Study Session
As much as Sunset might have liked to have dived straight into researching Ruby’s potential powers, there was just one problem standing in the way: this was a school, and they had quarter-term tests.
It was probably for the best that these weren’t formal exams, with two notable exceptions. Professor Goodwitch had announced that she would be holding four on four tournament-style matches between teams that would determine not only the rankings of each team in terms of their performance, but would also serve as a test of the leadership of each team leader. Professor Port, although he was setting a written paper, had let it be known that he would also be conducting a practical test by dropping the students into the Emerald Forest to hunt down the roving remnants of the horde that the team leaders had shattered during a training mission the week earlier. For the rest, written papers had been assigned not in the formal exam style of everyone sitting in a hall, but more like extended homework: an essay or essays designed to cover everything taught in the first four weeks of the semester.
That was all for the best, because Sunset had no doubt at all that exam conditions would have led to an absolute bloodbath for Team SAPR.
As it was, things were unlikely to be brilliant. Sunset was, of course, acing all her academic subjects, and Pyrrha was as intelligent as she was strong as she was beautiful, and learned in lore besides; Sunset was only a little ashamed to admit that Pyrrha consistently scored higher than she did in Legends of Remnant. The other half of the team, on the other hand, was much more of a mixed bag. Ruby was definitely suffering from missing out on two years of her expected combat school education; she was foundering in History, Dust Science, and Plant Science, and even in those subjects where she had the knowledge – Grimm Studies and Legends of Remnant – she struggled to get that knowledge down on paper to the standard expected of a Beacon student. Jaune, country bumpkin that he was, still possessed a degree of knowledge in Plant Science and Fieldcraft gifted to him by his rustic upbringing, but three weeks of going practically without sleep had taken its toll even there, and he was still next to clueless in Grimm Studies, History, and Legends. In an exam setting, these inadequacies would have been brutally exposed, and worse, might have also exposed the fact that Sunset had spent most of the first quarter of the semester writing Jaune’s essays for him in order to avoid getting into trouble. Sunset couldn’t help but think that she would get into even more trouble if she were found to have been perpetuating several weeks’ worth of cheating.
Thankfully, they were not required to sit a formal exam, and while Sunset had no expectation of great grades from Ruby and Jaune in the non-combat written essays – she expected the team to place highly in both the sparring and Grimm Studies practicals – it did at least afford the opportunity to… help out the underperforming members of the team.
And so, as much as Sunset would have liked to have gotten to grips with silver eyes and the exact nature of Ruby’s powers, the next evening after dinner saw the team gathered in the library for the more prosaic purpose of getting a start on their quarter-term papers.
“Right,” Sunset said, as they all sat down, “we’ll start with history.”
“Shouldn’t we take a vote on where we start?” Jaune asked dispiritedly.
Sunset gave him an imperious gaze. “Why would we need a vote when we have a leader?”
“I thought you were being nice now,” Jaune protested.
“My newfound kindness is manifesting itself in the fact that I’m not going to let you sink in these quarter-terms on your own,” Sunset replied. “History, come on. We’ll get to Plant Science in good time.” It was, perhaps, a little selfish on her part to start with a subject that she liked and was good at, but so long as they covered the other subjects too, it didn’t really matter. She wasn’t looking forward to Plant Science; she could get the written word portions of the course done, but she kind of missed the days when a test involving a plant had just meant casting a spell on it to make it grow.
Jaune groaned, and Ruby looked a little dispirited too as they got out the history papers that Doctor Oobleck had set them. There were some short, source-based questions and an essay to cap the whole thing off.
“Why do we have to answer these questions about sources and bias?” Jaune griped. “It’s not like we’re here to learn how to become historians; even if we need to learn history-”
“It is important, Jaune,” Pyrrha told him, slightly reproachfully. “If we don’t understand where our world came from, then how can we safeguard it?”
“By killing monsters?” Jaune suggested.
“Being a huntsman is about so much more thank killing monsters,” Blake Belladonna declared as she emerged from behind one of the nearby library shelves. She had a stack of books in her arms, hugged against her chest. “The world is bedevilled by so many more evils than just the creatures of grimm: inequality, prejudice, corruption; it’s the duty of a huntsman to stand against these injustices, to be a light of hope in the world, to be-”
“A paragon of virtue,” Pyrrha murmured.
