Sunset launched into just below a sprint, waving her saber high to catch the giant monster's attention.

"COME GET US, YOU BIG PALOOKA!" Missy shouted beside her, keeping pace with barely a flap of her wings.

Sunset felt a mounting trepidation as their distraction seemed to be working, drawing the ten-story centipede's attention.

"First of all, let's get a home field advantage!" Missy declared as she reached into her hat and drew a handful of cards. "Here comes Ghostrick Mansion!"

Sunset could feel the ground shiver as trees near the edge of the clearing began to violently shake and uproot. At the edge of the clearing, a familiar mansion began to force its way up from under the snow. It wasn't full-sized, more like a model of a mansion that was a fifth of the size of anything that a normal human could live in, but it was enough to completely change the feeling of the battlefield, casting a more playful aura through the clearing. The monstrous centipede drew back somewhat at the sudden architectural intrusion, as if unsure what to make of Missy's magic.

"But that's not all!" Missy grinned as she turned over another card in her fingers. "Next, I'm using the magic of Double Summon to normal summon two monsters to the field! Yuki-Onna! Witch! We could use your help!"

Sunset couldn't help but grin as the doors of the mini-mansion burst open and the two adorable monsters in question flew out to join them, each one flanking the two of them on opposite sides.

RMBLMBLMBL! The monster growled and turned its attention away from the group, clearly putting its attention on the mansion. It didn't seem to hesitate to strike at the field spell, moving so fast that Sunset's eye could barely keep up with the strike.

To her shock, however, the monster's attack was stopped just short of its target by the tiny figure of Ghostrick Witch, holding it back with a boom handle to the forehead.

"Don't even try it!" Missy grinned wider. "Witch can turn one monster to defense position every turn!"

With an adorable squeak of effort, Ghostrick Witch batted away the monster, sending it reeling back. The monster seemed off-put enough to curl around itself, pulling into a tight defensive spiral. With a nod of approval, Witch came back to join them again. With the threat dealt with and having reached the far edge of the clearing from the car, they all slid to a stop together, their backs to the mansion and facing the threat before them.

"Now let's see what you've got!" Missy declared, throwing down a pair of cards Sunset could only assume were traps.

Sunset grinned. "Not too often you get to really throw your magic around in an open area like this, huh, Missy?"

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Penn's heart felt like it was going to burst as he sprinted for the smoldering remains of his beloved car. It was moments like this that he was glad for the bone-conduction earpieces Isis gave them so he wouldn't need to yell to be heard.

How on earth is a Queen Knightcrawler HERE? How did it get here? If the portal is where Salem's castle used to be, why would it come all the way out here? Was it guarding the interdimensional portal? Was it WAITING for us? A million questions were running through his mind, but the one on his lips was the only one that mattered for the moment.

Penn resisted the urge to curse under his breath. In the corner of his eye, he saw the giant queen bug curl up defensively in response to something that the girls had done.

"Can you eject it, or something? I don't have time for the socket wrench!" He put one foot up onto the car's underbelly, following the cheap plastic of the fuel lines, spotting the dispersal unit Isis has installed just past the fuel filter. It was hooked to a line that disappeared behind a bolted-in panel.

He slapped his hand against his forehead, but just as he was about to curse whatever gods of cars existed, he spotted something: the edge of the panel had been sheared off. It wasn't big enough to reach in and pull out the canister, though... not yet. He practically ripped off his jacket in his hurry to wrap it around his hand for a makeshift safety glove. He gingerly hopped up onto the top of the overturned vehicle, placing both feet on exposed pieces of the frame, squatted low, and wrapped his now-protected hand around the ragged edge of the metal.

"Daily workout, don't fail me now!" he muttered as he began to pull. He leaned back and pushed with his legs, all the while feeling the sensation of his arms threatening to tear out of their sockets. He could feel the metal beginning to give and bend under his grip, but only by the smallest of margins. "Come... ON! I know you're hurting, Syl, but I NEED... THIS... PIECE!"

Somewhere in his brain, he swore that if he looked down and saw his arms still cartoonishly attached to the panel when he stepped back, he was going to throw Bendy to the mercy of the nearest exorcist.

Just as the strain was about to overtake him, he finally relented, leaning forward again and looking at his progress. He didn't even feel like he had the strength to punch the air when he saw that the panel had bent back several inches, opening just wide enough to get his unwrapped hand inside. He practically threw his jacket aside in his rush to get his hand in, closing around a cylinder about the size of a large soda cup. As he carefully drew it out of its hiding place and ripped off the spliced-in fuel lines, he grinned at the sight of the fine red crystals inside threatening to spill out of the opening. The whole canister was almost uncomfortably warm in his hands despite the snowstorm around them, clearly agitated by all of the rough treatment it had been through in the last few minutes. Good, they were going to need that.

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"Whatever Penn was trying to get from the car, it looks like he got it!" Missy called out, peering with one hand held above her eyes as if to block the sun.

"Good!" Sunset called back, trying her best to stay standing on the top of Ghostrick Dullahan's galloping horse. The giant monster was keeping pace with them as they sprinted in circles around its main body. When she spotted the pulling-back motion that it was about to strike, she pushed off, leaping into the air. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the telltale color of a trap card in Missy's hand as Dullahan was shattered. She didn't get to see the effect, though, as she landed feet-first on the monster's head.

Keeping with her momentum, she dropped down into a slide down its back and ran her saber the entire length of its upper body. As she slid, though, she couldn't help noticing that it wasn't a smooth surface like most insect bodies: it was pitted and covered in holes, some looking like scars from former battles and others like some kind of naturally-occuring perforations. Somehow, it seemed that her saber still couldn't get through its carapace, but it left a nasty-looking streak of red-hot chitin behind her. When the whole thing bucked underneath her, Sunset was flung up into the air. She was certainly out of control, but she didn't feel any panic. True to her expectations, Ghostrick Witch flew up into her line of sight, letting her catch hold of her broomstick. The sheer force of her motion was enough to send her on a full 360-degree trip around the handle before she was left hanging comfortably, and she could feel the shake in her body as it let loose another gut-churning rumble-roar. A few seconds later, the two of them had returned to the earth, Sunset sliding to a stop beside an awestruck-looking Missy. "Because I'm starting to REALLY get tired of keeping this thing distracted!"

Part of Sunset wanted to tell Missy to be careful and not get sloppy... but honestly, she was more interested in seeing what Missy was going to do.

The gigantic centipede was still recovering when Missy spread her wings wide and began to accelerate towards it. It didn't wait to be attacked, opening the remnants of its pincers wide as dark-colored energy began to well up in its mouth, rapidly overflowing and beginning to leak from the sides. As the warning bells in the base of her skull began to ring wildly, Sunset barely had enough time to get her saber up to block as Penn's hastily-shouted warning rang through the clearing.

