The Moral High Ground
“Sunset!” Rainbow snapped. “What the hell are you doing?”
“What you should have done when you found that Adam was going to be here,” Sunset growled. Alone, or nearly alone. Vulnerable.
She might never get a chance like this again: to take him on, on ground of her own choosing, away from Ruby, away from Blake, somewhere he couldn’t hurt the ones she cared about. Somewhere she could kill him and exorcise the menace of the red sword from her dreams once and for all.
“I had this handled!” Rainbow yelled. “I got Fluttershy back! He let Fluttershy go, don’t you get that?!”
“I’ve gotten everything I need to,” Sunset muttered. And everything I need is right here.
Adam drew his sword, that damned red sword like a tongue dipped in blood. “Is this the honour of a huntress?”
“This is the honour of 'you will never lay a hand upon anyone I care about again,' and if that requires me to sully my ‘honour’ then so be it!” Sunset yelled. Let honour go hang. It might as well hang from a noose as hang in the closet like a garment to be worn at high class parties, which is all that it is good for else. What is honour, that we should prize it so above all other things, above life and health and happiness? Can honour stitch a wound, can honour fend off a determined foe, can honour rebuff the fury of the grimm? No, no, and no again!
Honour did not save Ruby from Adam’s sword. Honour did not prevent him from stabbing me through the gut and through the armour too. Honour has not brought about Pyrrha’s many splendid victories, and it will not save her life if Cinder has her way.
Cinder will kill Pyrrha if she can, but no doubt it will comfort her mother to know that she died honourably. Adam will kill Rainbow Dash and Blake, but nevertheless, Rainbow would treat him with honour until the moment of her passing comes, because Pinkie’s tears will be dried so well with the handkerchief of Rainbow’s honour?!
The graves are full of honourable men; therefore, let me keep my friends amongst the living by discarding it like trash. If I must soil myself worse than a farmyard dog, then let me do so, so long as they live.
Her ace in the hole might feel a little differently, but she wouldn’t refuse to join the battle for mere honour’s sake, once it was begun.
“I will give you the honour of my weapons,” Sunset informed him. “That is as much as you deserve from me.”
“Everyone just calm down for a second!” Rainbow yelled. “Sunset, how did you-?”
“Find out?” Sunset asked. “Well-”
“Sunset Shimmer?”
Sunset and Pyrrha were still at the window, looking out across the city of the dead, able to see anyone approaching the house from the front. They were just about to start training Sunset’s semblance – although they hadn’t actually gotten so far as for Pyrrha to explain how, precisely, she intended to do that – when they were interrupted by the voice of Midnight, that mingling of Twilight’s voice with a tone so mechanical it had to be done on purpose.
Sunset looked away from Pyrrha and towards the android – or the VI in an android’s body – standing in the doorway of the bedroom. “Yes?”
Midnight stood in the doorway for a moment, silent save for the whirring sound as her head shifted a little to the left, and then a little to the right. “Rainbow Dash is gone,” she declared.
“'Gone'?” Pyrrha repeated. “What do you mean she’s gone?”
“Rainbow Dash has left the area.”
“What?!” Sunset cried, louder than she maybe should have, but she was shocked beyond her own ability to keep it down. She took a step towards the android, her ears flattening atop her head. “Where? And why?”
“I do not know where, although I can track her scroll easily if you require,” Midnight said. “I believe she has gone to rescue Fluttershy.”
“Alone?” Pyrrha asked. “That’s-”
“Hazardous,” Midnight said softly. “She is not certain she will return.”
Sunset’s brow furrowed. Her chest heaved up and down. “Explain.”
“Before she left, Rainbow told me that in two hours from her departure, if she remains absent, I am to notify Ciel Soleil that she is in command of Team Rosepetal, that Rainbow Dash is missing in action, and that no attempt is to be made to recover her. That was ten minutes ago.”
“Oh, gods,” Pyrrha murmured.
