SAPR

by Scipio Smith

Premature Celebration (New)

Premature Celebration

The attack took the form of a single pack of beowolves.

A pretty large pack, all things considered, twenty or maybe even thirty beowolves, but still just one pack. One pack, under a single alpha, breaking out of the dark to rush the Atlesian line, roaring and howling.

Their roars and howls of anger were swiftly drowned out by the gunfire that erupted from across the Atlesian line as the Military Huntsman of the Fourth Battalion and neighbouring troops from the Third opened up on the grimm with everything they had.

Starlight fired too, snapping off shot after shot with Equaliser, blue bolts flying through the air.

The beowolves were large — this was not a pack full of the young — and it took several shots even from Equaliser to bring them down, they soaked up bullets; it took a rocket to get a clean kill or a shot from the cannons of a Paladin. But, though it took a hail of rifle and machine gun fire, though it took multiple bolts from Starlight's rifle, though it took Trixie unleashing a torrent of fire from the tip of her wand, amplified by wind dust from Sunburst's staff to create a inferno erupting out to engulf the grimm, though it took all of that to bring them down, the beowolves were brought down. They died, and not a single one of them managed to reach the Atlesian line before they died.

The sound of shooting made Starlight look down the line, to where a single ursa major, alone and unsupported, was withering under sustained fire. It tried to lumber forward in spite of that, bullets and rockets slamming into it, before eventually, it stopped walking, swayed in place like a drunken man, and toppled down dead onto the ground.

"Is it me," Sun said, "or has this gotten a lot easier lately?"

"It's not just you," Starlight replied.

Recently — and it was very recent; until then, they had felt quite hard-pressed — the grimm had seemed to lose their coordination. The last mass wave of grimm to charge the Atlesian line in all its fury, the kind of wall of black with bony masks of the kind that Team TTSS had faced at the fairground, had been defeated, repulsed. Repulsed with some cost, but not with such great cost that it had left the line in jeopardy of falling. The Third was not so well positioned as the Fourth behind its rampart, but it had held its ground and could have held its ground for at least one more, two more, some more attacks just like that. Maybe it couldn't have held the line all night against such furious assaults, but it hadn't been in imminent danger of snapping like an elastic band that had been stretched out too many times either. There was strength in the Third Battalion yet, vigour to hold back another all-out grimm attack, especially since their spider droids on the back line had gotten into position and were able to provide some fire support, hurling shells and missiles over the Atlesian line to burst amongst the grimm in front of them.

That, in turn, meant that the airships, no longer the only source of fire support for the infantry in front, were able to devote some more of their fire to protecting themselves against the flying grimm that tried to swarm them. Missiles flew from the hulls of cruisers to hit nevermores and griffons on the wing, consuming them in fire or knocking them out of the sky where they turned to ash before they hit the ground.

They had held, and they had it in them to keep holding against other similar attacks.

If there had been another attack like it.

But there hadn't been. The enormous waves of grimm that had crashed against the line had stopped, and instead, there had been a lot of tiny little piecemeal attacks, small groups of grimm rushing out of the night on their own, without any other grimm supporting them: a pack of beowolves here, some ursai there, a group of creeps, a goliath or two. In place of unified hammer blows, the grimm were making pinpricks which didn't even prick because, by exposing themselves to such concentrated fire from across the Atlesian line, the grimm only ensured that they got shot down before they got anywhere near it. None of these attacks had wounded anyone, much less killed them. The only thing that they had maybe done was use up some Atlesian ammunition, and there was plenty more where that came from — even Starlight had power packs to keep on firing, and she'd have more trouble replenishing her supplies than most.

It wasn't a numbers issue. There were still plenty of grimm out there; she could hear them. She could see them, some of them, not attacking, but close enough to catch enough of a look to tell that they were still present in numbers. It wasn't like they'd killed them all and only a few stragglers remained to be mopped up. Nobody had pulled an Ozpin-like semblance — if that was his semblance, which Starlight doubted; she thought it was more likely to be some kind of magic, maybe even a Maiden's magic, though she couldn't work out who the Maiden who had unleashed the magic might be. That Ruby girl? Starlight hadn't seen her during the battle — out of nowhere to destroy the grimm but this time leave a few of them standing, no. The horde was still a horde, or at least it was still as large as a horde, still numerous and powerful, still with a lot of grimm to throw at them.

