Who Do You Serve?
The hill was stepped, putting Ruby a little in mind of Mistral, although of course, this hill was much, much smaller than the mountain upon which Pyrrha's home sat like barnacles crusted to a boat's hull. Nor was there any great city - or any town at all - upon this hill, for all that some human force had, in times gone by, carved out the earthen steps which disrupted the rising of the ground. A dozen steps, some narrow and some broad, some beginning to be overgrown with bushes and undergrowth, some still as barren and as flat as the day they had been dug, rose in their stages towards the summit of the hill, which had itself been flattened to a surface like a table top, waiting for the giant plates and goblets to be set upon it.
"It is called the King's Camp," Sunsprite explained to Ruby as they climbed the steep path that cut through the steps of the hill. "Though what king built it - or when - none can say for sure. Memory has not preserved the king's name, nor his nation, nor even whether he meant to live upon this hill in peace or war or merely to make a refuge or simply wished, as the name suggests, to make a camp here on his way to somewhere else. But in any event, whoever built it built well here."
Sunsprite walked her horse, no longer riding it, and most of her Rangers followed her example, leading their mounts by the bridle up the path while the wagons of the Frost Mountain Clan, and all the folk of that people too, followed after them.
As they climbed, getting closer towards the summit with every step, Ruby could see the remains of a ringfort built around the edges of the summit, with crumbling walls of white stone now only a few feet high, with moss and vines beginning to cover the remaining worn and weathered stone from view.
"An old place," Sunsprite admitted, "but strong. Should either grimm or vagabonds come against us here, it will be the worse for them. Rangers travelling this route rest here for the night if they can, and so do the clans that wander these roads."
Indeed, as they reached hilltop and passed through the one gap in the ringwall that Ruby was fairly certain was intentional and not a result of the stone crumbling away or being stolen, Ruby could see that the apparently flat and featureless summit was not completely devoid of evidence of more recent human presence than whoever had made the wall. The places where the wall had fallen away completely had been plugged with wooden stakes, although some of those stakes were looking a little worse for wear these days.
The tents of the Rangers sprouted upon the summit of the hill, joined soon by the wagons and the livestock of the Frost Mountain Clan. A veritable town sprang up amongst the ruins of the fort, and the fire light reflected off the white stone even as the shadows of men and beasts fell over the ruins of the walls. The Rangers picketed their horses in a long line, neighing softly to one another as they chewed upon the little hay that their riders laid out for them out of the saddle bags.
Sunsprite set sentries at each cardinal direction, and men with axes cut down trees from the forest to the south to reinforce the barriers of stakes and thorns that filled in the breaches in the wall that nature had made. A heavy wagon was rolled across the path, barring the crumbling gateway.
Sunsprite patted the neck of her brown horse and whispered words in a language that Ruby did not understand. She stroked the creature as it bent its head and began to chew upon the grass.
Sunsprite turned to face Ruby and gestured to the box that she had placed nearby. “Please, Ruby, sit down.”
“Okay,” Ruby said softly and took her seat upon the upturned crate. They were a little way off the rest, in a quiet corner of the ancient hillfort, where there was no one to watch them and no one to overhear. Well, certainly, no one to interfere; Ruby thought that Sunset might be watching, but they were so far off, it was hard to tell for sure, with all the darkness lying between them.
Vesper Radiance – or the other Sunset, which would be really confusing if Ruby thought about it for too long – sat on another box not far away. As Ruby sat, she picked up a stick from off the ground and held it in front of her.
Ruby watched as fire sprang to life in Vesper’s other hand. Or rather, fire consumed her hand; it wasn’t like a fireball in her palm, it was flames all over her hand, covering it, like a burning glove. A burning glove with which Vesper lit the torch and tossed it onto the fire. Swiftly, the other sticks piled up around it began to burn also. Sunsprite’s shadow flickered a little as it was cast upon the ground.
“I am disappointed in you, Ruby,” Sunsprite said. “I thought better of you than this.”
“Better than what?” Ruby asked. “What have I done? Did I do something wrong?”
Sunsprite looked at her. Her silver eye gleamed in the firelight. “I put my trust in our kinship, in the blood we share, in the gift that was bestowed on both of us,” she declared. “I thought that, being a Silver-Eyed Warrior as I am and sprung out of the line of Rose, my cousin, daughter of Summer Rose, that you were someone in whom I could place my trust-”
“You can!” Ruby cried. She didn’t know exactly what was going on, but she didn’t want it! She didn’t want to lose this connection to her family, to her history, to her heritage! “I don’t know what anybody told you, but whatever Torchwick said, I didn’t do it! Or if I did do it, then I’ll make it up to you. Please, just give me a chance. What’s wrong? What… where is this coming from?”