Alone? She went off alone? Of all the stupid, irresponsible- “You’re not supposed to notify Ciel for another hour and fifty minutes,” Sunset pointed out. “So why are you telling us now?”
“And why did you wait ten minutes?” Pyrrha demanded.
“I am telling you because I do not want Rainbow Dash to die,” Midnight said. “I waited because I did not want you to stop her before she had the chance to save Fluttershy.”
“Midnight,” Pyrrha hissed reproachfully. “Because of your delay, Rainbow could be in grave danger.”
“And if I had not delayed, Fluttershy would have remained in danger,” Midnight pointed out.
“Why us?” Sunset asked. “Why tell us and not Ciel?”
“Ciel Soleil would report Rainbow’s actions as a disciplinary infraction,” Midnight explained. “But you have a history of reckless behaviour, so my hope is that you will not judge Rainbow Dash for her actions or punish her for them.”
“Let’s just say that Midnight was worried about you,” Sunset said.
She took a step forwards. The powerful magelight that she had cast in the air above them shone as bright as day, albeit a rather green day, illuminating the bird faunus with the katanas – and Adam.
It was on Adam that Sunset’s eyes were fixed. Adam Taurus with his sword drawn, Adam Taurus who had given her a remembrance of his esteem the last time they met, Adam Taurus who had injured Ruby. Adam Taurus who had just declared his intent to take Blake back, to death or to horrors so great that she would beg for death.
That would not happen. He would not harm Blake, he would not harm Ruby, he would not harm any of them, not while Sunset had anything to say about it.
Sunset felt her scar, the scar that Adam had given her with his sword, twinge in pain. She felt the anxiety rise up within her throat like bile, leaving a sourness that no amount of swallowing could remove. She felt her breathing deepen.
Three times now, she had faced him: at the docks, outside the bookshop, and on the train. Three times, she had faced him, and three times, he had bested her.
She very much wanted to make this the last time that would pay for all before it. She wanted to bury him under the stones that she had ripped from the nearby buildings – the structures were beginning to rot; it was easy to tear the bricks and mortar apart in discrete chunks – she wanted to tear the road apart and drop him down into the undercity below from such a height that his aura would not protect him. She wanted to unload all the power in her command at him.
And she would do it too.
“Clear out of here, both of you,” she snapped at Rainbow and Fluttershy. “I’ve got a score to settle.”
“Sunset-” Fluttershy began.
“Go, Fluttershy,” Adam growled, twirling his sword in his hand. “Since Sunset has come all the way here to fight with me, I have no intention of sending her away unsatisfied.” He grinned. “Although whether or not I send you away alive is something else altogether!”
Sunset bared her teeth, her tale swishing from side. Her ears could not be pressed any further down against the top of her head. Arrogant little- “Okay then, here it comes!”
“Stop!” commanded Cinder, her voice cutting through the darkness, preceding her coming like a herald preceding the arrival of a queen. She swept into the light, and Sunset almost thought the green glow suited her, although she would have been hard put to explain why.
Cinder looked Sunset in the eye, a grin pricking at the corners of her mouth. “Sunset.”
Sunset took a deep breath. She had a strange and rather uncomfortable feeling that Cinder had just caught her being naughty. Moreover, she had caught Sunset showing a rather ugly side of herself, uglier than Sunset had shown at any point when they were at Beacon together. Yes, Sunset had done some immoral things there, but Cinder had encouraged half of those, so it didn’t really count, whereas this was Sunset showing a shadowy side of her completely unprompted. Plus, as stupid as it might sound, Sunset had managed to make her vengeance against Bon Bon and Cardin look kind of cool, but there wasn’t much that was cool about interrupting a prisoner release to try and murder somebody who terrified you.
It was kind of absurd to worry that the person who was serving the Queen of the Grimm had caught you crossing a line, but Sunset did worry nevertheless, even if she couldn’t have said why. She attempted to adopt a more urbane tone in an effort to recover a little lost dignity. “Cinder.”