Blake was silent for a moment. She nodded. “Exactly.”
“Professor Ozpin said the same thing to me,” Jaune admitted. “I just never thought that it meant studying history.”
“Like Pyrrha said,” Blake replied. “how can you defend the world if you don’t understand how it came to be? And the answer to your earlier question is that Doctor Oobleck isn’t trying to train a historian. He’s trying to teach critical thinking: how to analyse evidence and make judgements based on that rational analysis. In the field, you may have to analyse witness statements and make estimates of the strength and location of the enemy, even base your decisions as to what to do next on that analysis.”
“I, right,” Jaune said. He looked across the table at Sunset. “Why couldn’t you phrase it like that instead of just telling me to get my head down and do it?”
“Because… because you should just get down and do it because you’ve been told to,” Sunset informed him sharply. “That’s what school is.” She turned on her chair, so that she had her back to Jaune and was facing Blake, who had just delivered the longest speech that Sunset had yet heard out of the taciturn, raven-haired girl. “Evening,” Sunset said. “Are you here to study for quarter-terms as well?”
“Yes,” Blake said, “I’m sorry if I disturbed you; I’ll get out of your hair.”
“It’s fine,” Ruby said. “Where’s the rest of your team?”
“They… went to a movie with Dove from Team Iron,” Blake admitted.
“You let them?” Sunset asked incredulously.
“Should I have stopped them?” Blake asked, equably but with a touch of puzzlement.
“Yes,” Sunset declared. “And made them hit the books with you. You think Jaune wouldn’t rather be at the movies?”
“Hey!” Jaune exclaimed. “I’m willing to work!”
“Good for you; it seems that’s more than can be said for Team Bluebell or Dove,” Sunset said. And for that matter, why is Yang letting him get away with this?
“I… don’t really want to be the kind of leader who bullies their teammates,” Blake said.
Sunset spluttered. “Excuse me, I do not bully my teammates. I… direct them, firmly but with an even hand, in the right direction. It’s called leadership. You know what the right thing is - you’re doing it yourself - and it’s your job to communicate that to your-” Sunset stopped short of saying ‘underlings,’ “-to the others.”
“Maybe Bluebell don’t need to study so hard for quarter-terms because they know it all,” Ruby suggested. “But... why didn’t they ask you to go to the movie with them? That’s pretty rude.”
“And why would they ask Sky, I know he’s their teammate but I haven’t seem them hanging out with him be-” Sunset began, then stopped as she realised exactly why they had invited Sky. “Oh. Oh, Celestia.”
“What’s the matter?” Pyrrha asked in a puzzled voice.
“It’s the harem joke I made; it’s gotten under his skin so much that he invited a second guy to come along so it will look more respectable,” Sunset said. She groaned. “That guy, honestly.”
“Dove’s pretty nice,” Ruby said. “He gave me The Song of Olivia when he didn’t have to.”
“Maybe, but he’s such a stuffed shirt,” Sunset replied. “I mean… anyway.”
Ruby frowned. “If they wanted a second boy, then why didn’t he ask Ren?”
“Ren would have wanted to take Nora, if he wanted to go at all,” Jaune said. “What movie did they go and see?”
“Uh,” Blake looked as though she were trying to remember. “I think it was… Die Well on an Atlesian Cruiser?”
“No, that’s what kind of a film it is, not the title,” Sunset explained. “You see Die Well is a classic thriller starring Spruce Willis that spawned a host of copycats using the premise of a… you know what, it doesn’t matter. What matters is… what matters is… where were we going with this?”
“Why didn’t your team invite you to come to the movie with them?” Ruby asked again.
“I’m not much of a movie type,” Blake said. “I’ve got enough studying to do to keep me occupied.”
“Well, you’re welcome to join us,” Ruby declared. “Right, guys?”
“Of course,” Pyrrha agreed. “The more the merrier, as they say.”
“Sure,” Sunset said, with less enthusiasm but not actual distaste.
Blake stared at them all, her expression inscrutable. “Thank you,” she said quietly, before she walked around the library table to take the free seat next to Ruby, opposite Pyrrha. “So, you’re starting with Modern History. Essay questions or sources?”
