//------------------------------//
// What Did I Miss? (Rewritten) 
// Story: SAPR 
// by Scipio Smith 
//------------------------------//


What Did I Miss?


Sunset rubbed her eyes. She was a little too tired to deal with this right now. Unfortunately, it wasn't likely to wait for her to start sleeping better. "So… your dog is talking now?"
Spike the dog poked his head into view of Twilight's scroll screen. "Yeah," he said. "And I don't know how I got by without it."
Sunset blinked, several times and very rapidly. "Okay, that… and you think that my magic had something to do with this?"
"I know that your magic had something to do with it!" Twilight replied vehemently.
"I saw it," Spike explained. "This green light came out of the bottle, and it flew towards me – sort of; it kind of took its time – and then it touched me, and I could talk."
"Is that what your magic does?" Twilight asked. "Is that how you can be a unicorn?"
"Well, yes, but no, not in the way that you mean," Sunset said quickly. "Yes, I am a unicorn because I have magic, or to put it another way, I have magic because I am a unicorn – it's a very phoenix and flame situation – but no, Equestria is not a land of talking animals-"
"You admitted to Penny that you were a talking horse."
"Unicorn," Sunset insisted. "Horses are twice the size and half the cuteness. My point is that we have pet dogs just like you do, and none of them talk."
"Then why is Spike talking?" Twilight demanded.
"I don't know; does it matter?" Sunset asked. "You're not unhappy, are you? You don't want him to change back?"
"I don't want to change back," Spike pointed out.
"And I respect Spike's choice," Twilight said. "But that doesn't mean that I don't want to understand what happened, and why, and whether it will happen again."
"It won't happen again," Sunset assured her. She paused. "It probably won't happen again."
"'Probably'?" Twilight said, outrage and uncertainty mingling in her voice.
Sunset sighed. "Twilight, I have control over my magic when it is in me, a part of me, but the moment that I sever that link, as I have done in order to give you your sample, I lose control over it, and it becomes wild magic, and wild magic is unpredictable by nature. You didn't take the lid off, did you?
"No!"
"Then maybe put some duct tape around the lid; it might stop it happening again."
"That isn't terribly reassuring," Twilight said dryly. "So there's no way to know that this isn't going to cause any more trouble."
"I don't think that it is causing trouble," Sunset answered. "It's doing things, but you've accepted that Spike is fine the way he is, and some people might say that he's improved."
Twilight frowned. "Are you saying that your magic is trying to help?"
"I'm saying that it wants to be used," Sunset said. "Nature abhors a vacuum; magic abhors idleness. Think of it like a muscle; if it isn't used, then it will atrophy, except that this muscle can-"
"Get up and walk around on its own?"
"Yes, in the last extremity."
"But how am I supposed to study it if I can't even get it out of its container without it doing things of its own volition?" Twilight asked. She seemed to catch herself. "’Of its own volition’...  Is it alive? Can it-"
"Be communicated with?" Sunset guessed. "No, it's not sapient, and I'm not sure I'd even go far as to call it alive. It has… instincts, I suppose, which possibly makes it living, but it doesn't feel, it doesn't… it's not an animal."
"But how is Twilight supposed to study it?" asked Spike.
"It can't be communicated with, but it does possess understanding," Sunset said. "At the moment, it's acting out because it's been cooped up, but once you let it out and start to do things with it, even if those things are just tests, then it will sense that and calm down."
"And when all the tests are done?" Twilight asked.
Sunset was silent for a moment. "Get rid of it or keep it somewhere very secure."
Twilight's eyes narrowed. "That isn't exactly incredibly helpful."
"Sorry," Sunset murmured. "I just… to tell the truth, I'm not exactly sure what you want from me, Twilight."
Twilight sighed. "Neither am I. I suppose I was hoping for a reassurance that it wouldn't happen again, but I suppose that was too much to hope for."
"If it makes you feel better, it's not that powerful," Sunset said. "I didn't give you that much magic. It might be enough to make Spike talk, but nothing drastic."
"You don't think a talking dog is pretty drastic?"
Sunset shrugged. "He's only a small dog."
"Hey!" Spike protested. "Still, I guess if the magic does get out again, maybe it'll do more good things, like it did for me."
Twilight scratched behind his ears. "Maybe, Spike, but – no offence – I'd prefer it if this didn't happen again. And I think Rainbow would prefer that too. Will locking it away help?"
"It might do," Sunset said. "It's worth a try. I… I'm sorry that I can't be of more help."
"It's fine; it was a long shot. You gave this to me, and if I'm not taking proper care and precaution, that's my fault not yours. And what did I expect you to do, teleport onto the ship and fix everything?"
Sunset smiled. "You're a little far away from me right now."
Twilight smiled back. "So, how's Ruby doing?"
"Oh, you know," Sunset murmured. "The same as-"
"Sunset!" Jaune's voice, raised in a frantic cry, interrupted Sunset before she could say any more.
