Dreams, Dimensions, and Dang it Yang

by otakufan217

Introductions, Impressions, and Another Initiation

“Good morning, Ruby. I take it you slept well?”

Ruby awoke in a bed of soft silk, which was surrounded by a matching violet curtain as the sun began to rise, light filtering through the newly-formed gaps between said curtains. The white and gold of the room reflected the sun’s rays so as to make it seem as if the whole room was lit by a vibrant flame. In the doorway stood Princess Celestia, who had only just noticed that Ruby had awoken. Ruby herself was still groggy, as if she hadn’t slept at all the previous night. Celestia herself had taken note of this, noting it as a possible side effect of the transfer between worlds.

“Where… Where am I?” Ruby asked as she sat up in the bed and began to remove herself from her warm, very comfortable nest of blankets.

Celestia raised her hoof to silence Ruby, allowing her a moment to get her bearings.

“Oh, yeah, wait a minute...That’s right, I’m a pony,” Ruby recalled, “And this is Canterlot Castle, right? I mean, I didn’t exactly hear everything last night…”

“Yes,” Celestia replied, “You are now within the world of Equestria, and your friends are waiting for you to meet them outside. Before I send you all out on a test, so to speak, I’d like to allow you all to enjoy the basics of pony society...Even if it is much higher-class than where I hope you’ll stay in the future.”

“Wait, wait, are you saying I overslept?!” Ruby practically screeched, “A-And you say we’re going to be tested?!”

Celesta was utterly perplexed as she was blown aside by Ruby moving at inhuman speeds, watching in awe as the unicorn donned the single article of clothing that hung in the closet: Her cloak.

“Y-You brought this here!?” Ruby gasped between movements.

“Yes, I did, now if you-”

Celestia was cut off by Ruby dashing away.

“I was going to say that you could go through the hallway left of here for breakfast…” she mumbled to herself as she walked away.

Ruby dashed through the halls of the castle, diving over and under guards and castle staff before realizing the simple fact that she had no idea where she was going but her thought process was interrupted by a collision with a soft, pink-coated alicorn.

“S-Sorry!” said Ruby as she helped her up.

“Oh it’s fine, really,” the alicorn replied, “Could you stay here a moment, though?”

Ruby allowed herself a moment to stop completely.

“First of all, my name is Princess Cadence,” she began, “And you must be Ruby, right?”

“Y-Yes,” Ruby replied.

“Well, I was just talking with your friends. I gave them the funds that Celestia entrusted you all with,” Cadence explained, “When you didn’t show your face at breakfast, I realized that you had likely overslept, so I was heading over to your room to give them to you.”

Cadence’s horn glowed a bright cyan, and her saddlebag opened. She took out a bag of sparkling golden coins and handed them to Ruby who, having no other means of carrying the bag, gripped it in her mouth. Her head jerked downwards from the weight of the bag, but she quickly pulled it back up to look at Cadence once more.

“I understand that Celestia has given you each 2,500 bits. It should be enough for you all to at the very least rent houses out in Ponyville,” Cadence said, “And it should cover your cost of living for around a month. Hopefully you’ll all be able to get jobs by then, though.”

Ruby nodded, then set her bag of money down.

“So, wait, I have a question. Where’s everybody now?”

“Oh, that!” Cadence answered, “They all finished eating ten minutes ago. They should be outside, waiting for you, I believe.”

“S-So was the money all you needed to tell me about?” Ruby asked.

“Yes,” Cadence answered, “You should find your friends sparring with the royal guards and my husband, Prince Shining Armor.”

“All right,” Ruby gasped, “Outside, right?”

“Yes,” Cadence said, “In the courtyards. You’ll find them if you turn right at the next hallway.”

“Thanks!” Ruby called to Cadence as she ran off, bag of money in her mouth once again.

As it turned out, Ruby didn’t need to turn right to know where her friends were. As she turned, the great windows of the castle allowed a perfect view of the castle courtyard, each stone carefully placed years ago by Equestria’s greatest workers. Hoofbeats echoed throughout the area as two ponies were locked in practice. A stark white unicorn stallion, his imposing figure and midnight blue mane visible even from a distance, and a black and purple pegasus mare with a bow on her head were each clearly trying to defeat the other as a crowd of guards and future hunters watched on. Indeed, though the unicorn was unfamiliar, the pegasus was one of Ruby’s closest friends: Blake Belladonna.

