Beep.
Oh, my furry head.
Beep.
Mph. Alarm clock. Go ‘way. I don’t have cloud duty today.
Beep.
Alright, Scoots. Cut it out.
Beep.
That’s it!
I shoot up, slapping in the direction of the most annoying thing ever. My hand, however, impacts a hard surface instead of my… hand?
I look down. Turns out it wasn't a dream. I really was chased by demons from Tartarus through a forest on a world unknown to ponies in not my pony body. There was me, I kicked major plot, and two others…
I look around, my heart still tight in my chest. I seem to be in a hospital; the beeping is coming from a heart monitor. The last time I remember being in a hospital was… trying to break into the hospital to steal the first Daring Do book because I was afraid of looking like an egghead. Not my best moment.
To my left is a small table, which I had slapped. To my other sits Red. She appears to be asleep, and looks like she hasn't left my side since she and White obviously brought me here.
“Well, look who’s finally awake,” a voice sounds from across the room, causing me to jump. There’s another girl in the room, half hidden by shadows. She has a bow, colored black, and is in what looks like a maid outfit but made to kick plot. She looks mysterious, and hot. She has a book in her face, only revealing piercing yellow eyes looking straight at me.
“Uhh, hi. Wh-where am I?”
“You are currently in a hospital room at Beacon Academy, located in Vale. Ruby and Weiss found you in the Forever Fall forest, being chased by a pack of Grimm. They told you to run, but you stayed and helped fight them off. You fainted after the battle. Did you really kill an Alpha Beowulf singlehandedly?”
My brain melted about halfway through her explanation. “What? What’s Beacon? Where’s Vale? Who? Oh Goddesses, did I actually kill something?” I feel sick.
“Hey, no throwing up. I may be a Huntress-in-Training, but I can’t stand seeing someone get sick like that,” the girl, Black I’ll call her, snaps a bit of sense into me. I take a deep calming breath, and try again.
“Okay. Obviously I’m not in danger here, I would be in cuffs if I was in trouble, so let’s start with the most pressing question: Where am I?”
Black puts down the book. “Like I said before, you are currently in the infirmary at Beacon Academy.”
“And what’s that?”
Black looks at me like I have a screw loose. “You… you seriously don’t know about Beacon? It’s only the most prestigious academy in the kingdom for training Huntsmen and Huntresses to fight off the evils of the world.”
“So, you’re a Huntress, then? And by ‘evils of the world’, you mean those things that attacked me?”
“Well, a Huntress-in-Training. My team and I are currently students here. And yes, we protect the innocent from the Grimm, like those monsters.”
Red begins to stir beside me. Her eyes open sleepily, but she jerks to attention when she sees I’m awake.
“Blake! You were supposed to tell me when she woke up! Now I don’t know if she said anything important!”
Blake (not Black) smirked. “She hasn’t said anything much yet, and she woke up not five minutes before you, Ruby. You haven’t missed anything. She’s apparently confused about a lot of things.”
Suddenly, my vision is filled with silver eyes. “Wow. You’re pretty. Did you really take down an Alpha Beowulf on your own? Who are you? What’s your team? I haven’t seen you around Beacon. Are you here for the tournament? What’s your weapon? I didn’t see much of it during the fight. What were you doing-”
“Ruby!” She makes a sound like a dog whimper, and sits back in her chair. I mouth a silent thank you to Blake. “Can’t you see you’re just scaring her?”
“It’s alright Blake. I’ve dealt with worse from some of my other friends, it was just really sudden. To answer your questions, Ruby, the first one we’ll get back to, my name is Rainbow Dash, I don’t know what you mean by ‘team’, I’m not from around here, I don’t know anything about a tournament, I’m not sure about my ‘weapon’, I didn’t see much of it during the fight either, and I was in the forest, trying to find myself when those things attacked me. Now,” I stretch out a little, “What’s so important about me-ahem-killing one of those things. Beowulfs, you called them? You and your friend were killing a lot more just fine.”
“It’s not that you killed one, it’s that you killed an Alpha. Usually, even a fully-trained Huntsman would appreciate backup when engaging one. According to Weiss, you moved like a professional. Where did you get your training?” Blake said matter-of-factly. She reminds me of Twilight, how she always takes everything way too seriously.
“I really don’t know. I woke up this morning in that forest, no idea how I got here, with only these clothes and my guns on me. Speaking of which, where are they?”
Blake motions to a table beside her. Inside a small case, I can see a glimpse of metal. I look between them. Obviously, they aren't going to help me up, so I help myself. I wobble a bit (stupid legs, falling asleep at the worst stupid times), and make my way over. As I approach, I notice my holsters are in the case too. With practiced precision, I whip my jacket off, pull the harness on, and cinch it down, then put my jacket back on. All in all, it takes about five seconds. Again, no idea how I know how to do that, it just came naturally.