A flurry of laser-like beams shot from the creature's mouth, raking through the air in seemingly-random patterns. Sunset managed to catch one with her saber, splitting the dark energy into a v-shape around her. Her eyes widened as she spotted more of the beams striking the trees at the clearing's edge, instantly causing them to wither up and shrink down until they were nothing but piles of dry, spongy-looking material. Her heart skipped a beat as she noticed even the saber beginning to dim and flicker under the assault. With a grunt of effort, she twisted her position just enough to completely deflect the beam to her right, then rolled to the left.

As she came to a landing in the snow, she glanced down at her saber. A tiny light near the bottom of the hilt was blinking. It was a warning light that she'd asked Isis to install last time they'd been repairing it, and it meant that the battery was critically low. For a moment, she gawked at the sight. I just charged this thing last night! There's no way it could- She glanced back at the trees, noting how they had shriveled up before crumbling. Was that some kind of DRAINING attack?

"Okay, well... Five-minute warning, I guess," she mumbled as she pushed herself back up to her feet.

Missy, meanwhile, didn't seem to be struggling at all. She was slipping around and between the beams as easily as if they weren't even there. She had a massive grin on her face as she continued to fly closer and closer, cards in hand. Her smile faltered slightly as the monster's mandibles appeared to completely regenerate from the jagged stumps, but she didn't falter in her approach. She looked like a mosquito in the face of a creature ten stories tall, but that size difference let her easily slip between the blade-like pincers, accelerating up and over its head. With a wave of her arm, she threw a card ahead of her, where it began to glow brightly. Missy pushed her speed just a little harder, catching up to the glowing ball of light just in time to twist in the air, flipping head over heels and bringing the back of her foot firmly down onto it.

The little ball of light took off as if it had been launched from a cannon, speeding towards its target and growing larger and larger in size as it went. The apparent problem, of course... was that it seemed to be headed towards Sunset.

"Hey... Sunset!" Penn panted as he slid to a stop beside her. "I got it! I got the-"

Sunset reached over and firmly panted her hand on Penn's head, pushing him down. The crackling ball of energy shot over their heads with blistering speed, disappearing into the trees.

"You're welcome." Sunset grinned as the ball of light began to bounce from trunk to trunk, ricocheting until it was completely out of sight.

"Dangit, I told her to warn me before she tries to make a bank shot off my skull..." Penn muttered as he straightened back into a standing position.

"In her defense, I kinda get the impression that one's still new to her." Sunset shrugged before turning her attention back to Missy and the monster.

Missy seemed unfazed by her miss, but the centipede beginning to rush up towards her was a greater problem. She took off in a vertical climb, but Sunset could see that she was losing the race. Another burst of the draining beams erupted from the creature's mouth, this time evenly spaced and all closing in on Missy.

Penn glanced back up, where they could see that the gap between the two had shrunk enough for the beams to singe at the edges of her dress. Feeling a trickle of doubt, Sunset focused on the bond she could feel with the little spirit.

Sunset glanced back down at the base of the monster's body, which was arching further and further upwards to keep up with Missy.

Without warning, the ball of light came tearing back out through the trees, firmly striking Penn in the back of the head. As he performed an involuntary front flip that ended with him face-first in the snow, the deflection set the projectile on the perfect angle to rocket upwards to its original target. With screaming speed, the ball of light collided with the monster's side. The beam attack was reflexively cut off as it's concentration shattered. Sunset's eyes widened as she realized what Missy's goal had been the entire time: she was aiming to get the thing off-balance. She'd been forced to fly high enough to barely be a speck in the sky, Sunset could only guess something close to twenty stories high, but now the creature was toppling like a felled tree.

Even at this distance, Sunset could see that the glowing ball of light had dispelled to reveal a monster, and her gut told her that the silhouette was that of Ghostrick Stein. Even as Missy and Stein both plummeted back towards the ground, Sunset was more captivated by the toppling titan as it crashed down into the trees with enough force to shake the ground. Sunset could see several places in its body that it had been impaled on the trees.

In a puff of smoke, Stein vanished, replaced by the forms of Jackfrost and Skeleton. Even those two, however, soon vanished again, dissolving into a cloud of sparkling lights. Just beneath them, what looked like a miniature spiral galaxy manifested, and the ethereal remains of Jackfrost and Skeleton were pulled inside. Even as Sunset leaned down to offer Penn a hand, she couldn't tear her eyes away from the spectacle.

As Missy reached the spiral, she kicked into it foot-first, and an explosion of light forced Sunset to blink. In the time between her eyes closing and opening again, Alucard had appeared beside Missy, and the two of them crashed heel-first into the monster's underbelly, driving it even further onto the trees that had ripped through its body.

Sunset couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy as the creature let out another roar of pain.

"Is this... is this okay?" Sunset turned to look at Penn. He was back up on his feet, but the last of the impact's effects seemed to be lingering as he swayed back and forth unsteadily.

"Knightcrawlers don't live long enough to become queens by being stupid..." he mumbled. "If she gets the point that she's outmatched, she'll retreat."

"But... what if we kill her before-" Sunset paused as Penn's words sunk in. "Please don't tell me that's 'nightcrawlers' with a k on the front."

"The author was lousy at naming things, I don't like it either..." Penn grumbled. "But don't worry, it'll take more than that to kill one of Baalchion's elites." He raised his hand, showing Sunset a moderate-sized metal cylinder. "THIS, on the other hand, should be just enough to send it running."

Sunset didn't even get a chance to ask him what was in it before he tilted it for her to see through the opening.

Sunset stared him straight in the eye, channeling every ounce of barely-contained incredulity into her gaze.

Penn regarded the canister with a level of surprise Sunset KNEW was performative. "It IS?"

Sunset grabbed the canister from his hands, giving him a scowl. "When this is over, we NEED to have a talk about you keeping things in the car that could blow us all to smithereens!"

As Missy and Alucard floated back to rejoin them, Sunset could tell that this was an argument that would need to be sorted out later.

There was a shudder as the creature began to move again, rocking back and forth in an attempt to get off of its back.

Missy slapped a palm to her forehead in frustration, slowly sliding it down her face. "It's stabbed in, like, fifty places, how is it not DEAD?"

Penn ignored her, aside from giving her a dirty look that Sunset could only guess was the result of the earlier skull-based bank shot. "If we use THIS, we can either use it as a bomb to deal some permanent damage or poison it enough to send it scrambling back home to recover."

It was Missy's turn to nearly have her eyes bug out of her head at the sight of Penn's dust reserve. Just as she was about to take her own turn to ask where it had come from, Penn reached up and pressed a finger to her lips.