Still holding up her scroll, Sunset turned around to see Jaune standing at the door leading down off the rooftop.
"Come on!" Jaune urged. "Ruby's awake!"
A beam as bright as sunlight spread across Sunset's face. Her ears pricked up, and the weariness of just a moment ago seemed banished as the darkness is banished by the light that Jaune's words spread all around them. Ruby was awake. Ruby was okay, Ruby was back, the worry and the uncertainty and the ordeal were over, Ruby was awake!
Sunset looked back at Twilight, her mouth opening.
"Go!" Twilight said, grinning brightly. "And give her our love."
"I will," Sunset promised. "Speak to you later. Bye." She hung up hastily and thrust her scroll into her jacket pocket as she started to walk – so rapidly that she was almost running – towards Jaune.
And towards Ruby.



Ruby felt Zwei's tongue upon her cheek before she opened up her eyes on the unfamiliar ceiling above her. 
She caught a sight of grey and black fur to the side of her as she blinked against the light shining down into her face. She half-closed her eyes as she started to sit up.
"Ruby?”
The voice belonged to Pyrrha, who was standing not far from her side in what Ruby could now see was a hospital room. Hers was the only bed occupied in the ward; Yang, Ruby noticed, sat by her bedside, asleep, her head resting on Ruby's bed and her face obscured by her long golden hair. Jaune stood on the other side of the room, and his attention must have been elsewhere because it seemed as though it was Pyrrha’s voice that drew his eyes in Ruby’s direction.
A smile spread across his face. “Ruby!” he cried. “You’re awake!”
Zwei yelped happily, even as Ruby pulled him away from her face, an act for which she compensated by starting to give him a belly rub.
"Hey, Jaune," Ruby said, with a smile. She spoke softly, so as not to wake Yang. “Hey-” Memories flood back to her as her gaze turned from Jaune to Pyrrha: the tunnel, the grimm, a desperate situation, a feeling of hopelessness, a bright light and then nothing at all. 
“Pyrrha!” she shouted, relief making her voice riser higher than she had intended. “You’re okay!”
Pyrrha smiled, and her tone remained soft and gentle as she reached out and took one of Ruby’s small, pale hands with both of hers. “Yes,” she murmured. “Yes, I’m alright, thanks to you.”
“I’m so glad,” Ruby said, lowering her voice for Yang’s benefit. “The last thing I remember…” She looked from Pyrrha to Jaune and then back again. “Is Sunset okay? Did she-?”
“Sunset’s fine,” Jaune assured her. “Physically, at least. She had to take a call from Twilight, but she’ll be right down. I’ll go and tell her that you’ve woken up.” He walked to the door into and out of the room, sliding it open with a juddering sound of the rollers. He half-stepped through the now open doorway, and then paused, looking back at her. “I’m really glad to see you’re okay.”
A smile blossomed across Ruby’s face, watered by the happy news that all of her teammates were safe. In a slightly reproachful tone, she said, "You say that like it's such a surprise."
Jaune frowned. "Ruby... you've been asleep for over a week; nobody was sure when you'd wake up or... or if you'd wake up."
The smile faltered upon Ruby’s face. “But I… what happened down there?”
“Jaune, why don’t you go and get Sunset?” Pyrrha suggested. “You know she’ll be upset if she finds that we didn’t tell her at once that Ruby had woken up.”
“Right,” Jaune nodded. “I’ll be back in a jiffy.” 
He closed the door after him, muffling the sounds of his rapid footsteps as he went in search of Sunset.
Ruby turned her attention wholly to Pyrrha. “This isn’t going to be one of those things where you act all weird and cryptic and don’t tell me what’s going on, is it?”
Pyrrha’s smile was a little tight. “No,” she declared. “No, I’m going to tell you everything; I just didn’t want to keep Sunset in ignorance while we did it. Ruby, what do you remember? The last thing?”
Ruby blinked. “I remember you. That grimm had caught you in its bone whip thingy, and it had caught Sunset too, and Jaune and Blake and everyone were trying to get you free, and they weren’t doing anything, and… I was worried that I was going to lose you. Lose both of you. I didn’t want to. I didn’t want that, and I… and that’s about all I remember.”
Pyrrha glanced down at Ruby’s hand, still held in her own. She gave it a reassuring squeeze. “I see,” she said softly. “Ruby… you used your silver eyes down there in the tunnel.”
Said silver eyes widened in astonishment. “Really?”
Pyrrha nodded. “The light was… blinding, and when it cleared, we could all see that you had turned the grimm to stone. Sunset destroyed it with magic after that. You did it, Ruby; you’ve unlocked the power within you.”
“But how?” Ruby asked. “I mean, mom’s journal said that Silver Eyes were controlled by positive emotions, right? But all I felt down there in the tunnel was fear, so how… how?”
