//------------------------------// // Chapter 31: Friends // Story: Fillies and Monsters // by Solaris Vult //------------------------------// The fillies awoke from the same gloomy dream with Diamond shouting, “Get up! Get dressed! Only two hours until classes!” With that, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom followed their orders to the letter, meanwhile, Sweetie Belle still sat on her bed, only moving when Diamond pulled her off. As the girls got dressed in their uniforms, Sweetie had a brief argument with Diamond, before she did the same. They headed to breakfast, this early, most students had yet to awake, but there, sitting in one corner, was a single team, Juniper. With that, the fillies headed over to sit next to them, “What are yall’ doin’ up this early…” Apple Bloom asked. “Oh, just wanted to get some training done before class, Jaune needs it,” Pyrrha said. “No, I don’t!” The boy replied. “Yeah, you really do…” The red-headed girl, Nora, the fillies remembered from the team formation ceremony, commented. “Well, mind if we sit next to you?” Scootaloo replied. “Not at all… I’d love it if you joined…” Pyrrha said. With that, the fillies took their seats, Pyrrha eyeing their strange tails and ears and wings… “Odd…” Pyrrha muttered to herself. “What?” Apple Bloom asked, her mouth full of apples already. “Oh… Nothing… You just reminded me of a few faunus I had encountered back in Argus…” As they ate, other students started to march into the dining room, Ruby took their seats on the other side of Juniper, Coffee was on the far side of the building, and Cardinal sat on the row of seats just next to Juniper, radiating an aura of uncomfort, possibly due to the way some of them were glaring at the fillies, particularly Dove at Scootaloo and Cardin at Apple Bloom… They were muttering something to themselves, only the ones with extra ears caught their conversation, and Diamond glared back… They were going to be trouble, they would need to be dealt with sooner or later, but she didn’t know just how yet… “I can’t believe Pyrrha Nikos associates herself with them…” “Be quiet, I think the four-ears can hear us…” Bang! Bang! Bang! A trio of gunshots filled the auditorium, and Glynda sighed as the buzzer sounded as the Arc boy’s aura dropped again… Koa stood on the other end of the stadium, semi-auto rifle in hand, loading new dust shells into it, as Jaune, still stuck to the floor by blobs of ice, tried to pull himself free, and groaned when he saw the patches of paint on his shield that had been burned away… It wouldn’t be until Saturday he could get that fixed… “Koa Van is the victor of the match… Jaune Arc, you let yourself get immobilized by your foe in the first seconds of combat… Please remember that mobility is the key to survival on the battlefield, it is better to avoid getting hit than relying on your aura to protect you…” Glynda looked around and scanned the audience… Jaune’s team were concerned for their friend, Koa’s team were congratulating their teammate, and Glynda’s eyes locked with the strange faunus children, they had, thus far, won every sparring match over the past week, but, they were going up against some of the weaker teams… Time to give them a challenge and see just how good they actually were… “Well, we have time for one more sparring match, will miss Bloom be willing to join us?” “Sure!” Apple Bloom replied from her seat, and she marched off to get into her combat gear… Then Glynda turned to the rest of the auditorium, now… Who would be a good challenge for the young horse-girl? Apple Bloom returned to the stadium/atrium in her kevlar-padded sweater, cowpony hat, and plated jeans… Applebuck held firmly in her grasp, HE rounds loaded… Out into the field marched the red-headed girl, Nora, some strange cylindrical gun in her hand… It looked like it shot even bigger shells than Applebuck, and Apple Bloom had been shot more than enough to know that she didn’t want to get hit by that thing… The battle began, and there was a loud POOMP! And Apple Bloom dodged to the side, the shell fired from Nora’s weapon struck the ground and exploded, a large pink blast that crackled with electricity… The explosion shocked Apple Bloom, in more ways than one, and the pressure sent her sprawling to the ground. She pulled herself up and saw the girl, now holding a hammer, charging right at her… Apple Bloom picked up Applebuck, grabbing it by the handle, and transforming it into a hammer too. She stood there, pouring her aura into her weapon, and held it firm as Nora smashed into her, the force behind that strike was amazing, but Apple Bloom held her ground. Nora wore a look of shock at seeing Apple Bloom was still standing, and the earth-pony faunus replied by giving Nora a hard kick to the chest, which sent her sprawling backwards, but not flying into the wall as Apple Bloom expected. Bloom turned her weapon back into a cannon and fired a barrage at Nora, who leapt out of the way, and, raising her hammer, struck one of the cannon shells like a golf ball and sent it flying back to Apple Bloom. The struck round smashed into Apple Bloom’s gut, and while it didn’t carry anywhere near the same force as it would have, it still knocked her to the ground. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were cheering, and a quick glance to her scroll told Apple that, already, her aura was in the yellow… Apple Bloom got back up, and reloaded her cannon, but, in that time Nora had already dashed behind the faunus girl, and right as the first round clicked into the chamber, Apple Bloom was smashed to the side and into the wall by a hard strike. Bloom was stunned by the strike for a few moments, but regained her senses just quickly enough to duck to the side and avoid another bomb being flung at her from Nora’s weapon. The blast made her body ache, and electricity arced through her flesh, making her muscles spasm, but she got to her feet and aimed Applebuck, swaying slightly… She fired a burst… It was in that moment she realized she never bothered to check what kind of dust rounds she had loaded… The recoil sent Apple Bloom flying across the arena and smashing into another wall, knocking off a bit of her aura. Three purple streaks shot to Nora, each of them detonating around her in large black explosions that flung the girl up into the air, and sent shockwaves throughout the entire room… But, to Apple Bloom’s amazement, instead of falling to the ground in pain, Nora caught her cannon mid-air, turned it into a hammer, pulled the trigger, and flew toward the kneeling pony-faunus like a pink comet. Apple Bloom only had a few moments to process shock before Nora rammed into her… Apple Bloom was slammed further into the wall, making an impressive series of cracks, and sparking as electrical conduits inside the wall were damaged. Apple coughed as she opened her eyes, Nora standing right in front of her, keeping her pinned to the wall with her hammer. Bloom grunted, grabbing Nora’s hammer, and ripping it from the girl’s grasp, then kicking Nora hard in the gut, flinging her across the stadium, as she followed that up by throwing Nora's hammer back at the orange-haired girl. Apple Bloom paused to look up and see that her aura was now a little lower than half… She spat, and ran to find where her autocannon had fallen. Meanwhile, Nora had gotten back to her feet, and was firing a barrage of grenades toward the filly. Apple Bloom rolled to dodge them, and found her autocannon, right as Nora’s grenade launcher clicked empty… As the girl was reloading, Apple smirked, unclicked the gravity dust rounds, and loaded her cannon with electricity rounds, “Hey! Nora!” She shouted to get the girl’s attention, then as Nora looked up at Apple Bloom’s cannon, a BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM noise filled the air. Nora was sent flying into the wall as the rounds burst as they hit the girl, exploding with little yellow and pink blasts. Nora’s aura was now down to half, the odds a bit more evened… Or, at least that was what Apple Bloom thought at the time, right before, from the cloud of smoke where Nora was sitting, a pink blur flew out and smacked Apple Bloom like a cannonball, smashing her, again, into the wall… The first thing Apple Bloom heard after the ringing in her ears had cleared up, was the sound of the buzzer signalling her defeat. Once the sparring class was let out, Ruby approached Sweetie Belle, “Hey! Sweetie! Want to come over to my dorm and play video games!” Ruby was jumping up and down. Sweetie stared at her, “Yeah sounds fun!” She replied, “You want to come too?” She turned to ask her teammates. Diamond shook her head, Apple Bloom was nowhere to be found, and Scootaloo simply replied, “Yeah, sorry I kinda promised Yang that we could do some shopping tonight, need to get more dust.” With that, a slightly disappointed Sweetie walked off with Ruby, finding their way quickly to their dorm… Sweetie was amazed at how messy it was, and how unsafe the bunk beds looked… Blake was sitting up on the top bunk of the leftmost bed, reading a book. “So, what did you have in mind?” Sweetie asked Ruby. “Got your scroll?” “Yeah? Why?” “Watch,” Ruby took hold of Sweetie’s scroll, “What’s your CCTS password?” “Oh, rarityvonBelle1…” Sweetie watched as Ruby tinkered with her scroll then, once whatever she had just downloaded had finished being downloaded, the whole concept of