SAPR

by Scipio Smith

The Ace of Canterlot (New)

The Ace of Canterlot

James called. Ozpin wasn’t particularly surprised. He sometimes thought that James let his closeness towards his students cloud his judgement as a headmaster a little too much – James was not their father, and Ozpin feared that he forgot that fact more often than was wise – but it made the general rather predictable to one who knew him as well as Ozpin did.

And in the current circumstance, Ozpin found it hard to blame him. They might have a number of broad philosophical disagreements, ranging from the proper role of the military to Ozpin’s belief that James coddled his Atlas students too much, teaching them to rely on outside help that might not always be available – the current situation being a case in point – but he couldn’t blame James for being desperate for news.

Had their places been reversed… had their places been reversed, he hoped he would have been just the same, even if he feared it would not be so.

He answered the call. “General.”

“How’s it going down there?” James asked immediately, forgoing all pleasantries.

“Miss Nikos has entered the forest, accompanied by Miss Fall,” Ozpin said. “Whether they will be enough to turn the tide is… uncertain.”

“Oz, you know that we can’t just wait this out,” Ironwood declared. “Now that those grimm are here, they aren’t just going to get bored and go away again; at least while there are still students in the forest, the grimm will keep hunting them.”

“I’m aware of the behaviour of the grimm, James,” Ozpin declared reproachfully.

“Then what are you going to do about it?” James demanded. He sighed. “I’ve tried contacting the Council again, but I’m being answered by their secretary.”

“As am I,” Ozpin replied. This was the downside of having treated the Council as he had and of having given First Councillor Aris so many headaches over the past year: the First Councillor considered herself to have been ill-used by him, and now, she was being petty in response.

He would have begrudged her the vindictiveness less if there were not lives on the line.

James scowled. “Politicians,” he growled. “Who came up with this set-up?”

“Someone who was doing what he thought was best,” Ozpin replied softly. “Someone who knew he was establishing the worst system in the world, apart from all the others that had already been tried.”

“Forgive me if I withhold my agreement,” James muttered. “What are we going to do, Oz?”

Ozpin was silent for a moment. Miss Shimmer, who could have been either great or terrible or somewhere in between; Miss Nikos, so full of promise, the last flower to bloom from a bygone world; Miss Rose, Summer’s girl, so young and so eager, in heart the very model of a huntress. All thrown into the fire. All at risk. All… all gone, perhaps.

He had hoped that their skill might see them through, he had thought that if they could survive this trial by fire, then they would have proved themselves one step closer to being ready, but James was right: the grimm would not stop hunting them. And it was unlikely that they could kill every grimm that had been drawn into that part of the forest. Perhaps they could fight their way to the Green Line, out of the Emerald Forest, but that seemed a slender thread on which to build any great hopes.

Ozpin wished he had his cane with him; he felt the sudden need to lean upon it.

“I am not sure that there is anything we can do,” he murmured.

James stared at him. “We can’t just give up on them, Oz! There must be something; we have to do something!”

“Is this not what we do, James?” Ozpin demanded. “We send these valiant young men and women into great peril, even to their certain deaths? Do we not send them out to fight and die alone, unaided, and then hate ourselves for being monsters that we are and then do it all again tomorrow? Is there any difference except that these young gallants have not yet been given the fig-leaf that we call graduation?”

“Oz-” James began.

“This is hardly the moment for you to try and console me, James,” Ozpin informed him quietly.

“No,” James murmured. “No, I guess it’s not.” He paused. “I try not to leave anyone to die alone if I can avoid it.”

“Sometimes…” Ozpin didn’t finish that thought. He didn’t actively seek it either, but there were instances when it was quite simply unavoidable. “I do not know what there is to be done.”

“Sir!” the voice of Miss Dash rang out from behind him. “Permission to speak!”

---

Dash’s leg twitched. Her foot tapped impatiently up and down upon the ground.

Something was wrong. It was obvious that something was wrong. Everyone in the freshman class, gathered outside in front of the docking pads, knew that something was wrong. Knew that something had gone wrong. Knew that things in the Emerald Forest weren’t going according to plan.

What gave it away? What didn’t give it away? The fact that Professor Ozpin and Professor Port were huddled together discussing things that they didn’t want the students to hear, the fact that no more Bullheads had taken off, the fact that you only had to turn around and you could see nevermores flying around out past the school, the fact that a cruiser and its air wing had taken up a defensive position over the school, none of this was normal. None of this was how things were supposed to go.

Rainbow didn’t know what, exactly, had gone wrong, but she knew that something had. Everyone knew that something had. None of these students here were idiots; at least, none were bigger idiots than Rainbow Dash. They all had eyes; they could all work this stuff out.

Of course, none of them were doing anything about it. They were only whispering and murmuring and worrying… and tapping their feet.

Everyone except Pyrrha. Pyrrha had done something. Pyrrha had run for the cliffs, and if Rainbow wasn’t mistaken, she had jumped right off them too. Off the cliffs and into the forest. She had gone to help her friends, while Rainbow… Twilight was down there, Twilight was there while something was going wrong, and Rainbow was just… just standing here!

She felt like a coward. Pyrrha made her feel like a coward.

What’s going on? And why isn’t anyone doing anything about it? Why is that ship holding station instead of taking the fight to the grimm?

Is Twilight still okay?

“You’re tapping your foot,” Ciel observed.

Rainbow glanced at her. Ciel stood at ease, her hands clasped behind her back. Clasped a little too tightly. “And your hands are too tight,” Rainbow replied.

Ciel’s only reply to that was a slight sigh.

“Are you… are you both worried?” Penny ventured. “About Twilight?”

Rainbow hesitated. “Yes,” she admitted. “I’m worried.”

Ciel hesitated for even longer than Rainbow had. “As am I,” she said at last.

Penny blinked. “Should I be worried, too? This… it isn’t how things are supposed to go, is it?”

“No, Penny, it is not,” Ciel declared. “The following waves of students should have been flown in in quick succession, and there should have been no need for a fleet deployment.”

Penny frowned. “But if the fleet has been deployed, then isn’t everything okay? Won’t they save everyone?”

“That’s how it's supposed to work,” Rainbow muttered.

“In this case… we simply lack information,” Ciel said. “I suspect that Professor Ozpin and Professor Port have discussed the situation at hand, but they are not sharing their information with us.”

“I… I see,” Penny said softly. “But Pyrrha and Ruby are really strong, especially Pyrrha; and so is Sunset too, in a different way to them. I know that Twilight wasn’t partnered up with any of them, but maybe if they all team up, then-”

“Believe me, Penny, if I knew that had happened, I would not be nearly so worried,” Rainbow replied. “Trust me, I wouldn’t be nearly so worried if I knew that Twilight was with Blake, never mind all the others. But I don’t know that, and so… so I worry.” And I hate that Pyrrha has more guts than I do.

“You are not at fault,” Ciel said.

“Huh?” Rainbow asked.

“Pyrrha has followed the dictates of her conscience, but you are not at fault by remaining here in obedience to orders,” Ciel assured her.

“Really?” Rainbow asked. “Then why do I feel at fault?”

Ciel was silent for a moment. “Obedient service is not always easy,” she said in that typically even tone of hers.

“Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better,” Rainbow growled. She turned around, looking over the heads of some of the students gathered around her to see – past and through the screen of Atlesian airships grouped around the cruiser – the nevermores flying over the forest. “The problem is the nevermores,” she declared.

“What do you mean?” Penny asked.

“I mean, that if the skies were clear, it wouldn’t matter what kind of trouble there was down in the forest because we could either bring in more students or, if things were really too hot, airlift the ones that were already in the forest out again. Even if they didn’t want to continue the exercise, then they could get Twi and the others out. But because of all those grimm in the… ah!”

Penny’s eyes widened. “Rainbow Dash?”

“I’m such an idiot!” Rainbow cursed, smacking herself on the forehead for only thinking like a huntress in training when she wasn’t just that, not by a long shot. “Wait here,” she commanded before she started pushing her way through the crowd – Penny followed her in spite of Rainbow’s instructions, practically forcing Ciel to do likewise – until she had not only cleared the front rank of the huddled students, but closed the distance with the headmaster by half, waiting until she reached the edge of the landing pad on which he stood to come to attention, slamming her foot down on the pad, and say. “Sir! Permission to speak!”

Professor Ozpin turned to face her slowly. He had a scroll in his hand, and on that scroll, Rainbow could just about make out the face of General Ironwood looking out at her.

Rainbow saluted. “Sir!”

“At ease, Dash,” General Ironwood said in a voice that was distant but audible nevertheless. Rainbow saw the General return her salute, and so she lowered her arm and came to an ‘at ease’ posture, legs spaced out and hands clasped behind her back.

Professor Ozpin’s expression was unreadable, at least to Rainbow. He walked towards her and kept his voice soft as he said, “Permission granted, Miss Dash.”

“Request permission to mount a rescue, sir.”

Professor Ozpin glanced down at General Ironwood, who – unless Rainbow was imagining it, which was possible – had a slight smile on his face.

“Explain, Miss Dash,” Professor Ozpin said.

“I don’t know whether the situation on the ground is so bad that you wouldn’t insert any more students in there if you could, sir, but you can’t,” Rainbow said. “And you can’t get the students of the first wave out either because the grimm own the skies over the Emerald Forest. Now, I… I don’t know why we’re letting them rule it,” she said quickly, hoping to get over the hump of the disrespect to the General quickly but at the same time knowing that if she didn’t say it, it would keep on bugging her until she did. “But I can get them out regardless, in my Skyray.”

Professor Ozpin’s eyebrows threatened to rise. “There are a very large number of nevermores, Miss Dash; believe me, withholding evacuation is not a decision that I take lightly. What makes you think that you can accomplish this?”

“Because I’m that good of a pilot, sir,” Rainbow replied. “But you don’t have to believe that; you only have to ask yourself: what have you got to lose? Me. And if you risk me, then you might get some of the gold out of that forest… isn’t it worth the risk?”

Professor Ozpin again glanced down at General Ironwood. “James? What do you say to this?”

“I say that if anyone can get this done, Dash can,” General Ironwood replied, and he was looking at Rainbow, not at Professor Ozpin, when he said it.

Rainbow felt her chest puff itself out a little as she heard that. “I won’t let you down, sir.”

“Considering what you’ve volunteered for, Miss Dash, letting anyone down should be the least of your concerns,” Professor Ozpin replied. The corners of his lips twitched upwards. “Permission granted, Miss Dash. Bring them home.”

Rainbow saluted. “Yes sir!” She turned around, finding Penny much closer than she had expected. “Penny, stay here. Ciel, make sure that Penny stays here.”

“Affirmative,” Ciel responded.

“'Stay here'?” Penny exclaimed. “But Ciel and I should come with you. Twilight and the others might need help-”

“I’ll have help,” Rainbow replied. “Just… not you.”

“Why not me?” Penny demanded. “I’m ready! I’ve already fought the White Fang; what’s so different about-?”

“This is not a question of readiness, Penny,” Ciel said, placing a hand on Penny’s shoulder. “This is a question of… value, is it not, Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow nodded. “You’re too valuable to risk in something like this.”

“But you’re risking your life for our friends,” Penny pointed out.

“And if the General walks down any street in Low Town, he can find twenty guys just like me,” Rainbow replied. “You’re the only Penny that we’ve got.”

Penny pouted. “No! They’re my friends too, and I want to help you rescue them! Why should I just sit here-?”

“Penny,” Ciel cut her off. “This complaining is childish and to no purpose.”

“If you’re going to treat me like a child, then why shouldn’t I be childish?” demanded Penny.

“Penny,” Rainbow said sharply. “Look at me.”

Penny did, indeed, look; her green eyes were bright from the backlighting, and they glared into Rainbow’s face.

Rainbow didn’t flinch; it would look bad if she did. “Do you trust me?” she asked.

“I never-”

“Do you trust me?” Rainbow repeated.

Penny nodded solemnly. “I trust you, Rainbow Dash.”

“Then trust me,” Rainbow implored her. “I’m going to get them back, but you need to stay here and stay safe. There are lots of battles to fight, real battles, battles with whole kingdoms at stake. But this isn’t one of them. Trust me, I can get this done.”

Penny hesitated. “You will save everyone, won’t you?”

Rainbow grinned, and threw her a thumbs up. “I’m all over it.”

“Rise up through snow and cold and heart of winter,” Ciel murmured. “May the Lady be your co-pilot.”

Rainbow nodded but said nothing. She looked out across the sea of gathered students. She wasn’t going to take Penny, and not taking Penny, she couldn’t really take Ciel either – someone had to take over as team leader if this didn’t work out – but she did want someone to go in with her, just in case anyone needed help groundside. Someone who could handle themselves, someone who wasn’t afraid of a little direct action, someone reliable, but also someone who was crazy enough to go along with this.

Or a team whose leader is nuts but whose second is reliable. “Hey, Trixie!” she yelled as she walked past Penny and Ciel and back the way she’d come. “You want to be a hero?”

“The Grrrrrreat and Powerrrrful Trrrrixie is already a hero amongst heroes!” Trixie proclaimed, throwing back her cape and hitting a green-haired, red-eyed girl in the face with it in the process. Trixie didn’t notice as she grinned. “But I’m always ready to join in a stupid plan if you need my help.”

“If Twilight needs help, then we’re in,” Starlight agreed.

“Thanks, guys,” Rainbow said. “I’ll owe you for this.”

Tempest rolled her eyes. “Sure. Sure. Whatever.”

“We’re not doing this so you’ll owe us,” Sunburst insisted. “We’re doing this because it’s the right thing to do.”

“But we’ll take a favour anyway,” Trixie added.

“Ignore her,” Starlight said. “Blake risked her life to save us on our last mission. How can we do less now that she needs help?”

“Maybe nothing, but I’ll owe you anyway,” Rainbow said. “Now come on, let’s go.”

---

Ozpin looked down at his scroll. “Can she do it, James? Or are we throwing good children after more good children?”

“I told you before, Oz: I’ve never met anyone with more guts and determination than Rainbow Dash,” Ironwood replied. “She’ll get it done; you can count on it.”

---

Rainbow led Team TTSS up the ramp into The Bus, their feet clattering upon the metal of the ramp as they piled inside the airship.

“Starlight, I need you up here with me,” Rainbow said as she took off her wings – she’d hardly need them to fly a Skyray, and the truth was that their bulk got in the way a little when she was sitting in the pilot’s chair – and stowed them in one of the lockers behind the benches next to the side doors. “At least until we pick up Twilight.”

