//------------------------------//
// New Friends, Old Rivals (Rewritten) 
// Story: SAPR 
// by Scipio Smith 
//------------------------------//


New Friends, Old Rivals


Sunset stood in Tukson's Book Trade with her arms folded across her chest, staring somewhat blankly at the section on Myths and Legends. So far, a study of the titles wasn't getting her very far.
"What do people have against happy endings?" Jaune asked, as he shut a book and placed it back on the shelf in the nearby fairytales section.
Sunset looked over and then actually wandered over to him. "Have you found something?"
"I've found reason to lose my faith in humanity," Jaune muttered. "Most of these books are just retellings of the old stories with extra sex and violence."
"Not useful to us," Sunset agreed, "but I'm sure that someone enjoys them."
"Someone must, there are so many," Jaune agreed. "But… okay, if you want to retell the story so that the dragon doesn't talk because it's a grimm, then fine. That even makes sense. But to have the younger son get eaten as well? What's the point in that? That last book? In its retelling of the story of the four seasons, the old man… you don't want to know what the old man does to the girls, and then at the end of the story, they get murdered by the people they try to help anyway! What kind of sick person comes up with stuff like that?"
"Let's leave the issue of your diminishing respect for your fellow men to one side for a second, shall we?" Sunset urged. "We'll meet up with Ruby and Pyrrha later, and they'll have you believing in the inherent goodness of humankind again in no time."
Jaune chuckled. "You know, you're joking… but you're also absolutely right."
"I am always absolutely right," Sunset informed him. "Except when I am not. I take it, then, that you haven't found anything useful."
"In fairness, it's kind of hard to tell what will be useful before you read it," Jaune explained.
"True," Sunset allowed. She turned away from Jaune and walked out of the little alcove to approach the counter. "Mister Tukson," she said, "I don't suppose you could recommend a good introduction to myths and legends?"
Mister Tukson leaned on the counter. "An introduction?"
"Something that gives a brief summary of all the notable stories, people, that sort of thing," Sunset explained. "Preferably something with a comprehensive glossary and a healthy reference section to direct further reading."
Tukson smiled. "This for your Legends of Remnant class?"
"Actually-" Jaune began.
"Exactly, it's for Legends of Remnant," Sunset agreed. "I didn't pay much attention to things like that when I was a child, and I'm paying for it now. I'd like something that can point me in the direction of where to start."
"Myths of the Four Kingdoms is a good place to start," Tukson said. "You should be able to find it on the shelf, along with a companion volume, Fairytales of the Four Kingdoms."
Sure enough, Sunset found them both on the shelf, both under Myths and Legends. She picked up Myths, a chunky hardback with a picture of a nearly naked man fighting a King Taijitsu on the cover, and flicked through it. Some of the entries were brief, but it had a glossary, and the entries, although sometimes very sparsely written, had copious footnotes and suggestions for further reading. Clearly, some consideration had been given to those hoping to use this as an academic starting point.
Sunset shut the book and plucked the companion volume off the shelf, stacking it on top of Myths in her hands. She returned to Tukson at the counter. "How about beyond the Four Kingdoms?" she asked, as she put the two books down.
Tukson looked thoughtful. "Let me take a look in the back," he said, before disappearing into the back room.
Jaune joined Sunset at the counter. "Why did you tell him that it was for class?"
"Should I have told him that we think our friend might have magic eyes?" Sunset demanded. "That isn't stuff you tell strangers. We don't know if we can trust him."
"He seems friendly enough," Jaune pointed out.
"I need him to be a lot more than friendly before I start telling him about silver eyes," Sunset growled.
The front door opened behind them as Blake Belladonna walked into the shop. "Oh, hello," she greeted them.
Sunset smirked as she turned around. "We have to stop meeting like this."
Blake didn't look very amused. "Is Tukson in the back?"
"He's just looking for something for us," Jaune explained.
Blake rolled her eyes. "He's going to get robbed one of these days."
"Luckily for him, the robbers seem more interested in dust shops than bookstores," Sunset replied.
"Hmm," Blake acknowledged. "I hope they identify who's responsible for that soon."
"And catch them," Jaune added.
"Of course," Blake murmured. "And catch them."
Tukson returned from out of the back room. "Here you go, Myths from Beyond the Kingdoms. It's not as comprehensive as the others for obvious reasons, but it's as good as the sources allow. Hey, Blake!"
"Hey, Tukson," Blake replied. "Has my order come in, yet?"
"I've got it in the back; just let me settle up here, and I'll fetch it for you."
"Please," Blake said. "I wouldn't want to keep Sunset and Jaune waiting."
Students were given a weekly stipend for school supplies and other essentials; it wasn't much – certainly not enough for Sunset to buy dust or anything like that – but it was enough to cover the cost of those three books. Tukson put them in a large paper bag with a string handle for her before Sunset and Jaune left the store.
"Let's see if Pyrrha and Ruby have had any luck," Sunset said, getting out her scroll with her free hand. "Maybe they want to grab a coffee or something."
"Sounds good to me," Jaune agreed.
As they walked away from the bookshop, Sunset opened up her scroll and called Pyrrha. By the look of what Sunset could see in the background once Pyrrha answered, they were outside and moving somewhere.
"Sunset," Pyrrha said, sounding a little nervous about something. "Hello again."
"Hey," Sunset said. "How are you two getting on?"
"Wait, that isn't Sunset Shimmer, is it?" asked another voice, momentarily unfamiliar; unfortunately, when that all-too-brief moment wore off, Sunset felt with a slight chilling feeling stealing over her that this voice was not actually unfamiliar to her at all. In fact, it was all too familiar in all the wrong ways.
No. No way can she be here. I got away, I was done with her, she cannot have followed me all the way to Vale; it isn't fair! Sunset's voice trembled with a touch of dread. "Is that… Rainbow Dash?"
Pyrrha opened her mouth a little, but before she could say anything else, the scroll was wrenched out of her hands to focus upon the all-too familiar face of Rainbow Dash. That ridiculous rainbow hair in its daredevil cut, those magenta eyes gleaming with mischief, that face, that cocky grin; Sunset would recognise them anywhere. Much as she might wish she didn't.
"Sunset Shimmer," Rainbow said sternly.
