To A Successful Mission
“Sunset,” Ruby cried. “What are you eating?”
Sunset blinked in surprise and ostentatiously studied the two slices of bread in her hand. “It’s a sandwich,” she announced flatly.
“It’s got nothing in it!” Ruby complained.
“Don’t be ridiculous; it’s got watercress and celery in it.”
“'Watercress and celery'!” Ruby repeated, her tone aghast. “That’s not a sandwich filling; that… that’s nothing. You’re eating an air sandwich!”
Sunset rolled her eyes and ignored Ruby’s opinion on her diet as she bit into the sandwich; the celery had a satisfying crunch as her teeth drove through the slices.
“I’m not altogether sure of Ruby’s motives for speaking out,” Twilight said softly, “but she does have a point. Did you know that celery is one of the only foods which consumes more energy to eat than you get back from consuming it?”
Sunset looked at her. “So… you’re saying that I’m losing weight by sitting here and eating this?”
“No,” Twilight said. “If you were only eating celery, that might be true, but bread definitely does not follow the same rule.”
“Pity,” Sunset commented dryly.
Rainbow snorted. “Concerned about your figure?”
Sunset raised one eyebrow in her direction. “Who wouldn’t want to look this good?”
“Get some muscle on your arms like me and Pyrrha, and then we can talk about looking good,” Rainbow bragged.
“You think you look better than me?” Sunset asked. She chuckled to herself as she took another bite out of her sandwich. “Dream on.”
“What, you think you’ve got something that I don’t?”
“I think that I’ve had a steady relationship and you haven’t,” Sunset said. And I didn’t get Flash on my winning personality.
Rainbow shook her head vigorously from side to side as she dug into her grilled cheese and meatball toastie. “I,” she declared, oblivious to the little bit of grilled cheese and meatball sauce dangling down the corner of her lip, “could get anyone I wanted to.”
“Oh yeah?” Sunset asked.
“Yeah,” Rainbow replied, as Twilight dabbed at the corner of her lip with a napkin.
“Go on, then.”
Rainbow hesitated for a moment. “I… don’t want to,” she said as Sunset jeered at her.
“You are both idiots,” Blake muttered.
“Yeah, I mean, who eats celery without peanut butter?” Sun asked.
“I do,” Sunset said. “Does anyone have a problem with that?”
“I don’t have a problem,” Sun replied. “I just think it’s weird.”
Sunset rolled her eyes and focussed on finishing off the remains of her sandwich.
In spite of the discussion, the tone in the dorm room was affable, friendly, and comfortable; in fact, it was only in that comfortable atmosphere that you could say the things that had been flying between Rainbow and Sunset without worrying about the kind of offence that would leave scars. She wouldn’t have brought up Flash in front of people she didn’t trust, for fear that they would use it against her; it would have been very easy for Rainbow to have pointed out that her long-term relationship ended in failure and social humiliation. But she didn’t, because there was a difference between banter and being a jackass, and they all knew each other well enough to stay on the right side of said line.
Mostly. Nobody really knew Sun that well, or not as well as they knew one another, but he was Blake’s boyfriend, and he had been on the train mission, and it would have been its own kind of jackassery to have excluded him just because he was a relative newcomer to the group.
Plus, the word was that his own team hadn’t taken kindly to him sneaking off to be with Blake, so it might possibly have been extra harsh to have excluded him from tonight.
And, again, he had been on the train mission, and as much as a part of tonight was about sharing secrets, it was also about celebrating an operation which, for all its flaws, had been a great success when taken in the round. It would have been churlish not to have included in their victory feast someone who had been there when they gained the victory.
The room was crowded, but not oppressively so; there was enough room for everybody: Sunset and Blake knelt cross-legged on Blake’s bed, that had been Sunset’s bed until she so generously gave it up; Sun sat on the floor beside the bed, his head almost but not quite in Blake’s lap; Pyrrha and Jaune sat side by side upon the window seat; while Ciel sat on Pyrrha’s bed in a fashion like a lady riding side-saddle upon a horse; Rainbow, Twilight, Ruby, and Penny sat on the floor, in two pairs on either side of the door; Ruby and Penny were closer to the bathroom, Rainbow and Twilight to the far wall where their initials were carved.
This disposition meant that there was space on the floor for the food and mostly room to reach it when you wanted more; the plates were paper, which combined with the food on offer to lend a festival air to proceedings as people moved back and forth across the room to refill plates that became progressively greasier and greasier until they became unusable and had to be exchanged for something else.
The levels of cooking ability across the two teams – and Sun – varied considerably: Jaune could add ‘good cook’ to his ever-growing list of talents to balance out his inexperience as a huntsman; Ruby had an old family cookie recipe, which was no less an old family recipe for having apparently originated with her mother; Blake knew a few things about how to cook and serve fish which had the carnivores amongst the company in raptures; Twilight had apologised that her cakes were not as good as Pinkie’s, but not as good as Pinkie’s was a high bar to fall short of; Pyrrha was inexperienced but eager to learn; on the other hand, Sunset had never cooked before and had no intention of starting now, and she had seen what happened the last time Rainbow tried to bake and was grateful that she hadn’t tried again.
It had to be said that a lot of the food didn’t particularly appeal to Sunset’s palate – the chicken pieces with that seasoning on some of it and that coating on the rest, the tuna in that pungent sauce, the meatball toasties, the sausage rolls – they all left her cold, and so, she left them well alone. But her friends were aware enough of her tastes that she was not devoid of things to eat besides the controversial watercress and celery sandwiches: there were cucumber sandwiches too, but there was homemade slaw, jacket potatoes, beans, macaroni, cookies, and cakes.
Yes, there was quite enough that Sunset didn’t feel as though she was missing out by not eating of the flesh of another living creature.
“So,” Blake began, “did anyone else in here know that Sunset was a monarchist?”
“You want to talk about this now?” Sunset demanded.
Blake shrugged. “We’re all here.”
Rainbow swallowed. “I didn’t know that,” she said, “but now that you’ve said it, it doesn’t surprise me.”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Penny asked.
“It… isn’t really good or bad, I think,” Ruby ventured. “It’s just… a little weird.”
“It is a little bad,” Pyrrha sighed, her face beginning to redden, “if this is going where I think it may be going.”
“Where is it going?” Twilight said. “What do you mean by ‘a monarchist’?”