“You lied to me,” Sunsprite said, each word landing with the weight of a stone falling from a great height. “By omission only, perhaps, but a lie of omission is still a lie, and a choice to omit the truth is still a choice.”
“What are you…?” Ruby trailed off, because without needing to be told she knew, with absolute certainty, what Sunsprite was talking about. “You’re talking about Sunset, aren’t you?”
“There was much that you did not tell me about she who leads your company,” Sunsprite said. Her brow furrowed. “There is much indeed that you did not tell me.”
“Well, we were mostly talking about our family.”
“Indeed,” Sunsprite agreed. “But you might have mentioned that the enemy against whom our family has fought, against whom all Silver-Eyed Warriors have striven since time immemorial, bears the name of Salem.”
Ruby’s mouth hung open. Someone… of course someone told you; too many people know by now to keep that a secret.
I’m starting to see why Professor Ozpin kept it to himself.
“We’re not supposed to tell,” Ruby said feebly.
“And yet, a group of scum and criminals know all too well,” Sunsprite declared. “You have told such villains, but you would not confide in me? Your cousin, of your own blood.”
“It’s not like that!” Ruby protested. “It’s not a question of not trusting you; it’s a question of… Sami and Jack and Torchwick aren’t supposed to know. They found out… the person who told them is dead, but they didn’t hear it from us. I know that doesn’t make it better, but I’m sorry. I… maybe I should have told you.”
“Yes,” Sunsprite said. “Very probably, you should have.” She placed one hand upon the hilt of the blade she wore upon her hip as the reflected flames danced in her silver eye, as her shadow flickered on the ground, Sunsprite seemed to grow taller, to cast a longer shadow. She was not Ruby’s cousin now, but a warrior, strong and proud. “I am a Silver-Eyed Warrior. This battle of light and darkness belongs to me as much as it does to you… and more than it does to your companions.”
“Professor Ozpin chose Sunset-” Ruby began.
“And who is Professor Ozpin to make such choices?” asked Sunsprite. “The gods chose us to fight: Silver-Eyed Warriors, chosen by fate to lead the lives of warriors. This is our battle, not theirs. It belongs to you and I more than it does to Sunset Shimmer or Cardin Winchester or your friends waiting in Mistral or any other than ourselves. You should have trusted me with this.”
Ruby blinked. What Sunsprite said… what Sunsprite said made a lot of sense, but at the same time, it felt cruel to her friends to accept it after all they’d been through together. “Like you said,” she murmured, “there aren’t very many of us left. And a lot of people have done a lot to try and resist Salem. More than me. More than you.”
Sunsprite was silent for a moment. “Perhaps,” she conceded. “In any case, bound by secrecy as you felt you were, I can understand why you did not confide this in me. In truth, I am more troubled by your other secrets, by all that you concealed from me about Sunset Shimmer and about how dangerous she is.”
“Sunset?” Ruby repeated. “Sunset isn’t… well, I mean she is dangerous, but only to our enemies.”
“To whose enemies?” Sunsprite asked. “To your enemies? To Ozpin’s enemies? To the enemies of humanity? Or to the enemies of her own desires and ambitions?”
Ruby blinked. Her brow furrowed. “You already know, don’t you?”
“I know some of it,” Sunsprite replied, “and what I know makes me… uneasy. I know that Sunset was prepared to sacrifice a kingdom to save her friends; is that not so?”
“She’s not like that any more,” Ruby protested.
“Is it not so?” Sunsprite asked again.
“Sunset understands that what she did was wrong-”
“Is it not so?”
“She’s trying to be a better person-”
“Is it not so?!”
“Yes!” Ruby cried. “Yes, yes, it’s exactly like that. We were down in the tunnels, and we were on a train, and Sunset had a chance to stop it, but… but she didn’t.” Ruby bowed her head, her hair falling down around her face. “But she didn’t,” she repeated. “Sunset… Sunset was willing to let all of Vale die to save us.”
Silence descended upon the three of them. Neither Sunsprite nor Vesper said anything in reply. The firelight crackled.