Not a numbers issue then, more like a loss of all cohesion, a loss of coordination, a loss of control. They were like an army where communications had broken down and the officers were too headstrong to follow the plan that had been laid out for them, like Mistralian armies where it had been difficult to order great lords and their followers around simply because they were great lords and so they did what they wanted as often as not.

It was like that, only it had happened all of a sudden, in the middle of a battle.

"Do you think it’s possible," Rarity murmured, "that they might be planning something?"

"Planning what?" Trixie asked, looking at her over her shoulder.

“I’ve really no idea,” Rarity admitted. “But to make us let our guards down?”

Trixie paused. "We don't do that, obviously," she said. "The Grrrreat Team Tsunami shall remain ever vigilant, ever prepared, ever ready to resist the darkness!" She raised her wand up above her head. "But Trixie doesn't think that's likely. Considering how they've been attacking up until now, it's a little late for them to start trying to act weak, don't you think?"

"Maybe they've given up?" Sun suggested. "Maybe they don't think they can break through here, so they're … all attacking the Mistralians, maybe?"

"Except that they're not all attacking the Mistralians," Starlight pointed. "They're attacking here; they're just doing it badly." Now it was her turn to pause for a second. "I've gotta wonder if this is Dash and Blake's doing?"

"Blake?" Sun asked. "What does Blake have to do with this?"

"Maybe nothing, I don't know," Starlight admitted. "But Rainbow Dash, Blake, and Ciel Soleil took off in an airship in the middle of a battle, and then, not long after … I'm just saying, one thing that could explain the grimm falling to pieces like this is the Apex Alpha going down. That would also explain what's going on over there." She gestured behind them and to the east, where the fire from the Fourth Battalion on the ramparts and the walls had not slackened off in intensity one bit. While the small arms of the Third Battalion had fallen silent, and only the spider droids and the mortars were continuing to harass the grimm with indirect fire, up on the ramparts, the gunfire sounded as loud as ever. "They don't sound as though they're getting the same break as us, do they?"

Sun frowned. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I think Rainbow, Blake, and Ciel took out the leader of the horde on this side, which is why we're getting a respite," Starlight explained. "The grimm here have no leader to direct them, so they're all just doing their own thing without any organisation — and so much better for us. The grimm to the north, though, they're still a horde, they still have their Apex Alpha, so that's why the attack's still going strong."

Sun scratched the side of his head with one hand. "Okay, but … why can't the Apex Alpha that's still alive just take over the other horde as well?"

"Maybe they will," Sunburst said. "But it seems like they can't do it straight away. To be honest, more than one horde at the same time is so rare, we don't really know how it all works."

"I guess," said Sun. "Do you really think they did that? Blake did that?"

"It makes sense, right?" Starlight asked. "Plus, if General Ironwood was going to ask anyone to do that, he'd ask Dash and Blake."

"Although Team Tsunami could have done it just as easily as they could, if the General had asked us instead," declared Trixie.

Starlight smiled. "Green isn't your colour, Trix."

"Trixie was just saying!"

"Whether or not anyone else could have done it," Maud said softly, "if they did it, it's impressive work."

"Yeah, really impressive," Sun replied. "Makes me wish I could have gotten here just a little faster; then I could have gone with them."

"Think of it like this," Starlight said, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "You're here now to be the first one to congratulate Blake when she gets back."

---

General Ironwood studied the displays on the screen in front of him, abstracted images showing the state of the battlefield — Atlesian lines in white, icons denoting the positions of cruisers, black masses representing the concentrations of the grimm — combined with drone footage of the actual battle itself. It looked, from his elevated perspective, as though the attacks on the Third Battalion, holding the flank of the Atlesian line, were slackening off, even as attacks on the Fourth and First in front were continuing at the same level of intensity.

On the right hand side of the selection of images, a single camera from a single drone was still capturing the action of the Beacon and Haven students. They, too, looked to be having a slightly easier time of it, despite the loss of the Mistralian battleship.

