//------------------------------//
// Rosepetals (Rewritten) 
// Story: SAPR 
// by Scipio Smith 
//------------------------------//


Rosepetals


Spike barked.
Twilight looked down from the holographic display in front of her and smiled down at her pet as, with one hand, she scratched him behind the ears. "What's wrong, Spike? Are you hungry?"
Spike made a yelping, slightly moaning sound as he clambered up onto Twilight's lap.
"Oh, I see; you just want some attention," Twilight said fondly, and she kept on rubbing him even as, with her other hand, she continued to pull out bits and pieces from the blow-out hologram.
The Beacon dorm room was a little crowded, not least because all of Twilight’s drones were taking up a lot of space on the floor, but no doubt, they would make do; the room seemed just a little bigger than the room that Rainbow and Applejack’s old team had had at Atlas, and they had seemed to manage well enough. 
Twilight Sparkle sat at one of the desks running along the wall, her computer set up to project a hologram of Penny's swords. She was a girl of average height but seemed smaller on account the slight and willowy nature of her frame. Her hair was midnight blue, streaked with purple and pink in a pair of stripes that ran from her bangs to the tip of her long high ponytail. Large square glasses sat on her face before her purple eyes. A pink waistcoat covered a blue sleeveless blouse with puffed shoulders and a high collar, while Spike, her dog, sat on top of her purple skirt, panting happily.
Behind Twilight, Ciel Soleil sat on her bed, reading a large and rather heavy-looking book on the history of the Mantle Navy during the Great War. Ciel was a little taller than Twilight and more muscular in the arms, even though most of said muscle was concealed beneath the fingerless opera-length black gloves she wore over her arms. Her skin was dark and her eyes a rich ocean blue, while her hair was black and cut short, stopping around the nape of her neck, although her bangs were long enough to nearly obscure the golden marking on her forehead. She wore a plain, white, short-sleeved blouse, a blue skirt with a golden hem, and a pair of high white boots that extended up past her knees. Her blue beret was sitting on the bed beside her. Occasionally, Ciel glanced at her watch and uttered a loud tut.
"I'm sure that they'll be back soon," Twilight said nervously.
"Indeed," Ciel said. "It might have been preferable if you had maintained drone surveillance."
"There was no need once Rainbow found her," Twilight said, "and, even leaving aside the fact that our permission to fly drones was for as little time possible to complete our mission, it would have felt like prying at that point." 
“Observation of Penny’s performance is your primary objective,” Ciel pointed out.
“That doesn’t mean I have to spy on her every moment,” Twilight insisted. “Just so long as I can produce sufficient body of evidence to submit to the General for recommendation by the end of semester.” Twilight pushed her glasses back up her nose. "I know… I know that this isn't what we planned," she said, "but General Ironwood approved this."
"I know," Ciel said. "And I will obey the orders of my commanding officer without hesitation or complaint." The words 'but that doesn't mean I have to like it' hung unspoken in the air.
Twilight's brow furrowed. "I think they're right. Rainbow Dash and General Ironwood. Penny… Penny deserves a chance to have a little fun and make friends."
"You and Rainbow Dash both vouched for the congeniality of your friends," Ciel reminded Twilight, "and having met them, I can understand why."
"Well, that's… thank you," Twilight said. "But the fact is that they're mine and Rainbow's friends, not Penny's. What right do we have to say 'these are your friends; I've chosen them for you because I approve of them’?"
"My parents approved of all my friends when I was a child," Ciel pointed out.
"Was that before or after you'd met them?"
"Before," Ciel said. "They introduced me to the children of fellow soldiers whom they knew and who knew them."
"That…" Twilight trailed off for a moment. "If my parents had done that, I never would have met Rainbow Dash, and if I hadn't met her, then… sometimes, you just have to take a chance, you know? Have a little faith?"
"Faith is rewarded," Ciel told her. "So is rigorous preparation."
