“Yep, everything is ready miss Cinder! Torchwick’s been awful helpful, and those White Fang guys too, we’ve managed to attract plenty of grimm from Forever Fall, and we’re just waiting on your word to let them in!”
“Good, you should return to Beacon, some of the professors may start to question your absence, Neo has been doubling for you from time to time, but it would still reflect poorly on us if you don’t come back soon.”
“Roger that!” Cozy Glow gave a salute and closed her scroll and took a secret route into Vale, quickly finding the airship docks and arriving at Beacon. Once there, Cinder dragged her away into the Emerald Forest… They passed into a cave and then out into a glade dotted with ancient ruins of whatever kingdom had once stood here before Vale. She was led into one of the ruins, and froze upon seeing it teeming with hundreds of grimm… They all turned to face the newcomers, but Cinder snapped her fingers, and they all stood still, pausing. Cinder then turned to Cozy.
“Semblance is a power unique to each individual, even if some can have very similar semblances, no two living people may have the exact same… This, unfortunately, means that there is no single training method that works to bring your semblance out, but stress is normally a factor,” Cinder was pacing, her glass slippers clinking against the floor as she walked in circles around Cozy. The girl had been going through plenty of Aura training with the White Fang, and some with Cinder. She smiled at this idea, some kind of personal ability, some power wholey her own… Cinder was surprised when she said that she hadn’t unlocked hers yet, and for a second it was clear what she was questioning whether bringing a little girl with barely any power into here schemes was a good idea, but, she also recognized the burning lust for power, murderous intent, and deadly seriousness in the girl’s pale red eyes, it matched Cinder’s perfectly, and that, at a very deep and instinctual level, frightened Cinder.
“Neo will be monitoring your Aura, and we will pull you out if it gets too low, but do not think us saving you is for your sake, you belong to me, and I won’t stop until you are as useful as possible to my master’s plans… Understood…” Cinder continued, and Cozy nodded… But if Cinder really thought that Cozy belonged to anyone she was sorely mistaken, Cozy would still follow along, for now, though.
With that, the other two left the ruin and closed the door behind them, leaving Cozy alone in the darkness only lit by hundreds of glowing red eyes.
Marrow’s tail was wagging and he didn’t care. Himself, Clover, and Harriet were walking through the streets of Vale, an early autumn breeze was passing through the sky and the young faunus was gorging himself on a massive apple pie. “I love this place, can’t believe we didn’t visit Vale sooner!”
“It’s a little, rural, compared to Atlas, hell, even compared to Mantle, but I’ll give it this, it is warmer… At least the food is good,” Harriet muttered, drinking some soda.
“Don’t get too full, remember, we’re her to provide security for the Vytal Festival,” Clover chimed in.
“Yeah, like anyone’s going to be mad enough at some stupid sparring match to attract the Grimm…”
“Harriet…”
“What?”
The three continued down the street… Then there came a loud, concussive, “BOOM” followed by the sound of something collapsing, and screams, they turned and swore, looking north, toward the growing plume of dust and smoke. Clover acted first.
“This is Clover, all Atlesian Military personnel, to the perimeter wall, we have a breach! North sector!”
“Well, there goes the fifth one today…” Twilight looked downcast at the rapidly dissolving form of another expired Grimm on the surgical table, she had been trying to reconnect to the grimm mental link to see what she could examine, but her attempts had been unsuccessful “I don’t get it, what am I doing wrong! How did I get into it the first time, but not any other times!”
“I don’t know darling, but it’s getting dreadfully boring just sitting around and watching you work…”
“Boring!” Twilight shouted, “This is amazing, these grimm are unlike any other lifeform I’ve seen, well, except for Ursas and Windigos, but I’ve never had the chance to study any of them up-close like this!”
“Look, Twi, I know how much you love this stuff, but, next time, could you please leave us out of this…” Rainbow muttered.
“Heh,” Spitfire began, “At least it isn’t as bad as trying to babysit you all the time…
“Hey!” Dash exclaimed. Then, everyone’s attention was caught when the cylinder in the middle of the room started to glow red, and alarms started to whine. “Umm, what’s that?”
“Some kind of alarm, something has gone wrong somewhere,” Spitfire quickly deduced, “Come on, we need to get back to the city!”
“But, the experiment!” Twi continued.
“Listen, Twilight, we can continue this some other time…” Rarity finished.
A massive explosion rocked the wall, rending down part of the outer defensive line, panic spread rapidly, and grimm started to pour through the defences, White Fang, mastering their emotions, grappled the walls and descended just far enough away to not attract the grimm’s attention, and they began an assault on the city, stolen Paladin Prototypes firing rockets and autocannons into the crowd and foot-soldiers quickly marching up and drawing pistols, SMGs, and machetes on any humans and faunus they came across, but quickly they met resistance, atlesian guards made firing lines and started evacuating civilians, then huntsmen arrived.