He hadn't heard from Dash yet — possibly because he was on a call — but what he was seeing was giving him hope that she, Belladonna, and Soleil had been successful in their mission.

Now, if only he heard from them to confirm that was the case — and that they had come through it okay — then he would be well satisfied.

Yes, from his perspective, the battle appeared to be shifting in their favour; now, he wanted to hear what the eyes on the ground thought about it.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, although as it happened, he was only addressing one lady. "Situation report, if you please."

"The position is holding," said Colonel Redfern Buller of the First Squadron. "I've shifted the Thunderchild to the right to provide additional cover for the Fourth following the loss of the Gallant, and since the Emerald Forest seems pretty quiet, I've stripped out two platoons from First Company to reinforce the centre of the line. I think the grimm in the woods must have given everything they had to that attack on Beacon."

"Perhaps," Ironwood allowed. "But do you need both platoons for your centre to hold?"

"They weren't doing much where they were, sir," replied Buller.

"All the same, I don't want our left flank to collapse because we got complacent," Ironwood replied. "Move one platoon back to the left just in case, unless you think there's an imminent danger of a grimm breakthrough." After all, until Ozpin had set off his … whatever it was that he'd actually done, grimm had been continuing to emerge out of the woods to try and scale the cliffs; it was a lot to hope that they'd just reached the end of that particular concentration when Ozpin had done his thing and killed them all. More likely, they had either slipped out of the forest to join the main assault on the Green Line, or they were biding their time, waiting for more favourable circumstances to attack again elsewhere.

Or their Apex Alpha had died at Beacon, and the grimm left in the forest were leaderless, disorganised and incapable of further offensive action tonight. That was also a possibility.

Not a possibility that he wanted to count on, however. It would be a fine thing to hold their right flank only to get turned on the left.

"Yes, sir," Buller said. "I'll pass the order to Dunnett at once."

"The Fourth is holding strong as well, sir," Harper added. "We've had a couple of close calls, but I've got to say, those kids have really been showing their mettle."

Ironwood smiled, for all that he knew that none of the senior officers, all speaking to him by voice only, could see it. "I'm not surprised, Colonel, but I'm glad to hear it all the same. Any concerns?"

"With Gallant down and Resolution damaged, I've only got Courageous and Vigilant for cruiser support," Harper reminded him. "I'm grateful for the assistance from Thunderchild — thank you, Colonel — but … we'll make do, sir. My main concern is that there just doesn't seem to be an end to the bastards."

"How are you fixed for ammunition?" Ironwood asked.

"I've just sent for another drop from our supply ship," Harper said. "So long as we don't lose the skies, I think we'll manage."

"Understood," Ironwood said. "Palmer, from observation, it looks as though the grimm are slacking off; is that how it feels?"

"It certainly seems so at the moment, General," replied Colonel Ohrid Palmer of the Third Squadron. "My infantry weathered the initial grimm assaults, but I was worried that it might be touch and go if they kept on throwing themselves at us with that much ferocity; however, it seems to have died down; we're only seeing sporadic attacks against our line by small forces, nothing that we can't handle. The Lady must be smiling on us."

"Perhaps she knows she still has some worshippers in the ranks," Ironwood replied. "Harper, in light of the fact that the danger to the right flank appears to have reduced, and the fact that the Third is present to hold that flank, move your Military Huntsman company to face front and reinforce your line. Palmer, shift your battalion leftwards to take over that position and continue to cover the right flank of Fourth Battalion. To that end, I also want you to move the Audacious over the pivot point between the two units to cover both battalions and partially compensate for the loss of Gallant."

"I could do more than that, if necessary, sir," Palmer suggested.

"I'm sure you could, but like with our left, I don't want to take too big of a risk in case the grimm come back," Ironwood said. "Keep the bulk of your squadron facing right, ready to meet any future attacks, large or small."

"Yes, sir."

"How's morale?" Ironwood asked.

"Very good, sir," Palmer replied.

"High," Harper said. "But a little tiredness might be starting to set in."