"And this thing is GOING to be a magnet for the knightcrawlers once it gets agitated enough, just like the car's engine, so we better hurry up and decide what we wanna do."

"Well... if we blow it up, we might just kill it..." Sunset muttered. "Is this something that's okay to kill?"

Penn's tight-lipped lack of a response was all that she needed to know that the "monster" was probably more intelligent than it was showing for the moment.

"Then this SHOULD be enough... Hopefully. Depends on how determined it is. We just need to get it to eat this, then it's a matter of time."

"Okay... what are we going to do, wrap it in bacon and peanut butter?" Missy raised one eyebrow.

"Well, that or we could pull an 'MIB.'" Penn muttered. "But I'd REALLY like to avoid that..."

Sunset could see that it had nearly righted itself, tearing at least a dozen trees out of the ground in the process.

"Wait... what if Missy's on to something?" Sunset asked. "It tried to eat the grimm and the engine, what if we just... let it have the canister?"

"It tried to eat the grimm, but it was attacking the car. Ripped her hot, fiery, beating heart out," Penn corrected. "To get it to eat this thing rather than attack it, we'd have to package it with something dark enough to seem like it could be food." He looked back, watching it pulling trees out of its midsection. "If it's hungry enough to be trying to eat grimm, it must have been staked out here for a while, maybe even hibernating..." he shook his head, physically changing his train of thought. "Doesn't matter. That works for us." He looked up at Missy for a moment, then Alucard, then down at his own hands wrapped around the canister. "But the only thing it might be interested in eating is-"

"What about those holes on its back?" Sunset interjected. "When I was sliding down its back, there were these big openings, like breathing holes!"

"Breathing holes?" Penn's eyes widened, and Sunset felt her hopes rise when she caught the familiar gleam of inspiration behind them. She knew what that meant: the pieces had fallen into place in his brain. "That's IT! Sunset, you're a genius!" He shoved the canister into her hands before looping an arm around each of the girls' shoulders to pull them into a huddle.

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The winds were howling at record speeds, especially this high off of the ground. From time to time, she needed to execute a rolling maneuver just to prevent the snow and ice from gathering on her body heavily enough to cause issues.

Penny Polendina had no dislike for the snow. In fact, she loved the snow. Snowfall was like seeing the whole world again for the first time: a kind of freshness that, while fleeting, would come back again and again with every precipitation. The fact that her body was unaffected by the cold only served to make her even more able to enjoy the winter than most. However, this storm had been going on for quite some time. It was a complete whiteout, meaning that she couldn't even enjoy the sight of all the snow on the landscape, and it meant that everyone she knew was more or less trapped indoors.

Thankfully, the blinding ice being blown about wasn't a problem for her to navigate, given her infallible "sense of direction" and the coordinates Professor Ozpin had given her.

Penny couldn't help but give a happy shiver of excitement as she remembered the details of her mission. She was going to go reunite with Sunset Shimmer, a friend she had not seen in quite a while, AND meet potential NEW friends who comprised the rest of Team SEIG. On top of all that, she had been authorized to... show off a little and fly both them and their interdimensional vehicle back to Beacon Academy, which she was almost certain would make a positive first impression.

Penny nearly drew up short at the unfamiliar sound. It was a combination of subsonic and low-range auditory noise at a volume that no living creature on record other than deep-sea grimm were able to emit... but there was no possible way that it had been caused by the storm, either. It matched no natural phenomena on record.

"General, did you hear that?" he asked, knowing her words were being transmitted back to their operations center.

"I'm afraid I did, even if most of it was below human hearing range. We're trying to figure out what could have caused it here, but I doubt it's good. Be ready for anything, Penny."

The monsters encroaching on their world had not left the crater where Evernight Castle once stood. There had been little evidence of them expanding other than strikes on nearby towns and cities, which had been explained away as grimm attacks. The presence of deep-sea grimm or an atmospheric pressure differential capable of creating such a sound were both impossible, but... there was something else that wasn't.

"General Ironwood, the creatures at Evernight Crater are protecting a portal between worlds... have we considered that it may not be the only portal that they have chosen to keep close to?"

Without being asked, Penny triangulated the source of the noise, confirming that it was coming from the place where her potential new friends where expected to land. "Perhaps, but it is POSSIBLE that they could have slipped through our monitoring..." Penny focused more of her energy to the thrusters in her boots, pushing herself harder into the wind. "And I have eliminated any other sources that I can think of as impossible." On her back, the panel on her backpack holding her weapons slid open, ready to deploy at a moment's notice.

"Penny, we haven't outfitted you with fire or lightning dust capacities, yet. If this comes to a confrontation-

"I'm combat ready, sir, and these individuals have crucial information about our new foes! I will not fail in my mission."

As she closed in on her destination, Penny caught sight of something else that perplexed her. Her scans were registering a dead zone straight ahead: a column of much calmer air where the storm seemed to abate. It seemed akin to the "eye" of the storm, but satellite readings didn't show her as being anywhere near the center of the blizzard. Once she'd braced herself to push through the outer wall of the calm, she drove in headfirst, as ready for anything as she could possibly be.

Penny Polendina drew up short, however, when she caught sight of what was happening inside the calm.

The first thing to catch her sight (and rightfully so) was the titan-sized arthropod that had dove into and out of the ground like a continental running stitch. The second was the fact that Sunset Shimmer was running along its back, sprinting herself ragged in order to keep pace with the monster's movement. A smaller winged figure was flying just beside her, keeping pace with Sunset as best they could. The titan's head was just starting to turn around towards them, and another one of those low-frequency rumbles started to build.

A rush of light and heat just below her seemed to draw the creature's attention in her direction, and Penny glanced straight down just in time to see what looked to be the twisted remains of a vehicle bursting into flames, with an angry-looking figure standing beside it.

He reached around to behind his back, pulling out a bag of black liquid. With a grunt of effort, he threw it against the ground, causing the bag to burst and black liquid to spray across the snow.

Somehow, that actually seemed to draw the creature's complete attention in a way that made Penny suddenly VERY aware that she was standing in virtually the same place that he was, just much higher in the air.

She was torn about which course of action to take. On the one hand, Sunset and (presumably) Missy were both clearly in a precarious situation, but they appeared to have control of it. On the other, the person below her (who matched her file for "Penn," was clearly using himself as bait purposefully, but Penny could not see any form of escape in place for him.

"Sunset Shimmer is a huntress-in-training from Beacon Academy..." she muttered, cutting the power to her boot jets. "I am certain she knows what she is doing."

A few seconds later, she landed feet-first in the snow beside Penn, colliding with the ground at a speed that would shatter most people's leg bones instantly and kicking up a small cloud of powdered snow.

