//------------------------------// // Chapter 16: Welcome to Beacon // Story: Fillies and Monsters // by Solaris Vult //------------------------------// Diamond, Sweetie, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom had left to the mainland on their own, Yang was going to be sharing her school supplies with Ruby, but the others didn’t have any and so, the day before the airship set out to Beacon, the girls arrived in order to do some shopping. They had finished and had left the store when they came across a mass of people gathered in the city square. The mass was facing a large white building with a snowflake emblem adorning the door and decorating the large sign that read: Schnee Dust Company. While there were a few humans mixed in with the crowd, the fillies all noticed most of them had animal ears, tails, wings, horns, or other appendages. Yells of “End our slavery!”, “We’re people too!”, and “Atlas can use machines! Not men!” rang out in the square, many carrying signs that, in paint that looked a little like blood, said similar phrases. “What’s going on?” Sweetie asked. “What’s going on!?” One of the humans… Wait, those were snake fangs in his mouth, shouted. “What’s going on! Were you living under a gods damned rock! Those SDC bastards have been treating my family like slaves for generations!” “What?” Scootaloo asked, shocked. There came more shouting from the protestors, and the fillies saw a trio of faunus march to the front of the crowd, they wore black suits underneath padded white vests and trenchcoats, bone-white masks adorning their faces, “Faunus of Vale!” shouted their leader, a woman with large deer-like antlers, carrying a large blunt sword that looked more like an oversized meat cleaver. “The Schnees has enslaved and murdered our kind for years! Decades!” The girls, still standing at the back of the crowd, all stared intently as a sinking feeling washed over them, and they started moving to the front of the crowd. A mixture of cheering, yelling, and animalistic roaring came from the crowd, another of the masked faunus stood up, rabbit ears protruding from a black cowl, “The White Fang will not tolerate their treatment of our kind, and neither should you, any of you!” He raised a grey and red boxy device from his pocket. The third, another man, smaller and skinnier than the others, clearly much younger, possibly still a teenager raised a larger boxy device that the girls now recognized as some kind of gun, “The humans have proved themselves dangerous, untrustworthy, and unrepentant for their crimes, and so we will punish them for every crime they have dealt to our kind!” The leader spoke up again, “So, for every single faunus they have killed over the centuries, a human will die! Starting now!” She pointed her sword at the building. The other two raised their firearms and a moment later, pulled the trigger. A volley of bullets shot toward the SDC building, ripping through the glass windows and door with ease and reducing the people barricaded inside to a bloody mess… Or, that’s what would have happened... Instead, a brilliant green barrier erupted in front of the store. Several shots pinged off the shield, as Sweetie Belle stood in front of the store, running over once the situation took a turn. She fell down to her knees, the force of every bullet impacting the shield threatening to break her concentration. But she held, long enough for the faunus to lower their guns in confusion, Sweetie dispelled the shield and raised her hands toward the two White Fang members with guns, enveloping their firearms in green glows and hurling them out of their grasp and into the air, flying off to land somewhere else in Vale. The other girls ran up to help their friend. “What are you doing!” Diamond shouted as if scolding a horde of children. “There are people in there!” Apple Bloom yelled. “What are we doing! What are you doing! Protecting the humans!” Someone in the crowd shouted. “Traitors!” Another shouted, “Kill them!” The leader of the White Fang faunus charged, her sword drawn, Sweetie looked as if she was going to launch another telekinetic attack, but Diamond raised her hand and stepped forward, and Sweetie didn’t retaliate but kept her hands glowing, magic moments away from being summoned into reality. The White Fang member swung her chopper, but Diamond ducked under the attack, and gave a hard punch to the gut, earth pony strength sending the woman flying into the crowd. A few others looked as if they were going to jump toward the girls, but everyone stopped when the sound of an airship engine and police siren came from somewhere above them. A bullhead airship flew over the square, painted