"It's the same here, sir," added Buller.

"That's unfortunate, but it can't be helped," Ironwood said. "Remind them that the night won't last forever. The dawn will come, and with it, a chance for respite. They just need to stick it out for a while longer."

"And if the attack continues tomorrow, sir?" asked Buller.

"I don't think that's likely, Colonel," Ironwood said. If what Cinder Fall said is true, then Salem is aiming to get the Relic tonight, and all of this is just window dressing for that. "The grimm won't continue to attack until all of them are dead; once it becomes clear that they can't breach our line, then they'll start to slink away."

Certainly, if his instinct was correct, and Dash, Belladonna, and Soleil had successfully completed their mission, then come morning, the horde on the right, leaderless, would start to dissolve into its component groups — indeed, the loss of coordination in the attack was a sign that it had already started to do so — and some of those packs would retreat to easier hunting grounds. Others might remain, trying to occupy a plot of land beyond the Green Line as their territory, but they could be easily dealt with in detail, and even if the other horde remained intact, it would be vulnerable at that point to a flank attack.

"I hope you're right, sir," said Buller.

"So do I, Buller, so do I," Ironwood replied. He took a breath. "While the losses suffered so far are regrettable, it appears that the plans devised and measures put in place before this battle began are working. All of you continue to hold fast, and both we and Vale will live to see another day. And tell the men and women how proud I am of them."

"Yes, sir," the three commanding officers chorused at once.

"That's all; I'll let you get back to it. Ironwood out."

"A good night, sir," said Fitzjames. "One for the annals."

"It's not over yet, Fitzjames," Ironwood replied. "But yes, so far, it's been a good night."

"Sir," des Voeux said, "Cadet Dash is hailing. I think she's been trying to reach you for some time, but you—"

"Put her through," Ironwood said at once. "Dash?"

"Mission complete, sir," Dash said simply.

"Bravo!" declared Fitzjames, as a triumphant whoop rippled across the Valiant's CIC.

Ironwood chuckled. "As you might have just heard, Dash, you've made the bridge officers very happy."

"Glad we could help, sir," Dash said.

"Cough! Cough!" said a female voice that Ironwood didn't recognise.

"Yes, Nora, I'm gonna tell him," Dash said. She cleared her throat. "Sir, we ran into some Beacon students on top of the hill — that's where we found the Apex Alpha — who'd had the same idea as you. We couldn't have done it without them."

"I see," Ironwood said. "Since it seems they can all hear me: did Ozpin send you?"

"Um, no, sir," murmured another young woman, not the one who had said 'cough.' "It just seemed like a good idea at the time."

"It seems it was a good idea," Ironwood observed. "Congratulations, all of you. Any casualties or injuries?"

"No, sir," Dash said. "We're all good."

Ironwood relaxed his hands, clasped behind his back, a fraction. "Excellent. Come home, Dash."

"Yes, sir, but if I can just drop the Beacon students off first?"

"Of course," Ironwood said. "Then return to Fourth Battalion HQ."

"Aye aye, sir," Dash said. "Dash out."

Ironwood allowed himself a momentary glance upwards, at the brightly lit metallic ceiling of the bridge.

So they had done it. They had done it, and they had done so without casualties or injuries.

It occurred to him that perhaps he should have asked for the names of the Beacon students, so he could have passed them onto Ozpin.

Ah, well; no doubt, the word of their accomplishment would reach Ozpin somehow, at some point. 'Nora' and the other students would be the talk of Beacon tomorrow. Miss Nikos and her tournament victory would be put in the shade.

One horde effectively neutralised, another drastically reduced in number and seemingly quiescent for now, and the last stymied in its frontal assault on the Atlesian positions. Amity Arena protected, Beacon defended, the Valish Defence Force neutralised. They were victorious on all fronts.

As Fitzjames had said, a good night.

Is this all that you have, Salem? Ironwood wondered. Is this all that you can throw at us?

Come with your monsters, come with your fury, come in the dark of the night and beat against us like a hurricane, like waves upon the shore, and we will meet you with such fire as you cannot dream of, with such destructive power as all your grimm hordes cannot match. Against teeth and claws, we will match all the latest technological advancements — and the bravest men and women you've ever seen to wield them.