Spike looked up, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, and barked happily at the door. He only barked at the door like that when one of Twilight's friends came around, and – notwithstanding the inexplicable abilities of Pinkie Pie – in this city, and this Academy, that could only be Rainbow Dash.
Sure enough, there was a knock at the door just a few seconds later.
Twilight was about to get up, but she was halted by a raised hand from Ciel.
"It's just Rainbow Dash," Twilight said.
"We'll see," Ciel said in a tone devoid of emotion. She put down her heavy book and got up, picking up the pistol that sat on the arm of her chair.
She loaded and cocked it as she walked towards the door.
Do we really need to be so paranoid? Yes, Penny's nature was a secret, but the four kingdoms were at peace, Vale and Atlas were allies, and this was Beacon Academy for crying out loud; Rainbow Dash wouldn't have suggested staying in Vale and General Ironwood wouldn't have agreed to it if this city was a dangerous place.
Ciel pressed herself against the wall and peered out of the peephole. She made a slightly exasperated noise as she opened the door to reveal Rainbow Dash and Penny.
"Hey," Rainbow said with a sheepish smile on her face. "We brought take-out." She raised a couple of plastic bags bulging with cardboard noodle boxes. Twilight could smell the Mistralian food from where she sat. 
"Welcome back," Twilight said. "Are you guys okay?"
"We are in excellent condition!" Penny replied as she followed Rainbow inside.
Ciel shut the door behind them with just a little more force than was necessary. "You have been out of contact for three hours and forty-two minutes."
"Sometimes, I can't tell which one is the automaton," Rainbow muttered as she walked into the centre of the room and deposited the bags of food on the floor. "Hey, Twi. Hey there, Spike."
Spike barked and leapt off Twilight's lap to run to Rainbow Dash's feet. Rainbow grinned as she knelt down and rubbed his chin.
"Kinda makes me miss Tank, seeing the little guy like this," Rainbow murmured.
"I'm sure Pinkie's taking care of him,” Twilight assured her.
"Yeah, if the alligator hasn't eaten him."
"Actually, at Gummy's size, his jaws don't have the strength to-”
"I'll take your word for it, Twi; you know math isn't my thing."
"Is that why you were out so late?" Ciel asked, folding her arms.
"We were out with my new friends!" Penny declared cheerfully.
"Indeed," Ciel said. "For a long time."
"Pyrrha Nikos and Ruby Rose, right?" Twilight asked.
"That's right," Penny said. "Pyrrha's a lot less stern in person than she seems on the videos of her fights."
"That is because she was not in battle," Ciel suggested. "Combat requires focus, and focus often leads to a stern affect."
Rainbow rose to her feet. "We also met the other two members of Team Sapphire. Hey, Twilight, you'd never guess who their leader is."
Twilight blinked. It had to be someone that she and Rainbow both knew, or she wouldn't be bringing it up. Equally, it had to be someone she wouldn't necessarily expect to be in such a position. Who did they know who had gone to Beacon? "Flash Sentry?"
Rainbow shook her head. "Sunset Shimmer."
Twilight's eyebrows rose. "You ran into Sunset Shimmer?"
"Yup. Sunset Shimmer, leader of Team Sapphire."
"And you're both still in one piece?" Twilight asked.
Rainbow grinned. "She's actually kind of mellowed out since we last saw her."
Twilight frowned and couldn't keep the scepticism out of her voice. "Really?"
Rainbow shrugged. "Kind of."
Twilight would believe that when she saw it. She didn't have the best memories of Sunset Shimmer. She hadn't asked for Flash Sentry to ask her out – and she had said no, because she wasn't interested – but that hadn't stopped Sunset from acting like Twilight had set out to steal her boyfriend.
Ciel cleared her throat loudly. "What happened?"
Rainbow opened her mouth, but once again, Penny spoke before her. "We went to the arcade. It was a lot of fun! Ruby and I-"
"Penny," Rainbow said, gently but firmly, "I don't think Ciel wants a blow-by-blow account."
