply wish you would show more appreciation of the gifts the gods have blessed you with."

Pyrrha furrowed her brow. "Is this what you wanted to talk to Sunset about, when you summoned her into your study."

"It was."

"You told Sunset that you were thinking of keeping me here long before you ever told me." It was not a question, but a statement of fact.

"There was nothing that you could have done to change my mind."

"Then what did change your mind?"

"Your companions proved their worth to me," Mother said. "Mister Arc's skill at arms leaves a great deal to be desired, but he possessed a formidable semblance with which to support you. Miss Shimmer possesses an impressive array of skills. I understand that Miss Rose is a young prodigy. I must admit that it is unlikely you would have such a formidable team at Haven, even if you would not be transferring after one semester. I doubt that Professor Lionheart has three such students in his entire academy."

"No, Mother," Pyrrha agreed. They might not have the same reasons for saying so, but they both agreed and in the present circumstance Pyrrha was inclined to take what she could get. "I think that's unlikely."

Her mother looked down at her desk, her eyes lingering on the photographs that sat there. "Pyrrha...when they told me you had been kidnapped by the White Fang...I was filled with despair."

Pyrrha said nothing, waiting for more to come.

"You have such potential," Mother continued. "You know that, after I was forced to retire from active competition, I became a tutor for a time. No one that I ever taught has such potential as you. And so when they told me what had happened to you I...I despaired that all that you are and all that you could be had been thrown away, that you had thrown it away as your father threw his life away before you."

"Father died doing what he believed in," Pyrrha said softly. "Please, Mother, don't malign him."

Mother shook her head. Her eyes, normally so dry and hard, were moist as if tears had begun to form in them. "What he believed in. Yes, yes, he always did that. Though I begged him not to he insisted that he had to go out into the field or he would be shamed before all the men of Mistral. He had to go, though death awaited him there." She closed her eyes for a moment. "I would you would not go, my daughter."

"I do not seek my death, mother," Pyrrha said, for she felt as though she was only just beginning to live, and she did not desire to give that up so soon. "But nevertheless, I must go. The glories of the arena...my destiny is more than that." She hesitated. "Worthier than that. I must go."

"Or you, too, would be shamed before Mistral?"

"You ask me to appreciate the gifts I have been given, Mother, the talent I have been blessed with," Pyrrha said. "I am. I appreciate them so much that I wish to use them for so much more than to aggrandise myself. I would use them to protect the world, to save it if it can be saved. That is my ambition. That is the destiny that I desire."

Mother produced a handkerchief, and dabbed at her eyes with it. "A lofty goal, to be sure. Yet one well worthy of our noble line and of your talents. Yet tell me, daughter, if you had to choose between your destiny and your companions, your ambitions and those that you call friends, which would you choose?"

Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "I hope I never have to choose."

"As well you may," her mother said. "But wishing will not make it so."

There was a knock on the door.

Sunset paused in the middle of packing her case. “Jaune? Is that you?”

“No,” came the voice of Lady Nikos from the other side of the door. “May I enter, Miss Shimmer?”

Sunset straightened, and turned hastily to face the door. “Of course. Please come in, my lady.”

The door into the guest room opened, and Lady Nikos walked in. The floor creaked a little beneath her stiff gait.

Sunset bowed. “Lady Nikos, you honour me with your presence.”

Lady Nikos sniffed. She did not speak for a moment, but looked around the room as though she were unfamiliar with some part of the furnishing of her own house. “Has my daughter told you the good news?”

“Pyrrha has told us, my lady,” Sunset said. She allowed herself a smile. “I thank you for allowing our goddess of victory with us.”

Lady Nikos stared silently at her for a moment, probably wondering to what extent ‘goddess of victory’ was sarcasm, if to any extent at all.

Sunset’s smile broadened just a little. “We are all of us formidable in our own ways and rights, my lady,” she said. “But it is Pyrrha that our enemies fear by name and sight. She is, amongst much else besides and so much more, a token of our strength and prowess.”

“Indeed,” Lady Nikos murmured. “But she would be so for any team to which she was assigned.”

“We are not any team, my lady.”

“No, you are not,” Lady Nikos replied. “I do not doubt that in time you too will be known and feared by name and sight, Miss Shimmer.”

“Such is my intent, my lady, though I thank you for your confidence.”

“May I ask why you didn’t tell my daughter of my possible plans for her?”

“I saw no reason to, my lady; I was always confident in my ability to impress you sufficiently as to render the possibility null.”

Again Lady Nikos looked at her, as if she could divine what in Sunset’s speech was genuine and what was not.

Good luck with that, my lady.

Lady Nikos smiled, or at least stood upon the verge of it. “You are worthy to stand companion to my daughter.”

“She’s worthy of me too, my lady,” Sunset said, because she had a reputation for ego to keep up.

Lady Nikos ignored the arrogance. “In your home, where you were taught these manners, were you taught any tradition of guest gifts, given by a host when a guest departs?”

Sunset’s eyes narrowed just a tad. “I fear not, my lady. Where I come from a host might give a gift to a dear friend they saw too infrequently, but there is no custom to govern such things.”