Sunset's jaw tightened. "Rainbow Dash." She struggled to keep a lid on the mounting anxiety that she felt rising within her breast because this could not be happening. This absolutely could not be happening! She had gotten away! She was free of Canterlot and Rainbow Dash and all of the rest of them and everything else besides! It was bad enough that Flash had followed her to Beacon, but at least he was keeping his mouth shut. What might Rainbow Dash say to Ruby and Pyrrha? I had a fresh start. She had not been known here at Beacon, but notwithstanding her desire for fame, that anonymity had served her well: her unjust reputation had not gone before her to poison the well in advance of her coming. If Rainbow Dash talked, if she lied to Pyrrha and Ruby, then it might all be lost. "What are you doing here?"
Rainbow looked a little shifty. "Hanging out."
"'Hanging out,'" Sunset repeated acidly. "With my teammates?"
"Hey, I didn't know you were the one putting the S in Sapphire until you called," Rainbow replied. "Small world, isn't it?"
"Too small by a long way if you're here," Sunset snapped. "Put Pyrrha back on." And stay away from my team! she wanted to add and only did not for fear that the prohibition would spur Rainbow to do the opposite just to spite her. "Pyrrha, where are you?"
"Uh, I'm not entirely sure. Let me see... Thirty-Second Avenue."
"Stay there and don't move; I'm coming to you," Sunset said.
"Sorry, we can't stop," Ruby cried. "We have to find Penny!"
Sunset's eyebrows rose. "And just who the hell is Penny?"
"There she is!" Ruby yelled from somewhere out of view of the scroll. "Penny, wait!"
"Gotta go," Rainbow Dash said. "Penny, stop right-"
"No, don't you dare hang up on-" Sunset yelled, stopping midway because, of course, Dash had hung up on her.
Sunset didn't know what was going on. She didn't know who Penny was or why Ruby and Pyrrha were looking for her. The only thing she knew was that there was no way she was leaving them alone with Rainbow Dash to turn them against her.
Sunset started to run. "Come on, Jaune, pick up the pace!"
"Why?" Jaune asked as he started to chase after her.
"We have to save the girls from a wicked faunus," Sunset declared. "And there's not a moment to lose."



"Look out!" Ruby yelled.
The other girl looked around in surprise, her mouth forming a startled O just as Ruby crashed into her. The two of them went sprawling to the pavement, though Ruby's aura prevented her from feeling more than a slight bump. Pyrrha leapt gracefully over the two fallen girls and hesitated in apparent confusion for half a moment before holding out a hand to help Ruby to her feet.
"Thanks," Ruby said, as she accepted Pyrrha's helping hand up. "Sorry about that, uh..."
She trailed off as she looked down at the victim of her reckless speed. Dressed in an old-fashioned blouse but in addition to modern overalls with neon green strips, the girl - who looked closer to Ruby's age than Pyrrha's - lay casually upon the pavement as though it were the most natural thing in the world to just lie on your back in the street. Even weirder, she was smiling, beaming even, without a hint of... well, without a hint of any of the things that you'd expect someone to feel after they'd just been knocked to the ground.
"Uh," Ruby murmured. She glanced at Pyrrha for help, but Pyrrha looked just as baffled by this as Ruby felt. "Sorry I ran into you."
The girl's smile remained fixed in place. "No problem. Judging by your cry of warning, it was an accident. Your momentum was too great to be arrested rapidly."
"Yeah," Ruby said. "I, uh, was going pretty fast." She laughed nervously. "So... do you... need a hand getting up?"
"No," the girl said, and she proved it by leaping to her feet in a single fluid motion. "But thank you for asking."
"Are you alright?" Pyrrha asked solicitously.
"One hundred percent capacity!" the girl declared proudly.
"Ah," Pyrrha said, in a neutral tone. "I see."
A silence descended between them, an uncomfortable silence that Ruby filled before it could get any worse. "So, I'm Ruby."
"And my name is-" Pyrrha began.
"You're Pyrrha Nikos!" the other girl gasped.
Pyrrha immediately looked rather dispirited. Her head dipped noticeably. "Yes, uh, I am."
"I've studied your fights extensively!" the other girl declared. "It will be an honour to meet you in battle." She pumped her fist. "I promise, I won't hold back!"
"Really?" some of Pyrrha's disappointment at being recognised seemed to vanish instantly. There was a glint of anticipation in her eyes as she said, "I never hold back against an opponent in battle, uh," she paused, waiting for the other girl to give her name.
The other girl gasped again. "Oh, forgive me, where are my manners? My name is Penny Polendina, and it's a pleasure to meet both of you!" Penny chirped. "Are you a Beacon Academy student, Ruby?"
"Sure am," Ruby declared proudly. "Me and Pyrrha are teammates."
"Wonderful!" Penny cried. "So you will be competing in the tournament together?"
"If we're selected," Pyrrha said. "Which is probable, but you know what they say about counting chickens."
Penny blinked, cocking her head to one side. "No," she said. "What do chickens have to do with the combat tournament?"
"Well, um…" Pyrrha trailed off. "Nothing, I suppose."
"I am also here to compete in the tournament," Penny said. "Perhaps we will face each other in the colosseum!"
"Are you a student from one of the other schools?" Ruby asked. Every two years, the Vytal Festival was held to commemorate the end of the Great War and the beginning of the era of peace in which the whole world had basked for the past eighty years. The duties of hosting the prestigious event, which included parades, dances, and feasts and culminated in a combat tournament fought between representatives of the four huntsman academies, rotated between the four kingdoms, and this year, it was Vale which would have the honour. This meant that, for the second semester of the year, students from Atlas, Haven, and Shade would descend on Beacon as part of the celebration of unity and cultural understanding.
"Yes," Penny said. "I am from Atlas Academy!"
"Really?" Ruby hadn't thought that the Atlas students wouldn't arrive until after Spring Break. "That's cool. Is the rest of your team around here somewhere?"
"No," Penny said, and for once her voice lost a little of its enthusiasm. "They let me go off on my own." She hiccupped.
"You've been here in Vale before, then?" Pyrrha asked.
"No. This is my first time away from home. It's so exciting!"
"And your teammates just let you wander off by yourself?" Ruby asked. "Seems kind of mean."
"It is sometimes said that Atlas students lack a spirit of camaraderie," Pyrrha said softly. "Seeing one another only as teammates, not friends. It appears there may be some truth to it."
That didn't make it any better for poor Penny, all alone in a strange new place. Ruby frowned. Penny's team didn't sound like much of a team to her, and neither did any other Atlas team if this was how they all behaved. The first time in a new city should be a time for team bonding, hitting the streets together, trying the food, seeing what was what. Not ditching someone to do... whatever the rest of them were up to right now. 