"An arcade?" Ciel repeated. "You took Penny to an arcade?"
"You say that like I took her to somewhere really immoral," Rainbow said. "What do you have against video games?"
Ciel stared at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash stared right back.
"I was right there; Penny was never in any danger," Rainbow said firmly.
"You exposed her to outsiders."
"Isn't that what we're supposed to be testing?"
Ciel was silent for a moment. "True," she admitted. "As much as I would have preferred to vet Penny's friends beforehand, your plan has merit. It will determine if Penny can interact with the general population."
"Exactly," Rainbow said. "Now, can we eat before the takeout gets cold?"
Ciel's glance at the food was barely noticeable, but Twilight noticed it regardless.
"Very well," she said.



Rainbow and Ciel were taking out the trash, which required both of them only insofar as they would only have to find the dumpster once, which left Twilight keeping an eye on Penny.
Well, she was sort of keeping an eye on her. She was also still working on the swords, even as she fed Spike a piece of chicken with one hand. He gobbled it up greedily and then nibbled playfully at Twilight's fingers. The tickling sensation made her chuckle a little.
"What are you doing, Twilight?" Penny asked.
"I'm trying to find a way to modify your swords," Twilight said, "so that you can control them without the need for wires."
"Why?" Penny asked curiously.
"Because the wires represent a vulnerability in your design," Twilight said. Doctor Polendina's original design had called for the blades to work on a drone model, powered independently and driven by signals from Penny's core processor. Unfortunately, they couldn't design a sword with a combination of independent power supply and signal receiver that remained compact enough to fit into Penny's backpack with the requisite number of other swords. Ideally, they wouldn't have moved to production until that issue had been sorted, but too much time and money had already been invested in Penny by that point to put everything on hold until they could resolve the issue, so they had moved to a wire-based control model. Hopefully, it would only be temporary if Twilight could find a way to miniaturise the necessary elements of the drone design. "And the goal of our engineering should be to eliminate vulnerabilities."
Penny was silent for a moment. "I thought I was designed to protect the vulnerable, not destroy them."
"Um, that's not quite what I meant by vulnerabilities, Penny," Twilight corrected.
"Oh."
"What I meant was," Twilight continued, as she frowned a little at the holographic display. "Is that we should always try and improve what we've made, to make it better. Does that make more sense?"
"So removing Floating Array’s wires will make me better?"
"I think so, yes."
"Oh," Penny repeated. She glanced at the closed door. "Am I in trouble for what I did?"
Twilight shook her head. "I don't think it's possible for you to get into trouble, Penny."
"Even though I ran away?"
"Not even for that," Twilight said. "Allowances are made for your… you. But, uh, don't do it again, okay. The more you learn, the less allowances will be made for your inexperience."
"Oh," Penny said. "Twilight, can I ask you a question?"
"You just did," Twilight replied.
"Oh."
Twilight waited a moment. "Sorry, that was… never mind. Yes, Penny, of course you can ask me a question."
"You and Rainbow Dash are friends, aren't you?"
Twilight nodded. "My best friend."
"How do you know?" Penny asked.
"Hmm?"
"How do you know that Rainbow Dash is really your friend?" Penny asked.
Twilight looked away from the hologram, and twisted round to look at Penny. The latter was sat on one of the four beds in the dorm room, her hands resting on her knees, her face illuminated with eager curiosity.
"Penny," Twilight asked, "what's this about?"
"I want to know," Penny said, "how you know that your friend is really your friend. And how you know that you are really their friend. You say that you and Rainbow Dash are friends, but how do you know?"
Twilight cringed a little and looked away from Penny as she absently reached up and started to play with one of the strands of her hair. Her fingertips brushed against her six-pointed star hairclip. "I… it took me some time to find the answer to that myself, Penny."
"But you did, didn't you?"