Send all your grimm from every corner of Remnant, and we will shock them.

So what else have you got?

---

The cyclops fell to the ground with an almighty crash.

As it began to turn to ashes and smoke, Pyrrha extracted Miló from out of its eye.

She looked around her for her next opponent — or next victim.

She found … none.

Pyrrha stood on the far side of the wreckage of the Dingyuan, or at least for the most part, she did. The detritus of the explosion had been flung too far, it had scattered too widely, for Pyrrha to say that she had gone beyond all of it — there were still some twisted pieces and fragments out there, half buried in the earth — but she had passed beyond the bulk of the wreckage, beyond the smouldering shell that remained of the once-proud vessel, beyond the half-intact compartments and the most major fragments; she was, it could fairly be said, on the far side of the ship. She, and Arslan, and others, having plunged into the remains of the battleship in order to fight the grimm on a more even footing, without the horde being able to bring its vast numbers to bear, had fought their way through the debris, slaying every grimm that they had come across along the way, and now, they had come out of the ship and stood beyond it, with only a few scraps of metal to contest their claim.

Having done all that, having fought so far, the very logic that had driven them into the remains of the vessel in the first place should, by the same token, have led them to have to fall back into it, in the face of the sheer numbers of the grimm that would bear down upon them, with nothing to break up their relentless attack.

And yet, having emerged from the remains of the vessel, having slain the grimm — like the cyclops decomposing at her feet — that confronted them there, they now, like Pyrrha, looked up and found the grimm were gone.

They were not here, or at least, Pyrrha couldn't see them. Her green eyes peered into the darkness before her, scanned the ground around the fires — began by the destruction of the Dingyuan — which continued to faintly burn in the night; she sought for any sign that the moonlight could provide.

Her ears told her that the grimm had not all slipped away; she could still hear them, growling, snarling, snuffling. But their sounds were more muted now than they had been, or so it seemed to Pyrrha, at least. The grimm had been all anger, all fury, and they had let Remnant know of their fury by the bellowing shouts that they had made, by the trumpeting of the goliaths, by the howling of the beowolves; the grimm had come, and they had wanted all to know of their coming, just as they had wanted fear to come before them, carried by the cacophony they made. Now, the grimm sounded quieter, making noise, but making not only less of it, but less aggressive noise besides, the sort of noise they might have made if huntsmen had been hunting them and come upon them by surprise.

And they were out of sight. They stayed out of sight and did not…

Pyrrha's ears pricked up as at least some of the softer sounds of the grimm began to rise again, to become once more angry-sounding and aggressive.

She took a step back, Akoúo̱ raised to cover half her face as a group of beowolves bounded out of the darkness. One swiped at her, but Pyrrha turned the blow aside with her shield before thrusting up with Miló to pierce the snarling grimm through its mouth. The beowolf, feet lifted upward off the ground, hung from Pyrrha's spear like a fish as Pyrrha spun on her toe and hit another beowolf with the body of its fellow monster before it could dissolve.

Miló transformed from spear to sword in her hand, the dissolving body dropping to the ground as Pyrrha turned again, sash fluttering around her, to hack off the forearm of a third beowolf. It howled in pain as Pyrrha stepped forward, slashing across its chest, her arm a blur, before the grimm fell down dead to the ground.

As the second beowolf, the one that she had hit with another grimm, started to rise, Pyrrha flung Akoúo̱ at it; the bronze shield caught the moonlight as it hit the grimm square on the snout hard enough to crack its bone mask, before flying back onto Pyrrha's arm as the beowolf began to dissolve.

And then, once more, there were no grimm to be seen. None willing to come out and fight. None willing to even make the noise to signal such a willingness.

Arslan looked around. "This is a bit odd, isn't it?" She paused. "Or is that we've won?"

"I would say that it is odd," Pyrrha murmured. "You can still hear the grimm out there — we have not killed them all — so why do they not come out and fight?"