“Perhaps because you only feared to lose us both because you care for us?” Pyrrha suggested. “For which I am touched and very grateful.”
Ruby brushed that compliment off. “That sounds like cheating to call that a positive emotion.”
“If so, then I, for one, am very glad you cheated,” Pyrrha replied. “I owe you my life, Ruby.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes,” Pyrrha said earnestly. “I do. That grimm… I wouldn’t have escaped its clutches without you and your silver eyes; I don’t think any of us would have been able to withstand that grimm but you. As I say, I owe you my life, and for that reason, I owe you a great debt besides, one which-”
“Pyrrha, stop,” Ruby urged. “You don’t owe me a debt; you don’t owe me anything. You’re my teammate, and my friend, and that means that I’ll always look out for you, just like you’ll always look out for me. You don’t owe me anything.” She grinned. “I’ve got your back, no matter what.”
Pyrrha managed to muster a slight smile. “Nevertheless, I feel indebted to you. I’m not used to needing rescue.”
“Some grimm are really tough,” Ruby said. “You know that. Some grimm are born – or made, whatever – that way, and some get that way when they get old and smart. Some grimm give even a trained huntsman problems.”
Pyrrha nodded at that. “I think that, out of all of us, not counting your magic, only Penny’s laser cannon would have been sufficient to defeat that grimm, and Penny was not with us.”
“How is Penny?” Ruby asked. “Is she okay?”
“She is no better than when last you saw her,” Pyrrha said with a sigh. “Team Rosepetal have returned – or are returning – to Atlas with her, where she can be repaired. Blake went with them, and Rainbow Dash’s friends who were held captive in Mountain Glenn.”
“Right,” Ruby murmured. “I’m sure she’ll get be- I’m sure she’ll be fixed soon, but I wish I could have said goodbye.”
Pyrrha squeezed her hand once more. “Sunset and I visited her on your behalf and said our goodbyes for you, as they said theirs to you to us to pass along.”
Before Ruby could ask anything else, she heard the sound of footsteps moving rapidly, and kind of heavily, along the corridor outside. The door was flung back on its rollers with a crack, and Sunset Shimmer stood in the doorway, her chest rising and falling with her breath, her ears perked up, her tail twitching. 
Her eyes were sharp and fixed on Ruby.
“Hey, Sunset,” Ruby offered, waving her free hand. “I’m awake.”
Sunset stared at Ruby in silence for a moment, then for a moment more. At last, she said, “I’m sorry about this, Pyrrha.”
“Sorry about what?” Pyrrha asked, before Sunset’s hand glowed green, and Pyrrha’s chair was telekinetically yanked backwards, scraping across the linoleum floor and tearing Pyrrha’s hands away from Ruby as Sunset cleared a path for herself to stride around the bed. For a moment, she stood over Ruby, casting a shadow over the younger, smaller girl, then she grabbed Ruby and pulled her into a wrenching hug, her head pressed against Sunset’s chest as she, Sunset, sat down on the edge of Ruby’s bed. 
“Never do that again,” Sunset demanded. “Okay? Don’t do that again.”
“Save your life?” Ruby asked, her voice slightly muffled by the way that Sunset’s arm was in her mouth. 
“Ha ha ha, smartass,” Sunset muttered. “You know what I mean.”
“No,” Ruby murmured. “I really don’t.”
Yang moved. The way that her face and head were hidden beneath her great mass of golden hair made that movement seem like the stirring of some terrible creature, an unseen horror that lurked beneath the surface, with only the disturbance of the ground to give it away. 
The creature shifted, making the golden blanket that obscured it rustle and ripple before Yang emerged, blinking, from beneath the mass of her own hair. “What is all of this- Ruby!” She shot to her feet. “How long have you been awake?”
“Just a few minutes,” Ruby said, through Sunset’s stifling embrace.
“A few minutes!” Yang yelled, shoving Sunset hard enough to send her staggering away, her grip on Ruby gone. Her eyes flashed red. “Ruby’s been up for a few minutes, and you all just let me sleep? Bunch of… seriously?” 
Now it was her turn to grab Ruby and pull her into a binding hug, tugging her first this way and then the other as Yang swayed in place. 
“Don’t do that again,” Yang urged.
“People keep saying that, but I don’t get it,” Ruby said.
“Don’t get it?” Yang repeated. “Did one of you tell her how long she’s been out for?”
“I did,” Jaune said.
“You’ve been asleep for a week, and you don’t get it?” Yang demanded.
“I saved Pyrrha,” Ruby pointed out. “And Sunset.”
“And that’s good,” Yang conceded. “But couldn’t you have saved them in a way that didn’t nearly give me a heart attack? I didn’t know if you were going to wake up; nobody knew for sure if you would wake up. When you started reading about your silver eyes in Mom’s journal… Mom never said anything about putting herself in a coma!”