“She called Pyrrha’s mother ‘the rightful Empress of Mistral,’” Blake said.
“Which she is,” Sunset insisted.
“No,” Pyrrha murmured. “No, she isn’t.”
“The Emperor of Mistral laid down his crown at the end of the Great War, as did the King of Mantle and the Queen of Vacuo,” Ciel pointed out.
“The crown as a thing of gold, adorned with jewels, may be removed,” Sunset allowed. “It may be thrown away or melted down or laid at the feet of a greater conquering sovereign, but the crown, the weight of majesty of state, the royal rights and duties are not so lightly put aside.” Snatch Princess Celestia’s crown from off her head, tear the heavy necklace from around her throat, hurl her golden slippers into the fire, yet she will remain Princess Celestia. For a throne exists not only upon a dais in a palace, a crown is not just a gleaming diadem; throne and crown alike are forged and fashioned in the hearts of little ponies everywhere who accept – nay, who embrace – the princess as their sovereign.
And so it is in Remnant also. Though the race be changed, that remains the same.
“Are they not?” Ciel inquired. “It seems to me that the three kings did both, for none ruled in Mistral, Mantle, or Vacuo thereafter; they had not only laid aside their ornaments but their burdens too.”
“Let’s not pretend that they did it voluntarily,” Sunset replied. “They were forced to do by the King of Vale-”
“The King gave up his crown, too,” Pyrrha reminded Sunset. “Having established peace amongst all four nations and set up a system that would preserve that peace, he laid down his own crown and authority both and retired to the newly founded Beacon Academy.”
“Really?” Jaune said. “The King of Vale lived here?”
Pyrrha’s tone was fond as she said, “Jaune, he was the first Headmaster of the school. Doctor Oobleck covered that last semester.”
“Right,” Jaune said. “Thank you… for reminding me.” He laughed nervously. “No wonder I didn’t do so well on that test.”
“Yes, the King retired from the affairs of state and contented himself with the affairs of running the academy,” Sunset said, “while the four kingdoms were given over to lesser men.”
“Do you have to phrase it like that?” Blake asked.
Sunset looked at her. “That Mistralian historian you and Pyrrha have read described the period after the Great War as the world moving from a theatre of giants to a pantomime of dwarfs.”
“Yes, he did,” Blake said, “but that doesn’t mean I have to agree with him, and I don’t have to like hearing you say it. It sounds… wrong.”
“So the reason you wanted to talk about it is to convince me that I was wrong?” Sunset asked.
“You are wrong!” Blake insisted. “You can’t just talk about ‘lesser’ people as though you’re somehow different from the rest of them. You can’t just declare yourself better than everyone else-”
“Too late for that,” Rainbow muttered.
“I’m being serious!” Blake cried. “Pyrrha, I mean no offence, but your ancestor was a slaver. He kept my people as slaves. Why should someone like that, why should any one person, be allowed to rule over others, to make decisions that affect their lives and deaths? Why should so much power be bestowed upon someone who hasn’t earned it?”
“Because they do earn it, or they should,” Sunset said. “I admit that some of the kings and queens of the four kingdoms might have been a little less than perfect, but the ideal monarchy is so much grander and more glorious than even the ideal republic.”
“That’s because it is an ideal,” Blake said. “It doesn’t exist.”
“Ideals can exist,” Ciel declared. “Atlas is an ideal, a dream that we have conjured amongst the clouds and, with toil and hardship, made that dream a reality.”
“You might be working towards it,” Blake allowed, “but I’m not sure you’re there quite yet.”
“Okay, you want an example of a thing that exists?” Sunset demanded. “Pyrrha.”
“Please don’t bring me into this,” Pyrrha groaned.
“Pyrrha is training to become a huntress,” Sunset said. “Pyrrha is training so that she can defend her people; Pyrrha has defended her people against the karkadann when no other would.”
“That’s not very fair, Sunset; no one else could,” Ruby corrected. “Because they were all away. Not that you weren’t really brave, Pyrrha-”
“Believe me, Ruby, I quite understand what you’re saying.”
“Pyrrha behaved as the scion of a royal line ought,” Sunset asserted. “Meanwhile, what did the Councillors of Mistral do?”
“They asked Pyrrha to handle it,” Jaune said. “Do you think they should have gone out and fought it themselves?”
“Not necessarily, but come on, look at First Councillor Aris,” Sunset said. “She’s in power because she talks a good game and knows how to make lavish promises, but Ruby says that she starved the provinces of huntsmen for the longest time, and then when the White Fang started prowling around the city, she has done absolutely nothing to stop it. We in this room have done more to keep Vale safe than those who lead it.”
“That’s our job,” Ruby said. “Or at least it’s the job that we’re training for.”
“What is everybody talking about?” Penny asked. “I’m lost.”
“That makes two of us,” Sun admitted.
“Sunset doesn’t think that ordinary people should be able to decide who gets to be in charge,” Rainbow explained. “She’s wrong.”
“Am I?” Sunset asked.
“Yes,” Rainbow insisted. “Robyn Hill has never been elected to the Council; instead, we have people like Cadance and the General, good people, smart people. I’d rather have that than some motorbike racer be in charge just because of who his parents were. I know the system seems like it’s set up so that anyone can be successful, but real quality always finds a way to rise to the top.”
“I must confess that I am less sanguine about the political wisdom of the body politic,” Ciel said, “but in the interest of general harmony perhaps we ought to change the subject.”
“Oh, thank goodness for that,” Pyrrha groaned.
“I’m sorry, Pyrrha, I just…” Sunset trailed off. “I’m sorry. But I think what I think.”
“And what you think is…” Blake began.
Sunset frowned at her. “Go on.”
Blake shook her head. “No.”
“Go on,” Sunset insisted.
“Nobody wants to talk about this any more. I’m sorry for bringing it up,” Blake replied. “I should have known that it would spoil the mood.”
Silence descended in the dorm room.
Rainbow’s look passed through discomfort, travelled across guilt very swiftly, and then entered mischievous territory. “You know, the real reason Sunset doesn’t like voting comes down to the time she was voted ‘Biggest Meanie’ in the Combat School yearbook.”
Ruby snorted. “'Biggest Meanie'? You had a category for ‘Biggest Meanie’?”