Ruby asked, "Do you know where you're going?"
Penny shook her head. "I am taking in the sights."
"Well… you're welcome to come along with us." Belatedly, she realised that Pyrrha might want a say in that decision, but the other girl didn't seem bothered by the impromptu invitation.
Penny's eyes widened. "Really? I can come with you... like friends?"
"Yeah," Ruby said. "Just like friends."
It shouldn't have been possible for Penny's smile to get any wider, but somehow, it did. "Sensational! Where are we going, new friends?"
"I was just about to take Pyrrha to-"
A drone flew overhead, passing over Ruby, Pyrrha, and Penny before coming to a dead stop and rotating in place. It was a square drone, black and squat and held in the air by four miniature VTOL engines, which were presently pointed towards the ground as the drone turned to face Penny. Ruby could see that it had a camera mounted in it.
Penny squeaked in alarm and immediately she started to run, darting underneath the drone and fleeing away down the street.
"Penny!" Ruby cried. "What are you-?"
The drone turned again, ignoring Ruby and Pyrrha as it began to follow Penny.
Ruby produced Crescent Rose, acting on instinct. Penny was afraid of the drone, Penny was running from it, and Penny seemed like a good person.
Which meant that the drone pursuing her was probably not operated by a good person.
Crescent Rose unfolded in all its glory with a series of mechanical clanks and hydraulic hisses. Ruby took aim and fired a single shot, striking the drone dead on and blowing it to literal smithereens which fell down to pavement with a clatter.
But Penny had already disappeared out of sight.
"We should go after her," Ruby said.
"I agree; she might be in trouble," Pyrrha replied. She reached for her scroll. "I'll call Sunset and-"
"Hey!" an angry female voice yelled as a rainbow blur barrelled around the corner and headed straight for them.



"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight Sparkle's voice was high and anxious as it was conveyed into Rainbow Dash's ear via the earpiece she was wearing. "I just lost visual."
"What happened?" Rainbow demanded.
"Someone shot my drone out of the sky."
"You mean you don't know who?"
"I was focussed on Penny," Twilight explained. "I'm sorry, I-"
"It's fine, Twilight," Rainbow said. "Seventy-First Avenue?"
"Yes," Twilight replied.
"I'm almost there," Rainbow informed her. "Get the rest of the drones to converge on that area; she can't have gone far."
"What about the fact that someone just shot at one?"
Rainbow scowled. "I'll take care of it."
Twilight was silent for a moment. "Be careful."
Rainbow didn't reply; rather, she put on a burst of speed, leaving a rainbow trail behind her as she zipped through the crowd, darting nimbly around the slow-motion people moving all around her. It was as though the rest of the world was trapped in treacle and she was the only person who could move normally as she ran down the street and rounded the corner into the much emptier alleyway where Penny had last been seen.
Team RSPT, pronounced rosepetal, was not like other teams. It wasn't made up of four aspiring huntsmen or huntresses thrown together by fate to train in monster slaying. General Ironwood himself had put it together, deliberately and with thought, and each member had a purpose, a reason for being there.
The whole team was built around Penny. It was her team; she might not lead it, but she was the point of it, the star of the show, proof of a concept that would change the world. If she could actually focus and do as she was told and not get on unauthorised commercial flights to other kingdoms just because she felt like it, that is.
The rest of the team was there for Penny's sake: to support her, to watch over her, to make sure that she could and did achieve her potential, her destiny. Twilight Sparkle was there for Penny's tech support; she might not be a good huntress - or any kind of huntress at all, to be honest - but she was one of only two people besides Penny's father who could understand some of this unique equipment, let alone maintain it in the field.
Ciel Soleil was there to try and keep Penny in line, on mission, and reasonably focussed. She didn't always succeed – witness the fact that they had had to come to Vale to catch up with her - but not for lack of trying. She was also the team sniper for when they actually started to see combat. 
And Rainbow Dash was there to keep all the rest alive. That was why her name came first; that was why she was the team leader: because if all else failed, if Penny didn't live up to her hype, if something went wrong, then Rainbow Dash would get them out. Whatever it took.
Of course, being team leader - and the muscle - also meant that now, Penny having escaped, it was Rainbow Dash who was out pounding the streets of Vale looking for her while Twilight searched the skies with drones from the relative safety of the airship and Ciel made that safety a little less relative by standing guard over her.
Rainbow Dash was not in the best of moods as she tracked the errant girl with help from Twilight's flock of aerial drones. She was an easygoing sort of girl, but she had her limits, and being forced to fly all the way to Vale to recover her truant teammate was pushing at them just a little bit. They weren't supposed to get here until Summer Semester when the rest of the Atlesian students arrived in Vale. Penny was supposed to be undergoing her socialising trials in Atlas. Rainbow and Twilight had volunteered their friends as the primary test subjects because their friends were the nicest bunch of people to ever live and thus perfect for giving Penny an easy lift into social interactions and because both Rainbow and Twilight trusted their friends with their lives.
Penny, however, had had other ideas for some reason, and she'd managed to book herself on a Valish skyliner headed for home. Since Ciel had explained that having said Valish skyliner overhauled by an Atlesian man-of-war, boarded by marines, and Penny dragged off the ship would be an act of piracy, there wasn't much to be done except for the rest of Team RSPT to follow her to Vale and bring her back quietly.
Not that Rainbow Dash was in quite the mood for quiet as she rounded the corner with a shout to confront the two people who had- wait, was that Pyrrha Nikos?
Rainbow skidded to a halt just a few feet away from Pyrrha and her companion with the big gunscythe that she had already begun to point in Rainbow's direction. Pyrrha herself had grabbed her spear from across her back and was brandishing it at Rainbow too. Rainbow herself was fully geared up: her wingpack, Wings of Harmony, was strapped on, her SMGs – Brutal Honesty and Plain Awesome – were at her hips, and her shotgun Unfailing Loyalty was slung across her back on top of her wings. But Rainbow didn't reach for any of her weapons, because none of them were really quiet, and she wasn't here to start fights, and – admitting that they'd only met once – she didn't think that Pyrrha Nikos was the kind of person to get involved in international espionage.
Plus, as much as it hurt so much to admit it that the words would never pass her lips aloud, she probably wouldn't actually win a fight against the Invincible Girl.
"Pyrrha Nikos, right?" Rainbow said, holding up her hands. "Do you remember me?"
Pyrrha's eyes narrowed. "You… you were at the charity function for the Asclepius Institute. No! You were at the hospital, visiting that adorable girl."