"-UTATIONS!" Penny gave her friendliest salute to Penn as he grasped at his chest and gasped for air for some unknown reason. Regardless, she wanted to finish her introduction just like she had been taught to. "My name is Penny! It is very nice to meet you!" She held out a friendly hand in her friendliest manner for him to shake.

After staring at her for several seconds, he shakily reached out and gave her hand a small shake. "Penn. Nice to meet you, too, but this isn't really a great-"

Both of them turned to look at the monster, which still had its eyes locked on them, but now was rearing back somewhat. Penny could see what appeared to be some form of energy building in front of its mouth, a crackling mix of midnight-blue and white.

"Hmm... most curious. I can see an energy discharge building, but my sensors register an energy deficit."

"It's a draining attack..." Penn whispered, taking a shaky step backwards. "I... may have been hoping it wouldn't attack at range. We're going to want to get-"

With a flash of that same midnight-blue the building energy lashed out, spraying into a hail of bullet-like bolts.

In less than a second, Penny's blades were at the ready, fanned out in front of her body and rotating at high speed to form an impromptu shield. In the corner of her eye, she saw Penn dive behind the burning car, putting the metal and flames between him and the attack.

"Enemy engaged." Penny's reaction time was sharp, but she was only barely able to block the half-dozen or so bolts that would have struck her body, and each one still managed to pull energy from her aura and out through her swords. When the attack petered out, she waved her arm, changing the formation of her Floating Array. The circle tightened and the tips of the blades flipped back to reveal the gun barrels inside. With a grunt of effort, she forced energy out through the razor-thin wires connecting her to her weapons, and a blast of emerald light slammed into the creature. Her laser didn't seem to be capable of breaching its carapace, but the roar of displeasure and smoking trail of red that it left anywhere it touched were enough to let her know that she had dealt some damage. With another rumble, the monster dove into the ground headfirst, disappearing from sight moments later.

While the creature was burrowing, she spared a glance back towards Penn and his own cover.

The fire on the car had been completely extinguished, to the point that the entire thing was now frozen in a thick layer of ice. Penn was hunched behind the block, eyes wide and a layer of frost over his entire body, but he still appeared to be alive and shivering. With a shaking hand, he reached up to his ear, and Penny detected a signal being transmitted in the creature's direction.

There was a short pause before Sunset Shimmer seemed to materialize out of thin air, along with the Ghostrick Angel of Mischief. Missy was looking haggard and exhausted, clutching a purple card in one hand and gripping Sunset's shoulder with the other.

"Yeah, managed to get it into one of the breathing holes and Vanish out of- woah!" Sunset stared at the frozen-over car for a moment, rushing to Penn's side and beginning to rub at his shoulders in a feeble attempt to warm him up. "Are you okay? What was that big green laser?"

"N-nothing some h-hot chocolate w-wouldn't solve..." Penn mumbled, clearly forcing himself as he rose back up to fully standing.

"Salutations, Sunset Shimmer!" Penny chirped, relishing the humorous potential of the alliteration. For the first time, Sunset's eyes pulled away from her partner long enough to see her.

"I was sent to escort your party to Beacon Academy!" She grinned and clicked her heels together to give a small burst of flame that boosted her about a foot upwards. "And, because you're associated with the rogue artificial intelligence known as I.S.I.S., on behalf of Atlas I am also here to arrest you! HIC!"

That managed to get incredulous looks out of everyone, and Penny made no attempt to repress her laughter.

The fact that no one was laughing made Penny wonder if she had somehow failed in her joke-telling. Had her hiccup given away the surprise?

"W-well, speaking of Isis..." Penn pressed his earpiece in again. "Isis, everything's in place, hit the nitro."

Everyone seemed to brace themselves for something, only to breathe a sigh of relief a few seconds later.

"What did she say the odds of it just exploding when the drone started dispersing it? Seventy-two?" Sunset asked.

"Seventy-two point three..." Penn nodded. "Looks like we're just going to be playing the waiting game to see how long the fire dust takes to poison it..."

"Actually, I think Penny's big laser mighta scared it off!" Missy added. "Maybe we don't need to wait!"

RMBLMBMLBMLMLBML! The roar shook snow from the trees and vibrated all the snow around them until it had sifted itself level again, erasing any kind of footprint or mark in the surface.

"You were saying?" Penn grumbled. "We should make ourselves scarce before it calls its kids for backup and we get swarmed." He gestured down to the black discoloration in the snow. "And probably stop standing in a big puddle of bait."

"Well, the initial idea was for me to take your entire vehicle back to Beacon..." Penny mused. "Carrying all three of you would be an awkward arrangement."

"And I don't think I can do much more trap-card-ing people around..." Missy dropped the card in her hand back into her tiny hat. "Let alone all the way back to Beacon."

Sunset leaned down, scooping up a portion of the black snow and sniffing at it. "Penn... is this your blood?"

"Well, I can't take normal transfusions, so I had Isis start drawing blood bags and keeping them in the trunk, just in case." Penn shrugged. "And I figured that if the thing was willing to eat SALEM, then I'd smell appetizing, too."

"Only place she could have gone right in front of our eyes. I think it got her when it first appeared." Penn shook his head. "She'll be fine, and we all know it. Can we focus? We need to get out of here before it comes back!" He pointed in a direction towards the other side of the clearing. "If we go back through the portal, we can get our feet back under us someplace marginally warmer."

Penny tried to look through her files for any mention of someone named Salem, but was met with a conspicuous gap in the records. She could only assume from context that she was another member of their party, one who had joined while they were away from Remnant.

"But what if it's still guarding the portal when we try to come back?" Missy argued. "We gotta get to Beacon while we have the opening!" She placed her hand over her chest. "Look, I can go back to the Duel Spirit world to rest there, then Penny won't have to carry me. Sunset can summon me back later."

"If Penny can carry Sunset in her arms, I can hold on from behind... Would that be okay, Penny?" Penn looked to her, and Penny gave a smile and a salute.

"That should be functional, though hardly safe. Especially in this weather..." Penny narrowed her eyes, running the numbers in her mind. "I could also take one person at a time. The trip would take approximately ten minutes, meaning I could return for the second in twenty."

"NO!" Despite her growing exhaustion, Missy still managed to raise her voice to surprising loudness. "No leaving someone alone!"

Just as the three of them were beginning to talk over and raise their voices to one another, a shockwave rocked through the ground, nearly knocking all of them off their feet and shaking even more snow from the tree branches. Everyone had their hands half-reaching out just to keep their balance, giving one another uncertain stares.