Arslan hesitated for a moment. She licked her lips before she said, "Perhaps Jaune and the others did it. I mean, when the Red Lion killed the big grimm, all the others just … I mean, that's the point, isn't it? He killed the leader of the horde, and the horde was broken. The forces of Mistral won the day."

"Yes," Pyrrha agreed. "Yes, that is so."

With the death of the Apex Alpha, the grimm horde that had threatened Kuchinashi had been thrown into confusion, leaderless, listless. The Lady Kommenos of the time, wielding Soteria, had led the forces of Mistral in a charge that broke the grimm, scattering them to the four winds in dribs and drabs and patches.

Perhaps we should charge, as they did, and scatter the grimm before Vale just as they were scattered before Kuchinashi. Pyrrha could not help but think — much as it was somewhat embarrassing to think — that if she were to give the command, if she were to raise Miló above her head and call out 'charge!' then people would probably obey her. They would let out a loud war cry, strike the moon above, and they would plunge into the darkness to take the fight to the grimm.

It was embarrassing, but she might have done it nonetheless if she had been convinced that it was the thing to do. A part of her longed to do it, not to lead the charge but to make it, to rush forward with Miló drawn back and cleave her way through all these grimm until she fought her way to Jaune.

To Jaune, if he had done this. To Jaune and Penny. To where they had all slain the Apex Alpha, if indeed they had — there was no proof, though Arslan's logic was compelling. To fight her way to them, to reach them and find them…

And find them alive, she hoped. In the absence of grimm, in the absence of distraction provided by the grimm, in the absence of immediate struggle to focus the mind and drive of all idle and unhelpful thoughts, those thoughts crowded about her just as the dark of night that made them stand out sharper than they would have in the sun.

The Red Lion had slain the Apex Alpha, broken the grimm horde, saved Kuchinashi, paved the way for the Mistralian victory … and had been found by the Emperor and his bodyguards dead on the ground, and many of his gallant comrades with him, his armour rent and torn, his body covered in wounds.

Two fears had Pyrrha, two fears she felt wrapped around, their hands around her neck, her gilded gorget unable to resist them. The first, that they would be caught as they sought the Apex Alpha, caught and killed even ere they found their quarry; the second, that they would succeed, as it seemed they had succeeded, but be unable to escape, unable to reach the car, unable to get away, unable to return though she climbed Professor Ozpin's tower to watch for him.

Some might call it noble, but that would be a poor balm to Pyrrha's heart even so.

It would soothe my heart no more if you were to perish also, Yang.

The idea of finding Jaune and Penny somewhere out there, of reaching them more swiftly, made the idea of a charge, a mad rush onwards into the suddenly quiescent grimm, a tempting prospect. Even more tempting was the idea of yet more battle to drive out fear and worry from her mind, to hew through the hands about her neck, to be consumed in battle and forget all else beyond the fight; it was far more tempting a prospect than to stand here, listening to grimm that would not attack, wondering where Jaune and Penny where, whether they were on their way back to her or no.

Wishing that she had defied Ruby and dared the swords of Mistral to lose heart from her seeming flight and gone with them.

I picked a fine time to listen to Ruby, didn't I?

But, leaving aside what was too late to change and focussing solely on what could be changed and decided now … this was not the daylight outside Kuchinashi; this was the night outside Vale, and a charge now would risk scattering the huntsmen of Beacon and Haven and leaving them exposed, should the grimm rally.

After all, they didn't yet know for sure that the Apex Alpha was dead. It might be, this behaviour was consistent with it, but it might be a stratagem.

Perhaps the captain of the horde itself wishes us to think them dead to lure us forth, having already…

I cannot think such thoughts, I dare not, I will not.

I will speak only good things 'til they are back.

How she longed for the sight of headlights, how she longed to hear the rumble of an engine instead of the grumbling of the grimm, how she longed for their return.

She did not see headlights, she heard no engine, but she did see an Atlesian Skyray flying towards them, over the heads of the grimm out there in the darkness, who seemed to take no notice or trouble of it.

Why should an Atlesian airship be coming to us?

And why is it coming from that direction?

