• Published 31st Aug 2018
  • 20,313 Views, 8,843 Comments

SAPR - Scipio Smith



Sunset, Jaune, Pyrrha and Ruby are Team SAPR, and together they fight to defeat the malice of Salem, uncover the truth about Ruby's past and fill the emptiness within their souls.

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Shake Your Tail (Cause We're Here to Have a Party Tonight) (Rewritten)

Shake Your Tail ('Cause We’re Gonna Have a Party Tonight)

The Beacon freshmen had got together and arranged on a one-night only change in the room dispositions for the dance: the girls would get changed in the rooms of teams SAPR and WSTW, while the boys would change in the rooms of YRBN and BLBL.

Which meant that Jaune was heading towards the YRBN dorm room to join Ren and Flash in getting ready for the dance when Sunset accosted him.

“Jaune,” she called, peeling herself off the wall as she saw him coming. Her hands were clasped together behind her; she could feel the light plastic covering the flower underneath her fingertips, soft and cold and a little bit sticky by now. She kept it out of Jaune’s sight as she walked towards him.

“Sunset,” he said, taking in the fact that she was still wearing her school uniform. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready with everyone else? Or did you change your mind again about going to the dance?”

“No, I didn’t change my mind again!” Sunset snapped. “I just… I got you something.” She held out the white carnation that she had hitherto been concealing behind her back. “A shop in the market was selling them ready for the dance; I wasn’t sure if you’d have one.”

“No, I don’t,” Jaune said. “What is it?”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “It’s a carnation for you to wear in your buttonhole,” she said. “The top buttonhole, before you make yourself look like an idiot, on the lapel of your jacket. Then, at the end of the night, you give it to Pyrrha.”

“Why?”

“Because… it’s a tradition,” Sunset said. The tradition she was most familiar with was the one that said you wore a white carnation in your mane on the first day of exams and a pink one thereafter until the final exam, for which you wore red, but she was almost certain that there was a tradition about wearing them to formal dances and dinners like this as well. And if there wasn’t, well… Pyrrha wasn’t the kind of girl who would refuse a flower if Jaune offered it to her; she’d be mortified at the idea of embarrassing him in public, if nothing else. “It’s one of those things to… okay, I don’t actually know why, but I don’t think it matters. It’s a tradition, and I think it’s cute, and I think she’ll like it. This… she deserves to have the best night ever.”

“I don’t know about that, but I’ll give it a try,” Jaune said, a trifle nervously, as he took the carnation in its plastic sheet from Sunset’s fingers. “But what about your night?”

Sunset smiled sadly. “Don’t worry about me, I…it’ll be okay.”

“Will it?” Jaune asked.

“It’d better,” Sunset said, injecting some levity into her voice, or trying to. “I planned this, after all. What would it say about me if even I couldn’t enjoy it?”

Jaune frowned. “Sunset, come on.”

Sunset’s eyes narrowed. “Come where?”

“I’m being serious!” Jaune insisted. “Are you going to be okay? It’s great that you’re going to the dance to make Ruby happy-”

“Who says that’s why I’m going?”

“I’m not an idiot, Sunset,” Jaune told her.

“No,” Sunset agreed. “No, you’re not an idiot. But you are aiming at the wrong targets. I don’t matter-”

“Sure you do, you’re-”

“Not tonight I don’t,” Sunset insisted. “Don’t worry about me, don’t worry about what kind of night I’m going to have or whether or how I’m feeling, none of it! All that matters to you tonight is Pyrrha. Not me, not Ruby, only Pyrrha. She is the only star in the night sky tonight, understand?”

Jaune hesitated for a moment. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I get it.”

“You’d better,” Sunset said, “because she’s shining just for you.” She smiled. “You’re a lucky guy.”

“I’m aware,” Jaune told her. “Trust me, I’m well aware.”

Sunset smiled. “Yeah,” she murmured. “Yeah, I believe you are. Have a nice night, Jaune Arc. Have the best night ever.”

“Thanks, you… you have a good night yourself.”

“Sure,” Sunset said, without a huge amount of conviction, before she turned away and began to walk back in the direction of the SAPR dorm room.


Jaune had a frown creasing his forehead as he knocked on the door to the YRBN room.

Ren answered the door, still wearing his green casual and combat outfit. “Jaune.”

“Hey, Ren.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Jaune said. To tell the truth, the look on Sunset’s face had stuck with him, the way that she’d looked as though there was little chance of her having a nice night, never mind the best night ever.

It’s not like I need to be a genius to work out why she didn’t want to go to the dance in the first place.

Maybe it’s not my place to do anything, but things can’t go on like this. Something has to change, for Sunset’s sake.

And as for the idea that I should only be thinking about Pyrrha right now… I’m not sure how much I’m supposed to trust all of Sunset’s advice when it comes to romance.

No. No, he had to do something. Maybe it wasn’t the best time, but it was the time when he had finally realised that things could not go on like this. Something had to change.

Someone had to make that change, since Sunset clearly wasn’t going to.

Ren made way, and Jaune walked into the room. He could hear water running in the bathroom next door.

Cardin was not there, which was all to the good as far as Jaune was concerned; he might have changed, but Jaune wasn’t sure that he was ready to get undressed in the same room as Cardin Winchester.

He wasn’t sure that he’d be able to say what needed saying with Cardin Winchester in the room, either.

“Flash is just taking a shower, but he should be out soon,” Ren said. “You can go in next, if you like.”

“Are you sure? Because I got here last, and this is your room…”

“It’s fine,” Ren said. “I can dress very quickly. I don’t need a lot of time to get ready.”

“Oh. Okay, thanks.”

Ren’s purple eyes glanced towards the flower in Jaune’s hand. “What’s that?”