“No, it wasn’t a real category,” Sunset hissed, “but that didn’t stop everyone from voting for me anyway. Every year.”
“What’s a yearbook?” Penny asked.
“It’s a book produced every year by Combat Schools,” Twilight explained. “Everyone has their picture inside, individually and with their class, and there are details about some of the clubs and sports teams; the upperclassmen get to answer to a few questions about their plans for the future, and all your friends sign the book so you can remember them after you graduate-”
“That all sounds wonderful.”
“And everyone votes for their fellow students to win superlative categories,” Twilight carried on. “Like 'Best Smile' or 'Class Clown' or 'Greatest and Powerfulest.'”
“Or 'Biggest Meanie,'” Sunset muttered.
“That last one doesn’t sound very nice,” Penny said.
“It wasn’t,” Sunset growled.
“You kind of deserved it,” Rainbow reminded her.
“Not every year, I didn’t,” Sunset snapped. “Not to mention, Flash and I ought to have been a shoo-in for Cutest Couple, but instead… you know, I can’t even remember who won Cutest Couple, they were that forgettable.”
“Oh, get over it,” Rainbow told her. “Everyone knows those awards don’t really mean anything.”
“Easy for you to say,” Sunset said. “You six got voted Best Friends every single year, and you were voted Most Likely to Succeed in your last year at Canterlot.”
Rainbow’s smile was unspeakably, unbearably smug.
Sunset glanced at Pyrrha. “I bet you were voted Most Likely to Succeed when you graduated Sanctum, weren’t you? No, Most Likely to Succeed and Best All Around.”
Pyrrha mumbled something so quiet that Sunset, even with two extra ears, couldn’t make it out.
“What was that?” Sunset asked.
Pyrrha’s face was flushed bright red. “And… Best Smile,” she confessed.
Sunset snorted. “Well, I won’t say that I can’t see it.”
“Twilight got that one,” Rainbow said, putting one arm around Twilight’s shoulders.
“I still feel like that's really unfair,” Twilight murmured. “Rarity should have won that, or Pinkie.”
“Nah, if you only focus on the smile, I can see that one too,” Sunset said.
“Besides, Pinkie won Class Clown, and Rarity was voted Best Dressed and Best Hair, so it’s not like either of them really missed out,” Rainbow assured her.
“All of this sounds kinda rough on anyone who didn’t get the votes, or who got the wrong votes,” Sun said. “It’s making me glad I didn’t go to combat school.”
“At any school other than Canterlot, you would have been a shoo-in for Class Clown,” Rainbow informed him.
“Is there not a difference between funny and foolish?” Ciel asked.
“Sometimes, sure,” Rainbow agreed. “But sometimes, stupid can be funny.”
“I bet you won something,” Sunset said. “Let me see… your close quarters aren’t good enough for Best All Around… Beauty and Brains.”
Ciel pursed her lips together. “As it happens, I was voted Most Unique. I’m still not certain it was intended as a compliment.”
“So you didn’t go to combat school either, Sun?” Jaune asked.
“Nah,” Sun replied. “I just picked up a few things growing up in Vacuo.”
“What do you mean, either?” Rainbow said. “You didn’t go to combat school?”
Jaune froze for a moment, with the look of someone who had forgotten that not everybody in the room knew his secret. “Well, funny story…” he began.
They ate, they talked, they laughed, and when they had eaten their fill the bin in the corner of the room was full to overflowing, and there were quite a few dishes in the kitchenette sink waiting for somebody to apply some elbow grease – and that person would probably be Sunset, given her lack of contribution so far – once they were done talking.
Right now, however, they had some information to share.
“So,” Sunset said, clapping her hands together. “We've come to the serious bit.”
“For a while,” Rainbow said, her tone subdued.
Sunset shrugged at that. It implied an end to the serious mood that she was not certain would come before evening’s end. She licked her lips and glanced at Ruby where she sat on the floor next to Penny. “Where shall we begin?” she murmured, as much to herself as to anyone else. “Where shall we begin?”
“Magic is real, and Sunset’s got it!” The words burst out of Twilight’s mouth like water gushing through a hole in a dam.
Silence descended on the dorm room. Pyrrha, Jaune, and Ruby – to whom this was not new – waited expectantly for any reaction from the Rosepetals, Blake, and Sun, to whom this was new.
Twilight laughed nervously. “Sorry,” she said. “I just couldn’t hold it in any longer.”
Rainbow Dash blinked rapidly. “It… it’s real? Like real? All of that stuff-”
“Yes!” Twilight cried triumphantly. “All of it is real, I was right, and you owe me an apology for implying that I was crazy!”
“I never implied that you were crazy!”
“You told me that people see things after they hit their heads!”
“That’s a concussion, not craziness!”
“It didn’t feel that way,” Twilight said, quietly and with a touch of sullenness.
“I didn’t… sorry,” Rainbow said. “I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad, I just… didn’t believe you.”
“I know.”
“But you were right?” Rainbow asked. She looked at Sunset. “Twilight was right. It’s all true?”
“I don’t know about all of it,” Sunset said. “I’m not even sure what all of it is – that’s why Twilight got me those books – but magic does exist, and I have some.”
“I don’t understand,” Penny said. “What do you mean when you say 'magic'?”
“That’s what I’d like to know too,” Blake declared, her tone wary. Her ears were pricked up sharply above her head, long and straight like arrowheads. “What do you mean? What are you talking about?”
“In some ways, 'magic' is a lazy catch-all term, for things currently beyond our scientific understanding,” Twilight declared.
“My magic is not beyond scientific understanding; it’s simply beyond scientific knowledge,” Sunset corrected her. In this world, anyway. In Equestrian terms, Twilight’s definition of magic as a kind of dark matter was wholly inaccurate, although she could see how it worked in Remnant. “And it’s going to stay that way,” she added, sweeping her gaze across the room and all its occupants before she focussed on Blake. “Have you never thought that my semblance was strangely wide-ranging?”
Blake’s brow furrowed. “Some semblances are more versatile than others. My clones can be combined with dust to produce a variety of different effects; it’s just not obvious because I don’t have access to dust. You might say that Weiss’ glyphs are strangely wide-ranging, but that doesn’t make it magic.”
“No,” Sunset allowed. “But I don’t have a semblance.”