"I was at both, but yeah, we met at the hospital," Rainbow said. The Asclepius Institute was a private hospital that developed prosthetics for children from all over Remnant and gave them out for free and took care of all the physical therapy too. Rainbow's little sister – admittedly not biologically or legally, but in every other way that mattered – Scootaloo was one of their patients, and Pyrrha had come over to Atlas for a private fight with Shining Armour, the winner of the Atlesian regional tournament, with all ticket revenue going to raise money for the institute. And of course, she'd been given a tour beforehand with the press there, and that's where Rainbow had met her first, and the second time at the after party following the fight. "You told Scootaloo she could be whatever she wanted to be if she was willing to work at it."
"I said a few words," Pyrrha said.
"Good words, words that she doesn't hear often enough," Rainbow insisted. "It meant a lot for her to hear them from you."
"I… I'm glad," Pyrrha murmured. "It's… forgive me, but I can't recall…"
"Rainbow Dash," Rainbow supplied without malice. If she was a big shot celebrity, then she'd probably forget the names of people she only met once or twice as well. "Leader of Team Rosepetal of Atlas."
"This is my friend and teammate Ruby Rose," Pyrrha said. "We're both of Team Sapphire of Beacon."
"Okay," Rainbow said. "Now, Pyrrha, you seemed like a pretty cool person when we met last, so do you mind telling me what you're doing shooting my drone out of the sky?"
“Your drone!” Ruby exclaimed. “We were protecting Penny! Why are you chasing after her?”
“She did seem rather alarmed,” Pyrrha added.
Rainbow sighed. “Penny… Penny is… playing truant,” she said. “We weren’t supposed to come to Vale this early, but she wanted to, and so, she snuck off on her own, and as her team leader it is my responsibility to bring her back home.”
Ruby frowned. “That’s not the way she said it.”
This ought to be good. Rainbow folded her arms. “And what did Penny say?”
“She told us that her team weren’t interested in hanging around with her, so you sent her to explore Vale by herself,” Ruby replied.
"Penny told you that? Did she hiccup when she said it?" Rainbow asked.
The two of them looked at one another. "Yes."
"She does that when she lies; it’s… like a nervous tic," Rainbow explained. "Listen, I really do need to find her: she's all alone in a brand new place, and she has no clue what she's doing. She might think she does, but she doesn’t, and there are a lot of people who are worried sick about her. But, if you don't trust me, then you're welcome to come with: we'll all go find Penny together, and when we do, she'll admit that I don't mean her any harm." Rainbow hoped she would, anyway; if she decided to keep on telling lies, then this could get awkward fast.
"Penny... does seem a little naive," Pyrrha said softly. She glanced at Ruby. "And your brother is an Atlesian officer, if I recall-”
“Actually, that was my friend Twilight’s brother, although I did live with them for a while,” Rainbow corrected her.
“Even so, I should like to believe that you are a woman of your word,” Pyrrha said. “So long as we accompany you, I see no reason to obstruct you."
Ruby's scythe folded into a more compact, stubby, carbine-like weapon. "Okay. But we'll be watching."
Rainbow snorted. “It’s a pity that Penny won’t get how lucky she is; in this whole city, she runs into two people who actually care what happens to a complete stranger.”
“Do you find it so odd?” Pyrrha asked.
“I’m not saying it's impossible,” Rainbow replied. “Some of my best friends would care about a complete stranger if they ran into them like that. I’m just saying… not everybody would, and Penny could have been a lot less lucky in whom she ran into.”
Ruby laughed nervously. “It wasn’t exactly Penny who did the running.”
Rainbow chuckled and tapped her ear piece. “Twilight, do you see anything?”
“Currently tracking her down Fortieth,” Twilight replied. “What about the person who shot my drone?”
“It was a misunderstanding,” Rainbow replied. “Keep me updated.”
The three of them tracked Penny using Twilight’s info... or rather, Rainbow tracked Penny using Twilight’s info, and Ruby and Pyrrha followed along with her. Penny moved slowly, hampered by her unfamiliarity with Vale, and the trio were closing in on her latest position when Pyrrha's scroll started to buzz.
Pyrrha opened up her scroll and seemed to hesitate a little on seeing whoever it was on the other end. "Sunset. Hello again."
Sunset? No way. It can't be her, can it?
"Hey. Have you two had any luck so far?"
"Wait, that isn't Sunset Shimmer, is it?" Rainbow Dash asked as she plucked the scroll out of Pyrrha's hands and looked down onto the unmistakable face of Sunset Shimmer.
Wow. What did these two do in a previous life to get stuck with Sunset Shimmer... Sapphire; she's their team leader isn't she?
Boy, are these two unlucky.
For that matter, Rainbow Dash was inclined to consider herself a little unlucky herself. She'd hoped to never have to see Sunset Shimmer again after some of the stunts she'd tried to pull in Canterlot. Trying to turn her friends against one another wasn't something that Rainbow Dash forgave or forgot lightly; the fact that it hadn't worked didn't mitigate the fact that she had made the attempt. "Sunset Shimmer."
Sunset's jaw tightened. "Rainbow Dash."
No way that I can tell her about Penny. You didn't let Sunset Shimmer know anything about you if you could avoid it. Anything she did find out, she'd try and use against you. "Hanging out."
"'Hanging out,'" Sunset repeated acidly. "With my teammates?"
What, is somebody worried that I'll tell some stories? How much do your teammates know about you, I wonder. "Hey, I didn't know you were the one putting the S in Sapphire until you called," Rainbow replied. "Small world, isn't it?"
"Too small by a long way if you're here," Sunset said. "Put Pyrrha back on."
Rainbow wordlessly handed Pyrrha her scroll back.
"Pyrrha, where are you?"
"Uh, I'm not entirely sure. Let me see..." Pyrrha looked around for a street sign. "Thirty-Second Avenue."
"Stay there and don't move; I'm coming to you," Sunset said.
"Sorry, we can't stop," Ruby said. "We have to find Penny!"
"And just who the hell is Penny?" Sunset demanded, just as Ruby caught sight of Penny looking aimless outside the entrance to a big, glassy shopping plaza.
"There she is!" Ruby yelled, loudly enough to draw the attention of Penny herself. "Penny, wait!" Ruby cried as Penny turned to make another exit.
"Gotta go," Rainbow Dash said, reaching across to hang up on Sunset. "Penny, stop right there!"