“A flower,” Jaune said, although he realised a moment later that that was obvious. “Sunset gave it to me to wear.”

“Ah. I see,” Ren said.

“Apparently I’m supposed to give it to Pyrrha at the end of the night,” Jaune went on. “She said it’s a tradition. Is it Mistralian?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” Ren replied. “It might be Atlesian.”

“Or it’s Valish, and I’ve just never heard of it,” Jaune admitted. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

Ren offered a very slight shrug of the shoulders. “Nevertheless, it seems charming enough. Perhaps I should have gotten one of those for Nora.”

“I don’t think she’ll mind that you didn’t,” Jaune said.

“No,” Ren agreed. “No, she won’t.”

Ren fell silent, and Jaune was left wondering if he was supposed to say something else. Unfortunately, he had no real idea what to say. He had eaten opposite Ren often enough, but he wasn’t exactly the most garrulous member of Team YRBN, and he didn’t seem to mind that fact at all; he gave far less of himself away than either Yang or Nora. As a side effect, Jaune had no idea what to say.

The sound of running water ceased in the bathroom, and after a minute or two passed in silence that might not have been exactly comfortable but wasn’t really hostile either, the door opened, and Flash Sentry emerged, his lower half concealed behind a yellow towel.

“Oh, hey,” he said, noticing Jaune as he rubbed deodorant under his armpit. “You got here, Jaune.” He smiled. “I hope you don’t mind that I took the first shower while we were waiting for you.”

“No,” Jaune replied. “I don’t have a problem with that.”

Flash frowned. “Is everything okay, Jaune?”

Jaune paused, wondering if it was the right thing that he was about to do; but after what he had seen of Sunset: her initial decision not to go to the dance because of Flash, the way that she’d been worried Jaune would mistreat Pyrrha, the terrible advice that she’d given Sun, the way that she would look or sound so sad whenever love entered the picture…

He couldn’t just ignore it. He’d been putting it off for far too long.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Jaune said, “what did you do to Sunset?”

Flash’s eyes widened. “Huh?”

“Sunset’s hurting,” Jaune said. “And I think that you had something to do with it, and I want to know why.”

“Uh, Jaune? I think I’ll take you up on that offer to use the shower next,” Ren said, and without further ado, he had disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door firmly behind him.

Flash sighed, and rubbed his temple. “Look, Jaune, do we have to do this right now?”

“Yeah,” Jaune said. “Yeah, I think we do.” He paused. “When Pyrrha and I first started going out, Sunset gave me a talk. She… she didn’t trust me around Pyrrha because of what you did to her. If you could hear the way that she talks about guys, the advice that she gave to me and Sun about how to treat our girlfriends… you were there when she walked off and almost decided not to come to the dance because of you! Sunset… Sunset’s my friend, and I keep seeing that she’s hurting, and she needs help, and I don’t know what to do because I don’t understand what happened. All I understand is that it’s because of you, because of what you did.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Flash cried.

“Something must have happened.”

“Sure, something happened; she did!” Flash replied. “Come on, man, you’re on her team. You know what she was like; you know what she was. I couldn’t take it any more.”

He turned away and wandered to the window, although the window itself was obscured by the drawn curtains. “Actually,” he said, “that isn’t true. I did do something. I lied to her about why we were breaking up.”

“What?”

“I let her think that it was… because she was a faunus. I thought it was kinder to let her think that it was my… racism, I guess, rather than her… her. I thought it was for the best back then, but now, if what you say is true…”

“Now you think it did a number on her,” Jaune said, who was beginning to suspect the exact same thing.

“You can’t imagine what it was like,” Flash said. “Sunset… she wasn’t happy, and she held me responsible for whether she was or not. When she had a rough day, it was my job to make her feel better, to pick up the pieces, regardless of how I felt or how I was doing. And even when she had better days, it was… it was like it was all down to me, like I was the only reason there was any light in her life. And every day… every day I had to watch the person I… I cared about get more and more twisted and bitter until… I just couldn’t take it any more.

“Maybe I should have done more to help her. I know that I shouldn’t have lied to her. And I’m sorry if she’s still upset over what happened, but… it’s all so long ago now. What am I supposed to do?”

“Just…talk to her,” Jaune said. “I don’t know what it was like for you… but Sunset isn’t like that any more. She has friends now, people she can rely on. She doesn’t need to depend on you, just like she doesn’t need to depend on me, or Pyrrha, or Ruby, or Blake, because she has all of us. There’s more than one light in her life now, but… but I don’t think she can get past you without your help.”

Flash looked over his shoulder, and then turned around. “This is important to you, isn’t it?”

“Like I said,” Jaune replied, “she’s my friend. We look out for each other.”

Flash smiled. “She’s lucky to have you. All of you.”

“We’re lucky to have her,” Jaune said.

“I guess you are,” Flash said. “Do you guys even realise what a lucky team you are? The team to beat, the team everybody’s looking at?”

“I’ve… heard it said,” Jaune said, thinking that Sunset had talked about their team in much the same way.

“And you are lucky to have her,” Flash sighed. “When I saw her fight with Pyrrha last semester… Sunset was always brilliant, smart, ferocious, and ferociously talented…but I didn’t know just how much she’d been hiding until I saw that fight. I didn’t realise how bright, how brilliant her light was.”

“It sounds a little like Sunset’s not the only one who isn’t over it yet,” Jaune murmured.

Flash snorted. “I… I’ll talk to her.”

“Thanks, man,” Jaune said. “I think… I think it’ll really make her night.”


In the Team RSPT dorm room, the three organic members of the team put their combined talents together to help Penny get ready for the dance. Or rather, Ciel and Twilight had put their combined talents together, since Rainbow Dash didn’t have many useful skills in that regard.