“Well, we don’t know what happened when Mom started out,” Ruby said. “She was already using her eyes when she came to Beacon. Maybe I need to start using it more often.”
“That’s a fine theory,” Sunset said. “But, considering that the only way we’ve found to get your eyes to work is to expose you to an otherwise unbeatable grimm and almost die in the process… I hope you can understand a degree of reluctance.”
“Mom said that they could be activated-”
“By positive emotions,” Sunset interrupted. “What did you feel down there in that tunnel?”
Ruby hesitated for a moment. “Scared,” she admitted. “Scared of losing you.”
“I suggested that perhaps that fear, since it was driven by concern for us, was in itself a manifestation of love and friendship,” Pyrrha murmured.
Sunset’s eyes narrowed. “That sounds like cheating to me.”
“That’s what I said,” Ruby added. “But why would Mom lie in her own diary?”
“Maybe she wanted to mislead her enemies,” Sunset suggested. “Maybe she was misled.”
“What about Professor Ozpin?” Jaune said. “He taught Ruby’s mom, right? Maybe he knows something that can help Ruby.”
Sunset folded her arms. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“I think it’s a good idea,” Ruby said. “He promised to talk to me about my Mom once we got back.”
“I like that even less,” Sunset muttered.
“Sunset,” Pyrrha said reproachfully, getting to her feet and placing one gloved hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Your insistence on distrusting Professor Ozpin, I know that you mean well by it, we all know that you mean well and that you think that you’re looking out for our best interests-”
“I am looking out for your best interests!”
“Professor Ozpin is not only the headmaster of Beacon but also-” Pyrrha stopped, glancing at Yang. 
Unfortunately, Yang had noticed it too, “Professor Ozpin is also what?”
Ruby swallowed. Professor Ozpin had instructed her not to tell Yang about any of this, but now that Pyrrha had let slip, what were they supposed to do? It was one thing not to tell Yang something; it was something to outright lie to her face.
“Professor Ozpin,” Sunset said, gently shrugging off Pyrrha’s hand, “is not only our headmaster, but also the reason we were down in that tunnel in the first place.”
“We volunteered for that,” Jaune reminded her.
“As Rainbow put it to me: we’re kids, we’re allowed to make dumb decisions,” Sunset declared. “The adults in the room are supposed to know better.”
“What was Professor Ozpin supposed to do?” Ruby demanded. “Tell us that we were too young? That we weren’t ready? We’d been on real missions before, without supervision-”
“I didn’t really understand that either,” Yang muttered.
Ruby ignored her, continuing, “Our enemies aren’t going to wait until we graduate-”
“What enemies?” Yang demanded. “Is this about the White Fang? Why do you have to be the ones to take them out?”
“An excellent question, Yang,” Sunset said. “Graduated huntsmen, Atlesian specialists-”
“You know why we were chosen for this assignment,” Pyrrha said.
“I DON’T!” Yang shrieked, as smoke started to rise from out of her hair. “Will you please stop talking around the issue and explain to me just what the hell is going on?”
Silence fell in the room. Ruby found that she couldn’t look at her sister, much less meet her eyes. She looked away, looking at Pyrrha, who seemed to be similarly uncomfortable. 
“We should tell her,” Jaune said. “We told Blake. You told us.”
“Tell me what?” Yang asked.
“I’m not supposed to tell,” Ruby murmured.
Jaune looked at her. “Ruby?”
“I… I was going to tell you before we left for Mountain Glenn,” Ruby explained. “But Professor Ozpin found me first and asked me not to.”
She still didn’t look at Yang. She didn’t dare look at Yang. Her sister’s voice, when it came, was quiet and small, “So… so that’s it? Professor Ozpin asked you not to tell me, so you’re not going to tell me.”
“Yang-”
“I’m your sister!” Yang cried. “I’m your sister, and I didn’t know-”
“I’m training to be a huntress, Yang; we all are,” Ruby said. “There’s always a chance that we might not come back, like Mom-”
“Don’t bring Mom into this; you’re not Mom!” Yang yelled. “Mom had already graduated; you’re fifteen years old and a first-year student and LOOK AT ME!”
Ruby looked, her head snapping round. Yang’s eyes were deep crimson, but there were tears in them at the same time. 
Yang’s breath was ragged, coming in sobs as her chest rose and fell. “You… you don’t remember what it was like losing Mom,” she said. “You were too young, you didn’t understand what was happening then, and all that you understand now is that Mom died a hero, fighting the good fight.”
“Because she did.”
“That didn’t make me feel any better!” Yang snapped. “Knowing that she died a hero couldn’t tuck me in at night or read me a bedtime story! You were too young to realise… you don’t remember how hurt Dad was by losing Mom. How hurt I was.” 