Penny looked as though she didn't really want to wait for Rainbow Dash and the others to catch up to her, but a quick burst of semblance carried Rainbow and Ruby the remaining distance over to her, while Pyrrha was left to run to catch up.
"Penny, stop! Ruby cried. "You don't need to run away." She put a hand on Penny's shoulder. "It's going to be okay, I promise."
Rainbow Dash put her hands on her hips, and her pony ears flattened angrily against the top of her head. "In the first place, will you please tell these two that I am not the bad guy? In fact, why don't you just tell them who I am?"
Penny didn’t look in the least bit ashamed of herself as she said, "You're Rainbow Dash, leader of Team Rosepetal."
"Uh-huh," Rainbow said. "And you're a member of Team Rosepetal, aren't you?"
"Certainly! I'm combat ready!"
"Then why were you running?" Pyrrha asked as she joined them.
Penny hesitated for a moment. She clasped her hands together in front of her. “Because… because Rainbow Dash is here to take me back now, aren’t you?”
“Can you try not to sound as though I’m hauling you away to prison in front of the Beacon students?” Rainbow asked.
“But what if I don’t want to go back?” Penny demanded. “What if I want to stay here, with my new friends Ruby and Pyrrha?” She grabbed the two of them and pulled them into neckholds that were probably supposed to be friendly hugs but which looked as though Penny was strangling the pair of them.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Penny, let them go.”
“Why?”
“Because they’re turning blue.”
“Ah!” Penny exclaimed, releasing both of them. “I’m so sorry.”
Pyrrha rubbed at her gorget with one hand. “It… that’s quite alright, Penny. There’s no harm done.”
This is why you weren’t ready to come to Vale yet. “Penny, just come with me; let me take you home.”
“I don’t want to go home!” Penny insisted. “I want to stay here! Why do I have to go back to Atlas?”
How am I supposed to explain socialising you in front of people who can’t know what you are? “Because… you know why.”
“Why can’t I do that here?” Penny asked. “All my life, people have made my decisions for me. They’ve decided where I should go and who I should meet. My father, Mister Ironwood, they decided what I would do and who my teammates would be. And now, you and Ciel and Twilight are doing the exact same thing! You even decided who my friends were going to be! I made this choice, for myself. It’s the only choice I’ve made in my life. Aren’t I allowed to make one choice? I want… I want so much more than you’ve got planned.”
“I knew letting Twilight show you that movie was a mistake,” Rainbow muttered.
“Please, Rainbow Dash,” Penny implored. She leaned forward, and seemed to make her eyes bigger as she did so. “Please. I’ve made a great start already.”
Rainbow leaned back a little away from Penny. “It… it’s not that simple, Penny; it…” Her scroll went off. Not only that, but it went off with a singular ring tone that meant that she was getting a call from none other than Pinkie Pie.
“Hold that thought for a second,” Rainbow said, as she took a step back, turned away, and opened her scroll. “Pinkie, now isn’t a great time-”
“Really? Because I think that now is the perfect time to remind you that sometimes, the best thing you can do is put a smile on someone’s face,” Pinkie declared, her big blue eyes staring up at Rainbow Dash from out of the scroll screen.
Rainbow frowned. “You called me just to tell me that?”
“I thought you might need to be reminded,” Pinkie said.
“Really?” Rainbow asked. “What gave you that idea?”
“I just had a feeling,” Pinkie explained.
“Do you have a feeling as to what I ought to do next?”
“You know what you ought to do next, silly,” Pinkie cried. “You just need to have the courage to do it.”
Rainbow stared down at her eccentric friend for just a moment. “Thanks, Pinkie.”
“You’re welcome!” Pinkie cried in a sing-song voice. “Speak to you soon!”
“I sure will,” Rainbow promised as she snapped her scroll shut. She didn’t put it away, though, but kept it in her hand as she turned back to Penny. 
“I don’t think that you ought to make Penny go anywhere she doesn’t want to,” Ruby declared. “You don’t have the right.”
“I do, actually,” Rainbow insisted. “But I won’t. I’m going to talk to the General and see if he’ll let you stay in Vale for the rest of this semester.”
Penny’s eyes got even wider, which Rainbow wouldn’t have thought was even possible; Twilight would know for sure, though. “Really? Oh, thank you, Rainbow-”
“But,” Rainbow said quickly, “there are certain conditions. If we do this, then you have to do as I say from now on.”
“I promise.”
“No wandering off, no running away.”
“I won’t.”
“And anything else that General Ironwood says, you have to do that, too,” Rainbow added.
“No problem,” Penny declared.
Rainbow sighed. “Would you two mind keeping Penny company? I need to make a couple of calls.”
Pyrrha slipped her arm into Penny’s crook. “We’d be delighted to, wouldn’t we, Ruby?”
“Sure!” Ruby chirped eagerly. “Hey, Penny! If this is your first time in Vale, then that means you have to try some Valish cookies! They’re the best! Come on, there’s a store right over there.”
“Don’t wander too far,” Rainbow called, as Ruby half-led, half-dragged Penny – and Pyrrha – towards a Loaded With Dough on the edge of the shopping plaza. Rainbow kept half an eye on them as she tapped her earpiece to open up communications. “Twilight, Ciel, are you there?”
“I’m right here,” Twilight said.
“Ciel Soleil reading you loud and clear,” Ciel declared. “Less clear are your immediate intentions.”
“I can see that you’ve found Penny,” Twilight said. “Why aren’t you on your way back? And who are those… is that Pyrrha Nikos?”
“Yes, from the charity fight,” Rainbow said. “And the other one is her teammate, Ruby Rose. Penny lucked out with the first people she met in Vale.”
“Hmm,” Ciel murmured, and Rainbow found that she could imagine Ciel running through the files. “Pyrrha Nikos, seventeen years old, born in Mistral where she lived her entire life to date, aside from periods domiciled in Argus corresponding to the terms of Sanctum Combat School. Enrolled at Beacon Academy at the beginning of this semester and was assigned to Team Sapphire.”
“Twilight, is she reading, or does she have every student’s records memorised?” Rainbow asked.
“She’s not reading anything at all,” Twilight said, sounding awed and afraid in equal measure. 
“Ruby Rose,” Ciel continued. “Fifteen-“
“Fifteen?” Rainbow repeated. “That can’t be right, how can a fifteen year old-?”
“Enrolled at Beacon Academy through the personal recommendation of Professor Lyman Ozpin after two years of study at Signal Combat  School,” Ciel continued. “Hails from Patch, the location of her birth. Assigned to Team Sapphire.” She paused. “I suppose I can understand your use of the term ‘lucked out’. Pyrrha Nikos appears to be beyond reproach.”