But that didn’t matter, since between them, Ciel and Twilight had the know-how to make Penny like… pretty darn good, actually.

“A girl your age doesn’t need much make-up,” Ciel informed her subject, as she applied some wings of rose gold eye shadow. “Just a little bit, to accent your best qualities.” She straightened up. “And we are done.”

“You’ve done a great job, Ciel,” Twilight said. “You’ve got a real talent for this stuff.”

“Yes, thank you so much for all your help!” Penny cried, clapping her hands together in front of the mirror that Twilight was holding up to her face. “You’ve all done so much for me tonight! Is this what it’s like to have sisters?”

“It’s not what it’s like with my sister,” Rainbow muttered.

Ciel glanced at Rainbow Dash where she sat on her bed. “I didn’t believe that you had any sisters.”

“I have… okay, she’s not technically my blood sister or anything, but she’s as good as,” Rainbow said. “And we don’t do any of…” – she waved one hand airily – “this.”

“I think if you asked our friend Rarity, she’d tell you that having a sister involves less make-up tips and more… well, yelling and screaming,” Twilight said softly. She laughed nervously. “But anyway… you look really great too, Ciel.”

Rainbow was not so sure. Ciel was dressed in an expansive and many-layered blue ballgown, with a few hints of white lace petticoat peeking out from underneath the second – and darker blue – layer of skirt, while an upper layer of a lighter shade covered… three quarters of the dress, as far as Rainbow could work out, so that it was hard to see the point in the lower layer. The bodice was ridiculously fancy, with no less than five bows on it, one at the waist where the bodice met the skirt, one halfway up where a lower layer of lace frills beneath the collar converged, and one, the most extravagant because it was actually two bows one on top of the other, sitting in the middle of the collar that was falling off Ciel’s shoulders and which was adorned with lace frills and two more small bows at the shoulders themselves. Each bow had a gleaming blue gemstone in the centre of it. It looked… it looked to Rainbow like the kind of thing Rarity would think was a bit over the top, but then, Rainbow wasn’t Rarity and so she couldn’t really say for sure.

And Twilight thought it looked nice, so who was Rainbow Dash to say any different?

Ciel curtsied. “Thank you,” she said. “And for your earlier praise. I simply did my best with the time and materials available.”

“So,” Rainbow said, “what time is your date getting here?”

Twilight gasped. “You have a date?”

Ciel sighed. “Is it not possible for me to have even a little privacy?”

“Not in a room this size,” Rainbow said.

“Hmm,” Ciel said. “His name is Dove Bronzewing, a young gentleman of Tintagel who requested the pleasure of my company. Since he is of reasonable character and decently regarded, I saw no reason to refuse him.”

“Only you would talk that way about your own boyfriend,” Rainbow said.

“He is not my boyfriend,” Ciel declared firmly. “He’s just a handsome, well-mannered young man of no ill-repute who is escorting me to the dance in-” – she wasn’t wearing her watch over the white opera gloves she had on presently, so Ciel picked up her scroll off the desk and checked the time – “two minutes.”

There was a knock on the door.

“Or he could be early,” Twilight said.

Ciel picked up her skirt with both hands and went to the door.

On the other side when she opened it was Lyra and Bon Bon’s replacement teammate, Dove, dressed in a blue double-breasted jacket with tails hanging down the back of his cream britches, with polished black boots as high up as his knees, and an amber cravat wrapped around his neck. He held himself stiffly, awkwardly, a slightly wide-eyed look on his face as though he wasn’t sure why he was here or what he was meant to do, and for a moment, Rainbow thought he was about to freak out there in the doorway, but he seemed to recover enough to take Ciel’s gloved hand in his and raise it to his lips as he bowed.

“Miss Ciel,” he said as he brushed his lips across her knuckles.

A sort of mild squeal of excitement passed from Ciel’s lips, making Rainbow wish that she’d set up her scroll to record it for posterity. “You… you’re early.”

Dove cleared his throat. “I apologise, Miss Ciel, I hope I didn’t inconvenience you..”

“A gentleman would need to be far earlier than you in order to be inconvenient, sir,” Ciel declared.

“I am glad,” Dove replied. “Are you ready to go, this, Miss Ciel?”

“I will be, in just a moment,” Ciel said. “Will you excuse me.”

Dove bowed his head. “Of course. I’ll be waiting right here.”

Ciel curtsied to him before closing the door. She crossed the room quickly to her bed, where a white clutch bag was waiting. Into this bag, she placed her scroll and the pistol that she normally kept under her pillow.

“You’re taking a gun to the dance?” Twilight asked.

“I would rather have one and not need it than be without it in the event of an emergency,” Ciel explained. “Now, if you will excuse me?”

“Have fun,” Rainbow said.

“And thanks again for all your help!” Penny cried.

“It was a pleasure and a privilege,” Ciel assured her as she slipped her bag over her hand and let it dangle delicately from her carefully positioned wrist. She opened the door open. “I am ready to go.”

“Excellent,” Dove replied, still sounding a little more nervous than enthusiastic. “Will you… will you take my arm, then?”

“Of course,” Ciel said, as she slipped her hand through the crook of Dove’s arm and rested her fingertips upon his elbow. With her free hand, she lifted up some of her voluminous skirt out of the way of her dress.

She looked up at Dove, but he was looking straight ahead as the door closed behind them.

“I guess they’re well matched in acting kind of weird sometimes,” Rainbow observed.

“Some people like old-fashioned manners, even when they’re not actually old-fashioned,” Twilight pointed out. “Like Rarity.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Rainbow allowed.