Blake made the first strike, leaping forwards with almost no sound, her body appearing as a blur and striking out with a powerful kick towards the stallion’s head. As Ruby watched on, the stallion quickly ducked under the blow and countered with a right-hoofed punch, but with almost impossible speeds, Blake dodged back, leaving an illusion of herself behind and immediately dashed forward once more and, getting inside the stallion’s guard while he was still confused, reached under his front leg and flipped him onto his back, then jabbing her hoof into his chest to pin him down.

Ruby had stared on in awe the entire time. Even in such a new form, Blake was a force to be reckoned with, and she could only assume the same for the rest of her team.

She decided to move down to the courtyard to greet her team.

When she stepped into the crowd of ponies, she was immediately noticed.

“Hey, look who decided to show her face! Morning, sunshine!”

A familiar bright yellow earth pony galloped to her and grabbed her in a massive bear hug. This was exactly who she thought it was: Her older sister, Yang. The rest of her team soon walked over to greet her, though they were both exhausted from sparring.

“Did you see Weiss out there earlier, by chance?” Blake asked, “She actually used her magic and, well...It was somewhat impressive.”

Despite Blake’s reluctance to show that she was impressed at all, Weiss was clearly reveling in the praise.

“Yes, yes,” Weiss replied, “It was impressive, I know, I know. And honestly, seeing that little spark made me realize that I may very well be a lot stronger than I thought and I, for one, am ready to see more of this.”

“All I saw was Blake,” Ruby admitted, “But that was incredible! I’m still not sure what this horn is even good for...I mean, I heard about magic, but…”

“Hey, guys, one sec,” Yang interrupted, “I have to ask something: Ruby, have you even eaten? You weren’t at breakfast, so…”

Ruby’s stomach chose that moment to let out an enormous growl. Yang chuckled in response to this, then nodded to Weiss.

“Ehe...S-Sorry, I was in such a rush this morning that I-”

Weiss cut off her partner.

“Argh…You can be so hopeless sometimes. Follow me, Ruby,” Weiss said, leading Ruby out of the courtyard.

“Hey,” Blake said to Yang, “Looks like Jaune’s team is about to practice. This should be interesting.”

It was obvious that the royal guard’s captain had wanted another round of practice. However, though he had enjoyed his fight with Blake, his eyes were fixed on another pony. Indeed, even if he had wanted to fight the leader of Team RWBY, he had found somebody who struck him as an equally strong leader. Not only that, but Cadence had asked him to fight this pony earlier.
Team JNPR knew this from the moment he looked at their leader. Indeed, the yellow-maned stallion knew that he couldn’t back down from this, and after an encouraging nod from his partner accompanied by a quick recap of the various things she had been teaching him, he stepped forward to face the pony called Shining Armor.

“You’re Jaune, right? Team JNPR’s leader?” Shining Armor asked, “I never got to see you in action, but this morning...Well, Cadence told me that she wanted to see us fight if possible. I’m glad to see you’re not backing down.”

Jaune swallowed hard, trying to hide his apprehension.

“Yes. I-It’s an honor, sir,” Jaune replied.

“Just call me Shining,” Shining said in response, “Now then...Actions speak louder than words, so shall we start?”

Jaune nodded in response, looking to the crowd of guards once more. His teammates were watching intently, Nora barely able to contain her excitement for the battle, Ren sitting still and observing, and Pyrrha gesturing for her partner to look back to his opponent.

With a few hoofbeats against the stone, yet another round of sparring began. Shining ran forward, aiming to break Jaune’s defenses before anything else. Jaune, however, managed to dodge the first attack, noting that it had been somewhat predictable and delivered from a pony who was clearly not meant for speed. Quickly, he moved out, trying to take a defensive approach to his battle with Shining. Soon, they had both taken a defensive stance, each awaiting the other’s attack, ready to block it whenever it came.