"I doubt it, but it's going to have to nurse THAT wound for a while..." Penn took a deep breath and sighed. "If it chooses to just retreat, we might actually be in the clear... but it's not called a queen for nothing." He eyed the snow beneath their feet warily. "There might be a whole lot of little ones coming our-"

There was a shake in the ground that sent everyone stepping back from the center of their group. Sunset's hand was on her weapon and Missy was grasping several cards, but Penn was the only one other than Penny who seemed to notice that the sound was different than it had been.

In a shower of snow and earth, another figure appeared in the center of the group. She was gaunt and dressed in a black dress. Her hair was as pale as her skin, and her veins looked like they'd been stained jet-black. Penny reached out one arm to draw her blades on the intruder, but a stopping motion from Penn made her pause.

"Hold on! I know what it looks like, but... she's on our-" he paused as if catching himself in something, "She's on the side of saving Remnant. She's with us."

The woman, supposably the "Salem" the had been talking about, brushed the last of the dirt from her her dress with a scowl.

"I suppose you expect me to thank you for blowing a hole in that thing for me to crawl out of?"

"Expect? No. But it wasn't exactly easy." Penn motioned to the frozen remains of his car. "In fact, it cost us everything but each other."

Penny took a moment to step away from the group, walking a short distance away so that she wouldn't be overheard. "Well, General, it appears a titan-sized arthropod destroyed our friends' means of transport. They appear to have temporarily dispatched the beast, but now we're left with no easy means to get everyone back to Beacon!"

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"Well, why not just 'snap every bone in its body like a twig' like you threatened to do to me?" Penn snarked, only to flinch back a moment later when Salem's eyes narrowed in a subtle display of displeasure. Sunset resisted the urge to interpose herself between them. If they started a confrontation for every time Salem so much as glared at somebody, nothing would ever get done.

"Well, it was remarkably durable and resilient. Any damage my magic accomplished healed in moments." Salem stopped her death glare long enough to turn to Sunset. "What about your all-cutting saber?"

Sunset shook her head. "Even the lightsaber couldn't get through that hide easily. Whatever it's made of, it's REALLY dense."

"Does it even matter?" Penn sighed, pressing his thumb to the center of his forehead. "The important thing is that we've sent it running, but we should really get out of-" he paused, looking just over Sunset's shoulder. "Where'd Penny go?"

Sunset spun around, her eyes widening as she saw only smooth, undisturbed snow in the direction Penny had walked away in.

"Wha- She was just here... did she fly off, or something?" Sunset mused, taking a step in the same direction.

"Nobody move." Penn's voice was low, but deathly serious. The level of force behind his order was enough to make every muscle in Sunset's body obey, locking her completely in place. "We need to get out of here. Now."

"What do you mean? Is she-" Sunset's worries were stifled by Penn shaking his head.

"Can't say. Nothing we can do now. Salem, can you get any flying grimm to get us out of here?"

Salem closed her eyes, focusing on something none of them could perceive. "That thing must have claimed this territory, there aren't any nearby. If you simply want us to fly out of the area, I can do that."

The fact that he's not snarking makes me feel really worried... Sunset looked over to Missy, noticing that the younger girl was already dozing in the middle of the snowstorm. She pulled the tiny duel spirit closer, giving her a quick hug. "Missy? Still with us?"

"Mhmm?" Missy perked up slightly, but her eyes didn't seem to be able to move past half-open.

"You can go ahead and go home. I'll summon you when we all get back to Beacon, okay?"

"I promise, nobody's going to get left by themselves again." Sunset gave the little spirit a kiss on the forehead. "Get some rest."

"Mmm... mkay..." she hummed again, this time in the affirmative. As Sunset watched, Missy slowly seemed to fade, growing more and more translucent until she'd disappeared entirely, and her presence vanished from Sunset's side. With the knowledge that Missy would be safe, Sunset turned back to Penn and Salem and nodded to signal that she was ready.

With that signal, Salem extended her hand outwards, where it began to glow with a crimson aura. Sunset could feel the wind around them growing more intense, and a glance down at her feet revealed a votex of air and snowflakes gathering at her feet. Just as she was starting to feel the force of the wind beginning to pull her away from solid ground, her ears picked up a more particular rumbling coming from just under them.

Is the magic attracting it? Sunset glanced at Penn, seeing his eyes widen at the incoming threat.

"Salem! Don't worry about being gentle, just- AAAAAAaaaaa..." Penn's instructions were cut off by a powerful gust of wind that rocketed him up into the storm and out of sight.

"I acknowledge that these monsters are your area of expertise, but I am NOT your subordinate..." Salem muttered, channeling every ounce of vitriol she could into the words before turning her gaze to Sunset. Sunset raised her hands in a show of surrender.

In the span of approximately a second, three things happened. The first was that Sunset's mind was flooded with that now-familiar preternatural sense of danger, this time focused just beneath her feet. The second was that, out of instinct, she jumped. The wind under her heels seemed to buoy her upwards, carrying her up as high as the tops of the nearby trees. When she'd reached her apex, Sunset didn't fall, merely staying suspended atop of current of wind.

The third was that what looked almost like black tendrils erupted out of the ground all over the area that the three of them had been standing. Sunset's eyes widened as she managed to pick out pincers and wriggling legs from the forms of the tendrils, marking them as smaller versions of the titan they had just beaten.

To her credit, Salem was ready this time. Sunset could see jets of flame spewing from her hands and feet as she took to the air, sending scorched knightcrawlers scattering in her wake. Moments later, Salem had come to meet her at her altitude, looking down on the writhing creatures with derision.

"Disgusting," was the only word to come out of her mouth before her eyes turned to the sky. "Now, if I remember correctly, and I'm certain I do, Beacon is in that direction." She pointed into the white fog created by the driving snow. "Shall we?"

"W-Wait!" Sunset stuttered, still trying to calm her racing heart as the "danger sense" faded. "What about Penn?"

Salem rolled her eyes, clearly already exasperated at Sunset's basic concern for other people. "Judging by the winds, he'll probably have drifted halfway there before he figures out the spell. He might even get there before us."

"Okay... and what about Penny?" Sunset glanced back down, only to nearly vomit at the sight. The place that the knightcrawlers had started to come up from was now erupting with their writhing forms, like sewage seeping back up a clogged drain as more and more of them surged up to the surface.

"Another lost toy in the world is nothing special." Salem waved her hand to dismiss Sunset's worries. "I'm certain Ironwood can build a new robot with ease."

Sunset's eyes widened as several of Penny's quirks of personality suddenly made sense at once. "Penny was a-"

"Do you always ask this many irrelevant questions?" Salem cut her off with a glare. "It's no wonder that he became so skilled at speaking quickly."