Penny stood up. She was dressed in a plum-coloured dress with a broad skirt that descended to just below her knees, with a white collar falling off her shoulders and little see-through puffy sleeves just underneath, with a purple bow tied at the centre of the collar and two more looking like they were tying off the sleeves. Most of her arms were bare, but a pair of white gloves covered her hands and wrists and got a little bit of the way towards her elbows. A necklace of green beads hung from her neck, as well as green earrings and bead bracelets upon both wrists. “Can we go now as well?” she asked

“Uh, sure, why not?” Rainbow asked, rolling off the bed and getting to her feet. The dress that she had received from Rarity had not been at all what Rainbow was expecting, to be honest; instead of a bodice, she was wearing a double-breasted blue jacket with polished silver buttons, only partially hidden beneath a fur-trimmed cape, not quite long enough to reach her waist, fastened around her neck with a lightning bolt clasp. A golden sash was wound around her waist, beneath which she wore a thin skirt, dark blue with a light blue and gold hem, over a pair of tight-fitting trousers and boots.

“Listen, Twi,” Rainbow said, “are you sure that you don’t want to come?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Twilight said. “Maybe if Pinkie and the other girls were here-”

“I’m here,” Rainbow reminded her.

“I know that,” Twilight acknowledged, “but if we’re going to hang out, I’d rather just the two of us than a party planned by Sunset Shimmer.”

Rainbow snorted. “I guess that’s fair.”

Twilight smiled. “And I really do have a lot of work to do. Hopefully, with all the power of the CCT at my disposal, I can really make some progress on this trace.”

“Okay,” she said. She picked up the black slouch hat, with one corner folded up and a long golden feather in it, which Rarity had sent to complete her outfit. She placed it down upon her head. “Have a good time playing with computers until I get there.”

“I’m not playing,” Twilight complained. “But I’ll try my best. Have a great time, Penny.”

“I’ll try my best!” Penny declared. “Okay, Rainbow Dash, let’s go!”


Twilight Sparkle waited until Rainbow Dash had left with Penny before she, too, took her leave of the dorm room. She was not dressed up; in fact, she was a little more casually dressed than normal, having dispensed with her bow tie for the evening in order to let her collar hang loose. This might be a long night, after all.

Opening up her scroll, Twilight checked off that everything on her checklist was in the bag that waited beside her bed: computer, check; coffee, check; notepad, check; pencils, check; book to read during periods of long processing, check and double check – because she had two books, one on compressive engineering and the other on legendary creatures.

Twilight slung the rucksack over her shoulders and left the dorm room. Already, the dormitory corridor beyond was so empty as to warrant the adjective 'deserted'; everyone who wanted to go to the dance must have left already, and she guessed that anyone who didn't want to go was keeping themselves occupied quietly in their rooms. She didn't see anyone else as she left, although once she got out onto the grounds, she could see students in dresses or dinner suits making their way towards the ballroom. None of them noticed Twilight as she headed the opposite direction, towards the CCT.

That part of the courtyard was as deserted as the dormitory had been, save for the Atlesian soldier, with yellow highlights on his armour – Twilight was not a soldier, but she had grown up in a sufficiently martial milieu to know that that meant Light Company – standing guard on the steps outside the tower door.

Twilight fished her scroll – which had her authorisation from General Ironwood to be in the tower during a closed period – out of her bag and held it up as she climbed the steps.

The guard leaned down to look at it. "That looks in order. We were told to expect someone. Go right ahead, but don't put that scroll away; you'll probably have to show it again once you get inside."

"Right, thanks."

"Have a nice night."

"You too," Twilight said, as she left the guard at his post and walked through the large, faux-wooden doors of the tower.

She did indeed have to show her scroll again once she walked in, to prove to the sergeant that she was the one they'd been expecting.

"That checks out," the sergeant said. "Hey, aren't you Shining Armor's kid sister?"

"Yeah," Twilight said. "You know my brother?"

"He was my CO for a while," the sergeant replied. "Good guy, talked about you a lot; I hear you're some kind of genius."

Twilight felt her face flush. "Well… I try my best."

"All you can do. So, how's your big bro? How's married life treating him? He's Council Guard now, right?"

"Captain of the Council Guard," Twilight said, in a voice that she hoped struck the right balance between pride in his accomplishment and an appropriate sense of modesty.

One of the other soldiers patrolling the lobby whistled appreciatively. "Nice."

"Hey, quit listening in on other people's conversations and do your job!" the sergeant snapped. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine," Twilight said quickly. "And Shining Armor is fine too; he and Cadance are very happy. I think she's glad he has a post where he can come home every night."

It occurred to Twilight the moment after she said that that it might have been the wrong thing to say to a man who didn't get to go home every night to his family, but the sergeant didn't seem to take offence. "Lucky guy. He'll appreciate it even more once the kids come along."

"Run, kid, he's about to show you his family photos!" one of the soldiers shouted.

"Hey! You want to be cleaning out the toilets on the Resolution from now until the end of the tournament, keep talking," snapped the sergeant. "Anyway, you can go right up. There'll be patrols up there every hour or so, but I can send a guy to keep an eye on you if you like."

"No, that won't be necessary, thank you."

"Okay. Just give a holler if you need something."

"I will," Twilight said, as she walked towards the elevator. "But I'm sure that tonight is going to be very quiet."


“So, uh,” Pyrrha hesitated as she stood in front of them, her hands spread out on either side of her. “How… how do I look?”

Pyrrha was dressed in a gown of crimson and shimmering gold, with the red, strapless, shoulderless bodice partially concealed behind a wide golden sash that wound up from her waist to her shoulder, where it was tied off into a large bow that gently tickled her neck as she walked. Her skirt followed a similar pattern, with a red underskirt of a full, almost ballgown cut, of which only a section at the front was visible from beneath the gold peplum that surrounded it on all other sides down to the floor. Around her waist was tied a somewhat shorter red sash than she usually wore, with the disk bearing her spear emblem fastened to her right hip. Long white gloves enclosed her pale arms, while above her left elbow, she wore her golden honour band. Her circlet held its accustomed place upon her brow, and she wore her hair in its accustomed ponytail. A single emerald, teardrop shaped, sat upon her breast, suspended by a chain of gold about her neck.