She wouldn’t have thought that it would be possible for Blake’s ears to stick up any higher on top of her head than they already were, but somehow, they managed it anyway. “You… you don’t have a semblance?”
“It’s magic,” Sunset said. “I’ve been passing it off as my semblance. Which, incidentally, is a possible answer to your question, Dash: they have been using their abilities; you just didn’t notice.”
“Why…?” Blake began, but no other words followed the first, at least not straight away. “I’m sorry, Sunset, but why should… ? How can…?”
“You don’t believe me?” Sunset suggested.
“I don’t want to call you a liar,” Blake said delicately, “but… it’s a lot to take in.”
“Would it help if I turned that chicken piece into a frog?” Sunset asked.
Blake’s eyes widened. “You can do that?”
“It seems to be her favourite method of demonstration,” Jaune observed.
“Whatever happened to the last frog?” asked Pyrrha.
“I let it out,” Ruby explained. “It didn’t seem right to keep it cooped up in here.”
“It would have turned back into an orange if you’d left it alone,” Sunset said.
“Oh.”
Penny stood up, leaning forwards eagerly. “I’d like to see you turn something into a frog.”
“I am uncertain that would be sanitary in the presence of food,” Ciel said, “and this is not a children’s party.” She paused. “For my own part, I believe that you can do it; there is no demonstration necessary.”
“You believe her?” Twilight asked. “You believe that magic exists?”
“The world is full of extraordinary things, some of which can appear… inexplicable,” Ciel murmured. She clasped her hands together on her knee. “My mother once told me a story of a… it was after the conclusion of a particularly harrowing mission. She was flying a Skyray through the teeth of a snowstorm at night, having lost contact with all other members of her flight; one engine was out of action, communications were down, she was carrying six wounded men in need of medical attention, but she had lost contact with her home cruiser. No situation ever seemed more hopeless. And then… then she saw a light. A single light, as though a star had pierced the clouds but closer, so close to her airship, moving as though it were trying to guide her. My mother did not know what this light was, but she was out of options but not out of hope, and so, she followed this light, this guiding star, trailing it as it twisted and turned, keeping it ever before her until… until it disappeared, to be replaced a few seconds by the myriad lights of the Ardent, welcoming her home.
“There was no air traffic detected beside my mother’s airship, no communications were received, and yet, something had guided her to safety. Just because the light cannot be explained does not mean that there was no light. There are more things in heaven and earth that we can dream of… or have yet dreamt of at least. We must have faith that all things will be revealed to us at need and that there is purpose to those things which we do not understand. If you say that you have magic and that that which you have led us to believe is your semblance is, in fact, said magic, then I believe you.”
“I suppose you have no reason to lie about it,” Blake said. “Or should I say, that you have no reason to stop lying, after having lied about it for some time already. But I still have questions.”
“You and me both.” Rainbow leaned back against the wall of the dorm room. “So the reason why you appeared to have gotten so much stronger since coming to Beacon compared to the way you sucked in combat school, that’s because you decided to cut loose with your magic?”
Sunset nodded. “I was hiding my light under a bushel before.” She grinned. “I’m not doing that any more, as you’ll find out if we ever meet in the sparring ring.”
Rainbow waved that off without responding to it. “Okay, so why hide in the first place?”
“Because I didn’t want to get poked and prodded by scientists to try and find out how magic works and how they can duplicate it.”
“But what if we could duplicate it?” Rainbow asked. “Maybe Twilight could figure out a way to copy it, to give it to everyone-”
“It doesn’t work that way.”
“How do you know, you haven’t tried?”
“Because I know,” Sunset insisted. “I know how my own powers work. They aren’t something that I… my magic is an extension of myself, like my aura, almost. You can’t just replicate it, and even if you got close, then it wouldn’t be my magic, because other people aren’t me. The power would change to fit them, their personality, their aptitudes and natures. You can’t clone me.” Her eyes narrowed. “Unless you’ve got secret Atlesian cloning tech that you’re not telling anyone about?”
“Don’t be ridiculous; we’re not working on anything like that,” Twilight said. “And if we were, I certainly wouldn’t admit it,” she added under her breath. “Anywayyy,” she went on, drawing out the word a little more than was strictly necessary, “while you’re probably right, I wouldn’t mind taking a look at you with a couple of instruments.”
“Hmm, let’s think about that,” Sunset murmured.
“Can you at least answer the questions you didn’t get the chance to answer on the train because of Adam attacking?”
“Uh, yeah, okay, why not?”
“Have you always had these powers?”
“Yes,” Sunset said. “I was born with them.”
“Can you do anything with them that you haven’t shown yet?”
“Yes,” Sunset replied again, “but nothing useful in combat.”
“Turning things into other things could be pretty useful in combat,” Rainbow pointed out. “In fact, if you can do that, why do you waste time shooting laser beams?”
“Because aura blocks my magic,” Sunset explained. “I could turn an inanimate object into a frog, but I couldn’t turn you into a frog so long as your aura was up. I’d need to break your aura first, and at that point, I’d have won the fight anyway.”
“How about weapons?”
“Weapons are conduits for aura.”
“I know that,” Rainbow replied sharply. “But not when nobody is holding onto them.”
Sunset’s mouth opened just a little, but no words came out. That didn’t just happen. It was not possible that Rainbow Dash knew more about the way that Sunset’s magic could be used in battle than Sunset herself.
I suppose General Ironwood likes her for a reason.
“Is it linked to your aura in any way?” Twilight asked, leaning forward expectantly.
“No, I’ve had my magic since before I unlocked my aura,” Sunset said. Since before I knew what aura was. “It’s like aura in that it’s unique to me, but it’s not connected.”
“Do you know why you have it?” Blake inquired, her voice soft. “I mean, out of all the people in the world, why were you born with this… unique gift?”
“How do we know it’s unique?” Jaune asked.
Blake frowned. “Because Sunset-”
“Is the only person willing to tell us about it,” Jaune said.
“Hmm,” Blake murmured. “That’s… a good point.”
“She’s not unique,” Twilight insisted. “There are reports of unexplained phenomena like the one that Ciel’s mother described happening all over Remnant, and I think that magic… for want of a better name, is the cause.”
“Perhaps, but it still doesn’t answer my question,” Blake pointed out.
“No,” Sunset said. “But that… is my secret to keep.”
Blake held Sunset’s gaze for a moment, before she nodded. “Of course. The limits of your honesty are for you to set, not us.”