“Uh, I’ve flown a little,” Starlight said, “but I wouldn’t say I’ve got what it takes for a mission like this.”

“I don’t need you to take the controls; I need someone smart to bring up the locations of everyone we need to pick up,” Rainbow explained, slamming the locker door shut with a metallic thud. “Can you use their scrolls to trace their positions?”

“Sure, if they’ve got their scrolls with them,” Starlight replied.

Rainbow grinned. “I knew I could count on you.” It was well known that Starlight Glimmer could turn her hand to… pretty much absolutely anything. She might not be the best at all of those things – she wasn’t quite as smart as Twilight, or as scientifically or mechanically gifted, and she was right: she was nowhere near as good a flyer as Rainbow Dash – but she was pretty darn good at all of them. It had been, to be honest, a little unnerving how awesome she was at everything, like, why was General Ironwood wasting his time with Rainbow Dash when this girl was obviously going to be Atlas’ champion in years ahead? Then she’d had a freak-out from the stress of it all, gone AWOL, and eventually been tracked down to a nameless village out in the wilds where she’d been trying to persuade everyone to wear sackcloth and bake deliberately bad-tasting muffins – the villagers hadn’t taken much notice and honestly seemed glad to have a huntress around – which had answered that question, lost Starlight her team-leader spot, and meant that she had come back to repeat her first year after she got out of therapy. All in all, being Trixie’s second seemed to agree with her more than being the rising hope of Atlas ever had, and she hadn’t had any problems since, so Rainbow wasn’t worried about having her ride shotgun.

In fact, in the current situation, she couldn’t think of anyone that she’d rather have.

“Tempest,” she added, “when we set down, I’m going to need you on one of these guns.” She pointed to the two triple-barrelled rotary cannons mounted on rails running along the ceiling parallel to the doors. Not all Skyrays carried them all the time – they were usually reserved for airships attached to front line units – but The Bus had them for situations just like this, and a good thing too, considering there were likely to be as many grimm on the ground as in the air.

“Understood,” Tempest said, her voice and expression alike betraying nothing. She was absolutely impassive, the situation not fazing her at all.

That was probably a good thing.

“But right now, everyone strap in,” Rainbow said. “This ride could get rough.” She turned in the direction of the cockpit, trusting Starlight to follow.

“Wait!” the voice that hailed her belonged to Sun, and his voice was followed shortly after – as Rainbow turned back – by his self as Sun leapt onto the ramp and scampered into the airship. “Wait,” he repeated. “I’m coming with you.”

Rainbow frowned. “Sun, I know you must be worried about Blake-”

“This isn’t about Blake!” Sun exclaimed. “I mean, sure, I’m worried that she’s in there, even though I know that she’s a totally awesome huntress, and if anyone can handle herself in a situation like this, it’s her, but this isn’t about her. This is about Sage. He’s my teammate, and he’s in trouble, and so I should do something to help him. I should have gone with Pyrrha, but I didn’t, and now… I should do this, don’t you think? Isn’t this what a team leader would do?”

Rainbow hesitated. “Maybe it is,” she conceded. “But if I let you come with me, and then Weiss shows up wanting to come with us to help out Flash-”

“Rainbow Dash!” Weiss called, and Rainbow heard her feet pitter-pattering up the ramp before she burst in, shoving Sun slightly aside to make room for her. “I’m coming with you.”

“No, you’re not,” Rainbow insisted. “If you two come along, and then Yang shows up next, there’s not going to be any room for Sage or Flash or anybody else we’re supposed to evacuate.”

“If you have us, why do you need… these people?” Weiss demanded, waving one dismissive hand to encompass Team TTSS as Trixie, Tempest, and Sunburst took their seats on the front benches and strapped themselves in.

“Because I trust them,” Rainbow said. “And also because they’re kind of expendable if this goes wrong.”

“Hey!” Trixie cried.

“Listen, I get it,” Rainbow said, “you want to be good team leaders, believe me; in your shoes, I would want in too. But I also know that if I were down there in that forest, the last thing I’d want would be for my team leader, my friend, to get hurt on some dangerous rescue plan.”

“Then why are you going?” Weiss demanded.

Rainbow grinned. “Because I don’t take enough notice of what Twilight wants.” The smile faded from her face. “Trust me, we’re going to bring them home, all of them. But I need you to step down and wait for them to come back, okay?”

Weiss frowned. “What makes you so sure?”

"Because this is what I do," Rainbow said earnestly. She could fight; she could kill grimm; if it came to it, maybe she could kill men too; but what she was, what she really was, what she thought that General Ironwood took notice of her for, was a saviour. She'd protected Twilight and the others from Chrysalis; she'd saved Applejack, Maud, and Spearhead from the grimm; the reason she was the leader of Team RSPT was in case somebody needed to save Penny. That was what Rainbow Dash did: she made sure that everyone got home safe.

And she didn't mean to break that streak now.

Weiss looked into Rainbow's eyes. "Winter tells me that you're very good," she murmured. "And my sister is a very good judge of character. Come on, Sun; we don't want to get in anyone's way."

Sun's mouth opened; for a moment, it looked as though he might say something, but he did not; he simply followed after Weiss as they both exited the airship.

"Trixie, shut that door before Yang shows up," Rainbow ordered; she heard the door hissing shut behind her as she, once again, turned to the cockpit.

This time, she made it there and sat down in the pilot's seat on the right-hand side and started running hastily through the pre-flight checklist. Dust at one hundred percent, engines green, weapons loaded, sensors operating…

Starlight sat down in the seat beside her. "There is one thing that concerns me a little," she admitted, even as she took out her scroll and began to tap away on it.

"What's that?" Rainbow asked.

"There are ten people down in the forest, right?" Starlight said. "Including the two who went in after the first group?"

"Pyrrha and Cinder, yeah, ten," Rainbow replied.

"This airship is only rated to carry ten people," Starlight said. "And there are already five of us."

"Yeah, but come on Starlight, this an Atlesian airship," Rainbow declared. "Everyone knows Atlesian engineering has a one hundred percent margin of safety."

"Does it?" Starlight asked.

Rainbow paused for a moment. "Well, let's hope so, huh?" she said, flashing a grin in Starlight's direction. Twilight had told her that it was so; admittedly, Twilight had told her so while defending the way that she had built a hundred and fifty percent margin of safety into the Wings of Harmony.

Hopefully, Twilight hadn't been lying to save face.

Nah, Twilight wasn't the kind to do something like that. One hundred percent margin of safety.

Probably.

Starlight rolled her eyes.

As the engines on The Bus stirred to life, Rainbow quickly got out her own scroll and called Twilight. She wouldn't have risked calling anyone else in the middle of a hot combat zone like that, and she didn't know of anyone in the forest who would be stupid enough to answer their scroll in the middle of a fight, but Twilight's armour included her VI, Midnight, who could do things like answer the scroll without Twilight have to lift a finger.

Rainbow wasn't always sure that she liked Midnight, but she was glad that she existed right now.

"Hello, Rainbow Dash," Midnight said, her voice seeming even more mechanically distorted than normal when coming out of the other end of a scroll.

"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight cried.

"Twilight!" Rainbow said loudly. "Are you okay?"