“And Ruby?”
“That remains to be seen,” Ciel replied. “Or not, as you ought to be returning to the airship immediately.”
“Actually,” Rainbow said. “I was thinking that maybe we could stick around in Vale for a while.”
Silence greeted this pronouncement.
“For what purpose?” Ciel asked in a chill voice.
“We can just as easily socialise Penny here as in Vale,” Rainbow said. “She’s already made two friends.
“This location is less easily regulated,” Ciel pointed out.
“Did you ever stop to think that maybe the fact that Atlas was so regulated is why Penny ran away in the first place?” Rainbow suggested.
Ciel was silent for a moment. “The thought had occurred to me. It does not change the fact that we have our orders.”
“Which I’m going to talk to the general about changing,” Rainbow said.
“There are too many variables here,” Ciel insisted. “For what reason do you wish to complicate our mission unnecessarily?”
“Because I think it will make Penny happy,” Rainbow said.
Once more, Ciel fell silent. “Nevertheless,” she said after a moment, “I would like it noted in the log that I objected to this.”
“It will be noted,” Rainbow agreed. “What about you, Twilight?”
“She… she looks happy,” Twilight said. “I feel a little like a stalker, spying on her through a drone like this, but… she looks happy. If she’d rather stay here, then… why not? It’s not like Vale is a warzone or anything.”
“Exactly,” Rainbow said. “It’s a kingdom. It’s at peace, just like Atlas.” It wasn’t even a bad place to be. It kind of reminded her of Canterlot in some ways, just more crowded. “Okay, I’ll call General Ironwood.”
“Good luck,” Twilight said.
“Thanks, Twi.”
“Rainbow Dash,” Ciel said.
“Uh huh?”
“I disagree with this,” Ciel informed Rainbow, “but your intent is noble, and that, I can respect.”
“Um… thanks for that as well?” Rainbow said. She tapped her earpiece again to shut off comms with the airship before she opened up her scroll again and called General Ironwood himself. 
It took a while before he answered. General Ironwood was a busy man, after all, not only Headmaster of Atlas Academy, but Commander in Chief of the Combined Atlesian Forces and holder of two seats on the Atlas Council. Nevertheless, however busy he was, he understood that Rainbow wouldn’t call unless it was related to their mission, and so, eventually, his face appeared in Rainbow’s scroll.
General Ironwood’s look belied his name only in as much as he looked to have been fashioned not of metal or wood but stone, with chiselled cheeks and a firm jawline. He looked strong, as strong as Atlas itself, as strong as the military he commanded. Rainbow stood to attention as his eyes fell upon her through the screen. 
“Cadet Leader Rainbow Dash reporting, sir!”
“At ease, Dash,” General Ironwood replied. “Have you found Penny?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good work, Dash. I knew I could count on you. Come home immediately.”
“Permission to speak, sir?” Rainbow asked.
General Ironwood paused. “Granted.”
“I’d like to request permission to carry out observation trials here in Vale, sir.”
General Ironwood looked a little puzzled and a little bemused. “Explain.”
“Penny wants to be here, sir,” Rainbow said. “She doesn’t want to go back to Atlas. Plus, she’s already made two… two friends here, Beacon students. I’m worried that if I try to make her come back to Atlas with me, then they’ll give me trouble. It might cause an incident. Plus, even if I do take her back to Atlas, I think she’ll sulk. She might even try and run away again.”
General Ironwood’s expression was inscrutable. “And you think observations can be carried out in Vale?”
“Twilight can make her observations and report her findings from here just as easily as from Atlas, sir,” Rainbow pointed out, “and as I said, Penny will be more motivated to make an effort here.”
“Assuming that she doesn’t demand further concessions from you now that you’ve shown a willingness to cede ground.”
“I know how to put my foot down, sir,” Rainbow insisted. “And to speak freely, General, you were going to send us to Vale next semester anyway.”
“After a period of determining if Penny could interact with others,” General Ironwood reminded Dash. “These Beacon students, do you trust them?”
“I do, sir,” Rainbow said. “I’ve met one of them - Pyrrha Nikos - before, and the other one, Ruby Rose, seems like a good kid. I’ll vouch for them.”
“Did you say Ruby Rose, Dash?”
Rainbow blinked. “Yes, sir. Do you know her?”
“I used to know her father; he’s a good man,” General Ironwood said. “Her uncle… means well, most of the time.” General Ironwood looked at Rainbow Dash more intently. “Do you think they might discover Penny’s secret?”
“I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen, sir.”
“You’d better,” General Ironwood said. “You realise that your reputation will be on the line if this goes south.”
“Of course, sir.”
“Why do you want this, Dash?”
“'Want' is a little strong, sir, but I’d rather be a team leader than a prison guard,” Rainbow replied. “That’s not what I came to Atlas for. Penny deserves some time to be a kid.”
“You all do,” General Ironwood said with a sigh. “More than you’re allowed. Very well. Permission granted. I’ll issue the new orders and speak to Ozpin about you moving into Beacon early. Very early.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing, Dash.”
“I hope so too, sir.”
General Ironwood looked for a moment as though he might smile. “Good luck out there. Ironwood out.”
The scroll went blank. Rainbow shut it and put it away as she let out a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding until she wasn’t.
She attempted to appear insouciant as she wandered over to the cookie store, or rather to nearby it, where Penny was… eating? Rainbow wondered where she was putting those cookies and whether she, Rainbow, really wanted to know the answer.
They all looked at her as she approached. Penny had cookie crumbs round her mouth. “Well?” she asked.
“General Ironwood gave the okay,” Rainbow said. 
“YES!” Penny yelled, launching herself at Rainbow Dash in a flying tackle that knocked Rainbow down to the ground with a groan of pain. “Thank you, Rainbow Dash, thank you so much!”
“No problem,” Rainbow groaned. She looked at Ruby Rose as she pried Penny off of her and picked herself up. Now that Ciel mentioned it, Ruby did look younger than seventeen. 
“You know, you look a little young to be a Beacon student,” Rainbow observed, only slightly disingenuously. She wanted to find out what Ruby’s deal was; hopefully, it was more than just the fact that important people knew her dad.
“Yeah,” Ruby admitted nervously. “I’m, uh, I’m actually only fifteen. Professor Ozpin… he, uh, he let me in early.”
“Good for you,” Rainbow said. “He must have had a reason for that.”