I then pick up the guns, spinning them. I’m about to put them in the holsters, when something makes me pause. Under my cutie mark, there are now two words, one on each gun. One says Rain, and the other says Boom. Rain. Boom. Where have I heard that before? Suddenly, a memory rushes up. I (as a Pegasus) was the first pony in a very long time to pull off a Sonic Rainboom. It was the best moment of my life, and the day I got my cutie mark for my blazing speed.
Then, another memory comes, and I fall into darkness.
----------
“Are you sure you want to do this, Rainbow?”
“Heck yeah! Anyways, it was your turn last time.”
“That was different! She knew what was happening, and knew I was the only one who could fix it!”
“Yeah, yeah. Egghead stuff. So, is it almost ready?”
“Rainbow, I’m still not sure about this. We really have no idea what this place will be like! It could have monsters, or the ponies there could all be cannibals, or it could have no oxygen whatsoever!”
“Pff. I’m Rainbow Dash. I can handle monsters and cannibal ponies all day! ... Although, if there’s no oxygen, that could be kinda bad for my health, right?”
“Extremely.”
“So what’s the catch?”
“You are insufferable sometimes, you know that, right?”
“And you’re just an egghead.”
“Alright, it’s opening. Remember, we won’t be able to get you out, or come in, until the conditions are right, so don’t do anything stupid, okay?”
“Come on, Twi, you know me. I don’t do stupid.”
Blackness.
----------
I come to slowly. I’m back in the bed, and this time there are four people looking at me. I recognize Blake, Ruby, and the white one from the forest. The last one is glaring at me from the end of the bed with deep purple eyes, unruly yellow hair cascading down her back. She’s in some kind of gangster getup, with a large jacket fastened against her chest, skirt, and metal yellow wristbands on her arms. Oh yes, I can tell the two of us are going to get along fabulously.
“Man, I’ve gotta stop blacking out.” With that, all suddenly refocus on me. Ruby looks about to say something, but White beats her to the punch.
“Who are you, and what were you thinking—“
“Picking a fight with a fifteen-foot tall monster and winning, something your friends have said is extremely difficult to do? Yeah, I don’t know. It just … happened.”
That shuts Ms. Queeny-meany up, and Ruby looks to be holding back a smirk. She recomposes herself, shoots White a glare, then turns back to me.
“Well, Rainbow Dash, now that you’re awake and the gang’s all here, I guess we can do some introductions. I’m Ruby Rose, that’s Blake Belladonna, but you already knew that. Ms. Prissy-britches over there is Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee fortune. And this,” she puts an arm around Yellow, “Is my big sister Yang Xiao Long. Yang, Weiss, meet Rainbow Dash.”
“’Sup.” Yang replies, but I can tell there’s still something on her mind. Weiss just blows me off completely.
“So, why did you black out this time?” Blake asks. She sounds worried. Heck, I’m worried.
“I don’t know. I remembered something, a friend and I, and something about an experiment. I seems similar to another experiment my friend tried a while ago, but for the life of me, I can’t remember! This sucks!” I hang my head in my hands.
“Come on, Rainbow, it’s not that bad. You’ll get those memories back eventually. Until then, do you want to go get dinner? You weren’t actually hurt in the forest, you’re just in here for an obviously nonexistent concussion.”
I think about it for a moment, but my stomach answers for me. “I’ll take that as a yes. Alright, Team RWBY, Operation Rainbow Dinner is a go!” Ruby dashes out of the room, pulling me with her. I think I’m going to like it here.
----------
As the group leaves the room in search of the dinner hall, two figures look down on them from an observation window.
“Are you sure it’s wise to just let her roam around like this?”
“Only time will tell.”
“And if it turns out she is a spy for the White Fang?”
“Then we have one of the most capable teams in Beacon to subdue her.”
“I still find it unwise you told Ms. Xiao Long about our suspicions. What if she acts on it?”
“Glynda, you know as well as I do that there are only two ways this will resolve itself: either Ms. Xiao Long acts on it, and it is revealed Ms. Dash works for the White Fang. She is captured, and summarily interrogated.”
“And the second?”
“Ms. Xiao Long acts on it, and Ms. Dash is not a spy. She is allowed to continue on with her life. Put more faith in Yang, Glynda. I told her, and not the others, because she is the most protective of the team. Ruby is too inquisitive, she would let something slip prematurely. Ms. Schnee would report anything and everything to us, and make it painfully obvious in doing so, thus revealing our hand. Blake… Blake would slit Ms. Dash’s throat in her sleep if she thought the White Fang had infiltrated the school. I trust Yang to act only when the moment is right.”
“And so we just give her unfettered access to everything?”
“Good heavens no. Sign her up with student-level access, and block anything of strategic importance. She will not attend classes, unless she so chooses. Also, set her up in the empty room next to Team RWBY’s. It will put my heart a bit more at ease if they are nearby should she try anything.”
“Very well. Will that be all, Ozpin?”
“Yes. And, Glynda… thank you for being discreet about this.”
“Like you said, only time will tell if we made the right choice. Good night, Oz.”
“And you as well, Glynda.”