"Thanks to Pyrrha," Midnight said.

"What happened?" Rainbow demanded.

"Nothing happened," Twilight insisted.

"Several deficiencies were discovered with Twilight's combat system," Midnight informed Rainbow. "Also, she almost died."

"'Almost-'" Rainbow forced herself not to panic. Panic wasn't going to help. She needed to be calm and cool to fly the airship. "How much aura do you have left?"

"About twenty percent," Midnight said.

"It's not my aura that I'm concerned with," Twilight declared. "Sage is hurt; he needs help. What's happening up there?"

"What's happening is that I'm coming to get everyone," Rainbow said. "Starlight is trying to fix your location using your scroll; can you give her a hand with that, or are you too preoccupied?"

"Starlight?"

"Hey, Twilight," Starlight broke in. "Rough day, huh?"

Twilight sighed on the other end of the line. "You could say that."

"You can tell us all about it when we get back to Beacon," Starlight said. "Until then, do you think you can help me out?"

"Sure, I'll do what I can," Twilight said. "Rainbow, are you sure you can do this? The nevermores-"

"Let me worry about the nevermores; you just stay safe until I get there."

"Okay. I'll try. Thank you."

"Yes, thank you, Rainbow Dash," Midnight added. "This is why you're my favourite."

"No, I'm not," Rainbow replied.

Midnight paused. "No," she admitted. "As a computer, I don't have favourites."

"I don't believe that either," Rainbow muttered. "Sit tight; we're on our way." She ended the call, gripped the wheel, and hauled up on it to lift The Bus up into the air. The sky sank down to meet them, the buildings of Beacon falling away as the airship ascended. Starlight looked down at the scroll in her lap, tapping away, while Rainbow's gaze flickered between the view out of the cockpit and the instruments arrayed in front of her. Sensors detected no hostiles; all systems were go.

Rainbow's hands spun the wheel, turning the airship upon a central point so that the Skyray's bulbous nose was facing eastward towards the Emerald Forest. Rainbow Dash accelerated, the airship lurching forwards towards the line of Skydarts ranged around the cruiser that, now she was in the cockpit, she could identify as the Resolution; they were guarding the cliffs, warding off any attempt the nevermores might make at Beacon. There probably wasn't much chance of it – the grimm weren't stupid, unfortunately, and they probably knew that attacking a huntsman academy was a cheap ticket to an early grave – but it was the closest the Atlesian forces could get to engaging the enemy.

Rainbow pulled the microphone off the wall. "Resolution, this is Rorari Three-Two heading out over the Emerald Forest."

"Roger that, Rorari Three-Two; good luck out there."

"Wish you were coming with me."

"Wish we were coming too, Three-Two, over."

"Understood," Rainbow said and hung the microphone back up.

Starlight shuffled in her seat. "I wonder why they're just standing there?"

"We'll find out eventually," Rainbow said.

"Will we also find out what Twilight's doing in an academy uniform?" Starlight demanded.

Rainbow looked at her.

"Come on, Rainbow Dash, you must realise this is the question everyone who knows Twilight has been asking," Starlight needled. "She's no huntress, so why the act? What's going on?"

Rainbow looked away, out of the cockpit. "It's classified."

Starlight snorted. "In other words, don't ask," she muttered.

"Pretty much, yeah."

Starlight shook her head. "So many secrets."

If only you knew, Rainbow thought.

They passed through the Resolution's fighter screen, beyond the cliffs and out over the Emerald Forest; Rainbow could see patches of the green and verdant forest canopy out of the corners of the cockpit, passing down below, stretching out green uninterrupted for miles beyond.

And above the trees, the nevermores circled. There must have been about fifty of them, circling, darting back and forth, their wings flapping as they peered downwards at the forest below. Every so often, one of them would dive down towards the trees, but never for very long, never reaching the ground; they always pulled up before they reached that point.

Rainbow asked, "What do you think they're doing?"

Starlight looked up from her scroll and shuddered. "I think they're looking for prey," she said before she plugged in her scroll to a dock on the dashboard. Instantly, the scroll began to project a three-dimensional hologram of the forest, with ten red dots marking positions scattered across the map: seven in one place, one solitary dot off to the north-west, and three dots closest to The Bus.

"That's Twilight, there," Starlight said, indicating the trio of red dots. "One of them, at least."

The Skyray's sensors began to blare out.

"And that's the first nevermore, right there," Rainbow muttered.

It was coming straight at them. Its mouth was open, and although Rainbow couldn't hear it, she could imagine the shrill shriek coming out of the giant grimm's mouth as it bore down on them, head to head, talons outstretched.

I bet you wouldn't be going head to head like this against a Skydart, Rainbow thought. The grimm weren't stupid, more was the pity; they knew which kinds of airships were more dangerous than others.

Or thought they did, in this case. It was coming straight for The Bus because, as big as it was, it didn't believe that the Skyray was armed with anything that could hurt it.

Rainbow was in no hurry to disabuse this one of the notion; as the nevermore flew straight at them, Rainbow did the same, maintaining a level course towards the nevermore in turn. She accelerated slightly and fired off the smaller rotary cannons mounted upon the wingtips; the guns fired, tracer rounds zipped past the cockpit, marking the way as the shots tracked the nevermore and impacted into it, bullets thudding into the black feathers of the grimm.

The grimm took no notice of them, ploughing through the fire, great wings beating, driving it on towards Rainbow Dash and her airship.

Once more, Rainbow found she could imagine the shriek.

"Uh," Starlight murmured. "You want to tell me why you're not using the bigger gun?"

"Not yet," Rainbow replied, her thumb hovering over the button to fire the Tempest cannon.

"Why not?" Starlight demanded.

"Because I want to make sure that I don't miss," Rainbow said, lining up her shot.

The nevermore stretched out its talons, its body rising upwards as it prepared to grab the Skyray from the front.

Rainbow fired the Tempest.

If there was anything to convince Rainbow that Atlesian ships were engineered with a truly staggering margin of safety, it was the fact that she had been able to strap the most ridiculous gun ever made to the bottom of an airship in no way designed for it without suffering any ill-effects whatsoever.

Okay, that wasn't entirely true; as Rainbow hit the button and held it down, as she fired the Tempest at the nevermore that wanted her dead so badly, the entire airship shook. The vibrations of the gun was like an earthquake on the ground, making the cockpit shake, and would have thrown one or both of Rainbow and Starlight out of their chairs if they hadn't been strapped in. Behind her, Rainbow heard Trixie moan in alarm as the whole airship wobbled like jelly that hadn't set right.

But it was worth it, for the way that the nevermore simply disappeared in a cloud of black feathers, thrown backwards as a stream of heavy calibre armour-piercing rounds struck it square on the breast with a buzzsaw sound that echoed upwards into the airship itself.

And then there were clear skies before them.

"And that," Rainbow said, "is why I waited."

The alarm began to ring out once again.

Rainbow Dash looked up to see two nevermores swooping down upon The Bus from out of the sun.

She banked hard to the left, tilting the Skyray, feeling herself being pulled down, pressed against the straps that held her in as she upped the power level on the engines just a little bit. She didn’t stay to fight – these nevermores might not have missed the fate of their comrade, and them coming down on her, it would be tough to get into position to fire the Tempest – so she ran, banking first to the left and then to the right, jinking this way and that while the nevermores pursued them, their black wings pounding, gaining slowly upon the Atlesian airship as they flew.