She bowed her head, her bangs casting a shadow over her face and obscuring her eyes from view. “I know that this is dangerous. I know that, even as students, we’re not safe. And I know that this is what you want to be, and so I keep how I feel to myself, and I don’t let it show, but… you’re a first-year, but you’re already involved in real huntsman stuff, and I don’t know why, and now you won’t even tell me.”
“I can’t,” Ruby said plaintively, though it sounded inadequate even to her.
“Why not?” Yang demanded. “Why can’t… you know what, it doesn’t matter. If you can’t tell me, you can’t tell me. I wouldn’t want you to disappoint Professor Ozpin. I’ll get out of your hair, and you can talk without worrying about what I might hear that I’m not supposed to.”
“Yang-” Ruby began, but it was too late; Yang had already strode out of the room, slamming the door behind her so hard that there was a cracking sound like something breaking.
“I’ll take care of this,” Sunset said, striding towards the door. It seemed a little stiffer when she tried to open it, but nevertheless, she was able to force it open, then close it again more gently than Yang had once she was on the other side. 
“Yang!” Sunset called, her voice muffled by the door and wall. “Yang, wait!”
Ruby bowed her head, a picture of misery spreading across her face. Yang… did Yang really-?
"I'm sure she didn't mean it," Pyrrha said, her voice gentle and urgent at the same time. "Her anger gives her words a barb that she did not intend."
Ruby didn't look up. "How can you be so sure?"
Pyrrha's boots tapped lightly on the floor. "Because, although I do not know your sister too well, I have had occasion enough to observe her behaviour around you," she said. "And it has not been the conduct of someone who has nought but misgivings that they are hiding well. I do not say that there is no truth in what Yang said, but it is not the whole of the truth, and only her being upset makes it seem otherwise."
"I'm sure she worries about you," Jaune added. "She'd hardly be your sister if she didn't." He had spoken lightly, with a laugh sounding on the verge of entering his voice, but he quieted for a moment, before he went on, "But it doesn't mean that… Yang knows how good you are."
"Yang knows your quality as we all do," Pyrrha said.
With her head bowed, Ruby felt rather than saw Pyrrha sit down on the edge of the bed and place one arm around Ruby's shoulders. Her embrace was a good deal less fierce than Yang's or Sunset's had been; she gave it with but one arm and with a lightness of touch that would have made it easy for Ruby to shrug off if she wished.
Ruby did not wish to do so. Rather, though she did not look at Pyrrha still, she leaned in and rested her head upon Pyrrha's side; although the hardness of her cuirass meant that it was not the most pleasant thing to rest a head on, being able to rest it upon anything was comfort enough.
"Although," Pyrrha added, "like us, Yang may be… it is one thing to be ready to die, Ruby, but there are times you seem to yearn for it. If there is one thing of your sister's words I beg you to remember, it is the hurt that your father and sister suffered from your mother's passing and how hurt we would be by yours."
That wasn't something that Ruby particularly wanted to discuss. It had become clear to her some time ago that none of her friends really understood where she was coming from on this, and while they weren't exactly wrong about her – what did her life really matter? Just one life, easily replaced, easily given in service to a greater whole – they weren't exactly right either.
But she didn't want to argue. So she changed the subject, asking, "So… what did I miss while I was asleep? You're all here, and you mentioned that Team Rosepetal went back to Atlas, so I guess we're still in Vale, right? That means we won, doesn't it?"
The uncomfortable silence from Pyrrha and Jaune told her without words that it was not quite as simple as that.
"We won," Pyrrha confirmed. "But I'm afraid the victory was not without cost."



“Yang!” Sunset called, her footsteps thudding as she ran to catch up with Ruby’s stomping sister. “Yang, wait!” She reached out and grabbed Yang’s arm by the wrist.
Yang rounded on her, eyes red as blood. 
Sunset stood her ground. “I’ve seen scarier things than your party-trick recently,” she said.
Yang glared at her for a moment. “You should be with Ruby,” she growled, turning away once more.
Sunset’s grip on Yang’s arm once more, “Well, I’m making time for you, buddy,” she said pointedly, hoping that Yang would remember.
Yang looked at her, her eyes lilac once more. She exhaled out of her nostrils like an angry bull. “Fine,” she muttered. “What do you want to say?”
“Not here,” Sunset said softly. “Let’s go somewhere more private, let’s go… there!” She pointed to a doorway, a doorway which led – as she found out as she hustled Yang inside – into a supply closet, with shelves of toilet roll and disinfectant and large sachets of soap for the dispensers all piled up in shelves climbing the walls. 
It was cramped, and once Sunset shut the door behind her, it was also dark until her fumbling fingers found the light switch. But it was quiet, and it was isolated, and they weren’t likely to be disturbed… by anyone except a janitor, anyway. 
Sunset hoped to be done by then. 
Yang had gone in first, or rather, Sunset had left her little choice but to go in first, and so, Sunset was closer to the door, blocking Yang’s way if she wished to leave. 