“That’s very understanding of you.”
“It would be a little hypocritical of me to be anything else, don’t you think?” Blake replied.
“I don’t understand,” Penny said. “What does this mean?”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” Sunset said. “I’m still me. I just… my abilities come from a slightly different place.”
“I wouldn’t say that it doesn’t mean anything,” Rainbow said. “It means Twilight was right all along, for one thing.”
“And if Sunset exists, then that means there could be more out there,” Twilight added.
“If they don’t want to be found, you shouldn’t look for them,” Blake said. “Sun, how are you taking this? You’ve been very quiet.”
Sun shrugged. “It’s like Sunset said: it doesn’t mean anything.”
“You weren’t supposed to agree with me!” Sunset snapped.
“It’s like Ciel said: it’s a big world, and there’s a lot of stuff happening in it,” Sun added. “It’s cool for you, I guess, but… you know?”
“No,” Sunset said. “I don’t know, but apparently, neither do you.” She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, in response to Blake’s question, there isn’t any need to go looking very far for others with magic, because there’s someone else with magic sitting right here in this room.”
Ruby leapt to her feet, striking a pose with two fingers held in front of her right eye, while with her other hand she held her cape around her as though she was trying to hide in it.
Penny gasped. “Ruby! You have magic too!”
“Yep!” Ruby announced proudly.
“Can you turn something into a frog?”
“No,” Ruby admitted, deflating a little. “I… the truth is I don’t really know what I can do. Or how I can do it.”
“Twilight,” Sunset said. “All the research that you’ve been doing into magic, and you never came across the idea of Silver Eyes?”
Twilight shook her head.
“What about 'The Warrior in the Woods'?” Jaune asked. “What about the tale of the Dragon and the Two Sons?”
“The warrior in 'The Warrior in the Woods' never actually does anything that can be described as magic,” Twilight replied. “Her silver eyes are remarked on as a feature of beauty, not as a weapon. And… I’ve never heard of that other one.”
“I can lend you the book, if you like,” Pyrrha suggested.
“Ruby’s eyes are of course notable for the uniqueness of their colour,” Ciel said, “but you suggest that there is more to it than that?”
Ruby nodded. “My mom kept a diary; in it, she talks about using her silver eyes to zap grimm, to turn them to stone or burn them or things like that. She called it magic.”
“We didn’t believe it either,” Jaune admitted, “until Sunset told us that she had magic too, then it started to seem a lot more plausible. If one kind of magic exists, then why not more?”
“Does Yang know about this?” Blake asked.
“About my eyes, yes,” Ruby said, “but not about Sunset.”
“Can you use this power?” asked Twilight.
Ruby’s face fell a little. “No,” she confessed. “In her diary, my mom says that it’s activated by feelings of love, but… she doesn’t really explain what that means, and Sunset’s magic is too different from mine for her to be able to help. And Sunset doesn’t want me to talk to Professor Ozpin about it-”
“Don’t say it like that, Ruby; it makes it sound like I don’t have good reasons,” protested Sunset.
“Well, you kind of… don’t,” Jaune said.
“I have excellent reasons, thank you very much,” Sunset declared. “I don’t trust him.”
“We know, you’ve said, repeatedly,” Rainbow muttered.
“Professor Ozpin knows about the power of your eyes?” Ciel asked. “To be clear?”
“Yeah,” Ruby confirmed. “He helped my mom learn to master them.”
“That explains why he let you into Beacon early,” Rainbow muttered.
Ruby went on, “That’s why I could ask him for help if someone trusted him a little more.”
“Well, I don’t trust him, and you shouldn’t trust him either,” Sunset insisted.
“I am inclined to agree,” Ciel said.
Pyrrha looked at Ciel in astonishment. “Excuse me?”
“Ruby, how effective are the Silver Eyes you speak of? Does your mother’s diary offer any indication?”
“Pretty strong, I think,” Ruby replied. “She used them to take out whole bunches of grimm, even if it did leave her pretty weak afterwards.”
Ciel’s face was creased by a frown. “The Headmaster of Beacon, a man sworn to defend the Kingdom of Vale, has knowledge of a powerful weapon against the grimm and sits on knowledge and weapon both. He could approach Ruby and offer his services, in spite of Sunset’s disapproval, if wished to do so. Why does he not?”
“Perhaps he has some concern for Ruby as more than just a weapon,” Pyrrha suggested, a touch of acid corroding the tone of her voice.
“That is no reason to keep what he knows a secret,” Ciel said. “We should inform General Ironwood.”
“No,” Rainbow said. “We’re not going to do that.”
Ciel’s eyebrows rose. “Is there a good reason why not?”
“Because that’s not why they asked us here,” Rainbow declared, getting to her feet. “Ruby and Sunset are telling us these things because they trust us, and so, we’re not going to turn around and run our mouths about their secrets, not even to the General. Some things just aren’t ours to tell.”
Ciel hesitated for a moment, before she gave a curt nod of the head. “Very well. I understand and will keep all your confidences.”
“Besides,” Ruby said, “in my case, there’s not much to tell, since I can’t get my eyes to work.”
“Perhaps I could help with that?” Twilight suggested. “I understand that Sunset is wary of being examined, but it might be that I can find a scientific explanation for your magic that will enable me to unlock your access to it.”
“Really?” Ruby asked. “Do you think so?”
“It can’t hurt to try, right?”
“I don’t know, Twi,” Rainbow said. “Remember that time you tried to scientifically analyse Pinkie?”
“The bruises wore off eventually.”
“'Bruises'?” Pyrrha asked anxiously.
“Twilight had the bruises, not Pinkie,” Rainbow explained quickly.
Ruby nodded after a moment of what looked like thought. “I guess it couldn’t hurt,” she murmured. “Sure, if you think you can help, then why not?”
“Great!” Twilight cried.
“I’m a robot,” Penny announced.
Everyone looked at her.
“You know, since we’re all sharing secrets,” Penny said.
There was a moment of silence before the room – most of the room – collapsed into laughter.
“Thank you, Penny,” Pyrrha said. “That was… I think we all needed that.”
“Penny,” Ciel began. “Miss Belladonna and Mister Wukong-”
“It’s done now, Ciel,” Rainbow said. “I’ll explain to General Ironwood what happened. Kind of. In a way that doesn’t say anything about Ruby or Sunset.”