“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Starlight demanded.

“Yes.”

Starlight boggled at her for a moment. “Then why isn’t this thing going any faster?!”

“Because I don’t want to lose them,” Rainbow replied, “I want to string them along.”

Starlight stared at the girl in the pilot’s seat. “Are you crazy?”

“No, I’m a great pilot,” Rainbow replied, grinning like a maniac. Her hands were steady as a rock, and she didn’t know if Starlight noticed, but there was not a single bead of sweat anywhere upon her, certainly not on her hand. By the gods but she had missed this, both the freedom of flying and the thrill of it, of knowing that even on a good day, you were one slip up, one accident away from death, and that went double when there were grimm around.

Everything was in her own hands. Her survival was entirely up to her, and it was awesome! No limits, no boundaries, just showing the whole world what she could do.

And so she let the nevermores gain on her, drawing closer, ever closer, and then, when she judged that they had gotten close enough, Rainbow hauled back on the steering column, and then she let the throttle out. The enhanced engines of The Bus roared to life as Rainbow’s beauty shot upwards into the sky, soaring higher, ever higher, rising towards the clouds with the nevermores still in hot pursuit.

A Skyray was fast on the level – faster than a nevermore – but the avian grimm had a better rate of climb, so Rainbow needed to give it all she had in order to stay ahead of them during the race for the clouds. The nevermores stopped gaining, holding the distance between them and their prey even, never falling behind and not letting up in their pursuit, not for a single moment.

Starlight was being pressed backwards into her seat, moaning softly in discomfort. From behind, Rainbow could hear Trixie shrieking. She sounded a little like one of the nevermores.

The grin didn’t leave Rainbow’s face. Sure, things might not seem fun right now, and she could feel the harness digging into her chest the same as Starlight could, but once they pulled this off, they were all going to feel absolutely fantastic.

“Look at this view!” Rainbow whooped as they rose higher and higher, bursting through a cloud, rising so high that when Rainbow cut back on the engines for a moment, when she throttled the power back to a bare minimum, The Bus hung suspended for a moment, high above a world that was spread out all around them.

And it was beautiful. You could see the whole of Vale from up here, in all its sprawling glory. From up high, the Atlesian cruisers looked like the model ships that Ciel made. The Emerald Forest was a lush carpet of green laid out across the world so that nobody stubbed their toes walking on the floor, and the mountains rose up out of the earth like the jagged blades of an obsidian club. Rivers of sparkling sapphire wound their way across a land of tiny villages and small towns, and railway lines bound the land in chairs of iron.

Rainbow couldn’t see all the way to Atlas from up here, but in a way, that was a good thing. Home was a long way off, but it was good that the world wasn’t small enough to fit into the view from an airship.

The world was so vast and so beautiful.

She wondered where in all this expanse of loveliness Fluttershy and Applejack were; she tried to imagine them, wandering along the ground like tiny ants, while she sat in heaven looking down upon them all.

Then the Skyray began to fall.

It began to plummet to the ground, and the rate of its descent accelerated dramatically as Rainbow Dash turned the engines back on to maximum, turning the Skyray so that its nose was pointing straight towards the ground, the ground towards which the airship rushed with all the power at its command. The nevermores scattered out of her way, aided by Rainbow firing downwards at them to give them some more encouragement, but as The Bus flew headlong like a thunderbolt towards the ground, they pursued once more, joined by a third nevermore, all of them falling down, black darts pursuing.

The forest grew larger and larger, closer and closer.

“Rainbow Dash!” Starlight cried, holding onto the ceiling of the cockpit with one hand as she looked to be trying to push herself back into her seat.

Larger and larger, closer and closer.

“RAINBOW DASH!” Starlight yelled when there was nothing in their view but green trees, on which they could see the leaves.

Rainbow pulled up, hauling back on the steering column to wrest the Skyray out of its descent and bring it level, no, rising just a little bit. The bottom of the airship towards the tail hit the trees with a thump that made them all bounce, that made the airship rise a little and then fall a little before levelling off just above the treetops.

The nevermores were not so lucky. Unable pull up in time, all three of them, tangled up together, getting in one another’s way as they sought to escape their fate, ploughed into the ground, smashing trees beneath their bulk, kicking up great clouds of earth as they cratered the landscape beneath them.

Rainbow didn’t know if any of them had survived the impact, but she wasn’t about to take any chances; as she banked the airship around, she opened up the missile launchers on the starboard side and fired on the crater the grimm had left.

Nothing stirred once the smoke cleared.

A triumphant laugh began to rise from Rainbow’s throat… only to cease when she thought about how many adorable forest critters might have died as a result of what she did.

Maybe I won’t tell Fluttershy about this.

Starlight gasped. “That… that was-”

“Great, right?”

“Not quite the word I’d use,” Starlight replied.

There were no other nevermores actively trying to kill them, so Rainbow kept the airship flying just above the treetops as she looked back over her shoulder. “Everyone okay back there?”

Trixie groaned wordlessly.

“I think I might hurl,” Sunburst muttered.

“Tempest, can you stand?” Rainbow yelled.

“Of course,” Tempest replied. “You want me on the gun?”

“Yes,” Rainbow said; she looked back at Starlight’s map. They had, by luck, come down pretty close to the lone dot making their way through the forest. “Someone’s nearby.”

She heard, rather than saw, one of the side doors open up, but rather than glance back again to see Tempest deploying the side cannon, Rainbow kept her eyes in front of her – and on the sensors – as she banked The Bus gently in the direction of the single lost lamb in the forest. She couldn’t help but wonder what kind of person would leave their partner like that.

Perhaps it was Blake; she could see Blake doing something stupidly noble like trying to lead the grimm away from Ruby.

She was that kind of person. It was what made her such a good fit for Atlas.

It was also the kind of thing that was going to get her killed one of these days if she wasn’t careful.

A flash movement caught her attention; a head poked up through the leaves, followed by a figure climbing up to the top of one of the trees, waving both her arms in the air to get Rainbow’s attention. It wasn’t Blake, it was the Haven student, Arslan Altan, the one who was some kind of bigshot back in Mistral. Rainbow brought the Skyray alongside the tree, and Arslan nimbly leapt aboard, landing inside with a thump against the metal.

“Thanks,” she said as Sunburst – feeling a little recovered – helped her to a seat. “I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting a rescue effort with all those nevermores around.” She paused. “Just like I wasn’t expecting to see any airship pull a stunt like that. That was incredible.”

“You didn’t have to experience it,” Trixie groaned.

“What happened here?” Sunburst asked. “Where’s your partner?”

“What happened is the creatures of grimm,” Arslan said. “There were so many of them; like, what kind of an exercise is this?”

“One that’s gone wrong,” Starlight declared as she got out of the co-pilot’s chair and made her way back into the passenger section. “Grimm numbers are much higher than expected; that’s why the skies are full of nevermores, that’s why we’re getting everyone out.” She glanced at Trixie. “We should get ready.”

Trixie unstrapped herself. “Quite right, Starlight. I was wondering who’d be the first to notice that it is time to get ready!”

Rainbow shook her head. As she guided the VTOL – gently, bearing in mind there was a door open now – towards the location of Twilight and her companions, she glanced back into the passenger section and said, “You never said what happened to your partner? Is Sunset okay?”