An airship quickly dropped off a group of students into the grimm’s assault, then dropped another group into the White Fang’s charge. Pyrrha’s spear flew into the chest of an ursa and she slammed into the ground, crushing a creep under her feet, slashing a beowolf with her shield, before picking her spear up and charging into battle again. Nora’s hammer smashed the head of a deathstalker in and in just two movements she smashed another dozen grimm in a circle around her. Jaune fell right on to the back of a Beowolf Alpha, his sword slicing its head off, even if it was mostly by mistake. And Ren staying in the airship, providing fire support from above with a flurry of machinepistol shots.
Then, Clover, Harriet, and Marrow arrived. Marrow leapt against a Paladin, chainblade cleaving its arm off as a trail of lightning flew across the battle and leaving stunned and concussed white fang infantry on the ground, finally, Clover hooked open the hatch of another Paladin Mech, pulling the driver out and taking control for himself, “Good, standard Paladin prototype,” He said, “Nice to see that the White Fang didn’t mess with it too much.”
Up on the wall, Emerald and Mercury watched the carnage, “Remember the plan…” Both had dyed and redone their hair, used contacts to change their eye color, and had a change in wardrobe, neither should be recognized by the authorities. Then, they leapt forward, Mercury kicking an Ursa Major to the ground, and Emerald slashing up a horde of creeps.
The shadow of an Atlesian airship passed overhead, autocannons ripping through both groups of invaders and dropping combat androids into the fray, meanwhile, from another Vale airship, Coco let loose a volley of minigun rounds into the attacking grimm before dropping Fox and Yatsu into the horde. Sun leapt around a King Taijitu, light-clones holding down one head while he firing shotguns point-blank into the other head’s eye, and Neptune sliced off the tail of an attacking Deathstalker with his glaive.
“Looks like some trouble’s gone down while we were away!” Port said bombastically.
“Alright, Blank-Flanks, Apple Bloom stays aboard the airship and provide support, Scootaloo, Sweetie, you’re with me!” Diamond said before leaping off the ship as it dived low, Apple Bloom fired high-explosive shells into the attacking grimm, ripping apart the largest targets as the others took on the small-fry. Diamond’s sword effortlessly cleaved a pair of beowolves apart as if they were paper, before firing her beam-cannon into a giant nevermore overhead.
Scootaloo glided down, wings outstretched, bathing everything below her in fire, creating an updraft that kept her aloft… “Not quite flying, but I could get used to this!” She shouted in glee before diving down and putting a heat-blast through the head of an Ursa Major.
Sweetie’s halberd cleaved a deathstalker’s head apart, and she turned, spotting the same King Taijitu that Sun had been holding down, now broken free from the light-clones’ grasp and moving to strike the young faunus on its other head. Sweetie drew a simple arcane circle and let loose a wave of minty fire that immolated the other head, dropping to the ground before the creature evaporated completely. “Thanks for the assist, but I got it!” Sun replied. Sweetie scoffed before casting a shield around herself and leaping into a small pack of creeps.
“Remember, don’t kill anyone unless absolutely necessary!” Twilight shouted, holding Rarity next to her in violet telekinesis, Rainbow and Spitfire to either side, as they flew toward the White Fang’s assault.
“Speak for yourself, I saw them shooting up those civilians, they need to pay!” Rainbow replied.
“Yeah, Twi, let the military ponies handle this…” Spitfire continued.
“I for one agree with Twiligh-” Rarity began, then screamed as they dived to avoid an incoming Nevermore, which was promptly hit with rockets from the Atlesian gunships. Rarity was dropped, but she quickly righted herself with telekinesis and came to a safe landing after casting a featherfall spell on herself, she quickly drew her sword and started knocking her attackers unconscious with the dull side, Rarity prayed she didn’t hit them too hard. One charged at her with a blade, but she pulled it from his grasp with her telekinesis and then gave him a hard kick to the chest, another drew an SMG on her and fired a volley, but Rarity turned and grabbed the bullets in a telekinetic field, sending them flying back at the girl who fired them. Then, a purple blast of telekinetic energy sent another machete-wielding goon flying backwards and Rarity turned, expecting to see Twilight, but seeing an impeccably dressed human mare with a blonde mane and wielding a crop standing just behind her.
“Another telekinetic, I thought I was the only one,” she began.
“Please darling,” Rarity chuckled, turning around and grabbing the guy trying to sneak up behind her, “I am one of the best where I come from,” before flinging the faunus through the second floor of a building.
Rainbow and Spitfire landed together, facing a dozen hostiles, and raised their magical-energy weapons, the White Fang did the same, but a burst of orange-hot energy, turning one of the largest goons into a pile of burning ash in an instant made them reconsider, and a volley of multihued light beams from Rainbow Dash made them flee.