“I would ask just what is going on here,” Cinder said. She smiled. “But whatever it is, I am glad it gave us a chance to see one another again. Did you miss me?”
“I miss the days I thought you were on my side,” Sunset replied.
Cinder pouted. “Sunset, please, I’ve always been on your side. I’m more on your side than you are.”
“That’s… debatable, to say the least,” Sunset murmured. “But I’m… I’m very glad to see you too.”
That was a lie, and a rather barefaced one at that, but it was better than admitting that she wished Cinder hadn’t seen her like this. That, apart from anything else, would be an admission that she had done something wrong.
Cinder chuckled. The smile remained upon her face as she looked around the scene, taking in the tableaux of figures where they stood.
“I appear to have lost one of my prisoners,” she observed. “Adam, I would ask you what’s going on, but I already know that you took Fluttershy out of her confinement and brought her here. What I don’t know is why you would do such a thing without my authorisation?”
“Because it felt like the right thing to do,” Adam said tartly.
“'The right thing to do'?” Cinder repeated incredulously. “'The right thing to do'? And since when has Adam Taurus cared about doing the right thing in regards to a human?”
“You would have me do the right thing by you, would you not?” Adam demanded. “I will cut down any enemies who stand in our way, but that girl? She is not my enemy.”
“Are not all humans your enemies?”
“Are you my enemy?” Adam asked. “No. Then I decide who is my enemy and who is not. Not you, not the High Leader, none but myself! My will is yet in my own keeping.”
“Does not my aid-?”
“Does this girl really pose such a threat to our plans?” Adam snapped. “Is she so important? If not, then this is nothing but petulant whining and does not become you.”
Cinder’s eyes narrowed, and for a moment, Sunset thought that she would attack him. However, she merely sighed. “We will discuss this further another time, a time when we were not entertaining company,” she muttered. The smile returned to her face, not quite reaching towards her eyes, as she faced Sunset once again. “Dare I assume what happened next: Adam summoned Rainbow Dash to collect her friend, you found out about it somehow, and decided that you would break the truce in an attempt to take your revenge?”
“Technically, there was never an official truce to break,” Sunset replied defensively. “But… yes, that’s about the size of it.”
Cinder’s smile widened. “Ah, Sunset, Sunset, Sunset. I would ask what I’m going to do with you, but the larger question, of course, is… what are we going to do now?”
“I hope it goes without saying that we’re not going to give Fluttershy back,” Sunset said.
“No, I wouldn’t expect you to,” Cinder said. “But equally, as much as I sympathise with your desire to kill Adam at the moment, I’m afraid I can’t allow that. I don’t want to fight you, Sunset. The time is not yet come for us. But if you insist upon pursuing this vendetta here tonight, then it will be me you deal with, not Adam alone.”
Sunset licked her lips. This… well, this rather changed things, didn’t it? Regardless of whether or not she wanted to fight Cinder – which she didn’t, particularly – facing her and Adam was obviously quite a different proposition than facing Adam alone.
“So… what then?” she asked. “You say that you don’t want to fight me, so what do you propose instead?”
“That we treat this as it was intended,” Cinder declared, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. “As a prisoner exchange… except for the obvious lack of any exchange involved. I hope you can appreciate the irony that I am releasing one of my prisoners and allowing you to depart unmolested, even though you have broken a truce, while you have both broken the truce and offered me nothing in exchange for my generosity… and yet somehow, I am the villain of this tale?”
“You brought us here with a knife to Fluttershy’s throat,” Rainbow growled.
“Do you hear a gnat buzzing, Sunset?” Cinder asked. “I thought I heard something, but I might have been mistaken.”
Sunset snorted. She released the magic that she had been holding ready all this time, letting the green spears dissipate into the empty air. She held out her hands on either side of her and bowed to Cinder as she had bowed to Lady Nikos in Mistral. “I thank you, humbly, for your generosity,” she said. “Truly, a commoner may be as honourable as a lord.” And more than some, considering your stepsister. “And a faunus may be as honourable as either of them,” she added, and as she spoke, she hurled Soteria across the green-lit space that separated them, the black sword landing perfectly – a touch of telekinesis helped – at Cinder’s feet.