“Sunset went on ahead,” Arslan replied. “Ruby’s aura broke; she could move faster on her own. I tried to catch up, but I… got lost.”

Tempest sniggered.

“I’m a city girl; I don’t know where I am in the countryside!” Arslan protested.

Rainbow said nothing. What Sunset had done… it probably wasn’t the right thing to do, but at the same time, she could absolutely understand why Sunset had done it, and, well, there was a reason they were headed towards Twilight next.

Maybe Sunset and I are more alike than I thought.

There’s an encouraging thought.

In addition to Tempest on the cannon, Starlight crouched in the doorway with her Equaliser in rifle mode; as the Skyray flew low over the trees, Starlight would sometimes see a beowolf darting through the forest beneath them. Equaliser rang out, a turquoise-coloured laser bolt streaming from the barrel; sometimes, she could see that she had hit the target; other times, she just had to hope that she had.

They flew over one of the paths cutting through the forest, following it southwards towards Twilight’s location. Once or twice, they saw ursai or small groups of beowolves, and when they did, the side-cannon whirred as it sprayed the forest with fire, splintering tree bark and denuding the trees of their leaves as grimm were dissolved in the hail of fire.

Rainbow let out a breath that she hadn’t known that she’d been holding when she saw Twilight, distinctive in her lavender armour, waving one hand towards them. There was someone else with her too, Cinder Fall in her brown vest and pants, shielding her eyes from the sun as she looked up towards them. Rainbow could see Sage too, lying on the ground. He wasn’t moving.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight’s voice broke through on the microphone. “Am I glad to see you!”

Rainbow nearly ripped the microphone off the wall. “Me too, Twi; me too. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” Twilight insisted. “It was a little scary, I admit, but I’m okay, thanks to Pyrrha and Cinder.”

“Where is Pyrrha?”

“She left Cinder here with me and went on ahead to go help Ruby,” Twilight said. “Her aura broke; I don’t know if she’s okay.”

“We’ll find out soon enough,” Rainbow assured her. “How’s Sage?”

“I don’t know; I’m not a doctor,” Twilight replied. “I’m not sure if we should move him.”

“We don’t have much choice,” Rainbow replied. “Hang on, I’ll set her down; that way nobody has to jump while carrying him.”

“Is there room to land here?”

“I’ll make it work,” Rainbow said, gently easing The Bus downwards towards the ground. It was a tight squeeze, definitely – this path had been made for people not for airships – but it had also been made to give people a reasonable amount of space, and so, by shifting first this way and then that, by moving the wings inch by inch to avoid the trees, by taking it nice and slow, she was able to bring the airship down to hover just above the deck. She didn’t extend out the ramp, as much as that might have made things easier. They might need to make a quick getaway, after all.

Sunburst got one of the two stretchers down from the ceiling and leapt down to carry it to Twilight and Sage, while Starlight also disembarked to cover them, Equaliser pressed against her shoulder as her aim darted this way and that.

Cinder, by contrast, embarked into the Skyray, not waiting for Twilight as she and Sunburst got Sage onto the stretcher. Rather, Cinder walked into the cockpit, her boots tapping lightly upon the floor, and leaned over Rainbow’s seat.

“So, gallant Atlas decided to rescue us after all,” Cinder drawled. “I must confess that I’m surprised.”

“You shouldn’t be,” Rainbow grunted, “Saving people is what Atlas does.”

“Oh, yes, you save everyone, don’t you,” Cinder said. “You never fail, you never falter, you never let anyone die. You have the power to save every single life.”

“I didn’t say that,” Rainbow said. “I just… we try, okay? We don’t leave anyone behind.”

“Apparently not,” Cinder conceded. “And yet… rather a small rescue party, isn’t it? Just you and… some other people.”

“We’re Team Tsunami!” Trixie declared. “Led by the Great and Powerful-”

“Fascinating,” Cinder interrupted. “My point is, why just one ship?”

“You only need one ship when I’m at the controls,” Rainbow declared. “Thanks, for sticking by Twilight.”

Cinder smirked. “Oh, don’t mention it, Rainbow Dash. It was pure pleasure.”

She retreated just as Twilight levitated Sage’s stretcher inside and then embarked herself, followed by Sunburst and Starlight. As Sunburst secured Sage’s stretcher on the floor, strapping both the stretcher and the patient in at the back of the airship so that neither of them would be thrown around if Rainbow had to do any more dramatic flying, Twilight made her way up to the cockpit.

Rainbow grabbed her, pulling her into an embrace that was no less tight for being one-armed. She pressed her forehead against Twilight’s and, for a moment, closed her eyes.

“You are not doing this again.”

Twilight laughed nervously. “I hope not.”

Rainbow opened her eyes. “I’m glad you're okay.”

“I’m glad you came for me.”

“Always,” Rainbow said softly.

A smile briefly spread across Twilight’s face, and for a moment, it looked as though she was going to say something else… but instead, she merely took the now vacant co-pilot’s seat, and Rainbow returned her attention to the controls as she guided the Skyray – once more, gently – back up into the air and towards the remaining students still in the forest.

She kept The Bus to about half the speed she was capable of, mostly because she didn’t want to completely overshoot the target or miss where Blake and the others were – maybe trying to get their attention like Arslan and Twilight – because she was going too fast to slow down in time.

Tank had taught her that there were times when slow and steady won the race.

However, as the Skyray glided over the treetops, Rainbow soon noticed – even before Starlight called out to her – that it wasn’t just the forest floor and the trees that were passing beneath them.

It was the grimm, a mass of grimm, maybe not enough to be called a horde – and Rainbow didn’t see any really big ones there – but it was certainly a huge column of beowolves, a black mass running through the forest, sometimes thinning out as a dense copse of trees or a rock formation presented some obstacle to their movement, but then flowing back again into the column they had presented before. They were like a river, a tide of grimm that could be momentarily broken up but not denied the unity of its course. Individual grimm were impossible to keep track of as they disappeared out of sight from time to time as the trees blocked the view from above, but it was impossible to lose sight of the mass of grimm, the sheer number of them moving in one group, one direction.

In the same direction as the huntsmen.

The sound of their roars and growls rose up from the forest floor as Tempest opened fire on them, spraying the column with rounds from her rapidly rotating cannon. Some of the beowolves looked up; they bared their fangs; they raised their paws in angry, futile challenge; but though Tempest’s fire raked their column, it did not diminish the size of the black, angry mass in any meaningful way.

Some of the beowolves leapt up into the air or else climbed trees before jumping off the highest branches that would bear their weight, claws flailing wildly as they sought to gain the Skyray and massacre all those within. Those that weren’t killed instantly by Tempest’s cannon, by Starlight’s Equaliser, those that weren’t burned by the fire from Trixie’s wand, fell back, flailing and howling, to the ground below as Rainbow pulled her airship upwards, out of reach of grasping claws.

She also accelerated, the engines roaring as the forest began to disappear beneath more rapidly, as The Bus gained ground over the grimm, racing towards the head of the column, soaring over beowolves and alphas, beyond them even as they raised their heads to look for the shadow that had passed overhead.

If they didn’t reach Blake and the rest before the grimm did, well, things could get messy.