Up above, Twilight was hovering between both battlefields, watching the huntsmen starting to push back their respective foes, she summoned twin magic circles with her hands and from them fired dozens of magic missiles that relentlessly chased their targets, raining from the sky like purple streaks that annihilated grimm and broke the white fang’s aura in an instant. It didn’t take long for the assault to turn into a rout. Below, Rarity and Glynda moved up and repaired the wall while Twilight and Sweetie Belle combined their powers to create a magic shield around the breach to prevent any grimm from disrupting the repairs. Afterwards, Glynda couldn’t take her mind off the image of Twilight, hovering in the sky like a purple star, strange glyphs hovering around her, unleashing blasts of energy.
“It’s over Torchwick!” Scootaloo said, holding a pistol to his head.
“I can’t believe you caught me,” He said, sarcastically. Both were standing atop the wall, an atlesian airship parking on the landing pad as he was dragged away by some guards.
Then, another airship came to land, and out stepped Oobleck and team RWBY, “Hey! You didn’t save any bad guys for us!” Ruby shouted.
“Ruby, please, be thankful that this mess was cleaned up nice a quick, without need of us…” Weiss replied.
“Aww, but it would have been soooo cool, saving Vale from a grimm attack.”
“It wasn’t just the Grimm though, I’ve not seen the White Fang this bold before…” Blake continued.
“Well, hey, be thankful that we were here to clean the mess up for you!” Jaune said, looking proud of himself.
“Yeah, we will…” Yang said, sharing Ruby’s disappointment.
Raven was dragged before a crystalline throne, various ponies filled the room. Vernal and Shay were brought in just after her, but Raven was quick to notice that she was the only one of the three who was cuffed. The Princess, Cadence, marched forward and drew a scroll then began reading from it… “First, regarding the damages done to the Boreal Express, you will be expected to pay seventy-five thousand bits to cover the materials and labour needed to construct a new train, in addition, you will be expected to assist in the construction effort, every hour of labour will reduce your debt however you will still be expected to pay for materials.”
Raven felt a lump form in her stomach… She wasn’t sure how much exactly that was, but that sounded like a lot of money… That wasn’t the worst she was going to face though, she knew that. “Next… The murders… First, you must pay fifty-thousand bits to each of the families of the dead, coming to a total of two-million four-hundred thousand. Next, you must issue formal apologies to the families of the dead in person, that only covers those who live in the Crystal Empire, as several lived in Northern Equestria, and those you will send letters too. You will have an enchantment placed upon you that will prevent you from leaving the Crystal City, the spell shall cause extreme pain and unconsciousness should you attempt to pass beyond the effect of the Crystal Heart, you will be under close supervision during this time, and will stay in the Crystal Catacombs beneath the Crystal Tower, allowed out only for food and recreation until all debt is paid.”
Raven’s head slumped… She was going to be stuck in this strange city for a long time, at least she was safe from Salem, but the hard labour didn’t sound fun… Nor did speaking to all those ponies… “As you, Raven Branwen, were the leader of your brigands, you alone shall be punished, Vernal Aelaes and Shay Mann will not be expected to do the same… However, this final punishment applies to all present… Under no circumstances will you commit another crime for the remainder of your lives, if any here commit an act of theft, Raven Branwen will have her debt tripled and each of you will be expected to pay the same, in addition, if any of you commit an act of murder, you will all be banished into the tundra, where you will undoubtedly suffer a very slow and painful death at the hands of the cold… Do I make myself clear…” The tone in the she-pony’s voice had turned deadly serious, and Raven simply nodded. “Finally, once Raven’s debt has been paid, you will all be deported back to your homelands, Raven to the Hidden City under the reign of Fire-Lord Frostfyre and Empress Midnight Torch, Vernal to Mount Aris under the reign of Princess Luna of Equestria and Queen Novo, and Shay to the Isle of Storms now under the reign of acting Viceroy Tempest Shadow, serving in the stead of Princess Celestia of Equestria.”
The other two were suddenly struck with worry… They knew nothing of this strange world, how could they be expected to survive in alien nations with alien customs? For the first time in much of her life, Raven felt guilty as she stared back at Vernal and Shay, knowing that this could very well be the last time she would see any other members of the tribe.
The door opened, and Cinder and Neo were surprised at what they saw… The ruin was now completely devoid of Grimm, not a single one remained… And, stranger still, there was no sign of Cozy…
“Where did she go!” Cinder said, surprised and angry.
“Right here…” Came the sickly sweet voice of Cozy, and both Cinder and Neo turned, eyes wide, as they saw Cozy appear from nowhere, her brass claw smoking with the remains of a grimm, then, the girl glowed red before vanishing again.
“Invisibility?” Cinder asked.
“You could say that,” Cozy’s voice chilled Cinder to the bone as she turned and saw the girl only millimeters behind her.
“Alright, I can work with this…” Cinder said once she got over the initial fear.
Cozy smiled, keeping the true nature of her new abilities to herself…