She had behaved badly tonight, and Cinder had caught her in her misbehaviour, but hopefully, she could redeem herself in Cinder’s eyes with a display of nobility now.
Cinder looked down at the venerable blade, at the sword of honour, at the sword that her stepsister Phoebe would have killed to possess. Her amber eyes widened, and Sunset fancied that she saw the flash of desire there. She looked again at Sunset. “What is this?”
“A ransom,” Sunset said.
“I didn’t ask for one,” Cinder pointed out.
“And yet, I offer it to you nonetheless,” Sunset replied.
“You offer me Soteria for one Atlesian girl?” Cinder asked. “The sword of Achates Kommenos, the sword that was carried for the Emperor, the sword that was wielded in combat with the Last King, and you offer it to me to buy the life of… of her?” She gestured at Fluttershy. “What is she to you?”
“Worth saving,” Sunset said. “Like you.”
Cinder scoffed. “I never took you for a sentimental fool, Sunset.”
“In that, it seems, we are alike,” Sunset suggested.
Cinder shook her head. “Keep your sword,” she said. “You will have need of it in the battles to come.” She smiled. “For you will be my enemy in the morning.”
“You are still my enemy tonight,” Sunset said. “But even enemies can show respect for one another.”
“Indeed,” Cinder acknowledged. “Some by giving and others by refusing gifts; keep your sword. I insist upon it. I know you would not want to insult me by pressing remuneration into my hands against my will.”
Sunset hesitated for a moment. “I am fond of that sword.”
“And so you should be; it is a fine sword,” Cinder said, kicking it a few feet in Sunset’s direction. “And it… suits you, I must say.”
“Black would go well with your aesthetic.”
“Perhaps,” Cinder allowed. “But there are… disadvantages to a metal blade. Someone who didn’t know you like I do might even suspect you were trying to set me up to fail with such a gift. But I know you’d never do that to me, and so,” Cinder bowed to Sunset in turn, “I thank you but decline your generous offer, and now, as glad as I am to see you once more, I fear that we must bid you goodnight, and good fortune… you’ll need it, in this place.”
Sunset snorted. “We’ll see about that.”
Cinder shrugged, but the smile on her face remained as she straightened her back and gestured for Adam and the other faunus to move off. Swiftly, they did so, sloughing off into the dark until only Cinder remained within the light.
She stayed a moment longer, looking at Sunset, before she too turned away. She stopped, looking over her shoulder. “Oh, and by the way, Sunset,” she added, “tell Pyrrha to stop skulking about in the shadows like that; it is unworthy of her royal race.” She smirked and looked unutterably smug as she disappeared into the night.
How did she spot her? It shouldn’t have been possible for a human to see that well in the dark, and it wasn’t as though Adam had told her. Maybe the winged faunus had a telepathy semblance. “Show off,” Sunset muttered as she summoned Soteria back into her hand and sheathed it across her back.
“Pyrrha?” Rainbow asked. “Pyrrha’s here?”
“Hello again,” Pyrrha said softly as she stepped into the light which gleamed upon her circlet and her armour.
“Okay,” Sunset said. “I’m going after her, I’ll be back as quick as I can, but if I’m not back by morning, you’re in charge. But then, you’ve read my letter, so you already knew that. And hey, Blake’s already here, so that takes care of that too.”
“In charge of what?” Pyrrha demanded.
“The team,” Sunset said, as though that should have been obvious. It really should have been obvious, in her opinion. “And the mission, don’t let Ciel-”
“'The mission'?” Pyrrha repeated incredulously. “You think the mission can continue with both team leaders missing, or worse? Professor Goodwitch will order us straight back to Beacon, and rightly so.”