“How many people dwell in Vale, in your western kingdom?” Sunsprite asked quietly.
“I don’t know,” Ruby confessed. “Hundreds of thousands? Maybe millions? I don’t know. I didn’t pay too much attention to that stuff.” She chuckled darkly. “Some protector of humanity, huh? I can’t even tell you how big humanity is.”
“Better that than a so-called protector of humanity who will condemn a great mass of humanity,” Vesper muttered.
“Sunset… Sunset’s not the person she was then.”
“But she was that person, at one time?” Sunsprite demanded. “The kind of person who would sacrifice a city – her own city – to save those dear to her. Ruby, I am not only your cousin. I am a Silver-Eyed Warrior, destined to stand between humanity and that which would destroy it, and that alone would give me cause to keep one hand upon my sword around Sunset Shimmer… but I am also a Captain of the Queen’s Rangers, pledged to the service of Freeport and the Sun Queen. You can see how this news concerns me.”
“Yes,” Ruby admitted. “But Sunset… she wouldn’t do that now. She’s changed.”
“Why?” Sunsprite asked. “How do you know?”
“Because…” Ruby hesitated. “Because she told me that she had.”
Sunsprite knelt down in front of her. “Did she tell you immediately what she had done, on the train?”
“No,” Ruby admitted. “She… she didn’t tell anyone, she-”
“Lied to you about it?” Sunsprite suggested.
Ruby’s mouth felt very dry. To put it like that sounded very harsh, and yet… and yet, it was completely accurate. “Yes,” she said, her voice soft and small and quiet. “She lied to me about it.”
“She lied to you, she betrayed your trust and everything that you are supposed to be fighting for,” Sunsprite said, her own voice soft in turn, as though she were breaking bad news to a child. “And yet, you trust her when she says that she has changed since then?”
“She has changed,” Ruby insisted. “She hasn’t made a choice like that again.”
“Has she been faced with one on such a scale?”
“Well, there was this monster who she could have let out of his cell to save me, but she didn’t.”
“And yet here you are,” Vesper observed. “Not dead.”
“Sunset… saved me anyway,” Ruby explained.
“Hmm,” Vesper murmured. “As glad as we are that you remain alive - and as curious as I am to hear more of this monster at a later time - has Sunset ever faced a scenario without such a happy option open to her?”
“No, but I’m sure that she…” Ruby trailed off. “What are you saying?”
Sunsprite did not reply. Not for a little while. She just knelt in front of Ruby, looking into Ruby’s eyes. She reached up, and brushed a little of Ruby’s hair out of her forehead. “You are a Silver-Eyed Warrior,” she said, “but while I had my grandfather to teach me what that meant in my mother’s… absence, you had no one. So why did you want to fight? Was it merely the singing of your blood?”
“I’ve never heard my blood sing,” Ruby replied, a nervous smile crossing her features. “I didn’t know that I was destined for this. I just wanted to help people. To keep the world safe.”
“That is all we strive for, any of us,” Sunsprite said. “Most of us,” she corrected herself. “If you had been there, in Sunset’s position, you would have sacrificed yourself for the sake of the kingdom, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes,” Ruby whispered. “I mean, maybe. I hope so. I think. I… I don’t know.” She looked away. “I’m sorry.”
“I do not ask you to apologise,” Sunsprite whispered, her voice a gentle breath of wind. “I only ask you to explain.”
Ruby closed her eyes. Just thinking about that night, just thinking about what had happened… tears began to well up in her eyes. “During the Battle of Vale… my sister and my friends, they were trapped on the wrong side of the wall, with the grimm. The gates… the gates were shut, because the grimm were too close, and they might have gotten inside the city if they’d opened them to let people through. Twilight… Twilight’s a friend of ours, from Atlas, and she… she wanted to open the gate, and I… I wouldn’t let her. I was willing to fight her over it. I said that we had to put the safety of Vale above the people we cared about. It was Sunset who saved everyone that night, not me! You ask me how I know that she’s changed, that’s how! She went out beyond the wall and joined the fight and defeated all the grimm! She didn’t open the gate or blow them open or threaten anyone to get them to open the gate because she knew she was wrong.”
“Because she knew, or thought, or presumed, that she was a match for those grimm,” Sunsprite suggested. “What would she have done if she had not believed that?”