downloading things from datastores still a bit alien to the faunus girl, Ruby handed Sweetie back her scroll, “Look!” She exclaimed, as the scroll connected to the device they had sitting on a table, and a bunch of buttons appeared on the scroll’s screen, “You can use it as a controller…” “H-How do you play?” Sweetie asked, as Ruby pressed a few buttons and loaded up the game on the holographic display. “Oh, it’s real simple, you use those buttons to move, and those buttons to perform actions, watch…” She said as she started to play through the game. It was late, the sun was setting over Beacon, and a blonde boy sat alone in the dining hall… Most everyone else was training or being tutored by their teachers at this hour. But Jaune, Jaune was eating some apples and crackers. That was until the door opened and in walked Apple Bloom, “Hey, Jaune…” “Oh, hey, Bloom, don’t think we’ve talked much.” “Umm… Saw you in sparring class…” Jaune moaned and slammed his head against the table as Apple spoke, “You were… Ok…” “Uhhh… I can’t even beat the guy with the second-lowest score…” “Hey… You just need a bit of practice, we weren’t that good when we came to Vale…” “You lived outside of the walls, you probably got attacked every day…” “Well… To be honest, live back in Ponyville was, kinda boring… Mostly just farm work…” Jaune was silent for a minute, and Apple Bloom moved up to him, “Hey, want a bit of sparring?” “You’re just going to win… Going to beat me up so you can get revenge on Nora...” “Now why in the world would you think that... I’ll go easy on you… Promise… Come on Jaune…” She mutters, lifting Jaune from his seat. Hesitantly, Jaune followed Apple Bloom to one of the empty classrooms. It was Port’s classroom, and the two moved to the little arena that was at the bottom of the miniature auditorium. Jaune stood uneasily, gripping his sword… Apple Bloom turned, she dropped Applebuck to the floor with a loud thunk that left the tile cracked. “Oops…” She muttered… “Ok, Jaune… Hit me…” “W-What?” “Just do it, stab me, jab me as hard as you can!” “O-Ok…” He said, raising his sword and charging… He lunged… Apple Bloom hadn’t been fighting for long, only about two weeks at this point, but she could already see just how easy Jaune’s strike would be to deflect, he was just charging, she could have batted the sword out of his hands, or leapt, or ducked, or kicked… But, instead, Apple Bloom stood her ground and let the boy’s sword strike her… With a shout, Jaune’s sword sparked against Bloom’s aura, she let out a grunt… The boy was surprisingly strong. “B-Bloom, did I hurt you?” He asked, dropping his sword when Apple Bloom grunted. “No, that was actually pretty good, but predictable…” “H-Huh?” “Watch, do it again…” “You sure?” “Just do it!” “Ok…” Jaune muttered, picking up his sword, and moving to stab Apple Bloom again… This time, Apple Bloom batted the sword out of his grip, it clattered against the ground, and Jaune slammed into Apple Bloom, who caught the boy. “See what I mean… Come on, let’s do it again, this time, try to do something else.” Jaune muttered something under his breath, and moved to pick up his sword, “I don’t need your help…” Apple Bloom sighed, “Yeah, you do…” “No I don’t!” Apple Bloom didn’t bother responding, she simply approached the boy and gave him a hearty slap… One that sent him sprawling to the ground. “Yeah… You do.” Jaune coughed, “If I can’t do this on my own, what good am I?”  “Sit…” Apple Bloom said, putting a hand on Jaune’s shoulder, and pushing him down, forcing him to sit, “You know my sister said the exact same thing…” “I don’t need a lecture,” He struggled, trying to get back up, but Apple Bloom’s grip on his shoulder was nigh unbreakable… “This was a few years back, it was Applebuck Season, time to harvest...  She said she didn’t need any help, but she ran herself ragged trying to harvest every apple in the orchard herself…” “What does that have to do with fighting? And what kind of idiot would try and harvest an entire orchard themselves?” “That’s exactly what I’m sayin’... She didn’t accept any help, and she caused a whole lot of trouble for her friends, all because she was too stubborn…” “I’m not being stubborn, I just don’t want to be a burden…” “By not accepting my helpin’ you’re being a burden, a burden to yourself, let me help you, so you can help your team…” “Why do you want to help me? We aren’t even on the same team…” “Because you’re a friend, we’re supposed to help each other, and plus, isn’t everyone supposed to work together against those monsters out there…” Jaune was silent, “Come on… Hit me again,” She said, pulling Jaune to his feet… Jaune staggered for a second, then raised his sword, “O-Ok... Ok.”