“Will you get into trouble?” Penny asked anxiously.
“Maybe,” Rainbow admitted. “But it was worth it this once.”
“And now everyone knows, we don’t have to worry about it being a secret any more,” said Ruby.
“You thought it was a secret,” Sunset murmured. “I’d worked that out weeks ago.”
“You did not!” Ruby declared.
Rainbow bent down and picked up her cup off the floor, raising it towards the ceiling. “Here’s to us,” she said, “and to a successful mission.”
“To a successful mission!”
So, they're going going with it... Just like that... Slightly anticlimatic.
10627549
Probably because it is not actually that big of a deal. They haven't seen any of the big guns, and Sunset magic can pass as a Semblance for a reason.
If Remnant didn't have semblances then power with the ability to break the laws of physics would be groundbreaking, but as it is then they can consider it as a weird semblance, nothing truly new.
Penny being a Robot is something much more relevant, since it is a much more impressive process that in theory can be mass produced, and if they don't make much of a big deal about her then there is no reason to make a big deal about Sunset magic. The existence of Equestria would be a much bigger thing, but Sunset is staying silent about that one.
10627607
Maybe? Feels more like an excuse. This whole conversation felt... Lifeless. Heck, even Rainbow is super cool keeping it secret when she was emotionally tormented after The Breach (which honestly I feel like it was overblown). Not exactly the same situation but still.
And about Penny, after her secret came out later lots of people made a big deal out of it. Maybe, it's because the civilian's reaction been shown but kind of weird to put so much reation to those events and the fact that magic exist and it can do A LOT. Most people don't have protection against turned-into-a-frog spell.
Edit:Sorry I'll keep comments under the chapter. My mistake.
10627678
Rainbow has no problem keeping it a secret because it is not hurting anyone. The Breach was a BIG thing, with a lot of really bad consequences, they are not comparable at all.
Civilian reaction is quite different from the reactions of a small group of huntsmen. If it was a reveal to the public that magic existed then you would be looking at a MUCH bigger response.
Magic CAN do a lot, but at the scale they are working with it is not groundbreaking. As Sunset says, she needs to break aura to have it work and if the aura is broken then it really doesn't matter anymore. And if the target didn't have aura to begin with, then they had no defense anyway, you don't need magic to do whatever you want with them.
I know I’m a bit late and this is a rewrite with little room for change, but since the topic of Sunset’s uncreative use of magic has been breached, it’s an opportune moment to make my case. Sunset’s combat magic is the most ineffective, slow, and wasteful mode of attack possible. There is no way to phrase this nicely and it’s a flaw the story shares with most of its contemporaries. It’s utterly boneheaded and here is why.
Sunset mentioned herself, before her match against Pyrrha, that she is better at fighting like a mage. I wholeheartedly agree. Unfortunately, her conviction is as empty as her imagination, taking her supposed magical prowess to absurdity. To make it short, she is fighting her opponents symmetrically instead of asymmetrically and that is nonsense. Please allow me to elaborate before you bring the torches and pitchforks.
As it has been noted in this chapter, her enemies are protected by their aura, which she has to break to affect them. Except she doesn’t, which was slightly touched upon by Rainbow pointing out that only a handheld weapon serves as conduit for aura. Which is an important observation yet still shortsighted. But if aura is blocking Sunset’s direct attacks and she knows it, pray tell, why does she keep using direct means of attack? If your target can shrug off physical force — never mind absorbing it — in what herculean jump in logic would that realization lead to using more of the same?
Now, I already hinted at asymmetrical warfare. It’s simple, really. Instead of fighting your enemies on even ground — sword against sword, and so forth — you counter with something they cannot defend against. Basically what Atlas likes to do: decimating ground targets with airborne artillery. However, Sunset cannot conjure that kind of firepower, although she certainly seems to think along the lines of overwhelming her enemies through brute force. But she lacks the scale to make that work.
Seeing how I’m drawling, let me cut to the chase with some examples. Sunset could suffocate her target with a moving force field that deprives them of oxygen. Worse, she could wrap them in an airtight shield and then expand it, trapping them in a vacuum. Even worse, she could then drop said shield and let the rebounding air crush them. The sudden change in atmospheric pressure alone can incapacitate and kill — bursting alveoli, air bubbles in your blood stream, and so forth.
How about some chemicals? If Sunset can transmute objects into frogs, she can absolutely transmute objects into chemicals of homogenous composition. That is several orders of magnitude easier than creating fake-life or teleportation. Like, why not create a nice cloud of chlorine gas? Destroys the target’s eyes and lungs — aura or not, they still need to breath. Or create little poison bubbles that home on her target’s head? They only need to hold gas and can therefore be permeable for physical objects. Counter that with a sword!
But wait, why even bother with transmutation? She could just grab the very air her enemies breath and expand it, ripping their tracheas apart. Their aura does not protect the air around them. Maybe heat up the air they breath and turn it into plasma. Or the other way around, freeze it and drown them with liquid oxygen. She could also ignite that for a spectacular albeit gruesome firework!
Too extreme? I suppose there are less… Mortal Combat-ish vectors. As pointed out, weapons that are not held are not protected by aura. This is unfortunate, because it also means that clothing is not protected by aura. Otherwise, that would not make sense. Would be a shame if your clothes would suddenly turn into stone, or snakes, or superglue. Make the sole of one shoe higher than the other, which severely impacts balance. On that matter, Sunset could employ an array of mundane items to her advantage. Paper snippets that stick to her enemies’ faces to blind them, small iron pieces that stick to a blade’s edge and make it useless, itching powder that crawls right into someone’s underwear. Could she teleport drugs into someone’s open mouth? Nothing of that needs to break a target’s aura to be effective. Or just a simple bright flash of light to take their sight, which should be the most obvious thing to do.
But no. Sunset conjures magical spears that have no effect. Because that makes sense.
Anyway, I’m really enjoying your story so far beside my bitching. But I needed to get that off my chest. It’s something that annoys me in all stories with magic; nobody seems capable of using their imagination. I know it would not work with the story. Still…
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1) Aura is kind of a short range forcefield, the entire part of directly interfering with things as close to her targets as her clothes or the air in their lungs is inviable from the very start. The weapon example is the person losing the weapon completely, as in far away form their body, for any magic to work on it, making it only really viable against throwing weapons that don't quickly come back to the user (usually disposable weapons that wouldn't be worth the effort) or if you disarm the enemy first and want to make sure they can't use the weapon again.