Blake nodded approvingly. Sunset looked up and down the gown of scarlet and gold.

“You look great,” Sunset said. “But there is something missing.”

“Really?” Pyrrha asked. “What?”

Sunset’s hand glowed with magic as she levitated a box up from underneath her bed and sent it gliding through the air towards Pyrrha. “A present.”

“A gift?” Pyrrha repeated. “What’s the occasion?”

“Um… something however many monthaversary?” Sunset suggested. “Just say thank you and open it up.”

Pyrrha opened the box, pulling out a corsage of white roses and baby’s breath. “Oh, Sunset, it’s lovely,” she cried. “Thank you.” She smiled. “Would you mind helping me-?”

Sunset wiggled her fingers, still aglow with magical power, and the glistening diamante clasp on which the corsage rested fastened itself around Pyrrha’s wrist.

“Thank you, again,” Pyrrha said. She looked down at it for a moment, the flowers sitting upon her glove, before her gaze once more took in the rest of her outfit. “And you think that Jaune will-”

“Yes,” Sunset said sharply. “For Celestia’s sake, don’t go getting insecure on us now.”

“I’m sorry,” Pyrrha said, as if it were automatic. “You’re right, of course; Jaune will love it because it’s a lovely dress. In fact, it’s a beautiful dress, Ruby, absolutely beautiful!” She twirled in place, crimson and gold fabric rustling as it swished around her. “Oh, thank you so much. How can I ever repay you?”

“You don’t have to worry about that, Pyrrha,” Ruby said, a smile illuminating her silver eyes. She got up off her bed – and promptly tripped over her high heels with a squawk of alarm. “Although if you want to return the favour, maybe you could tell me how you and Blake manage to fight in these death traps?”

“Practice, I’m afraid,” Pyrrha murmured apologetically.

“Once you wear them often enough, you get used to the difference in your centre of gravity,” Blake said.

“Okay,” Ruby said, holding her arms out like a tightrope walker with his pole as she teetered and tottered where she stood. “But can I follow up by asking why you’d even want to?”

“I trained in high heels from the moment I started training,” Pyrrha said. “I was told a feminine touch would be good for my image.”

“Seriously?” Sunset asked.

Pyrrha shrugged. “Tournaments, as you’ll find out when the Vytal festival starts, are fought in the public eye as much as in the arena. There’s no point being a champion if everyone in the crowd is rooting for you to lose.”

“I don’t know,” Sunset said. “If I was in that position, I might take a certain glee in winning anyway to spite the lot of them.”

“But who’ll want to sponsor a detested champion?” Pyrrha asked. “Who wants to buy a magazine carrying an interview with the person they hate?”

“Who wants to buy cereal with the face of the biggest heel on the circuit on it?” Sunset finished.

Pyrrha’s cheeks flushed a bit. “Yes, well… exactly.”

“Don’t blush; you’ll make your make-up run,” Sunset said, with a slight trace of a smirk. “It’s all a big business really, isn’t it?”

“Absolutely,” Pyrrha said. “As much as I sometimes wish it wasn’t.”

“You may not like it, but you know a lot about the way it works,” Blake pointed out.

“I wasn’t given much of a choice,” Pyrrha said.

“Do I have a choice about whether to wear these stupid lady stilts?” Ruby asked. She tried to take a step forward and nearly fell backwards.

Sunset leapt up and grabbed her outstretched hand. “You’re trying to put too much weight on your toes; lean backwards.” She remembered what it had been like, trying to learn to walk on two legs instead of four. At first, her every step had felt like walking on powdered glass, her unfamiliar muscles aching and straining as she had to almost break them in at an age when all of her human or faunus contemporaries had been using them for years. She’d been in and out of the faunus free clinic on the corner of the block so often with strains and pulled muscles in her early days that the nurses had recognised her by sight. Even standing upright and erect had been a trial for her, a trial that had required as much determination on her part to master as learning any complex spell had done back in Equestria. And when the time had come to learn to walk in high heels, well… if she hadn’t activated her aura by then, she would have broken her neck falling down the stairs at Flash’s place at least twice.

She had learned how, because Sunset Shimmer was not a person who accepted her limitations, but she still didn’t particularly like it.

There was a reason she wore boots as a matter of course.

Still, she suspected that she understood what Ruby was going through a little better than Blake or Pyrrha were capable of, and so she moved to position herself in front of Ruby and gently reached out to take Ruby’s other hand in her own.

“This isn’t standing on tiptoes,” Sunset said. “Don’t put all your weight forward, or you’ll end up leaning forwards. Step with your heel first, then put your toe down. Take it slowly. I’ve got you.”

Sunset stepped backwards as Ruby stepped – gingerly, very gingerly – forwards. She did as Sunset had told her, stepping forward with her heel first. She wobbled in Sunset’s grip, but not so badly as she had done before.

“There, see?” Sunset said. She grinned. “And now we can move on to ballroom dancing.”

Ruby giggled. “Thanks, Sunset.”

“No problem,” Sunset said, backing up another step as Ruby stepped forward with her other foot.

Someone knocked on the door. It turned out to be Jaune. “Uh, am I too early?” he asked. “Because I can come back if I’m too early; it’s no big deal. Well, actually, Ren’s already gone, so I wouldn’t be able to get back into the Iron dorm room, and I don’t really want to go wait with Cardin, but I could go… somewhere and wait for you if you’re, uh… I’ll be honest, I grew up with seven sisters, but I never found out what they actually did to get ready for parties; it was kind of like a magic box where Saffron stepped in looking like one thing and came out looking like something else… a magic box that takes awhile.” He laughed nervously. “It’s kinda funny; the first time it happened, I thought she’d been replaced by a monster or something-”

“Jaune,” Pyrrha’s voice was right with amusement as she opened the door. “You don’t need to go anywhere. You’re right on time.”