Yang leaned one elbow upon a wire shelf. “What do you want?” she demanded.
“I want to tell you what’s really going on; you’re welcome,” Sunset said.
Yang frowned. “But Professor Ozpin-”
“Can bite my tail,” Sunset said.
Yang hesitated for a moment. “Why?” she asked.
“Why what?”
“Why are you telling me this, when my own sister won’t?”
“Because Ruby thinks too much of her duty and too little of her self,” Sunset replied. “She and Pyrrha both have a touch of that, but Ruby has it worse. I should probably push back on it more than I do, but that’s how you get the reputation of being a bad influence. So I indulge it and try to mitigate the worst effects as best I can.”
“You make it sound like such a bad thing,” Yang said, “to be devoted to duty.”
“It is, when carried to excess,” Sunset said. “And if you don’t think so, why are you so upset?”
“I’m upset because…” Yang’s mouth worked without words for a moment. She gestured at Sunset. “What makes you more trustworthy than me? What makes you deserve to know some big secret and not me? What makes you fit to go on dangerous huntsman missions and not me?”
“You sound jealous.”
“No, I’m not jealous,” Yang snapped. “I’m… okay, I am a little jealous; why you of all people? Why does it feel as though everyone trusts you, depends on you; why does it feel like you’re at the centre of everything?”
Sunset raised one eyebrow. “Is that how…? It doesn’t feel that way to me.”
“You should try and see yourself from the outside,” Yang replied. “But that’s kind of by the by; it’s not why I’m upset.”
“Because you’re not half as jealous of me as you are of Ruby,” Sunset guessed. “And that jealousy is warring with your affection and getting all tangled up with it, and your worry about Ruby can’t be entangled with you wondering why she gets all of this special treatment and you don’t.”
Yang was silent for a moment. “Both our mothers were trusted by Ozpin,” she said softly. “That seems pretty clear from Mom’s diary. Maybe Mom – maybe Summer Rose got special lessons from the headmaster, but it seems like he trusted both of them, trusted the whole team. He used the whole team.”
“That’s my understanding as well,” Sunset murmured. “I bet if you read on in the diary, you’d find confirmation of that. As well as… other things.”
“My mother left,” Yang growled. “Raven… she took off. She took off when I was so young that I don’t even remember her. I didn’t find out that my Mom wasn’t my mother until she was… my mother left, so I’m shut out, while Ruby’s mother died a hero, and she gets to follow in her footsteps. How is that fair?”
“I think that the mother of both of you died a hero,” Sunset said quietly.
“You know what I mean,” Yang said.
“Yes, I do,” Sunset acknowledged. “I don’t know what Professor Ozpin is thinking, exactly. I don’t know if it’s anything personal; maybe he just likes my team better than yours, maybe it’s Ren and Nora’s fault.” She grinned, but that grin faded when Yang – judging by the sour expression on her face – failed to see the funny side. “And on top of all of that, you’re worried about her.”
“I meant what I said in there,” Yang murmured. “About Mom. Ruby was too young, she didn’t understand; Ruby doesn’t have any real memories of her mother, just… just an idealised image to look up to: fearless Summer Rose, champion of justice, defender of the innocent.”
“And how much of that was your creation?” Sunset asked.
“I know, I know,” Yang huffed. “But for the record, Mom really was amazing. I know that; I just… I don’t have a lot of, well, facts about it. Dad and Uncle Qrow don’t like to talk about her, so I-”
“Made things up.”
“It’s not lying if you do it for a good cause,” Yang said. “Is it?”
“I hope not,” Sunset muttered. Though I fear it is.
Yang turned away, putting both her hands upon the wire shelf. “I… I know that there are risks. And I know that this is what Ruby has always wanted to be ever since she was a kid. And I can reconcile that. I can. I’m not… I don’t want her to quit, I’m not an idiot, I know that there might come a day when we put up a stone for her alongside Mom’s memorial, but… fifteen. Is it wrong of me to want her to reach twenty before she dies?”
“No,” Sunset declared. “No, it isn’t wrong at all.” She paused. “You’re not the only one who worries about Ruby.”
Yang glanced at her. “When I dragged you into the classroom and told you to shape up, I didn’t think you’d start to care that much.”
“You should know the effect that she can have on people,” Sunset replied.
Yang snorted. “Yeah, I guess I should.”
“Ruby’s life…” Sunset said. “Ruby’s life means more to me than… more than honour, more than glory, certainly more than my own life.” She thrust her hands into her pockets. “Ruby’s life means more to me than kingdoms,” she confessed. “I swear to you, Yang, I won’t let any harm come to her.”
Yang smiled out of the corner of her mouth. “Don’t make a girl a promise if you know you can’t keep it,” she whispered.