Sunset's mouth tightened into a thin line at that, and still Salem seemed to take no pleasure in her words hitting home. She reached down to grip her saber, holding it tight and raising it up enough to see the "low battery" light flickering with the last few drops of power left. Even if she thought she COULD fight through that horde of supernatural bugs, she didn't have the power to.

I hope she backs herself up like Isis does... she thought to herself as she gave Salem a reluctant nod.

"Fine... let's go." she mumbled, feeling more than a small amount of shame at giving up like this. "But we need to get Penn. If we split up, our chances of survival go down."

"Your chances..." Sunset could see the slightest hint of a smirk tugging at Salem's mouth.

"Please, Salem. If something happened to him because we didn't stick together..." Sunset tightened her grip on her saber, "I don't think I could forgive it."

Salem's eyes narrowed slightly, and Sunset felt herself settle into returning the glare. She had gone out of her way not to say "I don't think I could forgive myself," and the implication that gave was hanging heavy in the air between them.

"I suppose that he cannot be trusted to make the journey without getting himself injured or worse..." Salem muttered, lifting her other hand and making a beckoning motion with her finger. A few seconds later, a ragged-looking Penn descended from above, a thick layer of frost over his entire body.

"Enjoy your trip?" she smirked as she brushed a small pile of snow off the top of his hat.

"F-F-F-F-Fu-F-F-F-F-Fu-F-F-Fu-" He couldn't seem to get any words out as he glowered at Salem, who seemed not to care at all what he thought.

"Perhaps now you'll think twice before presuming that you can give me an order."

As Sunset reached in his direction, the spell keeping her aloft responded in kind, bringing her up beside him. Once she was close enough she finished brushing away the snow from his body and started rubbing his shoulders in an attempt to warm him up. "I know you're cold, but the fastest way out of the weather is to get to Beacon, right?" Penn gave a shaky nod, not even trying to answer her out loud. "Then let's get going. The sooner we leave, the sooner we arrive, right?"

With one more nod to Salem, the trio passed through the border of safety Salem had created from the storm.

In her studies in Equestria, Sunset had read about the windegos, elemental spirits that thrived on contention and strife. As their power grew, the world around them would grow colder and colder until everything was completely frozen. According to folklore, they were capable of freezing entire continents solid, rendering them uninhabitable as a punishment for its inhabitants refusing to seek peace. At the time, Sunset had arrogantly joked that it sounded "slightly warmer than Canterlot Mountain in Winter".

But now, inching her way through a blistering sea of white ice with no marker or landmark in sight, Sunset honestly wondered if a pack of windegos had sneaked into Remnant. That felt like the only explanation that made sense for this level of biting cold. Every speck of warmth felt like it had already been drawn from her body right at the beginning, but the storm kept leeching more and more out of her that she thought she didn't have to give, and despite having taken everything she had, the rest of the world hadn't changed one iota, as if she were a drop of warm water that had been dropped onto an iceberg.

The passing of time was near-impossible to track, it felt like years before the mounting shadow in front of them began to match the spires and towers of Beacon Academy.

Sunset didn't understand at first, but forced herself to turn her head downwards. Just below, she could see another shadow, one moving along just beneath their feet.

HOW did they follow us this far in this weather? Sunset wanted to scream, but her body was pulled too tight and too close to expend that type of energy.

"I've noticed them, as well," Salem added, seeming to be unaffected by the cold. "It seems they intend to follow us to the ends of the earth." She turned in place to face the two of them. "Anything to say on the matter, oh wise one? If their aim was to guard the portal, why chase us so far?" Penn shook his head, causing Salem to scoff and turn away again.

They continued on in silence for a while longer before Sunset heard a voice come crackling through her earpiece.

"Oh thank goodness, when we lost contact with Penny we had no idea what had happened! Are you alright?"

"F-F-F-Freezing, but intact..." Sunset had to force each word out. "Alm-m-m-most th-th-there."

"Our sensors can see incoming monsters at the front gate. Whatever is chasing you, it's right on your tail! Look, we're sending a welcoming party to make sure you get inside safely, just hold on a little longer!

Sunset looked up at Salem, who was regarding the school with a look positively dripping with malice, then down at the mass of legs and mandibles below. "D-Don't... We- We'll find a w-way inside-"

"Absolutely not." Another, firmer voice took over for Professor Ozpin, one Sunset only barely recognized as the General who had been on the call when they got the call for help. "You may know more about these creatures and where they come from, but we've been fighting them for months without you. Even if you weren't needing an escort, we can't ignore them being bold enough to come right up to our gates."

Sunset didn't have the energy to argue about this. As if reading her mind, Salem turned back to look at her.

"Don't worry. I, of all people, understand that being on the same side is something that Ozpin will need to be introduced to... gradually, lest misunderstandings abound. I've already made a plan for the matter." She shot Penn a derisive glance. "The idea that you would need to plan such a thing in my stead is prideful beyond measure. The idea that you could do better than me is foolhardy."

"While I still bear a hearty spite for you, I wouldn't jeopardize our mission to satisfy it." Salem rolled her eyes as the front gates of Beacon Academy came into sight. On the other side of the gate were a familiar set of figures that made Sunset's heart skip a beat.

"Hey! Over here!" Jaune's voice called, waving his sword high over his head to signal to them.

"And if anybody has something to say about that, I'LL SMASH 'EM!" Nora shouted, and Sunset could see a crackle of electric energy on her war hammer that made it clear she wasn't exaggerating.

The last figure, presumably Ren, was simply standing steadfast, eyes locked on the incoming tide of monsters beneath them.

Sunset braced herself for the concern that Salem's appearance would certainly cause, only to find herself staring at... someone who definitely was not Salem leading their flying trio. Her pale hair had turned to a golden blonde, her pallor had been replaced by a more realistic flesh color and her blackened veins had faded completely from sight. Her clothes had changed, too, to a pair of blue jeans and a jacket that matched Sunset's.

"We're going to need a spot to land!" Salem called out, making a show of grunting and holding up both hands, as if keeping everyone aloft was putting a strain on her.

Salem groaned and motioned with both hands as if she were lifting a massive weight, pushing the three of them up and over the gate. With a sigh of relief, the flight spell dispersed, dropping the three of them the last ten feet to the ground, where they each landed in the snow with a small puff of powder. Once she had her bearings again, Sunset saw a familiar glove-covered hand being offered to her.

"Sorry, I probably should have tried to catch you..." Pyrrha's sheepish expression was barely visible beneath the heavy red scarf wrapping her neck and lower face.

"I-It's fine..." Sunset mumbled, taking hold of her hand with a smile. "I j-j-just wanna get someplace warm."

"That can be arranged..." Pyrrha blinked for a second, looking confused as Sunset rose to her feet. "Until then, did your aura run out?"