Jaune – Sunset was pleased to note that he was wearing the carnation in his buttonhole; in fact, he looked rather nice in his black tailcoat and ribbed dress shirt, with a white tie around his neck and a white scarf draped across his shoulders. A top hat, Sunset thought, would have set the whole thing off nicely, but it might also have looked a little pretentious, so she would forgive the absence – stared at her. “…wow. You, you look… wow.”

Pyrrha laughed. “And you look very dashing yourself, Jaune.”

“Really?” Jaune asked, as Sunset noted that he was wearing a red sash around his waist, like the time in the forest when Pyrrha had given him her sash to wear.

Pyrrha, you don’t have a thing to worry about.

“So,” Jaune said. “Are you ready to go?”

“I’ll join you, if you don’t mind,” Blake said. “I expect I’ll find Sun waiting for me at the ballroom.”

“Why don’t we all go down together?” Pyrrha suggested, looking back at Sunset and Ruby. “As a team.”

“Great idea,” Ruby said. “If you’re sure you don’t mind me slowing you down in these stupid things.”

“Not at all,” Pyrrha said. “I think it will be nice if we do this together. Jaune?”

“Sure, sounds great,” Jaune agreed.

“Well, okay then,” Sunset agreed. “Let’s dazzle Remnant.”

Sunset wore a dress of velvet green with a slender silhouette, shoulderless but high-necked, leaving her arms bare but rather fastening around her throat with a black collar that almost resembled a choker. The bodice hugged her figure, while the skirt did not stray from her legs at all unless Sunset’s right leg itself strayed out via the long slit on that side of the skirt, from the hem all the way up to Sunset’s thigh, exposing her leg to view as she walked.

Ruby wore a little red dress, with a skirt that stopped just below her thighs, the remainder of her leg being covered by dark, nearly opaque tights. The dress was strapless and shoulderless, but a similar substance covered her upper body and neck. A black sash was bound about her waist, tied into a bow upon her right.

Blake was rather understatedly dressed in a dark purple cocktail dress, with cap sleeves and a rather plain black belt around her waist. For one night only, the bow was back in her wild black hair – complementing, not covering, her ears this time – and black onyx bracelets dangled from her wrists.

The five of them went down together, arm in arm, only slowed down a little by Ruby's discomfort in and lack of familiarity with high heels – with Sunset on one side and Blake on the other holding onto her, she was a lot more relaxed about the chance of falling down. As they walked down the empty corridors and deserted staircases, passing out of the dormitory and into the grounds where the brisk night air caressed her face, Sunset was surprised to realise just how relaxed she felt. It wasn't a feeling she usually associated with these kinds of social gatherings. She had attended the Canterlot formals, if only because to have stayed away would have been an admission of fear, and she would never give her enemies the satisfaction of knowing that they had scared her off, but even when she and Flash had been together, she had always been on edge during those evenings. Even when he had been by her side, and even more when he had not, she had always been waiting, fearfully; waiting for the prank, for the humiliation, for the attack, for whatever they had planned for her.

There hadn't always been anything to worry about, but that had never stopped her from worrying.

After all, there had been times when there had been something to worry about.

But now, with one arm slipped into the crook of Pyrrha's elbow and her other hand holding on to Ruby, Sunset found herself astonished by her lack of such fears or nerves. Instead, she felt relaxed, comfortable; unafraid. Her team, her friends, they would stand by her. And that meant she had nothing to worry about.

So long as they stand by me. That was the less obvious danger of Jaune and Pyrrha pairing off: not that they would break up, but that they wouldn't, that they would revolve around each other like binary stars drifting out of Sunset's orbit and far away.

Or not. Even if they are in love, they'll still need friends, right? Sunset put her worries aside. For now, for tonight, she could relax.

Blake's prediction was borne out as they found Sun waiting outside the ballroom. His concession to formalwear appeared to have been changing his jacket and wearing a tie around his bare neck in a way that – to Sunset – made him look more underdressed than he had been without.

Blake seemed to like it, though, and that was probably the only thing that really mattered.

Pyrrha and Jaune, Blake and Sun entered the ballroom in pairs; they clearly weren't the first to arrive, but judging by the numbers already waltzing on the dance floor, they weren't the last ones either. Ruby and Sunset were about to follow when-

"Ruby!" Penny called; she left Rainbow Dash behind as she ran across the stones of the courtyard towards them. "I'm so glad I caught you before you got inside," she said. Penny looked Ruby up and down. "I wanted to thank you for this amazing dress!” She didn’t so much twirl as run around in a circle, arms spread out on either side of her as though she were trying to fly. “I love it so much!”

Ruby giggled. “I’m really glad, Penny. It looks great on you.”

Penny beamed. "Ruby, would you like to accompany me inside?"

Ruby hesitated for a moment. "Sure I would Pen-aaagh!" That last squawk was on account of the way that Penny hadn't waited for her to finish before grabbing her hand and dragging her into the ballroom at a flat run, leaving Sunset and Rainbow Dash standing outside eating their dust.

“She’s… energetic,” Sunset observed.

“She’s been looking forward to this,” Rainbow replied.

“Why?” Sunset asked. “It’s not going to be that good.”

“Maybe for her, it will be,” Rainbow siad. “I mean, it’s not like she has any other dances to compare it to.”

“I guess,” Sunset conceded. “Still, with nothing to compare it to, what does she have to look forward to?”