white and black, with the emblem of Vale on its side, and the words: Vale Police Department, right below. Some of the crowd started to disperse, but a few were caught by the huntsmen who lept from the open doors of the small airship. As the last of the protestors were rounded up, they were checked for weapons… Those who had any were loaded up into the bullhead's cargo bay, those who didn’t were simply let go. The girls were approached by a huntsmen, Sweetie’s hands started to glow, and the man raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, “Hey now!” He said, “We heard what you did, we aren’t here to round you up too.” Diamond placed a hand on Sweetie’s shoulder, who lowered her arms but kept her magic charged, just in case. “What do you want with us then?” Diamond asked. “I’m here to thank you on a job well done, we wouldn’t have been able to get here in time if you hadn-” “Traitors!” One of the remaining faunus shouted, throwing a rock at the girls. The next moment he was thrown to the ground by a police officer. The rock struck Scootaloo in the head, who had summoned her aura just in time to avoid injury. As the faunus man was dragged away, Sweetie stared at him… She shouldn’t be thanked for this… Everything about this was wrong, she didn’t know exactly why or how, but she knew it was all wrong. The airship to Beacon was absolutely massive… It was even bigger than the air-yachts that flew over Ponyville from time to time. It’s four large flipper-like wings were folded upward as it rested on the gantry, hundreds of humans and faunus filing into the vessel. It almost looked like a flying fish with the head of a train. There must have been hundreds of people boarding the vessel, some were most likely friends and family of the students, here to say goodbye to them as they left the airship upon arriving at Beacon, but many many more were the students themselves… From a cursory glance, there must have been seventy or eighty first-years and plenty of older students… Sweetie found herself a little scared of going to school… Even Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns only ever had fifty students at once, and that was total. As they boarded the ship, Diamond stared around, taking note of the other students, what they were wearing, what weapons they had. Everyone felt the ship lurch into the air as it took off, the clamps holding it to the gantry sliding loose as dust-engines roared to life and the air-fins moved into flight position. A voice came from a speaker somewhere over everyone’s heads, “We have taken flight, next destination is Beacon Aerodocks.” “I wish Twilight could be here, she’d go nuts over all this,” Apple Bloom commented. Yang marched over to Ruby and enveloped her in a tight hug, “Oh, I can’t believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! This is the best day ever!” Ruby commented through closed teeth, “Please stop.” Diamond moved to a window… She had noticed the glass earlier, but when they were landed at the docks the shutters were closed, so she couldn’t get a look at the takeoff process. The shutters slid open and she stared out at the view of Vale. It stretched out across the entire valley, split down the middle by the river Ozma, and broken down into the various districts. The wall stretched out from Mountain Glenn to the bay, separating the grimm infested forest from the safety of Vale. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom stared at the holographic display depicting the security camera footage just outside From Dust till Dawn, then later switching to a man with bright orange hair, “Two days ago a robbery took place in downtown Vale, while many of the perpetrators were captured by the intervention of five trainee huntresses, the robbery was led by a nefarious criminal: Roman Torchwick, who continues to evade authorities… If you have any information on his whereabouts please contact the Vale police department.” A boy in a jacket with a simple steel breastplate and pauldrons stood staring out the window, observing the land beneath them. He started to turn pale once he realized how far above the ground they were, and the slight lurch to the side as the ship started to turn didn’t help the situation… Sweetie stared at the boy who started running for the nearest garbage can and raised her arm to stop him. The boy looked confused and worried for a second as Sweetie placed a hand on his chest and a flash of green washed over him, suddenly colour returned to his face and he held a hand to his head. “Wha-What?” “Oh, just a simple cure for motion sickness, I learned it a few days ago.” “Wow… Where do I learn that?” “I-I’m not sure you can…” Sweetie said, blushing in embarrassment. The boy looked a little disappointed, but then raised his hand, “Thanks, the name’s Jaune Arc…” “Sweetie Belle,” Sweetie replied, shaking the boy’s hand. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were still staring at the display as it changed to show a white-haired woman named Lisa Lavender, according to the bar at the bottom. “In other news… This Saturday’s Faunus Civil Rights Protest turned dark when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony, the intervention of four trainee huntresses, all faunus, the same ones from the robbery the day before, were able to prevent any loss of life,” The image changed to show a video taken from a scroll of Sweetie using her shield spell to block the gunfire, “The once peaceful organisation has now disrupt-” The holographic display flickered out and was replaced by the huntress the girls and Ruby had encountered during their fight with Roman's bullhead. “Who’s that?” Yang asked as the students aboard the airship all moved toward the projection. “Hello and welcome to Beacon, my name is Glynda Goodwitch,” The hologram said, “You are among a privileged few who have received the honour of being selected to attend this prestigious academy, our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future huntsmen and huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world.” The hologram winked out again. Scootaloo raised her fist in the air in a gesture of excitement, “Wooh!” She whooped, earning a few looks from some of the other students. “What’s her problem,” A girl with stark white hair and an equally white dress with a short skirt commented, her hair almost reminding Diamond of Silver Spoon. “She’s just a little excitable,” Diamond commented, “You’ll get used to it.” “Doesn’t she know that we’re here to fight monsters, not to have fun!” “Who says we can’t do both?” She replied, “Personally, I find it rather exciting myself.” “This is a place for warriors, not children.” “We’re all children…” Diamond commented. The white girl simply scoffed… And so did Diamond in reply. Apple Bloom just smiled as she watched Scootaloo jump around excitedly. A woman with equally bright red hair approached the excited filly, “You should calm yourself,” She said, “We’ve not even landed yet.” “I know, but it’s soooo awesome!” She hopped in place, fluttering her wings. “Hi, I’m Scootaloo, who’re you?” She said, holding still just long enough to offer the woman a hand. “M-Me?” She looked a bit taken aback, “The name is Pyrrha Nikos, I’ve just arrived from Mistral. “Cool, nice meeting you,” Scootaloo smiled, and the redhead smiled in reply. Yang and Ruby approached a window, “Look,” Ruby began, “You can see Signal from up here,” She pointed to the little island off almost on the horizon and the little series of brick buildings, walled courtyards, and towers that comprised her former school, “I guess home isn’t too far after all.” Yang placed a hand on Ruby’s shoulder, “Beacon’s our home now.” Apple Bloom continued to smile, happy at seeing everyone else happy, but it didn’t last… She spun around and growled when she felt someone pull at her tail. “Ha,” The tall, muscular, boy began, “I can’t believe they let animals come here.” Apple Bloom didn’t respond, other than to grab the boy by the neck and give him a warning squeeze, “Don’t let me catch you doing that to me again,” She said, lifting the man almost twice her size into the air with bearly any effort at all, before letting go and dropping him to the floor. He coughed as he backed away, muttering “Freak,” To himself. Ruby and Yang watched the scene play out, as well as several others aboard the ship, “Well it was a nice moment while it lasted,” Ruby commented, almost absently. “I wonder who we’re going to meet,” Yang replied. “I just hope they’re better than bully boy over there,” Ruby continued. “Come on, let’s make sure he doesn’t antagonize any of the other girls,” Yang continued, following the large kid. As she watched the kid wander off, Apple Bloom commented to herself, “Lucky I didn’t throw you out the window…” Diamond and Sweetie, accompanied by Jaune, moved to another window and watched as the airship approached Beacon Academy, watching the ships below moving to and from the beacon docks, built at the base of the cliff in a lake that formed at the end of the river Ozma, the water pouring in from streams that originated all the way up in Mountain Glenn, flowing through the Emerald Forest. As smaller bullhead airships passed, Diamond stared at the glowing green beacon that was the tower built in the middle of the school, the feeling of someone watching her returning, stronger than ever.