It was Sunset's turn to blink in confusion. "I- I can't use it outside Remnant... I forgot about it..."

Pyrrha lifted her other hand up to Sunset's cheek, pressing it gently against her flesh.

It is by passing through trials that we recognize that which lies within us, and in the healing afterwards that our strength grows. If ever we falter, we may reach out to those who share a piece of our soul for aid and find it ready and waiting. Pyrrha's voice spoke in her mind, but Sunset wasn't sure if it was her magic doing the mind-reading or something deeper in Pyrrha's action speaking to her.

Sunset felt a stirring in her chest, followed by a rush of warmth and a surge of strength flowing back into her limbs. She could tell that the wind was still there and still fierce, but it felt much less impactful than it had up to that moment. Instantly, Sunset let out a sigh of relief.

"Happy to help." Pyrrha smiled. "Would Penn need the same type of help unlocking his own aura?"

For a split second, images of inky demons, angry red eyes, and blood-curdling dark magic flashed through Sunset's mind.

"Uh... take it from me, you don't want to mess around in his head," Sunset muttered, watching as Jaune pulled Penn from where he had landed headfirst in the snow. "For both your sakes."

Pyrrha looked like she had more questions, but a clanging and clattering from the gate drew everyone's attention.

The gate was more ornamental than anything else, but it was still wrought-iron and plenty sturdy. Still, the sight in front of them felt off, and it didn't take much work to figure out why.

The gaps in the bars should have been wide enough for the knightcrawlers to slip through, but they were all staying directly outside, as if afraid to enter the school grounds. Instead, they were piling on top of one another until they formed a solid wall of bodies that matched the gate in height. Everyone had at least one hand on their weapons.

"There's more than we were expecting..." Jaune muttered. "I don't think we've seen them this... dense."

"W-Well... we d-d-did beat up a b-brood q-queen in F-Forever Fall..." Penn muttered.

"Then why are they staying out there?" Nora asked, gripping her hammer a little tighter. "It's making me nervous..."

Before anyone else could comment, the wall began to shift and writhe, parting to reveal a large object being pushed against the gate. Sunset didn't recognize what it was at first, but the cream-colored blouse and black-and-green collar near the top were unmistakable. She covered her mouth with both hands to hold back her cry of dismay.

It was Penny's dismembered torso, with only trailing and torn wires where her limbs used to be. Team JNPR seemed to come to the realization at the same time.

When Sunset glanced at Penn, though, she saw something different from the rest on his face: that tense determination of a crucial moment. Whatever message the creatures were trying to send, it looked like he was getting it loud and clear. He took a shaky step forward, addressing the mass.

Everyone's weapons came up to a ready position when the things began to push through the bars, climbing over one another until they'd formed a lumpy mass of five or so from their ranks. Slowly, one of them extended its body towards Penn, and the realization that they were trying to mimic a pointing hand dawned on Sunset.

One of the creatures dug its pincers into Penny's torso with a sound of tearing metal, ripping it open and revealing her robotic innards. Sat at her center of mass was an orb made of metal and glass, with some kind of glowing emerald-colored energy inside. One of them crawled up towards the orb, settling its mandibles on the edges of the orb, ready to crush it.

"W-Wait! Wait! Y-Y-You've made your point!" Penn held up both hands, and the monster poised to destroy the orb hesitated. With the immediate threat paused, Penn turned back toward the group.

"But... why? Why you?" Sunset asked. Penn could only shrug his hunched-in shoulders.

"I d-don't know... Maybe they know th-that I know about them? W-Why I'm here? It d-doesn't matter." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, shuddering as he did so, before his entire body unclenched a small amount. When he opened them, Sunset could see that he was wearing a very different expression... there was a familiar glimmer of confidence in those eyes.

Sunset let out her breath, at least as much as she dared without giving away her relief to their enemy. Pyrrha seemed to be the only one who noticed Sunset's change in demeanor, but wasn't able to speak her question before Penn's next words had taken off... and take off they did.

"'course, couldn't we callously concur that capitulating concedes control in this situation? Here, I hear, is the place to place a place to replace a robo-ace? And if our moderate motley multiverse moderation crew has been made, that makes us mere makers of mischief in my mind, muses of the mediocre melodies! BUT!" He pointed to Team JNPR each individually, "You and you and you and you have all paid proper attention to which side of this gate you're on, and YOU!" He then spun around on his heel to turn his full attention to their enemies, "YOU are all such glorious, wonderful, GIANT little idiots, it's GENIUS! I love it and I HATE it!"

Even the disguised Salem seemed unsure of what to do in this kind of situation, simply watching the suddenly-confident Penn run his mouth at a mile a minute.

"YOU all knew EXACTLY who you were dealing with, because you've managed to take the perfect hostage! HER friend, a young girl in need, in mortal peril whom only I can save, appealing to both of our savior complexes at once! You know, if Noir were here, even HE would be stumped, because Penny's also a robot, and one who wouldn't hurt a soul who didn't start it!" He managed to get close enough to nearly brush fingertips with the centipede-hand before he spun on his heel again, walking back towards the group.

"But hey what's one life in the face of millions, even BILLIONS? If I see a trolley headed for one person we pity or care about on the tracks, is it morally right to change the track and it an unknowable number of strangers? It might be what I want, but I certainly don't want to hurt people, so what's the right choice, huh? If I were the very model of a modern major mentalist, my magnificent mind might mind making moral mastication out of that old twisted thought experiment mostly metronome-esque!"

Nora's jaw dropped before her brow furrowed into an expression of fury. "Are- are you saying we should just let them kill-"

"SHUSHUSHUSH!" Penn cut Nora off by shushing her at the top of his lungs, leaning only an inch away from her face to do so before beginning to pace back towards the pass of black chitin.

Nora looked ready to hit him with her hammer, but Sunset felt realization dawning on her of what exactly Penn might be planning. Slowly, she withdrew her phone from her pocket and typed up a message before handing it to Pyrrha.

Pyrrha stared at the device for a moment in disbelief before passing the phone to Ren.

Meanwhile, the creature crawling on Penny's remains was inching back towards her core, only for Penn to throw up an accusatory finger at it. "DON'T YOU TRY AND MAKE ME THINK FASTER, I'M GOING AS FAST AS I CAN SO HURRY UP AND WAIT A MINUTE!"

To everyone's surprise, the thing actually stopped. It turned back towards Penn, who was angrily advancing on it. He stormed his way past the centipede hand, going almost straight up to the offending knightcrawler.