“I… I don’t know,” Ruby admitted. “But what I do know is that… is that because of what I did, because I kept the gate closed… my sister Yang died. The grimm killed her, because she was trapped with nowhere to run because… because of me.” Ruby scrunched up her face with pain. She really didn’t want to relive that night. She really didn’t want to think about Yang dying at the paws of the grimm, being… her whole body shuddered at the idea. No, it was wracked by a sob as the tears began to flow down her cheek.
She felt a strong arm around her shoulders, rubbing her back as Sunsprite pressed Ruby’s face against her shoulder.
“I killed my sister,” Ruby sobbed. “I killed her because… because…”
“Because it was the right thing to do,” Sunsprite told her. “Because you are a righteous soul, a warrior sprang out of a line of warriors, and you understand that our lives are worthless if not lived with a weapon in hand, wielding that weapon against evil in defence of innocence. You understand that we were made to sacrifice. You understand that duty comes before all else. Before family, before friendship, before love, everything.”
“What if I don’t want it to?” Ruby asked. “What if… what if I’m tired?”
“You cannot turn away from what you know to be right simply because it has taken a hard toll on you,” Sunsprite told her, “and you know that as well as I do, because you are no longer a child.” She kept on rubbing Ruby’s back. “You will see your sister again in the Hall of the Slain, where the brave live forever. The doors will open to admit you and lo! There will you see your mother and your sister and all of our line back to the beginning, and they will bid you take your place amongst them, and you will feast and drink until the end of days. That is what our people believed of old. That is what I believe. Let it comfort you to believe it too, but take heart! You must not doubt yourself. You must not believe the justifications that the likes of Sunset Shimmer pour into your ear to lessen their own guilt. You are so much stronger than she is. May I speak freely?”
Ruby pulled back, a little away from Sunsprite, so that they could look at one another. “I… I guess,” she said.
“It pains me to see you with her,” Sunsprite admitted. “She is not worthy of you.”
Ruby frowned. “Sunset… Sunset’s always looked out for me.”
“By lying to you?” Sunsprite asked. “By betraying you and everything you stand for? Why do you forgive her? Why do you defend her?”
“Because she’s all I have,” Ruby whispered. “Yang’s dead, Jaune and Pyrrha are in Mistral, if I lost Sunset-”
“You would have me,” Sunsprite declared. “Your blood, your kin, your family.”
Someone who understands me; all things that Sunset can never be. Ruby frowned. The thought was treacherous, but not… but not wrong. “Why are you saying all this? What do you want from me?”
“I want understanding,” Sunsprite told her. “You understand why I am concerned about allowing Sunset Shimmer anywhere near Freeport.”
“Sunset wouldn’t do anything to harm your city,” Ruby said.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I’d stop her,” Ruby said, her voice rising just a little. Sunset… Sunset wouldn’t do something that, and if she did… if she did, then she wouldn’t do it over Ruby’s objections… except, if she did, then Ruby… Ruby would…
Ruby would do the right thing.
She hoped.
“I am glad to hear it,” Sunsprite said. “I am glad to know that I can rely on you, my cousin, even though your leader is… not to be trusted. Perhaps…”
“Perhaps what?” Ruby asked.
“Perhaps you might consider staying with us in Freeport, once Sunset and all of her companions depart across the ocean,” Sunsprite said. “You and your father would be most welcome. You would have all the time that our grandfather has left to spend with him, and you could join me in defending Freeport and Estmorland against the dangers that threaten them.”
“I…” Ruby hesitated, because the idea was… well, she’d be lying if she said that it wasn’t tempting. It weighed on her, a little bit, to know that she would be parting from her newly found family so soon after finding them, and it wasn’t as if she’d be quitting the fight altogether from what Sunsprite was telling her. But at the same time, she could not accept it. “No,” she said. “If you know about Salem, then you know how important it is that we fight her-”
“Can’t Sunset do that?” Sunsprite asked.
“What if she can’t?” Ruby replied. “It’s best that we do it together. It’s not that I don’t want to stay,” she added quickly. “But… I have so much to do, and…” And I do want to see Jaune and Pyrrha again, if we can.
“I see,” Sunsprite murmured. “I understand your choice, and it is a noble one, but I beg you, do not refuse so rashly. Much may happen between now and the moment when you must make your decision.” She stood up. “For now, I am glad that you are not like Sunset. I was worried that, for all our kinship, you did not understand the value of our lives, or what little worth they are when weighed against the whole.”