“Why don’t we get the essay out of the way first, seeing as we’re in the library?” Sunset said. “We can do the source questions back in the dorm room if need be, but we’ve got all the books here if we need them.” That was why they had come to the library in the first place, after all.
Sunset glanced down at the paper in front of her. Doctor Oobleck had set two essay questions, of which they would need to answer both: How did the Four Kingdoms endeavour to ensure that there would not be another Great War and to what extent were their efforts successful? Why were the Four Kingdoms defeated in the Faunus Rights Revolution?
“That first question is easy, isn’t it?” Jaune asked. “I mean, there hasn’t been another Great War, so their efforts must have been successful.”
“Not necessarily,” Sunset and Blake both said at the same time. They both glanced at each other.
Blake gestured for Sunset to continue. “Please, don’t let me interrupt. I’m only a guest here.”
Sunset nodded. “So, what the question is getting at is, was it the efforts of the Four Kingdoms to prevent war that actually prevented war, or were there other factors that ensured the preservation of peace?”
Jaune stared at her. “Uh… can it be both?”
“It usually is, with these kinds of questions,” Sunset said. “The important thing is how you get to the conclusion of both and build your argument to support it.”
“As well as qualifying where the balance lies,” Pyrrha added.
Jaune sighed. “This stuff makes my head hurt.”
“Me too,” Ruby groaned. “Is the other question any easier?”
“Possibly,” Pyrrha said. She spoke quietly, although her voice nevertheless carried in the nearly silent library. “It seems to be mostly a question of facts, not interpretation.”
“That’s a matter for debate,” Blake muttered.
Sunset looked across the table at her, eyes narrowing. “No,” she said. “It isn’t. The question is ‘How did the kingdoms lose the war?’ Introduction, fact, fact, fact, fact, conclusion.”
“But the very wording of the questions is interpretive,” Blake replied, with some heat entering her voice.
“What do you mean?” Ruby asked.
“I mean… how are you planning to answer this question?” Blake turned the question back on them.
“Mistralian generalship and the failure of the Fabian strategy, that’s one paragraph,” Sunset said. “Military weakness after the Great War, that’s another paragraph. Paragraph three: Valish reluctance to get involved. Paragraph four: domestic unrest in Mantle.”
“All human issues,” Blake said. “You haven’t even mentioned the faunus once in your entire argument. The question could have been phrased ‘why did the faunus win the war?’ or even ‘why did the war end with the outcome that it did?’ for neutrality, but instead, it has been worded in such a way as to allow you, to allow everyone, to treat one whole side in the war as if they had no agency at all in a war fought over the question of their freedom! I know that Doctor Oobleck means well and that he doesn’t consider himself a bigot, but when he taught the Battle of Fort Castle he didn’t even mention the name of Ares Claudandus once.”
“Who?” Ruby asked.
“Exactly,” Blake said. “He commanded the faunus armies throughout the war, including at Fort Castle, but he has been almost completely forgotten. Yes, General Lagune was foolish to attempt a night attack against the faunus, but he still might have succeeded if Claudandus hadn’t had his forces standing by against such an eventuality. On the day before the battle, Claudandus sent two thousand troops under the command of his brother Apollo on a flank march, and it was those troops, emerging into the rear of Lagune’s column, that caused irreversible panic to set in amongst the human forces, but who here knew that?”
“I did,” Pyrrha said mildly.
Blake’s eyebrows rose. “Then… you are an unusual human.”
“I’m a human who has read Virgil,” Pyrrha replied. “In Mistral, that would not be thought unusual. At least… not amongst certain circles. Ares Claudandus is fulsomely characterised there, if somewhat demonised at times, and his battle plans and strategies are recounted in detail.”
Blake looked somewhat mollified to hear it. “I’m glad, I… I spent some time in Mistral when I was younger, but I never actually got around to reading Virgil; would you recommend it?”
“It depends on your tastes,” Pyrrha replied. “What is your tolerance for heroic literature?”
Blake smiled, just a little. “I note that you said ‘what is my tolerance’ as if there is no way that I could enjoy it.”
“I just meant,” Pyrrha began, “that is, I didn’t mean to imply that… it is something of an acquired taste if you are not a Mistralian raised upon the subject.”