"I swear, if I had a nickel for every time a friend's life was in my hands and I had to speed-talk my way through the logic to save her, I would have TWO NICKELS, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twi-"

In less time than it took for Sunset to blink, he'd reached out and snatched the core in his hand, then planted his shoe on top of Penny's now-lifeless torso and pushed off, using the momentum to take off at a sprint so fast, his legs almost seemed to blur with the motion.

With a whoop and a holler, Penn dodged around the centipede-hand's sluggish attempt to grab him, eventually sliding to a stop beside Sunset. His smile was practically a mile wide as he placed the softball-sized orb into her hands.

Sunset smiled and gave the core a gentle squeeze. "One of these days, we're going to wind up finding an enemy you CAN'T talk into a daze, you know."

Everyone's attention was drawn back to the swarm, which was now clearly enraged at Penn's deception. Moving as one, the entire lot began to surge through and over the gate, creating a veritable waterfall of bodies

"Ah! This is the part where we run!" Penn called. To Sunset's surprise, though, Team JNPR didn't budge one inch at the sight of the incoming tide of chitin.

"Well, not exactly..." This time it was Pyrrha's turn to smirk as she plucked her lance off of her back. "This is where we do OUR jobs!"

With a sound like a thunderclap, Nora leapt into the air, her body crackling with electrical energy from head to toe. When she came down again, it was hammer-first, and it sent electrical shockwaves through the ranks from one bug to the next. Before the next rush of bodies were able to descend on her, Ren had stepped up and was firing his twin automatic pistols into the crowd, every bullet giving the signature flash of red light of a fire dust cartridge.

Jaune and Pyrrha both called out to her as they rushed past her and into the fray. Looking closely, Sunset could see flames running up and down the lengths of both their swords, a definite upgrade that hadn't been there last time they'd been here.

I guess the general wasn't kidding when he said they'd been fighting these things for months on their own... Sunset thought.

As Team JNPR was tearing through the horde, Salem slunk over to the two of them, sidling up beside Penn.

"Alright... why did that work?" she asked, sounding more annoyed than curious.

"Long story short: without the queen, they're a lot dumber." Penn shrugged. "Throw a much of alliteration, homophones, and oxymoronic statements at a collective that's already trying to think forwards in a world that works backwards to them, and their reaction times are going to drop by a LOT."

"I figured it would be a smash-and-grab once I saw your pacing getting closer and closer to each side." Sunset smiled and carefully placed Penny's core inside her jacket. "Glad I was right."

Salem looked like Penn's way of thinking had physically pained her. "You realize that you were well-within grabbing range if they had simply ignored your nonsense and focused on capturing you?"

Penn nodded, momentarily rubbing his hands together for warmth. "Yeah, that's why I went for it when I did. I was ready to go on a while longer until I'd REALLY stumped them, but I saw an opportunity to make them worry that I was mad enough not to be afraid of them."

There was a visible twitch in one of Salem's eyes. "Suddenly, Cinder capturing you doesn't feel like such a praiseworthy achievement."

"Yeah, especially since it took her, like, two months!" Penn chuckled. "She could have gotten the same result in a day if she just asked me on a lunch date!"

While Salem was busy pressing her palm against her forehead in disgrace, Sunset watched Team JNPR smashing the last of the knightcrawlers that had been bold enough to crawl through the gate. The rest had heard the signal and stopped trying to press the attack, returning to hanging just outside the schoolgrounds. Both sides stood and stared at one another for several more seconds, and Sunset wondered if the standoff was going to result in a Round 2. Fortunately, the swarm seemed to understand that their numbers wouldn't be much help against enemies who had figured out how to make them stay down once and for all.

Finally, the monsters skittered back into the blizzard, burrowing down into the dirt. Not fifteen seconds later, the only sign that they had been there was the corpses scattered around the courtyard and Team JNPR panting to catch their breath in the snow.

"Great, because I know that Blake and Ruby were planning on making some. Let's go bug them until they share." Jaune waved everyone in the direction of the dorms.

In spite of the fact that she'd spent months here earlier in the year, Sunset couldn't help but feel shocked at how long it felt like it had been since she'd been on the grounds at Beacon. Things looked the same, but... she'd changed, and that made her feel like she was looking at all of it with fresh eyes.

When they passed through the doors into the dorms, the wave of warmth that washed over them was one of the best moments of relief she'd felt in ages. Judging by the sighs of relief from everyone present, she wasn't the only one to think so, either.

Jaune led the way down halls Sunset already knew well, heading straight for the commons room and study hall. Sunset didn't really note much else other than the warmth of the place until they'd almost made it to their destination: everything was quiet. Not just "a brief moment of peace among a few hundred teenagers" quiet, but "I could hear a pin drop" quiet.

Before she could ask what had happened to the other students, they'd turned the corner to the common room, where a trio was gathered around the coffee brewer. One was dressed in black, one in red, and one in white.

"I still think this isn't real hot chocolate..." Blake murmured. "You need milk, real chocolate, to cook it on a stovetop... you can't just add powder to boiling water and call it hot chocolate."

"But it's so easy!" Ruby argued. "It's just one button, and then you pour in the mix! And we're making it in bulk for everybody else!"

"But if Sunset's coming back, shouldn't we try to make high-quali-" Blake's bow twitched in that way that Sunset had come to recognize was her cat ears moving underneath. Her head snapped to look at the entryway, locking on the returning party.

Sunset almost laughed out loud at how off-guard Blake had been caught, looking as if she was trying to decide whether she was excited to see her or horrified at having been caught making sub-par hot chocolate.

"Oh, Jaune! You guys are back early! How was guard dut- OHMYGOSH SUNSET! You're BACK!"

One flurry of rose petals and a heavy impact to her sternum later, Sunset was wrapped entirely by Ruby's arms and legs as the younger girl hugged her with all of her might. With her arms securely pinned to her sides, all Sunset could do was lean her head against Ruby's for an affectionate nuzzle.

"Told ya all that you needed to do was call! Sorry for the delay, we ran into some... unexpected obstacles."

"Oh, we're just glad that you're here! When Isis went offline we all got super worried, but we just kept fighting through and..."

Ruby's voice seemed to fade into the background as the person in white turned around. Recognition brought Sunset's entire world screeching to a violent halt. So many things about her were different. Her hair had turned to pure white, she was taller than Sunset remembered her being when they left, her frame had filled out with a little more muscle, she had eschewed her usual colorful style for a stark white scaly leather, and she looked... well, older, but between those familiar magenta eyes and the blue geode hanging around her neck it was almost certain, and Sunset could never mistake that face.

Rainbow's jaw looked to be hanging slack with shock. A small, gold-scaled dragon sitting on her shoulder used its tail to gently lift her mouth closed again. Finally, she had collected herself enough to speak.

The Multiverse in a Nutshell

by Pennington Inkwell

No Brakes, Part 2