“I think she understands very well what matters in life,” Vesper declared, “but now, Captain, I beg of you to give us leave. I would have a few words with Ruby Rose myself, if you will.”
Sunsprite looked at her. “To what end?”
“So that I may report to the Queen,” Vesper replied, her voice silky and smooth, “and join my voice of approval to your own.”
Sunsprite hesitated for a moment. She looked almost as though she might scowl at what she had just heard, but she did not, or at least not quite. She glanced at Ruby. “You did your duty,” she said. “You will remember that, as your sorrow fades.” Her cloak of sunshine yellow whirled around her as she turned away and walked towards the main part of the camp.
Ruby glanced at Vesper. “Why do you do it?” she asked quietly. “Why do you pretend? Why not just tell her the truth?”
“The more people know a secret, the harder it is to keep,” Vesper replied. “As you are finding out.”
Ruby winced at that uncomfortable truth. “But why does your secret need to be kept?”
“Because people will say things to a common soldier that they would not say in front of their sovereign,” Vesper explained. “Things that they fear I might not want to hear. Things I might not want to hear, but that does not make it unimportant for me to hear them. Sometimes, the most important counsel I receive comes tripping from the mouths of my Rangers, or the clans who only reluctantly acknowledge my authority over them.” She threw off her hood and pulled down her mask, revealing that she was Sunset Shimmer, with Sunset’s face and Sunset’s hair and Sunset’s eyes. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Ruby Rose. Sunset Shimmer, Queen of Freeport and Estmorland, at your service and your family’s.”
Ruby blinked. Sunset – her Sunset – had told her about this, but to actually see it, to see the familiar face staring at her from out of another person’s soul… it was awe-inspiring... and a little terrifying. “Can… can I ask you something?”
Vesper smiled. “You can ask me anything you like.”
“How is it that nobody has ever wondered about the fact that there were two Sunsets walking around?” Ruby asked. “How come nobody ever stopped our Sunset over being… well, being you?”
Vesper’s smile became something more like a smirk, of the sort that Ruby had seen on Sunset’s face many times. “I was… very good at covering my tracks,” she said, whatever that meant. She paused. “I am... sorry that Sunsprite had to put you through all of that. Bringing up the memory of your sister, it… it can’t have been easy for you.”
“No,” Ruby whispered. “No, it wasn’t.”
“I did not do it to cause you pain,” Vesper assured her. “I did it because… because I have an idea of what kind of people Sunset and the rest of her companions are, and - your own father excepted - I do not like them. The only one I did not know was you. I hoped – as Sunsprite hoped, and as you are proving – that you were different from the others.”
“I think you’re worrying too much about them,” Ruby said.
“It is the duty of a sovereign to worry,” Vesper said. “In all of Remnant, there is to be no higher good than the good of Freeport. I would do anything to ensure the survival of my city and my people. You understand that, don’t you? Just as you understand why, that being the case, Sunset concerns me.”
“Yes,” Ruby admitted. “But… by the time she leaves, Sunset will have proven to you that there was never anything to worry about.”
“I hope so,” Vesper whispered. “Tell me something, Ruby, how does this end?”
“Huh?” Ruby asked. “I… I don’t understand?”
“How will you defeat Salem?” Vesper asked. “What is the end of all this fighting, all this struggle? You go to Anima to fight against Salem, and then what? Where does it end, Ruby?”
“When does the shepherd’s watch end?” Ruby demanded, her voice acquiring an edge of sharpness. “When do they get to say that there are no more wolves? They don’t, and we don’t get to say that either. It doesn’t end, it just… we have to fight, until… until someone else can take up the fight in our place, until we can’t fight anymore. We can’t defeat Salem, but that doesn’t mean that we have to let her have her way.”
“No,” Vesper agreed. “No, I would never suggest such a thing.” She fell silent for a moment, drumming her fingers on her knee. “I do not have silver eyes,” she said. “I was not born to lead the life of a warrior. Yet, this is my land, and these are my people-”
“Whether they want you or not?” Ruby couldn’t help but ask.
Vesper paused, a smirk crossing her face. “Let me guess what the Frost Mountain Clan have been saying about me: that I’m taking away their freedom, that I’m putting them in cages, that I’m destroying their way of life.”
Ruby said nothing. She regretted having mentioned it at all. She didn’t want to get Yona, or her uncle, or any of their generous hosts into trouble.