Jaune was the one who took the chance to attack. He moved from side to side, dashing behind Shining as soon as he made an attempt to parry the attack with his horn. Then, he struck, but was met with resistance in the form of a swift kick of the unicorn’s back legs. He fell to the ground, though he quickly rolled back into a standing position.

Indeed, unarmed combat was not his forte. This round had been going surprisingly well, however.

Shining struck as soon as Jaune had recovered, knocking and pinning the earth pony to the ground. In an almost instinctive reaction, Jaune kicked forward, shoving his back hooves into Shining’s torso.

Both ponies were exhausted now, with Jaune barely managing to get himself to stand and Shining having to force himself to continue doing so. However, Shining smiled at his opponent.

“That was impressive, I have to say,” the unicorn gasped, “Especially that last move. I’ve never seen anypony do that so quickly!”

Jaune’s team quickly appeared at his side to help him up.

“Wow, Jaune,” Nora chirped, “That was freaking AWESOME!”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that sort of reaction out of you,” Pyrrha added, “That last move was impressive, to say the least. Though I would like to add something...You allowed him to attack you when you were behind him. Then again, it must be a part of being in equine form...We’ll have to adapt in combat.”

“And our semblance,” Ren added, “I noticed Blake usig hers, but I still don’t know how to use my aura in this form…”

“At least I don’t need a horn for that,” Jaune said, “Or...wings.”

Shining Armor interrupted their conversation.

“Hey, you guys. The other team’s looking for you.”

Jaune nodded, walking out into the crowd, followed by his team.

It was sunset before anything else notable had happened. Before anybody retired to their room for the night, Celestia had many words for the group of eight. Indeed, her mention of a test earlier had not been a lie. It was time to reveal the plan she had to the ponies she had brought to Equestria.

The group sat in the throne room of Canterlot Castle, awaiting her words.

“My dearest subjects and visitors from Remnant,” she began, “You may dislike what I am about to tell you, but please understand that I have very good reasons for what I am about to do to all of you. I am about to tell you everything about your test tomorrow.”

Nervous glances were exchanged.

“There is a cave, one that runs deep under the mountainous regions of Equestria. I shall send you to the deepest part,” Celestia continued, “Rest assured, if anything goes wrong, I will save you. However, I trust that all of you shall succeed with your task. It’s a simple task, too: All eight of you must emerge from the cave.”

“Whoa, WHOA,” Jaune interjected, “You’re sending us on this now?! Without any training, or-”

“It’ll be just like initiation, won’t it?” Ruby sighed.

“Indeed it will,” Celestia replied, “But as I said, I will arrive there to save you if anything goes truly, horribly wrong.”

Pyrrha rested her hoof on Jaune’s shoulder in an attempt to reassure him.

“This’ll be no sweat, guys!” Yang said, her partner nodding in agreement.

“Ren! You know exactly what to do if we’re separated!” Nora chimed in, prompting a chuckle from her teammates.

“Of course,” Ren replied, “The signal.”

“I trust you’re all in agreement, then?” Celestia asked. There was a resounding agreement.

“You’re all dismissed, then,” the princess told them, “Good night, all of you.”

As soon as the group had fallen asleep, Luna and her sister sat together, gazing at the night view of Canterlot.

“Indeed, this is not just about Twilight’s destiny anymore, is it?” Luna asked.

“I sense great power in each of those ponies,” Celestia answered, “And I look forward to seeing their potential in action. In fact...You could say I’m just as excited to see what will happen to them as I am to see what Twilight will do.”

Author's Note:

Hello, co-author here! Thank you all for reading this! As you've noticed, the chapters are getting longer! The next one will be the first part of a two-part-thingymabopper called Methods, Madness, and Miracles. So yeah, next chapter's preeeeetty big.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy what we have so far! I haven't written many fight scenes, so those sparring rounds were practice for me as well!

Also, expect art for the next chapter. I've been in a pony-drawing mood.

Comments

[Needle N Thread]

With volume two in full swing, we must continue and we shall!!!
Soon, friends. Ssssooooooooooon. 0v^

[otakufan217]

5706930 No, actually I didn't notice the connection until later on

[Equestrian Amaterasu]

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