"Eventually," Twilight said softly. "When I was a child, it felt as though… I was searching for something more but with no idea of what it was. I aced tests, I was praised for my intelligence… but it wasn't enough. I wanted… I needed… more than that. It was as though… I had an emptiness inside me. A void that I couldn't fill, no matter how much I tried. It wasn't until I met my friends that I realised that they were what I'd been missing, that that was what I'd been searching for to fill that void." She chuckled. "I'm afraid this must all seem really unscientific, because it is. I can't tell you how I know that Rainbow Dash is my friend; I can't quantify it that way. I could tell you the things that Rainbow has done for me, the things that all of my friends have done for me, but that's not really it. It's something that I feel… in my soul. When I'm around my friends… everything feels better." She groaned. "I'm terrible at explaining this; I'm sorry. If Pinkie were here, then maybe-"
"No," Penny said. "That… I think I understand. So, Twilight, do you think that I could feel that too? Do you think that I could know that Ruby and Pyrrha are my friends?"
Twilight hesitated for a moment. "Yes," she said. "You have a soul, Penny. And if you have a soul, then you can feel in your soul. You're a person." A person that we built to fight grimm until you die or your parts give out, without ever once asking if that's what you wanted to do with your life. Suddenly, Twilight felt rather ill.
"Twilight?" Penny asked. "Is something wrong?"
Yes. I'm wrong. What we're doing is wrong. This whole situation is wrong! Twilight tried to keep her burgeoning sense of horror at what she had allowed herself to become a part of off her face. She needed to talk to someone about this, someone other than Penny. She needed – she wanted – Rainbow to tell her that they were not complicit in a monstrous act.
She turned off the hologram. She couldn't work on improving Penny's ability to destroy her enemies at this moment.
"I… I'm fine, Penny," she stammered. "I just, uh-"
The door opened, and Rainbow and Ciel came back.
Oh, thank goodness. Twilight put Spike down on the floor and got up. "Um, Ciel, can you take over watching Penny for a bit? I really need to talk to Rainbow Dash."
Ciel nodded. "Very well."
"Outside?" Rainbow suggested.
"Yeah," Twilight said with a nod of her head.
They left the dorm room, Rainbow closing the door behind them as they emerged into the deserted corridor. In time, this part of the campus would hold all of the visiting Atlas students, but right now, it was only them. As a consequence, it was quiet and rather dark. Twilight drifted to the other side of the corridor, clutching nervously at her skirt.
"What's up, Twi?" Rainbow asked solicitously.
Twilight pushed her glasses up her nose as she turned around to face her best and oldest friend. "I want you to tell me that we're not doing something awful."
"We're not doing something awful."
"Can you try and say it as though you mean it?"
Rainbow folded her arms. "What's this about, Twilight?"
"What do you think?" Twilight replied. "We've built a slave."
Rainbow frowned. "You're being a bit harsh, don't you think?"
"Penny doesn't get a choice in what she does or where she goes," Twilight said. "We tell her what to do, and we expect her to do it even if… how is that any different from the way that the faunus were treated before the Great War?"
"Nobody built the faunus; Penny was created for this," Rainbow said.
"Does that matter?"
"I don't know, does it?" Rainbow replied. "Our combat droids, they can think for themselves, right?"
"Kind of, on a simplistic level."
"You don't worry about them being slaves."
"A knight didn't just ask me what friendship was and how I knew that you and I were really friends," Twilight said.
"Penny asked you that?"
"Yes."
Rainbow's eyebrows rose. "Wow. Okay, now I see why you're a little… like this."
Twilight approached her friend. "Rainbow, what are we doing?"
"We're helping Penny find out what's worth fighting for," Rainbow said.
"Huh?" Twilight murmured.
Rainbow looked at Twilight over her shoulder. "Come on, Twilight; your father was a soldier, your brother is one, you know how this works. Nobody is born ready to die for Atlas. Except maybe Ciel." Rainbow grinned. "I wasn't the awesome soldier you see here before I met you. But after meeting you, after Shining Armour took me under his wing, introduced me to General Ironwood, I started to figure out what's worth fighting for, even dying for. We all have to find the answer to that by ourselves, and maybe Penny can do that here in Vale. And if she does, then it won't matter whether she has a choice in the matter or not, because once she starts to fight for something that she believes in, then she'll do it anyway."