“It is an old notion, and little practiced nowadays,” Lady Nikos declared. “Yet you have been a good guest, and I believe that you will appreciate one and make good use of the other.” She reached into the baggy sleeves of her loose-fitting gown, and out of her sleeve she produced a straight dagger, with a blue marbled hilt banded in gold and a small but brightly-gleaming amber set in the pommel. “This dagger was carried by Achates, my grandfather’s most faithful bodyguard, during the Great War. He was carrying it when he was slain by the King of Vale during the Battle of Vacuo. Legend says he stabbed at the king with it, and was the only man on that field to succeed in striking that great warrior. Take it, to defend my daughter at the last resort.”

Sunset’s eyes were wide. Her hands hovered, halfway to the knife as her feelings stood halfway between greed and hesitation. “My lady…you offer me a treasure of your family after so short a time that we have known each other?”

“Don’t be melodramatic girl, I offer you nothing of provenance from the family itself, only our retainers.”

“If you see me as one of Pyrrha’s retainers then perhaps I would do better to refuse the gift.”

“I see you as one of my daughter’s comrades in arms,” Lady Nikos clarified. “I offer this to you because, as my husband used to say, one can never go wrong having a knife for the difficult times.

Sunset did not look at Lady Nikos, but rather at the dagger as her hand closed around the hilt. It fitted her hand well, this relic of the Great War, this weapon of antiquity.

“I will bear it with honour, my lady, that I vow to you.”

“I hope so,” Lady Nikos said, as she produced something else from out of her sleeve. “Although I admit that this may be of slightly more use to you on a day to day basis.”

After the ancient dagger, Sunset had not been expecting a credit card, yet that was the second item that Lady Nikos produced from out of her sleeve.

“There is a sum already added for initial purchases,” Lady Nikos said. “And a smaller amount will be added each month for dust supplies and the like. I will be checking the statements to see that you are spending this on vital equipment.”

Sunset’s gaze flicked rapidly between the card and the face of the older woman. Her voice became a little colder, and more stern. “My lady, just because my means are limited does not mean that I require charity.”

“I would not call this charity.”

“Then what would my lady call it?”

“An investment,” Lady Nikos said. “In a skilled huntress, that the Invincible Girl may have a shield-companion who can fight beside her at the very peak of her effectiveness. You have skill, Miss Shimmer, but you could do more. We have discussed your wearing some armour; I believe that you could profit by the use of dust as well.

“We are fortunate, my daughter is fortunate, to come from an old line rich not only in history but in riches also, but do you know what irks me the most, Miss Shimmer?”

“I cannot imagine, my lady.”

“When ignorant commentators claim that my daughter’s success is wholly down to the privileged circumstances of her birth.”

Sunset considered the point. “I think…were she given the opportunity Pyrrha’s talent would carry her high regardless, my lady, but…if you will excuse me, would she be given the opportunity?”

Lady Nikos did not respond directly. “Greatness should not be constrained by anything so mean as material circumstances. Take the card. Take it, and be all that you have it in you to be.”

Sunset plucked the card from out of Lady Nikos’ hand. “I shall, my lady, and thank you.”

Ruby stood in the dark outside of her house and tried to make herself angry.

She tried really, really hard.

Unfortunately, as much as she might not want to admit it, trying hard doesn’t always mean that you succeed.

And she wasn’t succeeding right now because she just could not make herself angry. She thought angry thoughts – mostly about how unfair it was that she was grounded and had to sneak out in the middle of the night in her pyjamas plus cloak because Dad had gotten the idea that she couldn’t take care of herself, like she could totally take care of herself, she was awesome like hwa! Kah! Hyah! – she screwed her face up into angry expressions; she made angry noises. But nothing happened. Her silver eyes, that were supposed to activate when she felt strong negative emotions, wouldn’t…whatever they were supposed to do. Flare up? Turn on? Anyway, whatever it was they were supposed to do they just weren’t doing it.

So Ruby was standing there, in the dark, shivering a little as she scrunched up her face and went, “Nnnnnnngh! Rrrrrrrrgh!” Why wasn’t it working? Why couldn’t she get angry? Why wouldn’t her silver eyes work like Mom’s diary said they would?

“You know, if you need the bathroom, Rubes, the toilet still works in the house,” Yang said, her voice rich in amusement.

Ruby opened her eyes to see her sister, mostly silhouetted by the light of the torch in her hand that wasn’t quite shining into Ruby’s eyes, but close enough that she couldn’t see much of Yang beyond an outline. Ruby held up one hand to shield her eyes from the light. “Yang? Did Dad send you out here?”

Yang lowered the torch. “If Dad knew you were out here he wouldn’t send me to come get you.”

“How did you know I was here?”

“Big sisters have a way of knowing these things,” Yang said casually. She was wearing a cream jacket over her pyjamas, and had her Ember Celica on over her wrists. She put one hand on her hip and grinned. “So, what are you doing out here, Sis? And why the poop face?”

“It was not a poop face!”