“You can’t be suggesting that we just leave Rainbow Dash out there on her own?” Sunset said. “I mean, she’s got her faults, but she doesn’t deserve that.”
“Of course not,” Pyrrha said, and now she sounded as though Sunset was the one who was being myopic. “I’m coming with you, of course.”
“'Of course'?” Sunset snapped. “There’s no ‘of course’ about it; we can’t both sneak out!”
“Why in Remnant not?”
“Because it’s probably dangerous!”
“And I am a huntress,” Pyrrha reminded her. “And your friend.”
“I’m your friend too, and as your friend, I would not see you perish in this dismal place.”
“Then you will have to protect me,” Pyrrha said. “And in so doing, ensure your own survival also.”
Sunset’s eyes narrowed. “I suppose you think that’s very clever, don’t you?”
A smile tugged at the corners of Pyrrha’s mouth. “No more than usual.”
“It turns out that Pyrrha can be very stubborn when she wants to be,” Sunset said. She glanced towards the aforementioned Pyrrha. “I hope you don’t mind about the sword-”
Pyrrha held up one hand to forestall any further explanation. “A life saved for the cost of a sword? It would have been cheap at the price.” She walked the rest of the way towards them. “Good evening, Fluttershy. I suppose it’s really a little late to be evening, but saying 'goodnight' as a greeting doesn’t really feel right, does it?”
Fluttershy sniffed. “Hello, Pyrrha,” she murmured. She took a deep breath. “Sunset, how could you? Adam is-”
“I know very well what Adam Taurus is,” Sunset said, cutting her off. “I know what he is better than you, I dare say. I don’t know why he let you go, and I will go so far as to confess that I didn’t think he had it in him, but the fact that he managed to muster up some humanity under your influence doesn’t change the fact that he has almost killed Ruby, Twilight, and myself, that he made Blake’s life a living hell and is fixated on her still and anyone connected with her; it does not change the fact that he is dangerous! Next time, there might be no ‘almost’ about it. Next time, he might kill Ruby; next time, he might kill Pyrrha; next time, he might kill Rainbow Dash, as he desires to do! I saw a chance to make sure that didn’t happen, and I took it. And I’d do it again! You can think whatever you like of me for that; I don’t care. I’m not here to be popular.”
“And so you would have killed him?” Fluttershy demanded. “Without cause?”
“I have cause,” Sunset insisted. “He deserves to die.”
“Will you give death to everyone who deserves it?” Fluttershy asked. “And life to all those who deserve that?”
Sunset was silent for a moment. “I have my flaws – I have never claimed otherwise – that you regard this beast so highly… speaks well of your virtues I suppose. But though you blow for a thousand years, you will not put Adam Taurus near my conscience.” Her tail twitched. “Pyrrha, would you mind escorting Fluttershy back to base? Rainbow and I need to have a little talk first.”
“I’ve got a couple of things to say to you as well,” Rainbow muttered.
Pyrrha hesitated for a moment, but seemed eventually to decide it would be best to pretend that she hadn’t heard anything Rainbow Dash had said.When she spoke, it was in a kindly tone: “Of course. Fluttershy, would you like to come with me?”
Fluttershy nodded and gradually released Rainbow Dash from her embrace – and gradually, Rainbow released her too, which might even have been a longer and more drawn-out process, as though she were afraid that Fluttershy would disappear, turn into dust, or be revealed to have never existed at all the moment that Rainbow Dash let her go.
Sunset supposed that she could understand that. In Rainbow’s place, she might have felt the same way.
Pyrrha drew Miló – they hadn’t had any trouble with the grimm going in, but that was no guarantee that they would have none coming out – and held it in sword mode in one hand while she placed her free arm around Fluttershy’s shoulder and held her close as they made their way back towards the house they had made their camp.
Sunset watched them go for but a moment, before she faced squarely up to Rainbow Dash.
“Now,” she said, “do you want to explain what you think you were doing?”