“Music? Fun?” Rainbow suggested. She paused. “Are you going to be okay in there?”

“Sure, I’ll be fine,” Sunset replied tersely. She paused. “Where’s Twilight?”

“In the tower, working.”

“Tonight?”

“She, um… that guy, Neptune, he-”

“Really?” Sunset gasped. She had never thought she would see the day when Twilight Sparkle, of all people, got turned down. “Why?”

“Twilight didn’t ask.”

“Why does he still have all his teeth?”

“I’m not going to beat him up just because he said no to Twilight,” Rainbow said sharply.

Sunset looked at her.

Rainbow sighed. “Twi asked me not too.”

Sunset chuckled. “So, Twilight decided that she’d rather work than show her face?” I wish I’d thought of that excuse.

“Pretty much,” Rainbow admitted. “Do you want to go inside?”

“Not really,” Sunset confessed. “But it beats standing out here, I suppose.”

The two of them made their way into the ballroom; Yang had volunteered to work front of house, possibly because she didn’t trust Sunset to do the job properly – and this was perhaps the one time Sunset would admit that she was right not to trust Sunset to do the job properly. Either way, Yang was standing in front of a white-grey lectern just beyond the doors, turned away from them as she watched Ruby and Penny, but she swiftly returned her attention to the doors and to Sunset and Rainbow as they entered.

“Hey, guys,” she greeted them. To Sunset, she said, “Thanks for showing up.”

Sunset’s tail twitched. “No problem,” she said. “Did we miss anything?”

Octavia’s string quartet were up on the stage, the cellist setting the pace as the soothing sounds echoed across the ballroom. Some people were already sat at the tables or congregating around the punch bowl or sampling their hors d’oevres. Those couples who were on the dance floor were milling around, talking but not dancing; the music was not yet appropriate for it. Vinyl Scratch looked asleep, although with her eyes covered by magenta sunglasses – at night? Indoors? – it was hard to tell, she might just have been relaxing.

“Nah, you’re still early,” Yang told them. “I told them both to give it a little longer before they started the first dance. I don’t want anyone to miss out.”


“So, do you want anything?” Jaune asked. “Punch or-?”

“I’m fine, Jaune,” Pyrrha assured him as the music of the string quartet died down, leaving only the hubbub of the students in the ballroom. “Besides, I think it will be starting soon.”

The cellist – Octavia, Sunset had said her name was – flipped a page in her music book, leading her fellow musicians to do likewise.

“Right,” Jaune said. He smiled at her. “I suppose this isn’t the best time to say that I don’t know how to slow dance?”

Pyrrha looked up at him. It was impossible to tell from his expression whether he was joking or not.

Pyrrha covered her mouth with one gloved hand as she giggled. “I have no idea whether to believe you or not,” she admitted. “But either way, I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Because I’m with you,” Pyrrha told him. “And tonight, that’s all I want.”

The strings started up again, the music rising from their instruments to blanket the chatter of the dancers, which died away as everyone took their partners in hold or else were taken in hold by their partners.

Jaune took a deep breath. “Shall we?” he asked, as he held out one hand to her.

Pyrrha smiled close-mouthed as she placed her fingers into the palm of his hand, letting his fingers close over them.

Despite the silk of her glove, she fancied that she could still feel the strength of his touch, the gentleness.

He took her in hold, his hand upon her waist; her whole body tensed automatically, but then relaxed again as she placed her free hand upon his shoulder because this was nothing to be nervous about, nothing to be afraid of; this was Jaune. This… this was what she had been dreaming about.

The music swelled, the introduction over and the dance proper beginning, a slow waltz to get everyone started. All around them, the other couples were moving too, but Pyrrha had only a few seconds to register that because they were moving themselves, she was moving, guided by Jaune.

He had not been entirely inaccurate about the slow dancing; his movements were not clumsy, but they were considered, careful, as if he feared that he might make a misstep or a slip-up and was on his guard against such.

They were probably well-matched in that. For her part, Pyrrha feared that her own steps were too mechanical, too rote. There had been a time when she had loved to dance, but when the time came to instruct her in such dances as these, she had been taught not to indulge her passion but because it was a part of a young lady’s education, traditional and expected, and such tuition had driven out any enthusiasm that she might have had for it. She knew the steps, but she had no feel for them; they were just places to stand, ways to hold herself, another way of performing for the audience.

Except there was no audience now. There was no one else on the floor, no one else in the ballroom, no one else in the whole of Beacon except for Jaune, and as they moved, as his grip upon her waist tightened without ever threatening to become painful, Pyrrha found herself moving more naturally, more instinctually, knowing what to do not because she had learnt it by rote but because she felt it as she felt the rhythm of the battlefield.

Her smile blossomed into something brilliant as she looked into Jaune’s eyes. They were so blue. So beautiful. How was it she had not drowned in them?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a reverberating thud from up on stage. She and Jaune both looked that way for a moment without breaking step, not even while the music faltered.

The DJ, a girl whose pallor made Ruby seem tanned, whose messy hair was intermingled streaks of electric blue and cyan, had woken up or decided to get involved – those sunglasses made it hard to tell – and was now holding one headphone up to her ear as she worked her complex sound system.

The cellist, her raven hair cascading down her back, glared at her for a moment before attempting to continue on as though nothing had happened.

The DJ paused and seemed for a moment contemplative. Then a slow smile spread across her pale face before her fingers began to fly across her control panel, bass thumps and pounding beats erupting out of the speakers at her command. For a moment, string and speaker warred with one another… at least, that was what Pyrrha thought for those first few moments, before she realised that what she was hearing was not competition but… complementarity. The DJ was not trying to drive the strings off the stage, but to work with them, each pulsing beat filling a lull in the music of the quartet, even as the strings began to respond, bending and twisting around the beats like water flowing around the rocks that rise in the midst of a river.