“Oh, it wasn’t much,” Ruby replied. “I just stopped a few bad guys from robbing a dust shop.”
Rainbow’s eye twitched. 'A few bad guys'? 'Stopped a few bad guys'? I saved a member of the Atlesian Council and thwarted a major White Fang attack when I was fifteen, and nobody suggested that I should get into Atlas two years early!
You know, not that I’m jealous or anything. 
I’m just… man, they’re soft here in Vale.
“Okay,” she said. “So, anyway, where are we going now?”



Sunset found them in an arcade not far from Thirty-Second Street.
Her brow was stained with sweat from a mixture of the running and the sense of nervousness that she'd felt tightening in her chest with every step she took, every moment that she spent away and they were with Rainbow Dash and Celestia only knew what she might tell them about Sunset and the things that she'd done. Her mind was filled with horrible visions as Ruby and Pyrrha rejected her for the horrors of her past as they refused to believe that she could change, would change, had changed.
I am not that which I was. But of course, Rainbow Dash wouldn't believe that - and to be somewhat fair, Sunset couldn't blame her too much for that - in fact, she couldn't even believe that Sunset was only as bad as she had been and not worse. Things that hadn't been Sunset's fault had gotten attached to her because she was a... because she had been an ass about whom people had learnt to assume the worst because it was frequently true. If Rainbow told Ruby and Pyrrha about the things that she had done, it would be bad enough, but if she told them about the things that she hadn't done, then... it scarcely bore thinking about.
But it was all that Sunset could think about as she ran through the streets, leaving Jaune trailing behind her as she searched frantically, desperately, for Ruby and Pyrrha.
And once you find them, then what? Are you going to beat Rainbow Dash into unconsciousness to stop her from talking? It was a tempting idea, but one likely to do more harm than good. The truth was that, even once she got there, then there was nothing Sunset could do to stop Rainbow Dash from spilling everything... nothing except witness the crash in person.
Or beg for mercy. That might be her only choice, the hardest choice of all: to humble herself before Rainbow Dash and cry forgiveness for all that she had done and hope the other faunus was generous enough to grant it, to plead to not have everything that she had so slowly and so painfully built up here ripped away from her in an instant.
I mean, it's not like I really did her any harm, or any of them. Yes, I was mean and vain and proud and... maybe a little cruel sometimes, but it's not like I did any lasting damage. They were all still friends when they graduated Canterlot; it's not like I broke up the band. And let's remember who the real victim was in all of the stuff that went down there.
Sunset scowled and shook her head. She couldn't think like that. She couldn't afford to think like that. Throwing herself a pity party wasn't likely to win her any favours from Rainbow Dash.
How I hate that girl. Sunset, who liked to think that she had mellowed lately, was surprised by the vituperative force of the feelings that still flowed through her when she thought about Rainbow, her smug smile, her cocky attitude. The way she acted as though she didn't even realise that she had pony ears, the way a world that never failed to remind Sunset she was a despised faunus seemed to treat the great Rainbow Dash like she was human.
The way that she was always surrounded by smiles and laughter. Sunset hadn't admitted that at the time, not even to herself; perhaps she hadn't even realised it. But now, with a clearer head and consequently clearer eye, she could concede that truth: even when she had most bitterly denied the worth of friends, she had been consumed with envy of those who had them when she did not.
And now, Rainbow Dash would take her friends away unless Sunset abased herself before her.
It was with her thoughts thus awhirl like a tornado that Sunset found them in an arcade not far from Thirty-Second Street. She panted for breath, and in the way of it, she felt the sweat running down her back all the more once she stopped running and started moving more slowly.
She spotted Pyrrha first. Even in this place of dim shadows illuminated more by the flashing screens of the games cabinets than the practically non-existent ambient lighting, Pyrrha's red hair and statuesque figure stood out. As Sunset made her way towards her, she was surprised to see that Pyrrha was playing a button-masher fighting game... with Rainbow Dash. 
The Atlesian was not as tall as Pyrrha, being about of a height with Yang, maybe a little taller, but at the same time thinner than Yang was. She was a pony faunus with hair in all the colours of the rainbow which had supplied her name, cut short so that it fell down just below her shoulder. She was dressed in a blue sports jacket over a white T-shirt and a pair of dark blue pants with rainbow-coloured lighting bolts on them, and wearing some kind of bulky backpack with a shotgun slung over it. A pair of crimson goggles sat atop her head, above her magenta eyes. A pair of blue gloves covered her hands. 
Ruby wasn't too far away. Sunset could spot her red cloak, playing one of those grimm shooters with the toy guns you pointed at the screen alongside a ginger-haired girl - maybe this Penny that they had been looking for earlier - with a bow in her hair.
Sunset was about to announce herself as she staggered with leaden feet towards them, but it was Jaune who spoke up first with an indignant declaration of, "You guys went to the arcade? Then why didn't you invite me?"
Everyone - everyone being the four people in this arcade who actually mattered - looked at him.
"Jaune!" Ruby cried enthusiastically. "Oh, sorry. It's just that it was kind of an impulse decision, and then we ran into Penny, and everything happened so fast after that that I just didn't think." She stopped for a second, only to gasp. "Oh, right! You don't know: Penny, Rainbow Dash, meet our friends Jaune Arc and Sunset Shimmer. Jaune, Sunset, this is Penny-"
"Hello, new friends!" Penny said, waving enthusiastically.
"And this is Rainbow Dash."
"Yo."
"Yo?" Jaune repeated. "Sunset said... I thought that you were in danger? Sunset said we had to rescue you from a wicked faunus."
“Hey!” Rainbow Dash protested. “I am not a wicked faunus. I am a wicked cool faunus.” She smirked. "That said, I'm still kind of flattered, Sunset. I wouldn't have thought that you'd be so nice to me."
I bet you're just loving this, aren't you? "What can I say?" Sunset replied.
Rainbow Dash stared at Sunset coolly for a moment. "I'm going to get a soda," she said. "Hey, Jaune, why don't you take over here?"
"Uh, okay," Jaune said, taking Rainbow's place beside Pyrrha. "So, Pyrrha, I didn't know you were into this kind of thing."
"I'm not, really. This is my first time... anywhere like this."
"Really? You mean I might actually beat you at something?" Jaune said. "Or... maybe something less selfish. How have you never been to an arcade before?"
"She's had a poor, deprived childhood," Rainbow called as she headed towards the burger bar at the back of the arcade.
"That's why we're putting it right now," Ruby agreed.