Although the Great War was ultimately lost for Mantle and its allies on land, for the greatest part of the duration of the conflict, it was the oceans that caused the most sleepless nights for the King of Mantle and his councillors. At the beginning of the Great War, Mantle imported 80% of its annual food consumption, thirty million tons of shipping, most of it from Mistral. Defending the integrity of this supply line from Valish surface raiders and submarines was the most urgent task facing Mantle’s Warfleet. 
Penny started clicking her tongue. 
Ciel lowered her book and looked at the girl on the bed next to hers. “Is something wrong, Penny?”
Penny looked at Ciel. “I am… I believe the word is ‘bored.’”
“Really?” Ciel said dryly. Nevertheless, she put down her book. She had six little brothers, and she knew from experience that boredom only got worse, never better; attempting to ignore it was only storing up trouble for later. “Is there something that you would like to do?”
“I’d like to go and see Ruby and Pyrrha,” Penny said. “They’re in this school, aren’t they?”
“They are,” Ciel allowed, “but they are students, and as I understand, they have quarter-terms tests due next week. In fact, I believe they have a practical test tomorrow. Doubtless, they will wish to study, having wasted an afternoon.”
“Wasted it with me?”
Ciel swung her legs off the bed and down onto the floor so that she was facing Penny. “That is not what I meant. Any frivolous activity, whether accompanied by you or not, could be considered wasteful in such circumstances.”
Penny nodded, but she said, “But I miss them already.”
“You are very young, Penny, and such feelings are natural - maybe even desirable - in a child,” Ciel said, “but your new friends are older than you are, and as you grow up, you will learn that friendship does not give you the right to insert yourself into their life without consideration for what other demands they have upon their time.”
“I see,” Penny replied. “Except I don’t.”
“No, I don’t expect you to at this stage,” Ciel replied. “As I say, it is something you will learn as you grow up.”
“I…” Penny hesitated. “But I’m still bored.”
“In my house, if you said you were bored where my parents could hear you, then you were asking to be given a chore to do,” Ciel declared.
“What kind of chores?” Penny asked.
“That depended upon where we were living at the time,” Ciel said. “Although cleaning either our room or any other part of the house was a perennial favourite. When we lived in Vacuo, the porch had to be swept to keep the sand away. Someone had to walk the dog-”
“You have a dog?” Penny asked excitedly. “Like Spike?”
Spike barked excitedly.
Ciel smiled fondly. “Archie was a little larger than Spike; he was my father’s dog. He had been the mascot of the Courageous before he got a little too old to be safe aboard ship, so my father took him in. He was a very friendly dog and always gentle around the younger children.”
“Was?”
“He was an old dog,” Ciel explained. “He died peacefully in his sleep and was buried with full military honours.”
“Is Spike our mascot?” Penny asked.
Spike barked.
“Spike is Twilight’s pet,” Ciel corrected her. “Some teams of huntsmen use dogs to assist them in their operations, but Spike is not such an animal.”
“Oh,” Penny said. “So, when you are bored, you do chores?”
“Not since I left home, no,” Ciel replied. “I have many things to occupy my hands and time. I study, maintain my weapons, read, make model ships-”
“So what can I do?” Penny inquired.
“What do you want to do?” Ciel turned the question back on her. “Besides spend more time with Ruby and Pyrrha?”
Penny thought about it for a moment. “Could we watch a little TV? I’m really enjoying that LovelyHearts show Twilight introduced me to.”
Ciel’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure that you deserve television after the way that you’ve behaved recently.”
Penny pouted. “No fair, Ciel! I said I was sorry!”
“Hmm,” Ciel murmured. “You can watch one hour of television, then you should do something productive.”