“It was kind of a poop face.”

“Yang!”

“Okay, okay, suit yourself,” Yang said. “So what are you doing out here?”

“I was trying to make myself angry,” Ruby said. “And I didn’t want to do it inside the house in case…you know.”

Yang frowned. “And you wandered out into the middle of the night to try attracting grimm because-“

“Because Mom said that negative emotions like anger would awaken my silver eyes-“

“Ruby!” Yang snapped, and her eyes turned briefly crimson as she took a step forward. “You were out here all alone trying to activate your eyes?”

Ruby leaned back a little. “Uh…no?”

“What if you’d actually attracted grimm?”

“That’s why I didn’t want to do it in the house,” Ruby replied. “And why I brought Crescent Rose.” She held up her weapon, in its compact carbine configuration, for Yang to see.

Yang growled in frustration. “Even if that would work, especially if that would work, did you also remember what Mom said about using silver eyes tiring you out? You remember that she was exhausted after using them with more training and experience than you? What if more grimm showed up after you’d worn yourself out? You could have died!”

“But I have to try something, or else am I going to get it to work?”

Yang’s chest heaved up and down as she took a deep breath. She looked away from Ruby for a moment, and it seemed that she was visibly trying to calm herself down. When she spoke again her voice was quieter, and also kind of uncertain too. “Ruby…look, I know that you think that you have…whatever power it was that Mom had. And maybe you do. But, maybe…I’m not sure that trying to get it, or activate it or whatever the right word is…I’m not sure that it’s a good idea. I’m down with wanting to know what Mom left behind but…just because she did something doesn’t mean that you have to do it do, even if you can.”

Ruby blinked. “I…I don’t understand. Where is this coming from?”

“It’s coming from the fact that you snuck out of the house to turn yourself into grimm bait so that you could switch on a power you don’t know how to use,” Yang said. “It’s coming from the fact that these powers leave you more vulnerable than if you’d done nothing at all. It’s coming from…Ruby, do you remember that day? The day I put you in the little red wagon and told you were going on an adventure.”

Ruby nodded. “But I feel asleep and I missed it.”

“You didn’t miss much,” Yang said. “There was no adventure. I put you in the wagon because I thought I knew where my mom was.”

Ruby’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Yang said. “I found an old photograph, I thought it was a clue to a hideout, somewhere she’d be.”

Somewhere out in the darkness, a crow or raven cawed loudly. Yang jolted as though she’d been shocked, spinning around, her eyes searching the darkness.

“Yang?” Ruby asked. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Yang replied quickly. “Ruby, do you remember when you woke up that day?”

“Uncle Qrow was there.”

“Uncle Qrow’s the only reason we’re still alive,” Yang said. “My mom wasn’t in that cabin, but three beowolves were. It was only because Uncle Qrow had been searching all of Patch since he found out we were gone…only because he found us…that’s the only reason that we’re still here. It’s the only reason you’re still alive. I almost got you killed.”

“Yang-“

“I was so obsessed with finding my mother that I put you in danger,” Yang declared. “I was so stupid! You could have died and for what? So that I could meet the woman who didn’t want me to begin with?”

“Yang,” Ruby repeated gently. She’d never known that before. Yang had never told her and nor had Uncle Qrow. Neither of them would tell her why they’d gone out into the woods, and Uncle Qrow had made her promise not to tell Dad about it, until she’d gotten used to just not talking about it. She hadn’t known what Yang had done…and she didn’t care. It didn’t matter to her. Nothing had happened, they were both still here. So, as far as she was concerned, there wasn’t really anything to get upset over. “It’s okay.”

“No, it isn’t,” Yang said. She took another deep breath. “I don’t want you to make the same mistake that I did. I don’t want you to get obsessed with this…for it to end up costing you everything.”

“Yang…” Ruby murmured. “I get it, but…this isn’t the same. I…okay, so this was stupid, maybe, but…if I can learn how to do this then maybe I can help people.”

“You can help people just fine the way you are,” Yang said. “You’re already one of the best huntresses in our year and you’re two years younger than the rest of us! You don’t need magic eyes to fight the grimm, or to save lives.”

“But maybe I could save more, do more,” Ruby insisted. “Mom thought so, and Professor Ozpin must have thought so too or he wouldn’t have given her special lessons-“

“And he hasn’t offered you any special lessons, has he?” Yang asked. “Maybe that means…maybe that means he changed his mind, decided he was wrong. If what Mom said is true those eyes have weaknesses. Big ones.”

“Only if I’m alone,” Ruby said.

Yang looked at her, gesturing with one hand.

“Okay, I already admitted this was stupid!” Ruby moaned. “But come on! I’ll have my team with me!”

“Your team didn’t save you from getting cut,” Yang said sharply.

“That’s kinda harsh, don’t you think?”

“I think that both your girls must have forgotten the meaning of the word grounded while you were away at Beacon.”

Yang turned around, stepping sideways so that Ruby could see their Dad glowering down at both of them.

“Hey, Dad-“ Yang began.

“Inside,” Dad said. “Now.”