“What I was doing?” squawked Rainbow Dash. “What I was doing? What do you think you were doing?”
“What you should have done, taking out the trash!” Sunset snapped. “I mean… you came here alone? Unarmed? Are you kidding me right now?”
“He said that he was going to let her go,” Rainbow said. “And he did. Don’t talk to me like I walked into some trap and you had to save my butt.”
“No, I just had to remember that this is our enemy we’re talking about!” Sunset hissed. “Adam Taurus called you up, told you to meet him alone and unarmed, and you just did it?”
“Of course not,” Rainbow replied. “Fluttershy told me that it was legit.”
“Oh, Fluttershy told you,” Sunset said, rolling her eyes. “Fluttershy told you. Fluttershy, whom they were holding prisoner, told you, so that’s alright then.”
“Fluttershy wouldn’t lie; if it was a trap, she would have told me so,” Rainbow said. “She wouldn’t put me in danger to save herself.”
“And you didn’t consider that this might be a good chance to take him out?” Sunset demanded.
“Like you, you mean? No, I didn’t think that the moment when he’d decided to do the right thing and release a hostage was the perfect time to try and double-cross and kill him,” Rainbow snarled. “My priority was to get Fluttershy out of this situation safely, and I ought to kick your ass for-”
“Don’t talk to me like I put Fluttershy in danger. I waited until she was in your arms before I made a move,” Sunset spat. “I didn’t force you to stick around; you could have run and left me to it the moment you got Fluttershy like I told you to!”
“He made me a deal, and I took it,” Rainbow declared. “We had an agreement-”
“There are no agreements between monsters and men,” Sunset snarled. “This is Adam Taurus we’re talking about!”
“So why don’t we talk about Cinder Fall instead?!” Rainbow yelled. “Or don’t you want to talk about her because then you’d have to point that mirror back at yourself?! Adam isn’t the only one who tried to kill Twilight; Cinder did that too, but I notice that didn’t stop you from… whatever that was! Yes Cinder, no Cinder, take my sword, why don’t you, Cinder. Yes, I was willing to let Adam walk away, but at least I was going to do it because it was the right thing to do, not because…” She trailed off.
Sunset glared at her. “Say it,” she demanded.
“Not because I’m too close to see him clearly for what he is,” Rainbow muttered.
Sunset snorted. “I see enough,” she muttered. “Cinder isn’t Adam. Cinder… Cinder is capable of honour-”
“So is Adam Taurus, apparently,” Rainbow said.
“Cinder has cause for what she has done.”
“So does Adam; you saw that scar on his face.”
“Why are you defending him?”
“I’m not defending him; I’m showing that there’s nothing special about Cinder except that you want there to be,” Rainbow insisted.
“I will not let you turn this around on me!” Sunset snapped. “I am not the one who went off by myself, unarmed, into what, if it had been a trap, would have been an incredibly obvious trap, telling only a robot where I was going-”
“No, you just followed me.”
“I wasn’t alone; I had Pyrrha!”
“We both know that if Adam had called you offering to let Ruby go, or Pyrrha, then you would have done exactly the same thing that I did!”
“Yes!” Sunset yelled. “Yes, I probably would, and that… that is the most infuriating thing about you. You’re just the same kind of idiot that I am, but you act like you’re better than me! I have flaws, Celestia knows, but I own them. I care about my team more than I care about other people. There. I said it. I care about my friends more than I care about those who are not my friends. I care about Pyrrha more than I care about you; I care about you more than I care about Weiss; I care about Weiss more than I care about some random person plucked off the street. It’s not pretty, and I’m pretty sure that Pyrrha would judge me if she heard me say it out loud, but you get it, don’t you? You know what I’m talking about because you’re the same as I am: team first, friends first, family first; the difference is that I can admit it to myself, but you, you drape yourself in the flag of Atlas and act like you’re perfect. Well, you’re not! You’re an arrogant idiot, just like me!” She paused, running one hand through her fiery hair. “You strut around, the great Rainbow Dash, acting like you’re something else, looking down on me whenever I step a toe out of line, judging me, threatening me, holding your nose around me like the toilet doesn’t smell after you’ve used it.” She put her hands on her hips, as she looked up at the stars and the broken moon. “You are the worst team leader I know, do you realise that?