But there always seemed to be more grimm ahead, the column they were dashing over never seemed to end, they never got out in front of the grimm, there were always more of them, more of them, and as the six red icons of the six students on Starlight’s map got closer and closer, Rainbow began to worry that the grimm might have beaten them to it after all.

They had not, thank the gods; at the last moment, just before they reached the point at which everyone was waiting, Rainbow and her Skyray overshot the grimm. Of course, she overshot the students too, which was why she hadn’t wanted to be going this fast in the first place, and had to bank around, descending from her loftier height towards them even as the first wave of grimm began to make their final approach.

She could see them, in the clearing: Blake was on the ground, with Jaune kneeling over her, applying his semblance to her – was she hurt? Was it serious? And how was it Blake was down, the truest mettle Rainbow had ever met in her life? – while Ruby slumbered in a nook formed by some tree roots, and Sunset, Pyrrha, and Flash formed a line against the onrushing grimm. The sunlight glimmered off the armour of Pyrrha and Flash momentarily dazzling Rainbow as she piloted the airship down in front of them.

It didn’t seem to be dazzling the grimm.

“Coming in hot!” Rainbow shouted. “Tsunami, get ready for incoming! Arslan, get them in, quickly!”

She brought The Bus in as fast and as hard as she dared without actually crashing it, offloading missiles from the pods mounted to her wings, raking the front of the column of grimm with fire from her wing-mounted guns – she didn’t want to risk the Tempest right now; the vibrations might throw the whole airship off kilter – before turning sharply to descend between the grimm and the huntsmen, a hollow metal barrier between the six and destruction.

The grimm burst out of the woods, howling and snarling and roaring for blood. Their roars were answered by the spitting of the cannon as Tempest raked them with fire, by the hissing of Equaliser as Starlight fired as swiftly as she could, by the crackling flames as Trixie’s fire, amplified by wind from Sunburst’s staff, erupted in a blazing cone to consume all before it.

“Get in! Quickly!” Arslan shouted, and it seemed less than a second to Rainbow’s ears before the sharp crack of Pyrrha’s rifle was added to the cacophony of sounds doing battle against the growling of the grimm.

“Two in,” Arslan called. There was the crack of Sunset Shimmer teleporting. “Four in. I’ll find her a seat; don’t worry.”

Sol Invictus began to bark loudly.

“Six in!” Arslan yelled. “Everybody safe and sound.”

Rainbow didn’t need telling twice. The moment she heard the words, she pulled the Skyray up sharply, closing the doors on both sides of the airship as The Bus shot upwards. She heard a thump striking the side, and then heard a muffled yelp as the beowolf who had tried to jump them lost its purchase and tumbled back to earth once more.

Rainbow risked a glance backwards, from the cockpit into the pretty crowded main section. Everyone who had gone into the forest looked a little worn out, and everyone, including Team TTSS, looked a little shaken.

“How’s Blake?” Rainbow asked quietly.

“She’s hurt,” Jaune said, his voice hoarse. “I’ve done what I can, but I still think she should see a doctor.”

“Secure her on the other stretcher at the back,” Rainbow said. “This might be a bumpy ride before we get home… and Ruby?”

“Her aura broke, but I don’t think she was injured, at least nothing more than bumps and bruises,” Sunset replied. She pursed her lips together. “Thanks for showing up.”

Rainbow smiled thinly. “I never leave my friends hanging,” she said, and turned back to the steering column and her controls. “Now, maybe we can have an easy-”

The alarms blared.

“I need to keep my mouth shut,” Rainbow muttered as she turned for home and gunned the engines to maximum. No, she pushed them past maximum, trusting to that one hundred percent margin of safety – and hey, overloading the Skyray hadn’t caused them to crash just yet – as she pushed the engines beyond what they were supposed to go.

And, you know, they didn’t blow up or anything. Which was good, because it seemed like every nevermore over the forest was converging upon them, following them, descending in front of them, trying to fall on them like they were sparrows and the hawk was out. Rainbow fired every missile she had left, she let every gun blaze away, not trying to kill the grimm but to make them flinch long enough to get out.

She jinked and rolled, dodging the talons that reached for her airship and the feathers like knives that were flung at it from all directions. They burst through the mass of black, leaving the grimm to follow in a great roiling mass as The Bus raced for the cliffs.

The cliffs, and the Atlesian airships beyond.

Rainbow grabbed the microphone. “Resolution, this is Rorari Three-Two; I hope you’re ready for company, because we’ve got lots of it.”

“Copy that, Three-Two. Maintain your present vector precisely. Don’t be alarmed; we’ve got you covered.”

“Understood,” Rainbow said as the smile returned to her face.

For a moment, the Skyray flew straight and true in the direction of Beacon, and the nevermores pursued.

Then the sky was lit up by lasers as the Resolution and its fighter screen opened up at once, red lasers from the cruiser and green from the turrets on the Skydarts streaking out across the blue to pierce the cloud of nevermores. The grimm scattered, flying this way and that as some of their number were vaporised, pierced by the bolts and turned to ash. The Atlesian airships fired again and again, some of their bolts passing so close to The Bus that their glare illuminated the cockpit, but none of them so much as scratching the cyan paintwork on the vessel.

The nevermores withdrew, pursued by yet more lasers, their numbers reducing every moment as the Atlesian fire found its mark again and again.

“Thanks for the save, Resolution.”

“Any time, Rorari Three-Two.”

“Rorari Three-Two, this is Valiant Actual; what’s your status?”

Rainbow swallowed. “Everyone is on board, sir. Blake and Sage are in need of medical attention.”

General Ironwood was quiet for a moment. “How bad is it?”

“I’m not quite sure, sir.”

“Alright, I’ll inform Ozpin,” General Ironwood replied. “Twilight?”

“I’m right here, sir,” Twilight murmured. “I’m… a little shook up, but I’ll be fine.”

“Thank gods for that,” General Ironwood said, a touch of weariness entering his voice. “Good work out there, Dash.”

Rainbow’s chin rose a little higher in spite of itself. “Thank you, sir.”

Comments

[Kiue Jin]

Really Cinder? You're being picked up and your first instinct is to belittle and insult the people saving your ass?

[Hexan Tronic]

10781269
This is Cinder we're talking about. She has a bigger head than Dash on a bad day. So of course she would.

[Adser]

10781269
She is also not exactly on danger herself, so no reason to be worried.

[Mastermind4892]

Exemplary work, Rainbow Dash. There are medals and high honors for those who venture into hellfire for no reason other than to rescue their comrades.

And now, for the hard questions to begin. Time for Phoebe and the First Councilor to face the music, especially since the latter has now caused a diplomatic incident with three seats on the Atlesian Council and a local PR mess aimed specifically at her (which is ironically what she thought she was avoiding by denying rescue aid). Is she even aware of how much political capital she has burned? It is true that we must face the reality that when we send soldiers and huntsmen into hellfire some may never return, but not when they are directly within reach and we have the absolute ability to rescue them. So no, Councilor Novo! This is on your head! And I can already see how this foreshadows the same decision the Vale Council makes during the Battle of Vale that spurns their relations with the other kingdoms.

[Lancerguy]

Although it was probably just an honest oversight, it is now my headcanon that in the heat of the moment, everyone saw a phantom 11th character and no one noticed because of their focus on surviving. Also, always great to see more TTSS, especially best pony!