Ruby sat down on the sofa, with Yang beside her. Dad waited until they were both seated and settled before he pulled up a chair and sat down in front of them. His hands rested on his knees as he looked from Ruby to Yang and then back again.

“Does one of you want to tell me what was going on out there?”

“It was my fault, Dad,” Yang said. “I was sneaking out. Ruby tried to stop me, get me to come home before you noticed.”

“No, that’s not-“ Ruby began, because she was a little kid any more and she didn’t need Yang to take the blame for smashing plates or going into the basement or almost setting the kitchen on fire.

“Yes, it is,” Yang said, cutting her off.

“I see,” Dad said. “And where you going, in your PJs?”

“Well, you know…”

“You’re not as bad a liar as your sister, Yang, but that doesn’t mean you’re good at it,” Dad said. He looked at Ruby, and leaned forward a little. “Ruby, what was going on out there?”

Ruby grimaced. “I…I was training.”

“Training?”

“Yeah! I mean, I was trying to.”

“Training what?” Dad asked, looking straight into Ruby’s eyes.

“My…my silver eyes?”

“Your WHAT?” Dad yelled, standing up so quickly that he knocked his chair over. “What…where did you hear that? Who told you that? How do you know about silver eyes?”

“Mom,” Ruby whispered. “Mom told me.”

Dad shook his head in confusion. “What?”

“I…we found a diary,” Ruby said, which was as close to the truth as she could get without getting Sunset into trouble. “Mom’s diary, from her time at Beacon. It talks about silver eyes, it says that she could-“

“I know what you’re mother could do,” Dad said.

“So it’s true?” Yang asked. “It’s real?”

“Of course it’s real, Summer was…it wasn’t even one of the five most special things about your mother.” Dad sighed. “Can I see it? Please?”

“Uh, sure,” Ruby said. She got up, and with swift steps she made her way upstairs from the living room into her bedroom. Dad and Yang followed swiftly behind her, standing in the doorway or nearby.

Ruby crossed to her bed, with her stuffed beowolves looking down on her from the top shelf as she pulled out the little black journal from underneath her pillows. Her fingertips gently scraped the white rose on the dark cover as she held out the book to her father. “Here.”

Dad came to her, reaching out with one strong arm to pluck the diary from out of her hands. He opened it up, flicking through a couple of pages before he stopped and read.

A look that Ruby didn’t know how to really describe came over him, a look that was sad but, more than that at the same time. She didn’t really know what it was, or even how to start saying what it really was, but it kind of reminded her of how Dad had been right after Mom died; as far as Ruby remembered anyway.

He looked at her. “Where did you really get this, Ruby?”

“I, I can’t say.”

“Ruby.”

“I don’t want to get anyone into trouble,” Ruby said. “Please, Dad. It’s real, isn’t it? Mom wrote this.”

Dad looked at her, his face stern. He breathed in, and out. His voice was a little hoarse. “Yes. Yes, she did.” He turned to go, without giving the diary back. “Both of you girls should get back to bed.”

“But Dad…” Ruby trailed off for a moment. “That…aren’t you going to give that back?”

Dad didn’t look back at her. “I…I need to think about that, Ruby. There are things in here…I’m not sure you’re old enough to understand.”

“Like what?” Yang demanded.

“If I told you that it would defeat the point, wouldn’t it?”

“So we’re old enough to be sent out to fight the grimm but too young to know what our mom was like?” Yang replied.

“That’s not what I said!” Dad replied, although the heat in his voice died as soon as it had risen. “I…please, girls, just let me think about it. I need a little time; this…this is so unexpected. Please, just, go to bed. It’s late. We’ll talk more in the morning, I promise.”

Ruby stared at his back for a moment. She wanted the diary back, she didn’t want Dad to take it away from her, to take Mom away from her; but…it was Dad. He didn’t do things just to be mean to her. Even if she didn’t understand why…she understood that he loved her, and that he always would. And so she said, “Okay, Dad. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Yeah,” Dad said, as he walked towards the door. Yang made way for him. Dad paused in the doorway on his way out. “Goodnight,” he said. “I…I love you. Both of you.”

Taiyang Xiao Long slumped down onto the sofa, dumping the diary – Summer’s diary, by the gods – onto the seat beside him as he ran one hand through his unruly blond hair. He listened with half an ear to the girls upstairs. He didn’t think he was going to be getting any sleep tonight, for worrying that they were going to sneak out again.

He didn’t really expect that they would, but…now that they’d done it he couldn’t get the thought out of his mind.

Sneaking out to train her silver eyes. Dammit.

He looked up, and for a moment he thought that he could see Summer looking down on him, her own silver eyes sparkling brightly and so beautiful. This would all have been so much easier if she were here.

But she was gone. She was gone and she had been for years and she was never coming back. And he had to go on without her, somehow.

Tai sighed. Zwei trotted across the wooden floor and hopped up onto the sofa beside him. Tai idly reached out and stroked the dog between the ears, and let Zwei nibble at his fingers, while he looked down at the diary on the other side of him.