Pyrrha watched and kept her eyes upon the airship as it came closer and closer, as it descended down onto the grass beyond the wreckage of the Dingyuan. She kept watching as the door opened and—

Pyrrha let out a gasp of joy as she ran forward, her sash flying out behind, her ponytail streaming after her. She reached Jaune and Penny as they dismounted from the airship and embraced them both, putting her arms around them and pulling them close as though she were drowning and they were rocks in the water that would keep her safe.

"You have returned," she said through breaths ragged with relief. "I was…" She trailed off and looked at Jaune, looked into his eyes. She closed her own eyes, as she felt water begin to well up beneath them, and pressed her forehead against his. "I understand now," she said softly, "I comprehend through bitter study what I have put you through at times in this past year. Hating the taste of it has made me contrite. I'm sorry. I understand now how frustrated I've made you."

Once more, she rested her forehead against his and closed her eyes. Slowly, softly, she felt his hand upon her cheek, first his fingertips stroking her skin and then his glove-clad palm.

Pyrrha took her hand from off his back and placed it on his hand instead, to hold it there as she looked up, over his head and towards the Atlesian airship from which he and Penny and Ruby and all the rest had disembarked.

Blake and Ciel stood in the doorway. Ciel wore a fond smile upon her face, though it was only slight; Blake looked a little more amused.

"How is it?" Rainbow Dash called, Pyrrha couldn't see her, but that was undoubtedly her voice emerging from the cockpit.

"All that is to be hoped for in happy union," Ciel replied.

"How?" Pyrrha murmured. "How did—?"

"Parallel missions," Blake explained. "We were after the Apex Alpha too. We have to get back to the Atlesian line, but good luck!"

"You too!" Yang called as the airship began to rise once more into the air, the door sliding closed to obscure Blake and Ciel from sight.

"You did it then?" Pyrrha asked. "I … should not have fretted."

"Yes," Penny said. "We did it, although I'm glad they were there with their airship." She paused. "So, what happens now?"

"We counterattack," declared Ruby. "While they're vulnerable."

The earth trembled beneath their feet. Pyrrha shook, Nora stumbled, Jaune lost his footing and fell into Pyrrha's arms as the wreckage of the Dingyuan was shaken violently from side to side.

"What the—?" Yang explained, as she flung out her arms on either side of her for balance. "Are the grimm doing this?"

Ruby buried Crescent Rose's blade in the earth to give herself something to hold onto. "What grimm?" she asked, as the earth trembled. "And how?"

---

Up in the air, if only a little way, Rainbow didn't feel anything — but from out of the cockpit, she could see the earth beginning to shake down below.

"What in Remnant?"

---

"Sir," Cuningham said, "we're picking up unexpected levels of seismic activity."

"'Seismic activity'?" Ironwood repeated. "An earthquake?"

"Unknown, sir."

"Can you trace the epicentre?" Ironwood asked. An earthquake in the middle of a battle wasn't ideal, but how bad it was depended on the strength. If it ripped through their defences and pulled down the ramparts they'd erected on the Green Line, that would be less than ideal, but anything less than that should be manageable. It would be rough luck for a soldier to get a broken collarbone from a fall on a night like this, but better that than their chest slashed by an ursa's claws.

"It's…" Cuningham fell silent as he worked, fingers flying over his console. "It's coming from southeast of here, sir. Just outside Mountain Glenn."

---

Mountain Glenn had been built at the southern edge of the long range of mountains that acted as Vale's shield, protecting it from encroachment from the east. At the end of the mountain range, just north of the ruins of that dead city, was one of the tallest of those mountains, and in ancient times, it was called the Dragon's Fang, and tales were told of a creature that slumbered there, so old and so strong that even the great knights of Vale feared to challenge it.

Now, the mountain trembled. The mountain shook. If anyone had been standing upon the grey slope, they would surely have been flung aside and fallen to their deaths, if anyone had been watching the mountain from a high vantage in the necropolis, they would have seen it shuddering violently, heard it rumbling like an oncoming storm, seen — if they had gotten closer still in safety — cracks rippling up and down the rock.

They would have seen the mountain begin to flake and fall away, like an egg giving way to the chick beneath.