“Blake likes weird stories, don’t you?” Ruby asked. “Like that story you were reading on the night before Initiation? The girl with two souls.”
“With half a soul,” Blake corrected her. “But I thought we were talking about history, not stories.”
“Virgil writes in the style of a story, in many respects,” Pyrrha said. “History as a tale of heroes and…”
“And villains?” Blake suggested.
“Yes,” Pyrrha admitted. “Although the true villains of the tale are not the faunus, but the populist politicians who mishandle the war, while the heroes are the patricians who restore order to Mistral after the chaos of two military defeats.”
“Your ancestor amongst them?” Sunset asked.
Pyrrha’s entire face turned bright red. “I… I wish you hadn’t mentioned that, Sunset,” she murmured.
"Why not?" Sunset asked in genuine befuddlement. "You're not ashamed, are you?"
"No, I'm not ashamed," Pyrrha replied softly. "But… all the same, I wish you hadn't mentioned it."
"Mentioned… what?" Jaune said. "Pyrrha, what's Sunset talking about?"
Pyrrha bowed her head, looking down at the quarter-term paper and the books in front of her. "I… my great-great-grandfather was the third son of the Emperor of Mistral. He was the only one of the Imperial princes to survive the great war. I am descended from him, and from the Emperor who laid down his crown at the end of the war, and of all the Emperors and Empresses who ruled Mistral between that time and this. My mother… my mother is the legitimate claimant to the throne of Mistral." Pyrrha trembled just a little and stole sneaking glances towards Jaune and Ruby, as if she were trying to gauge their reaction without being too obvious about it.
Jaune's mouth was hanging open wide. Blake had leaned back in her chair as if she were seeing Pyrrha through fresh eyes. Ruby's eyes, meanwhile, were wide as saucers.
"Wow," Ruby said. "You're like an actual fairytale princess."
Pyrrha's laughter rang out clear and high across the library. Pyrrha laughed, and all the tension that had gathered around their table was blown away by it. Sunset wondered a little if that hadn't been the point of Ruby's intervention.
"Thank you, Ruby," Pyrrha said, as she got her laughter under control at least in part. "That's very kind of you to say, but I wouldn't be so presumptuous. It doesn't really mean anything now."
"So?" Sunset said. "If I was the heir to a throne, you wouldn't hear me shut up about it."
"That doesn't surprise me," Jaune muttered.
"Technically speaking, you can't be the heir to a throne that is empty," Pyrrha replied. "As I said, my mother is the legitimate claimant to the throne, but she does not exercise her claim. I'm just… Pyrrha Nikos."
Are you? Or do you just hope that that is all you'll be?
"Is that why you didn't say anything?" Jaune inquired. "On that first morning, when we went for a run, we talked about my family, and then before we could talk about yours, you decided that we were done for the morning, even though… even though you must have a few heroes in your family history. Probably more than me."
"Perhaps," Pyrrha allowed, although she made the concession in a tone so gentle that no one could think her proud for it. "I don't deny that I have… some ancestors whose deeds are well known, in Mistral, at least. And despite what you may think, Sunset, I am not ashamed of that; the examples of my line, their courage, their generosity, their nobility of spirit, teach me how to behave as a huntress and a warrior. But nor do I wish to be proud. So my name is Nikos; it is a good name, but it does not transform me into other than what I am."
"But... you said that your people believe – and the way that you said it means that you must believe it too – that we inherit strength from our ancestors," Jaune reminded her. "Doesn't that mean that you're stronger than any of us?"
"She is stronger than any of us," Sunset pointed out bluntly.
"Do you actually believe that?" Blake asked. "That's rather… old-fashioned and elitist, don't you think?"
"It can be used to justify elitism," Pyrrha allowed. "But in itself… none of us sprang sui generis into the world. We are all the product of those that came before us. Ruby's mother, Jaune's ancestors, my lineage, we are all strengthened by those who came before; their spirits walk beside us. The fact that my ancestors are better known, their deeds more well-recorded, than the lines of Jaune or Ruby or Sunset does not change the fact that there are lines and deeds and strength. Please, this is why I didn't want to bring it up; I didn't want you to… we are all huntsmen, or training to be huntsmen, to venture out into the world and do battle with the monsters that assail it. That is glory enough to dim the light of any crown in Remnant, and in that glory, we are all equal."