It was the real thing. He recognised it from all the times that he’d seen Summer scribbling in it.

She’d left it behind when she went out the last time; she’d stopped taking it out into the field with her in case it got lost or damaged.

‘I know that what I do is dangerous, that’s why this diary isn’t just for me any more. It’s for the girls. It’s so that, if anything happens to me, they’ll still have a piece of me with them. Something that they can read and know who I was, at least a little. Does that make sense?’

Summer had meant for Ruby and Yang to have this. In fact, if she knew that Tai had given it to Ozpin to look after she’d probably be very disappointed in him, or worse angry. But he’d had his reasons. There was more than just stories about Beacon and her life in there, more than just Silver Eyes. Stuff about Salem, about the Maidens and the Relics, about the Circle Everlasting; things that Summer knew that he hadn’t wanted the girls to know.

Tai got up, picking up the diary as he did. “Stay here, keep an eye on them,” he told Zwei, who barked happily in acknowledgement.

Tai wandered out of the house, and though it was the middle of the night his steps carried him through the woods to the cliff, where the white stone waited.

He could see it in the light of the broken moon. The grave marker, the memorial that stood above no bones or body or even any ashes, gleamed in the silver light.

Thus kindly I scatter.

Tai wandered slowly, tremulously, towards the marker. The rose, identical to the mark on the journal, looked up at him as he stood over the memorial stone.

Tai knelt before it, and over the white stone he opened the diary at random. At random, but still some chance or fate decreed that the page he opened should strike him like a dagger to the heart.

Raven’s gone. She just took off and left. A part of me can’t believe that she’d just abandon us like that, after all we know and all that we’ve been through. A part of me is surprised it took so long, she hasn’t been the same for months: nervous, scared even; she had so many doubts. I just wish that I’d been able to convince her to stay.

Or do I? I don’t know. I feel so bad for Tai, and for poor Yang, but at the same time I can’t help but wonder is this my chance? I offered to come over to Tai’s place, to help him out while he works out how to do this Dad thing. Am I hoping that something will happen? Am I being the most pathetic person in the whole of Remnant right now?

I love him. I love him so much, more than I’ve ever love anyone in my whole life; and Yang is such a cutie, I can’t believe that anyone would willingly leave her behind. How Raven could have a family as wonderful as she had and then throw it away, I just don’t get it.

Even if it is pathetic of me to act this way, to feel this way; if I get the chance I won’t make the same mistake.

“But you did,” Tai said, as tears fell from his eyes. “You did, Summer. You left us. And I know that wasn’t your fault but…I wish you were here. I miss you. We all miss you.

“What should I do, Summer? I don’t want them to get involved in this, I don’t want them…I don’t want to lose them like I lost you. But…is that right? Should I…what should I do, Summer? What should I do?”

“Still crying, I see. You always did let your emotions out without fear. It’s pathetic…but sweet at the same time. It’s part of the reason I fell in love with you.”

Tai wiped his eyes with the back of one hand as he stood up. “Those little moments were you stopped fronting and let me know how you really felt, that’s the reason I fell in love with you.”

“And here I thought it was my hot body.”

Tai turned around. “It’s been a long time, Raven.”

“For you, maybe,” Raven said. She folded her arms across her chest. “You should give that back.”

“There are things in here that they’re too young to know.”

“We’re always too young to be told that the world is going to end and there’s nothing we can do about it,” Raven said. “But better that they find that out for themselves than have Ozpin sugarcoat it for them until he’s got them believing that they have a chance.”

“That’s bleak,” Tai murmured. “Summer didn’t believe it was hopeless.”

“Summer’s dead, what does that tell you?” Raven snapped. Her crimson eyes widened. “I’m sorry, that was…too cruel. You can’t protect the girls forever, Tai.”

“I can protect them for a little longer, Ruby’s only fifteen.”

“If you wanted to protect her then you shouldn’t have let her go to Beacon,” Raven said.

“Ruby was out in the middle of the night trying to train her silver eyes.”

“I know. It was kind of funny to see how hopeless she was.”

“I didn’t want her to know anything about that,” Tai said. “Stuff like that is what got Summer killed.”

“Trusting Ozpin is what got Summer killed, and the girls will make the same mistake if something isn’t done to arm them against it,” Raven declared. “That’s why they need to learn the truth from their mother.”

“They’re too young-“

“Ozpin isn’t going to wait, and neither is Salem!” Raven said, almost shouting now. “I may not be a part of this war but I hear things. Maybe more than you do, hiding way out here.”

“I’m not-“

“Don’t lie to me, Tai, you could never pull it off,” Raven said derisively. “You’re hiding just as much as I am, the difference is I admit that I ran away from the fight. But I still have eyes and ears. Salem’s on the move, she means to end this and that means Ozpin is going to have to try and respond. He’ll need new fighters, strong ones.”

“Like a silver eyed warrior,” Tai murmured.