“You want to know why, I’ll tell you why: because you’re lazy. You’re lazy and incurious, and you rest on your laurels, and you get away with all of it because your rank and closeness to General Ironwood accord you deference from a team many of whom are naturally inclined to give you a free ride anyhow! I work my ears and tail off to be worthy of Team Sapphire. I am not the warrior that Pyrrha is with the sword or the gun, I never will be; I don’t have Ruby’s heart, and I never will. But I work hard, not just in combat class but in every class, and I could say the same about Weiss, or even about Yang. But not you! You coast by on the things that you’re good at, and you let the things you’re bad at slide as though they don’t matter, and you don’t even realise that that isn’t the point. The point is not that plant science might save your life one day; as far as I know, it never will, and it really is a pointless subject; the point is to show that you’re willing to put the effort in regardless.”
Sunset took a deep breath.
“I am not the fighter that you are either. Without my magic, you would kick my ass, I admit that. I will never be the fighter that you are, but you will never be fit for command, not while you take your skills for granted and indulge your weaknesses. You want to lead Atlas someday? Then shape up, because right now, you…”
Sunset sighed and ran her hands through her fiery hair.
“I should have done this a long time ago,” she said. “I should have curbed your tendencies, because I know exactly where they lead. Believe me, General Ironwood’s tolerance of your… attitude will not last forever. He might not realise it yet, but on some level, I promise, he is aware of everything that I have just described to you. But you’re only a first year, and you have so much promise, and you still have time. Well, let me tell you something: eventually, there will come a time when you do not have time, when promise isn’t enough to make up for everything, and when that day comes, General Ironwood is going to choose to devote his attention to someone who deserves it, someone who is willing to do the work, to learn the lessons, to constantly improve themselves, someone-”
“Like Blake?”
“Yes, like Blake, but don’t change the subject and don’t use Blake as an excuse!” Sunset cried. “You need to fix this, not just for your ambitions but for your team, for Ciel, for Penny. You and I… we’ve been given the keys to the kingdom, you do realise that, right? We have been blessed, you and I, in the teams we lead. General Ironwood chose you to lead his best, and while initiation seems random, given that Professor Ozpin picked us to be his sword against Salem, I don’t think it’s too arrogant to say that he chose me to do the same. We’re the chosen ones, Dash, you and me, but we have to earn that choice, every day, in every way.”
Rainbow Dash looked away, a guilty look upon her face, like she’d been caught with one hand in the cookie jar. “You… you do realise that that has nothing to do with anything that happened tonight, right?”
“I know, but I’ve wanted to say it for a really long time,” Sunset replied. “So I suppose I ought to thank you for giving me the opportunity.”
They were both silent for a moment, standing in the darkness, staring at one another.
Then Sunset sniggered, and then the laughter spilled out of both of their mouths.
Rainbow shook her head. “I won’t apologise for what I did tonight,” she insisted. “I did what I had to do.”
“You can believe that, just don’t expect me to agree with you,” Sunset said. “And don’t expect me to apologise either.”
“I never expect you to apologise; you just get defensive about it.”
“Oh, like you never do that,” Sunset said.
“Only when I’m right.”
“Same here.”
Rainbow hesitated for a moment. “Did you mean all that stuff that you said?”
“I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t,” Sunset muttered.
Rainbow looked down. “So what do I do about it?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, there’s no hope for you; you’re not a natural genius like me,” Sunset said. “Look, you just need to actually read a few books; it’s not hard. If Yang Xiao Long can manage it, I’m sure that you can. Just… I tell you what, here’s a good starting exercise to expand your mind: what are we going to tell Professor Goodwitch?”