[JMP]

Ozpin was silent for a moment. Miss Shimmer, who could have been either great or terrible or somewhere in between; Miss Nikos, so full of promise, the last flower to bloom from a bygone world; Miss Rose, Summer’s girl, so young and so eager, in heart the very model of a huntress. All thrown into the fire. All at risk. All… all gone, perhaps.

Jaune gets no respect lol
10781269
I feel like these newer and rewritten chapters have really made her insufferable. She wasn't even this bad in the show from what I remember. Thankfully she takes a massive chill pill later....

[Adser]

10781308
Don't be so certain. The ones who know about Aris intervention are not going to talk (the entire point of not acting was to evade a fight with her), the students know that something went wrong but not exactly how wrong and with no-one (important) dead or injured then Vale press is not going to care.

And the one who knows about Phoebe (Cinder) is keeping THAT fiasco a secret too, so there won't be much noise at the end of the day. Now that Aris forced their hands, everyone gains more by keeping their silence and going along with the "nothing wrong here, keep going" farce that is being pushed forward.

[Mastermind4892]

10781714
I not only understand but even support that sentiment in the right circumstances. Sometimes it is better to take the high road. Better to let some matters lie than kick up a firestorm and cause needless conflict merely because your feelings are hurt, especially if they are ultimately minor things and/or in the name of the bigger picture. MLP preaches this wisdom as well, in addition to how Sunset has been slowly learning this very lesson lately.

But there are limits and thresholds to every wisdom and practice, because when a line gets crossed than the matter becomes something entirely different and must be approached with different wisdom better suited to the new situation. What Aris did was not a mere slight but actively and needlessly jepordized lives. Even Ozpin was perfectly ready to deal with any matters of panic if it meant saving lives. The lives of students were endangered, we had the means ready and available to rescue them with nigh-impunity, but those means were denied and now we have two students in the hospital. That is not something that can be ignored and forgotten, just like how Phoebe crossed the line from wagers in regulated duels to attempted 1st-Degree Manslaughter.

The true obstacle to confronting Aris and making her face consequences is that Aris' opponent in the coming reelection is apparently much worse. But just because Aris is the lesser evil doesn't mean it can't be addressed. It can be kept quiet while she is confronted behind closed doors, to privately reprimand her over the damage she nearly caused, and make it clear that this will not be tolerated again. If any of those students had died... her consequences would not be so light. The ultimate point is that Aris cannot be permitted to repeat this behavior.

[Adser]

10781752
Oh yeah, Aris is being really, really stupid, but if Ozpin and Ironwood were willing to confront her over this then they should have acted already, moving the ships and getting the students out anyway (not like Aris can physically stop them). By staying back they are complicit in her decision, and so they gain nothing by turning back and making noise about the event after they allowed it to happen.

In any form of this fiasco the one who would get the biggest brunt of the blame would be Ozpin, since he is the headmaster and is his training test the one that has gone awry. Then the responsibility would go to Aris and then to Ironwood (except with Twilight, in her case he would be the one with the biggest responsibility since Twilight is not huntsmen material and she shouldn't be there to begin with).

Ozpin is feeling the effects of his lack of involvement with Vale council and Aris actions have to be dealt with since her policy is beyond stupid, but neither of those issues are resolved by making this fiasco public. The only thing that making a scandal out of it would do is to further weaken Ozpin position and ensure that Vale council will be even more against them.

[Mastermind4892]

10781784
The next point is for the incident to be investigated more closely. Just because Cinder is staying quiet does not automatically make it impossible for them to find out as well, definitely so they can find out what went wrong and make sure it doesn't happen again. Throughout this story, both the students and the headmasters have investigated matters that were even less suspicious than this. Once again, there was an abundance of Atlesian lures (which can't be cheap or easy to acquire given their purpose) and it would be easy to track whomever bought so many in bulk.

Of course, even if Phoebe is completely discovered by Ozpin and Ironwood, she is still an Atlesian student who used Atlesian equipment to make this happen. Which is another scandal itself.

[Adser]

10781806
The faculty will probably investigate the event, but their chances of finding anything is slim. We already know that Ozpin doesn't think that it is sabotage because he is aware of how unreliable is to attempt to lure Grimm, and while Port may do a personal doublecheck (he feels responsible of this fiasco after all), everything is stacked against him.

First, most of the placed lures are probably gone, they are made to attract Grimm using disposable materials and with almost a Grimm horde running around the forest the chance that they are still in one piece is quite low.

Second, even if he finds the dumped group of Beacon lures, the first thing that would come to his mind is that a student was irresponsibly lazy, and with no means of identifying which student (I doubt that the lures had a mark or something like that telling who had to place them) then the most he can do is to grill the 3rd year students and tell them that this screwup was inexcusable, and enforce checks to prove that the students actually do what they are supposed to do next time. Thinking "hey, one of my students wanted to kill all the first years" is not exactly a rational thought, even if its true in this case.

Third, the only evidence that would aim towards this being sabotage would be the Atlesian lures, and if Port finds one then he would probably be able to track them back to Phoebe. But Cinder already destroyed one and probably got rid of the others too, since she wants to keep everything a secret, so no way for him to find them.

So in resume, the teachers may investigate as much as they want, but they don't really have a chance of learning what truly happened and so Phoebe won't be punished by this, unless you count Cinder sending Lightning Dust to intimidate her a punishment (I don't).

[Maelaeran]

A lot of the tension and drama in these past few chapters feels needlessly artificial.

Even if there's some obscure rule preventing Ozpin from helping out his students or that he didn't want to leave the rest of the First Years (of which there must be dozens, considering its from all Academies) unguarded, there's still two teachers there. Is there a reason that Professor Port couldn't just go down and mop up all of the Grimm? This is an issue I see cropping up in not only RWBY canon but in a lot of fanfics where we are told about these Huntsman Professors and how awesome they all are and...we never really see them do much. Ozpin got a stilted fight-scene (although, I'm willing to write that off due to Monty's death) and then an ignominious off-screen death. Oobleck and Port had only the Mount-Glenn combat scene with not much going on and Goodwitch only had the opening episode (and a little bit after the Breach episode) to shine.

Every Huntsmen-in-training lost is potential that is wasted and Ozpin should know this. Dying in an exercise serves no greater goal other than some nebulous 'trial by fire' BS. If they were to die on a mission, then at least it'd be in the service of protecting a village that would otherwise have no recourse to protect themselves against the Grimm. Here, it seems that the only reason any of this happened was to give Rainbow a cool scene of her own.

[Adser]

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The official explanation is that the cliffs are too steep for them to escape by foot and the Grimm too numerous to beat back, "will run out of bullets before targets" level of numbers. So Ozpin can't get them out of there without air support and can't clean up the Grimm even if the entire faculty was there to help. Ozpin may be good, but he can't wipe out an army alone.

At that point sending anyone down there is just sacrificing them for no reason.

[J3sterking]

“Someone who was doing what he thought was best,” Ozpin replied softly. “Someone who knew he was establishing the worst system in the world, apart from all the others that had already been tried.”

Actually a great way to describe the democratic process. Really loved this line.

Storywise, though, Sunset is gonna be pissed when people give all the credit to Pyrrha bc she showed up last minute, but she'll most likely get over it bc Pyrrha helped ruby and twilight