Raven nodded. “He’ll try and recruit Ruby, maybe Yang too. He’ll convince them, the way that he convinced us.” She scowled momentarily. “This isn’t a fight that can be won. Ozpin is going to fail, Beacon is going to fall and when it does the girls will fall with it, fail with him…unless they know the truth. Give it back to them Tai. If nothing else, they deserve to hear their mother’s voice.”

Tai looked back at the memorial for a moment. “What do you care, Raven? Why do you care about any of this?”

Raven looked away. “Summer…she always believed in me. She always believe that I could be…better.”

“She believed in all of us,” Tai said. “That was who she was.”

“I know,” Raven said. “I’m a thief. I take things that don’t belong to me. Sometimes I even take lives. But there are times…I know that if Summer were still alive she’d be disappointed in me, but there are times…I’d like to prove she wasn’t totally wrong about everything, or everyone.”

Silence descended between them, and the only sounds in the night were the hooting and shrieking of the owls in the trees.

“I’ll give the diary back to Ruby,” Tai said.

“It’s the right decision,” Raven said.

“I hope so,” Tai murmured.

Raven drew her sword. “You’re a good father, Taiyang,” she said, as she slashed open a portal. “Don’t ever let yourself think differently.”

Pyrrha wasn't exactly clear on how all of this had started. One moment Ruby was flicking food at her sister from across the dining hall, the next minute Sunset - dripping cream off her face from the pie that had struck her - had planted her foot on the desk and yelled something that sounded like 'It. Is. On!' and then...Pyrrha was especially fuzzy on the and then, but, well...now YDRN, WSTW and BLBL had piled up the tables into a vast barricade at one end of the dining hall - with Nora perched precariously at the very top, and all the rest ranged about below like her guards - and she was charging up the hall with a breadstick in her hand and that must have happened somehow even if she wasn't certain exactly.

All she knew was that, as ridiculous as it might seem, it was also rather exhilarating.
It was probably exhilarating precisely because it was so ridiculous. She hadn't felt this rush of giddy enthusiasm during a tournament in years.

But, as her dozen opponents armed themselves with various foodstuffs - it was an unusual lunch selection today, with whole watermelons and roast turkeys and cream pies and all kinds of things she hadn't seen at all during the first semester - she felt it now, and she smiled in anticipation.

Nora pointed magisterially down the hall at the advancing Team SAPR. "Get them, my minions! Attack!"
"Minions?" Weiss demanded sceptically, but in spite of that the members of the three teams - most of them at least - leapt forward in obedience to Nora's command, snatching up watermelons from the tables in front of them and hurling them at Pyrrha in a great barrage.

Pyrrha grunted as she leapt through the air, slicing the first watermelon clean in two. It's bisected halves landed on the floor at the same time as Pyrrha did. She spun on her toe, slicing two more watermelons into halves, obliterating a third with a strike that shattered it into fragments as red as blood, kicking one back at her opponents where Yang shattered it with a punch. Pyrrha shattered another watermelon, bisected another, her face and her clothes were getting covered in sticky red watermelon juice but she didn't care because this was gloriously silly - her 'enemies' were hocking watermelons at her, for gods' sake, and she was fighting back with a baguette roll - like nothing that she'd ever done before.

The watermelon barrage continued, but suddenly every single one of the swollen green fruits that had been launched through the air at Pyrrha stopped, sticking in the air, held their by some vast invisible hand.

Pyrrha glanced over her shoulder. Sunset stood just behind her, one hand outstretched, her brow furrowed with concentration. With her free hand she scraped some residue of cream pie out of her two-tone hair, and gazed down at the mess on her fingertips as a result.

She winked at Pyrrha, and smirked wickedly at their opponents. "I'll show you queen of the castle." She jerked her hand forwards, just a little, and all of the watermelons were hurled backwards upon those who had first hurled them like a great wave descending on the shore. The members of the three teams scrambled for cover, or just to get out of the way. Cardin upended a table to duck behind, Weiss grabbed a raw swordfish and impaled two watermelons upon the point, Flash simply took the hits from three without so much as flinching; most dodged, but Sky Lark and Russell Thrush weren't so lucky: both were struck hard enough to hurl them backwards and across the floor, where they lay in moaning, twitching lumps.

Lyra and Bon Bon were the first to charge. The former had a breadstick like Pyrrha, but Bon Bon looked to have attached a string of sausages to a turkey using celery sticks, while the other end of the sausages were wrapped around her hand.

Until the moment when she started using her bizarre weapon like a flail, unrolling the string of sausages as she threw the turkey at Pyrrha.

Pyrrha dodged, but the sound of an impact and a cry from Jaune told her that Bon Bon's strike had found a mark.
"Jaune, no!" Ruby cried. "You will be avenged!"
Bon Bon whirled her sausage-turkey flail around her head, her expression intense as she threw it at Pyrrha a second time. Pyrrha leapt, her whole body turning in mid-flight until she was upside down, her long ponytail falling. She could see the sausages beneath her, taut as they reached the limits of their length.

And Pyrrha reached out and grabbed them with her free hand.
She landed on the ground, and pulled before Bon Bon could react.
The other end of the sausage string was still wrapped around Bon Bon's wrist and she was yanked forwards, her eyes bulging as she flew like an arrow straight into Pyrrha's breadstick as she slammed it into Bon Bon's face.