Sunset didn't hear the rest of what might have passed between Jaune and Pyrrha, because she followed Rainbow Dash down towards the back of the arcade.
"Two sodas," Rainbow said, leaning on the desk.
"Generous," Sunset said.
Rainbow snorted. "Who says the other one is for you?"
Sunset didn't reply. She just stood there, and stared, and waited.
"Yeah, it's for you. I'm just that nice. Or Rarity has just rubbed off on me that much," Rainbow said. She drummed her fingers on the wooden bar and looked at Sunset out of the side of her eye. "They don't know what you are, do they?"
"‘What I am’?” Sunset repeated. “And what am I?"
"You're the worst."
Sunset shuffled uncomfortably. "That Anon-a-Miss thing genuinely wasn't me. I swear on... I'll swear on anything you like."
"You could swear on anything you liked, and I wouldn't buy it," Rainbow replied. She glanced back up to where the others were engrossed. "What do you think they'd do if they heard some of the stories that I could tell them about you?"
"No," Sunset whispered. "Please, don't. I... I'm not the person that I was back then."
"Why should I believe that either?"
"Because they trust me?" Sunset offered. "Because they put up with me, maybe they even like me a little. If I were that bad, if I were as bad as I was back then, would they do that? Would they be able to do that? I've changed, Rainbow Dash, I promise, I sw- I've changed."
Rainbow cocked her head. "This matters to you, doesn't it?"
"Yes, it matters to me!" Sunset hissed. "You're talking about destroying the trust that my team has in me."
"The way that you tried to take away the trust my friends had in each other?" Rainbow demanded. "The way you tried to divide and rule at Canterlot?"
"I was an idiot!" Sunset cried. She would have grabbed Rainbow and shaken her if she hadn't thought it would be counterproductive. "I was stupid, and I didn't realise what it meant to be a faunus in Atlas and how it would all turn out, and I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry for what I did, for what I tried to do... to you and your friends and everyone, I'm sorry. Is that what you want to hear? What do you want from me?"
"Maybe I want to know why you did it."
"Because I hated you!" Sunset said in a voice that was half-yell, half-whisper. "I hated the way that... I hated the way that when you were around, I couldn't just pretend that it was all about my ears and my tail, because that's what I told myself: 'it's not me, it's Atlas. It's not my fault that they don't see me in all my glory.' But then there was you: you can't do half of what I can, your semblance is just... all you can do is run fast, and you're just a faunus just like me, and yet... everyone thought you were so awesome. You were the star of the school, and you had friends. You had human friends who didn't give a damn about the extra ears." Sunset took a deep breath. "I'm not proud, but there it is. That's why I tried to... because I wanted to bring you down to the same level that I was stuck at, but that's not who I am anymore. Please, Rainbow Dash, I... I'm begging you. Don't take this away from me."
But Rainbow Dash's face was hard as stone, her eyes hostile and unyielding.
And then she started to laugh. "You should see the look on your face. Hah!"
Sunset's eyes widened in confusion. "You... what... huh?"
"I'm not going to tell them anything," Rainbow said.
"You're not?"
"I may not like you, but I'm not like you," Rainbow declared. "I'm not going to try and ruin your life just because I can. Plus, if it really matters that much to you, then maybe you have changed. Or else you'll blow it for yourself like you did at Canterlot."
"Don't remind me," Sunset growled. "So this... this was all about getting a rise out of me?"
"Pretty much."
"You are more evil than I could ever dream of being."
"Oh, come on! Pranks are good fun so long as the target can take it."
"I'll bear that in mind."
"Ooh, was that a threat?"
"Or perhaps I'll just share the pictures of that band you and your friends used to be in."
"Okay, first of all, we're still in a band: Rainbooms for life. Second, you can share whatever pictures you like, because we rocked that look."
"You certainly didn't rock the music."
"Now you're just showing that you have bad taste."
By the time they rejoined the others, Rainbow having decided it would be rude not to get everyone a drink, not to mention a tub of chips for sharing - "Don't worry," she said, although Sunset hadn't been. "Atlas is paying for all of this," whatever that meant - Pyrrha was laughing and Jaune was crowing.
"I did it!" he yelled. "I actually beat you! I don't believe it!"
"I don't believe it either," Sunset said. "What happened?"
"It turns out I'm terrible at this game," Pyrrha said, stifling her laughter behind one hand. "But it was such fun, can we go again?"
It turned out that Pyrrha was pretty terrible at button-mashers in general, if only because she couldn't seem to get the hang of the controls at all, no matter how they were spelled out for her. She did much, much better at shooters where she shot the plastic guns with the same unerring aim that she used when firing Miló... until she started to fall off in performance to the extent that Sunset wondered if she was deliberately throwing games so that people would want to keep playing against her. Not that Sunset was bothered by that; it left more space on the high score table for her.
"Do you have any idea," Pyrrha said to Ruby, as she stepped back from Alley Brawler to let Jaune go up against Rainbow Dash, "how refreshing it is to not have your opponent concede defeat to you before the fight has even begun? Thank you, Ruby; this was a wonderful idea."
"I'm glad you're having a good time," Ruby said. "I-"
"YES!" Sunset yelled, as she finally, finally, finally beat Penny at TurboRacer. The strange girl - so strange that Sunset wanted to know what was up with her - had reflexes that were uncannily fast; she'd claimed to have no more set foot in a place like this than Pyrrha, and yet, she picked up every game she turned her hand to with ridiculous ease. But none of that mattered because Sunset had beaten her, and it had only taken ten tries to do it, too! "I won!"
"You know," Rainbow said. "I think you might have actually gotten more competitive than you used to be." She grinned. "I like it. Bet I can beat your high score."
"Oh, it is so on."
By the time Rainbow and Penny left somewhat reluctantly, having gotten a call from someone named Ciel, the members of Team SAPR were about ready to head back to Beacon themselves. But even though they hadn't gotten any research done… 
"Ruby," Sunset said. "Great job. Today... it was a good day."
"A very good day," Pyrrha agreed.
"A great day," Jaune said. "We should do it again some time."
"Maybe the other members of Rosepetal could join us?" Pyrrha suggested. "Did anybody get their scroll numbers?"
"I did," Ruby said. "And we could bring Iron, too."
Sunset didn't add anything to the growing discussion. The truth was that she could have lost every game, and it wouldn't really have made any difference. The moment that Rainbow Dash had revealed that she had no intention of badmouthing Sunset to her friends, the moment it turned out that she would be keeping her team after all... that, alone, was enough to make it a good day.