2) Spells have a travel time. Telekinesis is one of the only ones that looks almost instantaneous, which makes sense given that it is by far the most basic ability of an unicorn and the one they would have the most experience by far. That makes most of the extremely complex, location based options that you propose also useless, since the target would be able to just move out of the way long before it becomes effective.
3) Spells have complexity, and in a fight you don't have time to do fancy stuff. Most of the stuff you say would definitely be considered as fancy stuff and way too complex to do, specially compared to something like Sunset magic beans, the most basic purely offensive spell that a Unicorn can do. You also have to consider that magic beans are also probably the most efficient ways of using magic, you are just pulling and throwing the energy to do damage, compared to having to take that energy and use it into actually casting a real spell to do damage.
I also agree that Sunset is not using her magic to it's full potential, but most of the options you are giving are not only completely unsuited for the work Huntsmen are expected to have (your spells are for killing humans in really bad ways, not to kill Grimm that do not have the same biological weaknesses or criminals that should be captured if possible), they are also not much better or straight up worse options that what she already does.
Thing like flashbangs or dust to blind her enemies IS a good idea, and I do hope that she uses more things like that since her magic gives her permanent access to such methods.
10671298
Ah. I should have seen that coming. Interaction. I got nobody to blame but myself.
1) Aura is not kind of a short range forcefield. It would make absolute sense to be and should be, but it was never shown in that capacity, neither in the show nor here. I can only assume that neither creators ever thought this through beyond allowing for cool action scenes with swords and explosions without the usual consequence — instant death. Why? Because Sunset could grab Adam and attack him with electricity, which caused him damage and pain. If aura were a forcefield, this should not have been possible. Both the grab and the shock, all should be repelled. You need to be consistent and consequent. Either aura blocks any form of force, no matter how small, or it is full of exploitable loopholes. Like the fact that it has to let air and light through, otherwise users would suffocate and be blind. Right now, it is more like a reactive armor that only works against certain triggers.
2) Some spells have travel time, yes. Is that a constant the same as light speed? Because I cannot fathom a reason for them to be slow. Seems more like a question of delivery and/or propulsion, which shows again a lack of imagination or physics knowledge. Going by the pony show, spells can be bound to objects. Therefore, Sunset should be able to bind spells to objects in preparation, removing the need for casting them in the heat of battle. Furthermore, she has proven quite capable of hitting her targets — just to little effect. Why should that change with other spells? As for the location-based variants, there is a simple solution: predictive tactics. Okay, simple may not be word of choice. But the inherent disadvantage of melee fighters is that you always know what they aim for. You. Just turn your surroundings into a minefield. After all, they have to come close. Littering the field with “death zones” is also a means of crowd control; the enemy has to move on the paths you leave open.
3) I’m sorry, but your point is not valid. Not if Sunset can teleport and literally rip space-time apart at a moment’s notice, which is universally depicted as one of the most complex and difficult feats of spellcraft. Her frog spell did not take long either and that’s ridiculous as well. Everything I mentioned is far below that. It has even been pointed out in this very chapter that she can transmute weapons into frogs as long as not held, inferring she can do it near instantaneous and at range (and nowhere was said they have to lose the weapon completely). No, I refuse to acknowledge your argument.
Now I sound like I’m hating on the story, great. I knew I should have written a private message. Anyway, I fully admit that most of my examples are for incapacitating or killing biological lifeforms. Which Sunset has to fight more than grim, apparently. But that doesn’t mean there are not vast vectors against them as well. For example, use a regular grenade to create a funneled explosion with a shaped shield, exponentially increasing the effective yield. The resulting “jet” can reach a speed of 10 km per second (roughly 29 times the speed of sound) depending on the explosive — I don’t care how tough a target is, whatever is hit by that is dead. I didn’t even get into the shenanigans you could do with manipulating physics itself. After all, magic does not seem to care for the laws of nature. But that would probably exceed Sunset’s knowledge base.
Edit: As for the lethality, she could also transmute sleeping agents or, as already mentioned, superglue. Nothing is more hilarious than gluing an opponent to a wall.
10671829
1) If it worked like that then the clothes of everyone would be a mess after each fight. Sunset could grab Adam because it is not a LITERAL forcefield (there isn't a 1 inch solid barrier surrounding the user or something like that) it just protects the user and whatever they are touching as it was one there and she could hurt him with electricity because you can still feel the effects through your aura, same reason getting hit hurts anyway, aura or not, even if it doesn't do real damage to the body and the pain is way lesser that if you didn't have aura.
2) They are not traveling at light speed, we see many, many examples both in canon MLP and what is described in this story that spells do have a relatively slow travel time (slow enough to be evaded).
You also completely misunderstand my point with travel time. The spells Sunset uses in combat do damage on contact, and it is irrelevant the exact distance at where the spell actually hits, so she can throw them around without issue. The spells you are proposing are useless if they actually hit the target, they are only effective if they affect really specific places at really short distances from the target, making them inviable since by the time the spell gets there they would no longer be at the sweet spot needed to work.
Proper enchanted items are not that easy to do, and the examples of enchanting an item on the fly is with spells that inherently affect a target, like the want it-need it spell, which is always active until the magic runs out. Preparing them before a battle is not practical unless you explicitly know what you are getting into, and even then the only spells that would be useful to prepare like that would be buffs, as any negative spell would first affect Sunset (her holding the item and all that).
Leaving traps around is also not practical for multiple reasons. First, magic tends to be a bit of a lightshow, so the target knows that the traps are there, then you have friendly fire to consider, then you have the extremely high mobility inherent in huntsmen fights that makes staying still a bad idea, then you have the Grimm who usually have the numbers/mass to just stop over such traps and then you have the problem that human targets usually also have ranged options, so making Sunset a sitting duck is a really bad idea.
3) So? MLP spells are shown to be learned individually, and with quite specific effects, they are not freeform magic. Teleportation is definitely an advanced spell, but unlike other options it is such a overall useful one that it makes sense for Sunset to practice it until it is second nature, specially since it affects her immediately (no beam to the location before the teleport applies). Sunset does not have the reflexes to keep up with most born and bred huntsmen, so trying to remember and cast a spell that she hasn't practiced until she doesn't even have to think about it is an easy recipe for disaster. And her practicing many specific spells for specific situations is not viable, too much time and effort for too little effect. It is much better for her to practice a handful of extremely versatile spells for combat use.