Pyrrha let go of the sausages as Bon Bon flew backwards towards the barricade of tables.
Lyra attacked, her breadstick held in both hands. Pyrrha parried her first few slashes easily, then went on the attack, driving Lyra backwards as she beat down the other girls guard. She prepared a finishing strike-

Blake descended upon Pyrrha from above, a breadstick held in each hand. Pyrrha parried. Blake was scowling with the effort but Pyrrha was smiling because who would have thought that something like this could be so much fun?

They separated, each backing off a step, raising their breadsticks into their guard of preference. Then they charged.
Blake had been holding out on them, Pyrrha realised as they clashed, bread striking bread in a cacophonous rhythm of dull thumps ringing in an increasingly high tempo. She'd never seemed that skilled a fighter in their sparring class - not that she ever seemed bad, but she never came across as particularly brilliant either - but she was making Pyrrha work for this. Whenever Pyrrha thought that she'd gotten in a decisive blow it turned out to be a clone which dissolved like shadow once struck, and only at that point could she see the real Blake about to hit her from the side, or sense her presence behind her. Pyrrha parried every blow, and forced Blake back with her counters, but it was a slighter margin of error then she was used to dealing with. Blake had definitely been holding back.

It was honestly a little bit of a relief when Lyra re-joined the contest. Two vs one wasn't ideal, but Lyra provided a fixed point to focus on, restricing the places that Blake could be, and when Pyrrha focussed on Lyra she made Blake focus on protect her team-mate, and that shut down Blake's options yet further. Not quite enough, as the fight continued. Bread thumped against bread: slash, parry, counter. Pyrrha wasn't losing, but she wasn't exactly winning either.

She spotted Bon Bon picking herself up off the floor and preparing to re-join the fight. Three against one would be far from perfect.

Pyrrha leapt, back flipping away from Blake and Lyra to land on one of the tables. Her feet scattered trays and dishes in all directions. She reversed her grip on the breadstick and threw it at Bon Bon like a javelin. It flew straight and true and hit her squarely in the forehead, knocking her down again.

Pyrrha jumped down off the table as Blake and Lyra came for her, snatching up another breadstick to replace the one she'd thrown away.

A sound from behind distracted her for a moment, she glanced, then turned her head as Ruby came surfing along the row of tables, riding a dinner tray, scattering everything in her path down onto the floor in two messy troughs before she and her tray made a flying leap off the table straight at Lyra. Lyra raised her breadstick to parry desperately, but when the tray struck her and Ruby kicked off it, she was sent flying backwards across the hall, knocking tables and chairs askew as she went until she crashed through the far window and out into the grounds somewhere.

A look of glee settled upon Ruby's face...right up until Blake attacked her in mid-air, hitting her with a flurry of blows that hammered her into the nearest pillar hard enough to crack it.

Pyrrha dashed across the dining hall, leaping over the nearest table, discarding her breadstick as she scooped Ruby up in her arms and carried her out of the way of the collapsing pillar. She placed the unconscious Ruby, her eyes closed, her face childlike in repose, gently on the ground.

Then she got up, and glared at Blake.
Blake glared right back as she settled once more into her guard.
Pyrrha charged, picking up breadsticks one after the other and hurling them at Blake in a baked rain. Blake batted a few aside with her own twin rolls, then black flipped out of the way as three baguette rolls buried themselves in the floor where she had just been stand. Pyrrha grabbed a tray, dumping its contents on the floor, and spun one foot after the other before she threw it straight at Blake Belladonna. Blake dodged the ungainly object, contorting her body as it flew past. Unfortunately she had contorted her body in such a way as to leave her open as Pyrrha descended upon her, breadstick in hand. She twisted, trying to regain her balance. Pyrrha didn't give her the chance. She struck Blake once, twice, three times, knocking her up into the air. Pyrrha leapt after her, and leapt above. Blake looked up at her. Pyrrha hammered her down. Blake landed on a table that shattered beneath the impact of her, and all that had been on the table shot upwards like an explosion before half-burying Blake beneath it.

Pyrrha landed. She saw Sunset, arms outstretched, levitating an enormous quantity of stuff - trays, plates, turkeys, watermelons, breadsticks, pies, cakes, even chairs and the tables themselves - while Cardin, Flash and a back-on-his-feet Russell looked on in wide-eyed horror.

Sunset threw her hands forward, and upon the command of that swift gesture all the things that she had levitated to hang abover herself shot forward like a river in spate. Russell wailed as he tried to run. Cardin swiped futilely with a turkey stuck on a breadstick as though he could swat everything that threatened him away. Flash braced himself against the floor, grabbed a dinner tray to use as a shield, and prepared to take it head on.

The storm broke upon them. Cardin and Russell were swept away by it, carried away by the tide of dinner and furniture until it bore them into the wall. Flash stood against the hurricane for a while, not seeming to feel it at all as turkeys slammed into him, as plates shattered against his tray. That must be his semblance, Pyrrha realised. Some kind of shock absorption that lets him take hits without flinching. But it had limits, and when Sunset hit him with an entire table it was enough to knock him sprawling.