And as the mountain crumbled, they would have caught a glimpse of bleach white bone, red markings, and a baleful eye as red as blood staring out at them.

If any hypothetical watcher had the courage to remain after that, they would have seen the mountain shake ever more violently, seen more and more rock crumble from the mountainside and tumble downwards to the land below until, eventually, the Dragon's Fang exploded in a shower of rock and dust, thrown up as if by the eruption of a volcano, long dormant, now stirring to life.

But it was no geyser of lava that rose into the skies amidst the debris of its quickening.

It was a grimm dragon.

Comments

[Mastermind4892]

And so the Chiefest of Calamities spoke, “I am fire. I am… Death.”

The people of Remnant think themselves masters of the world. But we are far from the dominant species, we who only have four cities on an entire planet, and so Salem has come to humble us once again. We think our fleets and our Huntresses make us the masters of Remnant?

64.media.tumblr.com/0ecd5eb7fca3186e1b982426e899831d/dfcc6c4a04402669-56/s1280x1920/5ccb4c862331521ff77eb6a7e8b6ba2fd6f4f102.jpg

Who wants to take the first shot?

[Kiue Jin]

Do you think the dragon will bother with the now leaderless horde, or just do its own thing and expect them shut up and follow?

[AngelicTitan]

OH FUCK IT’S HAPPENING!!!!!!!! THE DRAGON AWAKENS AND IS READY TO KILL PEOPLE!!!!!
I am excited as hell to see how the battle against the Dragon will unravel on this version compared to the original! Dear me; our heroes have no time to breath. A victory was done, and then it broke apart as Salem’s unending horde of death show them all its Trump Card.
And where are you throughout everything that’s happening, Sunset? I wonder if she came into complications inside the city but will come forth to face off against the Monster that came forth from her most hated to place in all worlds. Things are heating up, and I am excited to see how things will unravel from here now that we’re approaching the BIG confrontation against the most powerful Grimm.
And so the Dragon flies forth, bringing Death and Flames throughout Vale, and with it, our heroes shall feel the weight of the world.

[Stet709]

Oh shoot, the Wyvern...
Premature celebration indeed.
The Wyvern will be dropping grimm in droves, possibly overwhelming our heroes.
Will Penny still slay the dragon this time? Big thing about her doing it in the original is it basically dispelled any doubt of her being good since, in the original, her true nature was revealed/leaked to the public but not here in the rewrite. Maybe here, Penny slaying the dragon will show the Atlesian council fruits of their investment in lieu of Penny dropping out of the Vytal tournament. I mean, Sunset kinda already proved herself with assisting the First Councillor stop a war. Speaking of...

Come on, Sunset, where are you? Last time we saw her, she jumped off of a medical frigate back into Vale with no aura (not that her landing strategy needs aura, only magic via teleportation)

[Scipio Smith]

11902836

11902845
Sunset is in the next chapter.

[Mastermind4892]

11902845
I'm looking forward to it myself. Much as I adore seeing the characters of Remnant shine and transcend to new heights, this is a crossover. In narratives such as this, we see how ripples are spread through the Butterfly Effect. Tonight, we see a culmination of everything that Sunset Shimmer brings to the table, to the war against Salem. As I mentioned in the chapter with Ozpin's ruminations, she is now Ozma's wildcard. A desperately-needed game changer.

So far, she was able to resolve the Siren crisis (an Equestrian element) in a way only she alone could accomplish. Now, only Salem's plans remain. So then, how will Sunset change the game in Salem's war?

EDIT: While I doubt it will happen, I would adore seeing Sunset Wakanda-style throw a spear of her Dispel Magic and one-shot the Grimm Dragon.

[Stet709]

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I feel that would take a lot of magic anyway. I mean, in the original, Sunset estimated that dispelling the grimm composed of ursai and beowolves took two thirds to three quarters of her magic, with very little magic to do it again, and Ruby's silver eyes, full of emotion, only petrified the Wyvern in canon V3. I could see Sunset using her hybrid Fail Safe spell, people questioning if she could do it again (much like with Ozpin) and her denying it, saying only after a recharge, but maybe having enough to take the Wyvern down with help.