Yeah, she can transmute weapons as long as they are not held, but "not held" means not on their bodies. The only reason a huntsmen would not have their weapon on their bodies is if they are disarmed, and if the weapon is still too close to the other person then they can just grab the weapon before the spell hits.
You do not sound like someone who is hating the story. You sound like someone quite certain of a lot of technical parts about the combat that are probably not as practical or viable as you think they are.
10672004
First, this “I know better than you” attitude is unbecoming. Please let us not go there. We are talking about magical horses and turned-out-not-so-great web animes.
1) That just means there is no coherent mechanic behind aura, making it a convenient plot device that changes to the narrator’s whims. Whenever the subject needs to withstand some outlandish effect, aura comes to the rescue. Whenever the subject needs to suffer a blow, it suddenly fails. If you have to “explain the inconsistencies away,” there has not been put enough thought into it. That’s like 80s Knight Rider, when Kidd obviously has some gimmick installed that saves the day and is never mentioned again, especially not if detrimental later. I’m not mad, just disappointed.
2) I never said spells travel at light speed. I asked if there is a constant like it. And the spells I proposed were examples of creative uses for magic, you put too much emphasis on them. Some of them require specific application, true. Others would work on large areas. Yet others would be unblockable, like a projectile filled with poison gas — even if Adam would intercept it with his sword, the gas would still hit him. And he loves to intercept attacks with his sword. Depending on the compound, it would only need a whiff and he’s done for. Again, an example. Could also be a ball of superglue. Superglue is the best. Or metal-eating acid to corrode the sword’s edge. If she cannot transmute that or acquire a mundane version, there are household items as well. Cleaning agents are really nasty. Or baking soda, which is difficult to get out of your eyes. The possibilities are endless and Sunset only needs one spell: a hollow sphere as projectile, filled with surprises.
Whether or not the enchanting of items is difficult has not been cleared, and neither has whether or not you can designate a trigger besides contact. Like a passphrase. You just assume that. Oh, I would absolutely make it so. But so far, nothing has been established to the contrary.
When I wrote minefield, I did not exclusively refer to mine-like traps. She could have orbs full of nasty surprises (or duds) orbit around her at high speed, severely limiting attack vectors against her in close combat. As in Mario Kart, you do not want to get too close to the character surrounded by shells. This would also leave her mobile.
3) Are they, though? Because that is really inconsistent. Sometimes horn beams can accomplish about anything, sometimes you only need to skim over a scroll or cast at the scroll, and occasionally you need spell circles or incantations until you suddenly do not. Well, it’s a show aimed at little girls despite the actual audience, so I don’t want to give it too much crap. Nonetheless, no clear rules have been established regarding that. And Sunset is apparently capable of devising new spells.
But let’s assume you are right and it needs immense training to pull off spells at a moment’s notice. And apparently Sunset deemed the frog spell important enough for that. Obviously. Why doesn’t she do it? Instead of devising and training one or two versatile new spells, she tries the same flawed approach in greater quantity with less quality (see her secret grim forest adventure). While she could train to burn away an enemy’s retinas with light — which aura would not block since light has no effect until it hits matter, at which point it would be too late (this also means lasers should not be blocked by aura). But I guess aura would just change rules, because.
Two spells, if you want explicit examples. Delivery projectile and flash glare. They are not even that inhumane.
10672157
Ok? You are the one who have started the conversation by saying that the interaction of magic and aura shown so far is being done poorly because there are apparently multiple holes that Sunset could use to destroy the opposition and the one acting as if a disagreement is an attack. I don't think that what you are saying is true and I am explaining why, at the end of the day the decision always ends up being whatever the author decides to, that it.
1) Why would that make it inconsistent??? Aura absorbs the damage, and in this particular story also blocks magic effects, that's it. It has never stopped you from getting grabbed, it has never stopped you from getting electrocuted, it doesn't even take away the inertia of impacts, it just heavily decreases the damage the target takes. It's not defined to the exact detail, yes, but it doesn't really need to, stopping you from getting hurt is good enough for the purposes of the story. And with such a blanket statement of protection saying that there are specific loopholes to bypass that protection makes no sense.
2) Again, we see that in MLP spells are quite particular, we see that a lot with Twilight learning new spells that do really specific things. What you are describing would need either freeform transfiguration/conjuration with chemical knowledge that may or may not be available to Sunset or to design a lot of spells for specific actions, with the first option may or may not be possible and the second being a bloody lot of work.
You also are hoping that those chemicals will have immediate effect even through aura and that the target can't just swipe/move enough to get it out of them, making options like acid inviable (do you really think that acid will burn through a weapon infused with aura fast enough to be relevant?). They also have superhuman strength, things like superglue wont really matter if the target is strong enough to rip the weapon away from whatever gets stuck in the milliseconds that the glue stays in contact with something. I suppose you could attempt to block all the internal mechanism so the more complex weapons become little less than big clubs, but again the effectiveness of such a tactic can change wildly depending on the situation.
Enchanting IS done later in the story, and it's not an easy process. It is possible that Sunset could make much simpler objects with a trigger, but so far nothing has been shown either in MLP or this story that implies it is a possibility, and until such evidence is shown there is no reason for it to be considered.
Using orbs would be a way of staying mobile, but it also depends on how much magic it takes to maintain such orbs and have them follow her, even when she teleports, how much stopping power they have and the risks of them going out in her face (they are close to her by default). If they can't stop an attacker without also screwing over Sunset herself then they would not be worth it.
3) No? Sunset didn't think the frog spell was important enough to have it run in combat situations. She knows it because she studied magic, and she can cast it in a controlled, relaxed situation like her room. Being able to aim and cast it reliably during battle is a completely different beast.
Flashbangs would be useful, which is why I agreed with you from the beginning that she should use something like that. But it would just be for a temporary distraction, you are not permanently blinding someone, because that is exactly how aura works, stopping the damage.
Excellent ice breaker Penny!
And si, the secrets are out! Some. I wonder if she will get around the whole being a pony thing.
Called it.