Weiss leapt through the storm, jumping from tray to chair to table and then to the next tray, flying through the midst of Sunset's tempest as though it were nothing at all. Sunset tried to hit her with the detritus of her assault, she tried to keep the wave of debris swirling in motion so that Weiss would lose her footing and fall, but Weiss skipped through it all as though everything had been placed perfectly to give her places to jump off, and she descended upon Sunset with a swordfish in hand.

Sunset flung out one hand, and flagpole flew from the wall and into her grasp. She wielded it two-handed, like a staff or a spear, and with it she parried Weiss' first flurry of lunges as she landed on the floor.

Weiss drove Sunset back. Although Sunset worked hard in her training, and her hand to hand skills were improving constantly, she was no match for Weiss' well-honed skills with a sword, or even a sword-fish. The dead creature, eyes glassy and mouth agape with surprise as it must have been when it was hauled out of the water, flickered forwards in a series of silver flashes, rattling against Sunset's staff as Weiss drove her hard in a series of perfectly poised, well-honed lunges. Weiss grabbed a bottle of ketchup off the nearest table and squirted it out on the floor in a wide arc, skating over the crimson substance with a dancer's grace, getting behind Sunset who, by contrast, flailed in an ungainly manner for balance on the suddenly wet and sticky floor. Weiss struck for Sunset's exposed back-

Sunset teleported away, and the instantly she re-appeared she surrounded herself with a howling vortex of food and plates and the remains of smashed chairs, all of it swept up from the floor around her, all of it swirling around Sunset as though she stood in the centre of a tornado, protected as if by one of her shields from any approach of her enemies.

Or so she thought.

Weiss stared at this maelstrom of detritus for a moment. Then, grim-faced, she attacked. She leapt through the vortex, not only passing through it but using it. She attacked Sunset from every direction, using the very debris that Sunset had counted on to shield her as her springboards, leaping down at her from precarious footings, balancing on the most unlikely of objections, battering Sunset from all sides, hammering her left and right and up into the air as the vortex she had created died around her.

And as Sunset began to fall she found Nora waiting for her, with a flagpole of her own and a watermelon spiked to the top of it.

Nora grinned as she punted Sunset so hard that the watermelon shattered and Sunset was hurled through the ceiling and into the blue sky above.

There was a momentary pause as everyone waited to see if she would come down again.

She did, after a little while, crashing back through the ceiling in a different place, making a second hole in roof, landing in a clatter of debris and with her face in a conveniently placed custard pie. She rolled over onto her side and then stopped moving, although she did groan occasionally.

And Pyrrha was left alone. One against five.

This never happened on the tournament circuit.

Pyrrha smiled. This was all so exciting!

She grabbed an armful of baguettes as she made a rolling leap, dodging a pair of turkeys flung at her by Yang - although a pained 'why?' from poor Jaune told her that he had once again taken a blow meant for her - as she started throwing them at each of her opponents. She caught Weiss and Dove, knocking them down, but Ren dodged and Nora and Yang simply batted the makeshift missiles aside.

And then they came for her.

Ren was quick, Nora was strong; Yang was both fast and strong if not as fast as Pyrrha normally. Together they made one hell of a team. Pyrrha squirmed, striking out in all directions with her bread roll to fend of their assaults. Nora's windups took a while, but Yang was so agile that Pyrrha rarely had the chance to take advantage of it. She couldn't even really parry punches or hammer blows, she just had to focus on keeping one step ahead as the water-melon - Nora had found another one - hammer slammed into the ground again and again and Yang tried to punch her in the face with her turkey gloves. She managed to take out Ren, the weakest link, catching him across the jaw with a solid blow that sent him flying.

And the moment after she did so Yang punched her in the face.

Pyrrha rolled along the floor, ending up spreadeagled on what felt like the one patch of floor that didn't have a mess on it.

She looked up in time to see Ruby start to run.

Ruby didn't have a weapon. She wasn't even using a tray this time. But she ran forwards, trailing clouds of rose-petals behind her until she transformed into a cloud of rose petals surrounding a red blur, a blur that spun in the air as it flew, and as it spun it gathered up everything, absolutely everything smaller than a person in the dining hall until there was a hurricane trailing Ruby, a hurricane that gathered up all eleven members of YRDN, WSTW and BLBL - Lyra was outside somewhere - and slammed them against the far wall so hard it cracked as the discarded lunches and soda cans hit the wall all around them until they were all covered in multi-coloured mess painted on the wall that, if you squinted, sort of resembled Ruby's rose emblem.

Ruby came to a halt as the members of the other team slid down the wall onto the floor.

Pyrrha picked herself up. She surveyed the devastation all around her. She looked at the other students on the floor. And then she started to laugh.

"I don't think," she said. "That I have ever had so much fun in my entire life."

"Ugh, speak for yourself," Sunset groaned. She lifted her head up. "So...did we win?"