“Very well then, all that is within my power,” Sunset said. She scuffed her foot back and forth, and her tail moved back and forth too in unison with her boot. “Listen, Yang… I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For taking the mission to Mountain Glenn,” Sunset said. “I… I was cocky, and I was full of our skill and strength, and I wasn’t ready for what we’d find down there. I wish I could promise that it won’t happen again, but… I fear we may be past the point of no return.”
“Why?” Yang asked. “What… what have you gotten yourselves into?”
“There were worse dangers threatening Vale than the White Fang last semester,” Sunset said. In spite of the environment, in spite of the fact that they were alone, Sunset found her voice dropping. “The grimm have a leader, named Salem. She is… terrifying.”
“'Salem'?” Yang said. “I’ve never heard of her.”
“Professor Ozpin is keeping it that way,” Sunset said. “He and his predecessors have kept her existence a secret for generations.”
“'Predecessors'?” Yang repeated. “You mean the headmasters?”
“They’re part of it, but it’s bigger and older than them,” Sunset explained. “There is… a conspiracy, a group of powerful people who work in the shadows-”
“And secretly rule it?” Yang guessed. “Come on, Sunset, this is cheap conspiracy thriller stuff.”
“Except that it’s true,” Sunset insisted. “Professor Ozpin is the current head of a group that opposes Salem, a group that includes at least General Ironwood and-”
“Professor Goodwitch?” Yang suggested.
“How did you-?”
“Lucky guess,” Yang muttered. “Oppose Salem how? And what do you mean, control the grimm, and if this has been going on for so long, how come nobody has-?”
“She can’t be destroyed, apparently,” Sunset said. And considering what she did to us, I’d be surprised if anyone can get close enough to try. “I don’t know how she controls the grimm, or even if she does ‘control’ them, or she can just give them commands. I don’t understand how it works. If Professor Ozpin knows, he hasn’t told us. What I know is that she is the black king, and all the grimm – and Cinder, and the White Fang, all of the enemies we face – are just her playing pieces.”
“Why?” Yang demanded. “What does she want?”
Sunset shrugged. “To kill us all? Does it matter?”
“And Professor Ozpin told you this?”
Sunset nodded. “He told me, Pyrrha, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight.”
“And you believe him? You believe that this is someone out there commanding the grimm?”
“I’ve met her,” Sunset said quietly.
Yang’s eyes widened. “You what?”
“Under Mountain Glenn,” Sunset explained. “She… she appeared to us. She wasn’t there, exactly; she was using some kind of grimm I’d never seen before to show herself. She… she spoke to us. She showed us visions.”
“How?” Yang asked. “What did she talk about?”
“I don’t want to say.”
“But-”
“I said, I don’t want to talk about it!” Sunset snapped. She didn’t even want to think about it; she didn’t want to think about what had been said, about what had been seen… about what those visions had made her do.
Yang frowned for a moment. “Why…? Okay, I’ll believe you, if only because it would be weird for you to lie to me when you could just not tell me anything, but… why? Why is Professor Ozpin keeping this a secret?”
“Because he fears what people would do if they found out,” Sunset said.
“People like me, you mean?” Yang asked. “People like Raven?”
“I think your second guess was right; he trusted her once,” Sunset murmured.
Yang nodded absently. “So… okay. The grimm have a leader. The grimm have a leader who can’t be killed. So… isn’t that just another day? It’s just the same fight. Other than the fact that you know this, what does it mean for the four of you?”
“It means that we go on missions like the one to Mountain Glenn,” Sunset pointed out. “Because Cinder was there, one of Salem’s agents, that made it… more than just another mission.”
“Sure, I can roll with that,” Yang said. “But that just shifts the question back from 'why assign you to this mission' to 'why bring you into his secrets?' Why first year students, and not professional huntsmen? You said General Ironwood knows; why not his soldiers?”
“Team Rosepetal also know,” Sunset said.
Yang’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Does Blake know?”
“Yes,” Sunset admitted. “Please don’t be upset with her.”
Yang shook her head. “Blake doesn’t owe me the truth. Neither do you, for that matter.”
“I’m not telling you all this for your enlightenment,” Sunset replied.
“No, I know why you’re telling me, but I’m glad all the same,” Yang said. “And you think… but that would mean that Dad knows too, and Uncle Qrow!”
“That would be at least one professional huntsman who knows, at least,” Sunset muttered.
“None of them said anything,” Yang growled. “Not a damn word, from either of them!”
“Is that so surprising?”
“It’s kind of annoying none of my own family would tell me this and I had to hear it from you,” Yang said, her voice rising. “No offence.”
Sunset smirked. “None taken.”
“You still haven’t answered my question, though,” Yang said. “Why first year students?”
“You’d have to ask Professor Ozpin that,” Sunset said. “Except don’t, because then he’d know that you know.”
“You can’t really expect me to sit on this.”
“I’d rather that you did, yeah.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m the only person who would tell you this, so if you storm up to Professor Ozpin’s office, it won’t be hard for him to work out where you heard it from,” Sunset declared.