“Okay,” Penny conceded. “Are you going to watch with me? It’s always better watching with friends.”
Ciel was not such a fan of Twilight’s magical girl cartoon, but she nevertheless said, “Yes, Penny, I’ll watch it with you.” She got up off her bed and took out the scroll.
The door opened, and Rainbow and Twilight came in.
“What’s up?” Rainbow asked, as she closed the door behind her.
“We’re about to watch some LovelyHearts,” Penny declared.
“Great idea,” Twilight said. “We can all watch it together.”
“If you’d told me we were going to have a viewing party, I’d have picked up snacks,” Rainbow said, as a smile played across her face. 
Twilight was more familiar with the show in question, so she took over finding the right episode, while Ciel and Rainbow sat down on - in Ciel’s case - or beside - in Rainbow’s case - Penny’s bed while she did so. Twilight was almost ready when there was another knock on the door. 
Twilight opened it, revealing Beacon’s Headmaster, Professor Ozpin, standing on the other side. 
“Good evening, students,” he said genially. “May I come in?”
“O-of course, sir,” Twilight said, stepping back to admit him. 
Ciel leapt to her feet as the headmaster crossed the threshold. “Officer on deck, ten-hut!”
Rainbow and even Penny got to their feet, slamming them into the floor as they stood to attention. 
Professor Ozpin chuckled. “Please, there’s no need for that; this isn’t Atlas, and I’m not an officer.”
“At ease,” Rainbow commanded. 
Ciel clasped her hands behind her back. “Permission to speak, sir?”
“Of course, Miss-”
“Soleil, sir, Ciel Soleil. Obviously, you are correct that this is not Atlas, but you are still our superior and deserve respect.”
“I’ve always been of the opinion that respect should be earned, not blindly given,” Professor Ozpin mused, “but I’m resigned to the fact that James and I fundamentally disagree on that.”
Ciel would have frowned if it had been permitted. Is he attempting to imply that General Ironwood is not deserving of respect? Or simply that not all officers are?
“If it’s any consolation, sir, we respect the office, not you,” offered Penny cheerfully.
“Penny!” Ciel managed to bark, hiss, and snap, all at the same time.
Professor Ozpin, amazingly, did not seem offended. In fact, he chuckled. “Then I hope that I can become worthy of your respect, Miss Polendina.”
“Is there anything we can do for you, sir?” Rainbow asked.
“On the contrary Miss… Dash, isn’t it? Rainbow Dash.”
“Yes sir.”
“Indeed, James speaks very highly of you,” Professor Ozpin said. “He speaks highly of all four of you, but especially you, Miss Dash. In any case, I wished to welcome you to Beacon  Academy. Though you’ve arrived a little early, I hope you’ll find your stay here productive and enjoyable.”
“I’m sure we will, sir,” Rainbow said.
“Thank you, sir, for lodging us so early in the year,” Ciel added.
“Not at all, Miss Soleil. While I confess that I do find that Beacon becomes rather desolate during the years when the Vytal Festival is held in other kingdoms, I remain a great supporter of the system of each school playing host to students from the other academies and of the ideals that lie behind it. We are four kingdoms, true, but all part of one common humanity, and we must not lose sight of that fact.”
“We do not, sir,” Ciel declared. “After all, does not the power of Atlas embrace all our neighbours, warding them with our might and valour without ever asking for reward?”
“It might certainly be put that way,” Professor Ozpin allowed. “Is there anything that I can do for you? Do you have everything you need?”
“We are a little short on school supplies, but we will remedy the situation before the resumption of classes on Monday,” Ciel said. “We have our timetables, and maps of the school, and our scrolls have been registered to permit access to all relevant buildings.”
“Excellent,” Professor Ozpin said. “In which case, I’ll leave you all to your evening. If you need any help, then I’m sure any of the staff or other students will be glad to assist you, and if they cannot give you what you need, then my door is open.
“Welcome to Beacon, Team Rosepetal. I hope you enjoy your stay.”