Vesper chuckled. “Don’t be fooled by their geniality, Ruby; these people can be as vicious as the grimm when they have need to be. Where do you think that finely worked gold comes from, with which they so proudly adorn themselves? Do you think they made it all in their portable forges, from nuggets panned from the rivers? Do you think it all comes from the hoards of dragons slain long ago?” She shook her head. “The Fall Forest Clan is more overt in its brutality, but the Frost Mountain, the Summer Fire, all the clans can be cruel to those outside their boundaries. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the hospitality with which you were received is indicative of their nature. This is a hard land, filled with hard people in need of the firm hand of a parent upon them to make them behave themselves.” Vesper got to her feet. “I thank you, or rather, I should thank your companions, for bringing me this news of Salem, or rather, for breaking it to me. It… vindicates me, you might say. When I came here, with a few trusted companions, I confess I thought of little but my own advancement, of how, here in the wilds, I had a chance to make something of myself by making something of others. When I founded Freeport, I made myself queen because it was clear to me that these people would never get anywhere without good, firm leadership to pull them up by the bootstraps. But now… the world is so much darker than I had believed, and so much more perilous, and it makes my work seem all the more urgent. Do you understand what I’m saying, Ruby?”
“I think so,” Ruby murmured. “You’re saying you want to make this land strong enough to stand up to Salem?”
“I want to save these people,” Vesper declared. “They may not like me, they may not agree with what I’m doing, but… but there is good strength in these folk, as there is in this land, and it would be a terrible shame if all these querulous, quarrelsome clans and proud steadings were destroyed, don’t you agree?”
Ruby nodded, thinking of Yona and her family. “Everyone deserves to survive, no matter where they come from.”
“But some are born with greater chance of survival than others,” Vesper mused. “Atlas has the majestic fleet, and the commanding general is aided in his duties by General Winter. Mistral has its high walls and its heroes; Vacuo has its harsh surrounds; Vale has the might of Beacon.”
“It did,” Ruby murmured. “Until recently.”
Vesper frowned. “Of course,” she agreed. “Forgive me. My point is that every kingdom has – or had – some means of defending itself and something in which to place its hope. These eastern wilds, the lands out of which I am making a realm, have only me. I am making an army; I am trying to make a nation. And if I am given time, then I will make both, a nation strong enough to stand against the power of Salem, but if I fail… if I am not given that time… then I fear that all who dwell beyond the mountains will be swept away.” Her lips twitched. “Does this seem… arrogant?”
“No,” Ruby said, because she was used to arrogance from Sunset Shimmers. “It sounds like a lot to take on.”
Vesper nodded. “When I was a child,” she said, turning her back on Ruby, “I was on an airship flying from Mantle to Canterlot. We were caught in a sudden storm, a storm like nothing that anyone had ever seen before: strange eldritch lights surrounded us, purple and green and blue against which the lightning that struck the airship seemed as black as night. The airship was struck by the lightning once, twice, so many times; everything started to fail: the lights went out, we could hear the alarms screaming, and then the passengers were screaming too. The airship crashed,” Vesper added. “I was… the only survivor. And since that day, I knew that I was… chosen for something great, something important. I was destined to do something that mattered. I was saved for a purpose, and that purpose… I’ve found that purpose here, in Estmorland.” She turned back towards Ruby. “I sense that about you too, Ruby; you are meant for something great, something greater than to dog the heels of my… somewhat insalubrious doppelgänger. Please, give some thought to what Sunsprite has said; you could do great things in Freeport. You would be invaluable in what I’m trying to achieve here: a safe haven for humanity, a power to bind this scattered land together for the protection of all who dwell within its boundaries.”
“I understand what you’re trying to do,” Ruby said, “and I wish you well in it, but-”
She was cut off by the winding of a horn, a long, low blast echoing across the night sky.
Vesper pulled her mask up above her face. “One blast,” she said. “That means Rangers-”
A second blast, just as long, was sounded by the horn that wound upon the hilltop.
Vesper threw her hood back over her head, all traces of Sunset Shimmer disappearing from view. “Two blasts,” she said. “We’re under attack!”
Ruby leapt to her feet, her hands reaching for Crescent Rose. “By who?”
“Two blasts is for brigands,” Vesper said, as a third blast of the horn struck the stars above.
“And three blasts?” Ruby asked.
Vesper’s green eyes gleamed in the darkness as she looked at Ruby. “Grimm.”