“So?” Yang demanded. “You’ll tell anyone who’ll listen how much you don’t like Professor Ozpin.”
“Because I have to be on the inside!” Sunset cried. “Do you know why I agreed to become a part of Professor Ozpin’s group? It’s not because I like him, it’s not because I trust him; it’s because I don’t trust him. It’s because I couldn’t be sure that if I said ‘thanks but no thanks, Professor, I don’t have the experience to handle this,’ he wouldn’t nod and accept it and then turn to Pyrrha and Ruby and Jaune and ask them anyway, and you know-”
“That Ruby would have jumped at the chance,” Yang murmured.
Sunset sighed. “Yang… I would like nothing more than to be able to tell you that we’re done. That after this, I have learned better, seen my limitations, that we won’t take a mission like this again. But we’re involved now, for better or worse, and the missions aren’t going to stop. If I’m on the inside, I can protect Ruby and the others in ways that I can’t if I get frozen out. Maybe… maybe if I’m not with them, then next time…”
Now it was Yang’s turn to sigh. She turned her back on Sunset, her golden hair falling down behind her and covering her back as she placed her hands against the rear wall of the closet. “So Ruby… Ruby really is following in Mom’s footsteps.”
“It won’t end the same way,” Sunset said, in a voice as hard as steel. “I guarantee it.”
“You can’t-”
“Yes,” Sunset insisted. “I can. I promise that this story will have a happier ending.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because I’m not your mother; I’m not going to run,” Sunset said, her voice rising. 
She was surprised at herself for how easy it was to say those words. So easy that she hadn’t even really meant to say them; they’d just come galloping out of her mouth. And yet, now that she had said it, she did not regret saying it, she had no wish to take it back, she could not tell herself that the words were in any way false. She had been considering her position, or at least, she thought that she had been considering her position. She thought that she’d been contemplating leaving them all behind, leaving Beacon, going… somewhere indeterminate that she hadn’t made her mind up about yet. She’d thought that she had been giving serious contemplation to the idea that she didn’t belong here, with them, anymore. 
And yet, in a moment, in words spoken upon instinct, all of that was revealed to be false, bordering on delusional. Of course she wasn’t going to go. Of course she wasn’t going to be the member of Team SAPR that bailed, a latter day Raven Branwen, leaving her purer-hearted comrades to fend for themselves against the malice of Salem and the savagery of her servants. 
That was not Sunset Shimmer. She was a lot of things, and not all of them were good, but one thing that she wasn’t was a quitter. 
Well, there was the time I ran away from Equestria, I suppose, but only because I wouldn’t give up on my destiny.
I may not be a huntress, I may not deserve to be at Beacon, I may not deserve these friends, but… but I think they need me, as strange as it may sound. Maybe Summer Rose wouldn’t have done whatever it was that got her killed if Raven had stuck around to remind her to think of herself every once in a while. 
Regardless of whether they deserve me, or need me, they’re stuck with me. I’m with them for… for as long as it takes. For forever, if need be. 
I’m with them until they’re safe. I won’t leave.
“I won’t pretend that there isn’t danger in this,” Sunset continued. “And I won’t pretend that you’re wrong to be concerned. And I won’t patronise you by blustering about our skill in combat or our semblances, because you’re too smart for that. But as much as I don’t trust him, I do believe that we were chosen for a reason. We may not approve, but I don’t think that he chooses lightly whom he admits into his confidence. We have something, and it’s not just Ruby’s heroic heart, or Pyrrha’s; it’s not my semblance or Jaune’s; it’s… it’s the four of us. Together, the four of us have got something, a spark, if you will. I don’t know if we can save the world, and I don’t know if I’ll always enjoy the experience of these assignments while I’m doing them, but I think that we can make it home safe, if… if anyone can.”
Yang looked over her shoulder. “But you said-”
“I didn’t say I’d necessarily want to do it,” Sunset reminded her. “But I think we can. And I think we’ll survive. No, I know we’ll survive.” She smiled. “Trust me. Ruby’s in safe hands with us. And we’re in safe hands with her.”
Yang smiled as she turned around. “You always know what to say, don’t you?”
“It’s a gift,” Sunset said casually. “Do you feel better now?”
“Strangely, yes,” Yang admitted.
“Good,” Sunset said. “Do you want to go back in, maybe make things right with Ruby?”
“Not right now,” Yang said.
“She’s upset,” Sunset said.
“And I have stuff to think about,” Yang said. “I will make it up to her, but… I need time to think. You get that, right?”
“I suppose so,” Sunset conceded. “Just so long as you don’t-”
“I don’t, I get it,” Yang said. “Hey, Sunset?”
“Yeah?”
“Ruby’s lucky to have you,” Yang said.
Sunset snorted. “Yeah, right,” she said. “I’m lucky to have her.”