Jaune looked as though he couldn't quite bring himself to believe that, but at the same time, he nodded. "Okay, if it means that much to you, then we won't bring it up. Your secret is safe with us." He cracked a smile. "Except maybe for some fairytale princess jokes."
Pyrrha chuckled. "I suppose I'll have to accept that, then."
"Well, you are brave and strong and kind and… and, uh, and we should probably get back to these essays, shouldn't we?" Jaune suggested.
"Unless anyone else has any ancestral revelations they would like to share?" Blake asked amusedly.
"You know, you never talk about your parents," Jaune pointed out, looking at Sunset.
"That's because my parents are thoroughly uninteresting," Sunset declared. So uninteresting that I don't even know who they are. "And you are correct, Jaune Arc; we should get back to these essays."
"So, after what Blake said, are we allowed to write about why the faunus won the war instead?" Ruby asked. "It seems like the right thing to do."
"Do you think you can write about why the faunus won the war?" Sunset asked. "If you do, well, then I think Doctor Oobleck will appreciate that you put the extra effort in, but if you do it badly, then you'd be better off sticking with a more conventional approach."
"I'd like to try and do the right thing," Ruby insisted.
"I wasn't actually trying to bully anyone into risking their grades," Blake said. "I was only pointing out that the structure of the question is... problematic."
"But you also said huntresses need to stand up for what's right," Ruby replied. "And that doesn't just mean on the battlefield."
"I agree," Pyrrha said. "It might be quite stretching to take a different approach."
"Are you sure about this?" Jaune asked nervously.
"You slept through all the lessons, so it will be new information for you either way," Sunset informed him.
"That… is an excellent point," Jaune admitted.
What followed was a lot more stimulating than Sunset had honestly expected at the start of the evening, drawing heavily upon Virgil books eighty-five to ninety, as well as some more obscure works that Blake recommended and which they found in the history section of the library. It felt less like educating Ruby and Jaune and more like they were all learning something, even if it was just a new perspective that they hadn't considered before.
As Team SAPR gathered up their books and essays to return to the dorm room at the end of the session, Sunset lingered for a moment, looking at Blake, to address a question that had been scratching at the back of her mind.
"I am… a little grateful for the suggestion," Sunset said. "But can I ask what brought this on? Why do you care that the question is framed from a human perspective?"
Blake looked at Sunset. Her ivory skin seemed even fairer in the moonlight streaming in through the library windows, making her seem almost ethereal. "Do you think that it's impossible for humans to be allies of the faunus in their fight for equality?"
Sunset snorted. "In my experience, it's more common for humans who befriend faunus to convince them that there isn't any equality left to fight for." Rainbow Dash, for instance, spent all her time hanging out with five humans – and with the connections at the highest levels that she'd forged as a result of her friendship with Twilight Sparkle - to the extent you'd be forgiven for thinking that she'd forgotten she was a faunus at all. Certainly, she'd never seen them work for faunus rights, unless you counted that cringe-inducing stunt from Sunset's first year at Canterlot.
"In Atlas?" Blake asked. When Sunset nodded, Blake went on, "I had a faunus friend who lived in Atlas for a while; that happened to her as well, but then… something happened to remind her that she was still a faunus, and there was still a great divide between faunus and humanity. Something like that always happens."
"It didn't happen where I could see it," Sunset replied. "Just like I never saw a human working for the faunus cause."
"How closely were you looking?" Blake replied.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sunset demanded.
"Just that you don't strike me as someone particularly invested in the idea of solidarity," Blake pointed out.
Sunset let out a bark of laughter. "I suppose not. But you do, for a people not your own?"
"My parents were members of the White Fang, before Sienna Khan took over," Blake explained. "Humans were allowed to join in those days; not in positions of leadership, but as allies. Sienna Khan purged them from the movement as part of her shift towards a more… radical approach, but I still remember my parents taking me on rallies and marches when I was a child. Just because I'm not a victim of bigotry against the faunus doesn't mean that I don't recognise injustice when I see it… even if I don't always have the courage to act on what I see."