Octavia’s smile began to match that on the DJ’s face as the two forces slid into perfect harmony.

It was not quite like anything that Pyrrha had ever heard before, but it was in no way distasteful for being unique. Rather, in its uniqueness, it was… quite wonderful: unique, yes, and strange, but in such a way as to make you wonder why nobody had thought of this before.

Jaune seemed to be of like mind, for as the music blended, his movements relaxed visibly, became less cautious, less controlled; just as Pyrrha had done, he began to flow with the music, his body twisting, turning, until he released Pyrrha by the waist and flung her outwards, throwing his own arm back – not hitting anyone, thankfully – as Pyrrha took a step back from him, her own arm out, the two of them joined only by the hand.

And then he grabbed her by the waist with both hands and lifted her up, into the air, above the dance floor, turning her in place with both hands as Pyrrha spread her arms out like a bird in flight.

This, she thought, is the best night ever.


“I’m a little surprised you’re so good at this,” Blake confessed as the dance slowed down again enough for them to speak, albeit speak softly so as not to disturb anyone else.

“I… may have been practicing a little bit,” Sun confessed. “I may have dropped those Atlesian etiquette classes but… I wanted to be able to do this.”

“For me?” Blake asked, a touch of anxiety in her voice.

“For us,” Sun clarified. “Or… for me. I didn’t want to be like to Neptune, for one thing.”

Blake didn’t understand what he meant by that, but she decided to let it go and ask the question she was more interested in, “Is there another thing?”

Sun was silent for a moment, his becoming solemn. “I know that I won’t have you forever,” he said. “Even if you don’t fly away to Atlas, I’ll be flying back to Haven when the year ends-”

“You haven’t thought about sticking around?” Blake asked.

Sun paused. “I’ve thought about it,” he admitted. “But if I did that, if I hung Neptune and Scarlet and Sage out to dry so that I could be with you, I wouldn’t exactly be the kind of guy you’d want to be with, would I?”

Blake didn’t reply. She felt, she almost felt, like she didn’t have to.

“You’ve made me a better person, Blake,” Sun said. “It just kinda sucks that being a better man means that I won’t have you for very long.” He grinned. “Besides, I think I’d probably freeze to death up north.”

Blake sniggered. “You might need to wear a couple of extra layers.”

“But what I’m trying to say is,” Sun went on, “that I wanted to be able to have these memories, with you, tonight, and to have them be good ones, so that even if we don’t have very long together, I’ll still have something I can remember.”

Blake smiled, and as she smiled she leaned forwards, so that her head was resting on his chest as they swayed to the music. “I’m glad that it wasn’t for me,” she murmured. “Because I don’t want you to change who you are for my sake, or even feel that you should.” She paused a moment, feeling his chest rise and fall beneath her as she breathed. “But I am glad you did this.”


As the first dance began, Sunset and Rainbow Dash left Yang greeting the stragglers and wandered over to the punch bowl. Sunset picked up a cup, but hesitated. "Knowing how much Yang was involved in planning this dance, I'm not sure if I actually want to try the punch."

"I heard that!"

Rainbow was bolder, filling up her cup nearly to the brim. She sipped from it as the two of them watched the dancers on the floor. Pyrrha fitted into Jaune's arms as though they'd been made for one another, and they danced with a grace that was expected, in the case of Pyrrha, and surprising, in the case of Jaune. Penny, meanwhile, had lifted Ruby an inch off the ground and was turning in rough circles to the music, while Ruby looked to be getting a little dizzy.

Rainbow Dash raised her cup. "To Sapphire."

Sunset risked the unpredictable touch of Yang to fill a cup, and raise it. "To Rosepetal."

They knocked their paper cups together and drank.

"Not in a mood for dancing, either of you?" Professor Ozpin inquired politely, even as he stole up on them so stealthily that his question was the first sign that Sunset had of his presence.

Sunset turned to look up into the face lined with age. "The shepherdess can watch over her flock without doing... whatever it is that sheep do in the meadow. Or the paddock. Or wherever the shepherdess might happen to be watching them at the time." She blinked. "That metaphor was not one of my best for a small host of reasons."

Professor Ozpin chuckled. "Your commitment to your role is admirable, Miss Shimmer, but not entirely necessary. When can you let your hair down if not on a night like this?"

"Professor, I suspect you know full well that I was being facetious."

The headmaster's expression did not alter. "And I suspect you know full well that my point stands regardless. And you, Miss Dash; is something keeping you here, on the sidelines of the festivities?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Believe me, sir, I've got no objection to a good party... but it needs to have the right people here, and they're not right now."

"But that is precisely why we have nights like these, to help forge new friendships, and strengthen the old ones so that they will last a lifetime," Professor Ozpin said. He looked away from Sunset and Rainbow, and out at the figures on the ballroom floor. In particular, his gaze seemed to linger upon Jaune and Pyrrha; they, of course, were too lost in one another to notice. "They make a handsome pair, don't they?"

"She's a beautiful young woman," Sunset replied. "He's... alright."

"Young," Professor Ozpin repeated. "Yes, you are all so young."

"Sir?" Rainbow asked.

Professor Ozpin's smile was melancholy, and rather lonely. "When I was young, each day seemed as long as a year, and summer seemed to be without an end; it seemed I could sit under the shade of the trees for as long as I wished, or squander the treasure of my time on... nothing. But night draws in, and Fall comes for us all; the leaves beneath which we sheltered descend... and they are ground to mulch beneath the march of time; even those from whom we once swore we would never be parted are taken from us, leaving only memories behind.

"No one has ever regretted that they had too many memories of the cherished companions of their youths, but there are many who regret that they have too few. I beg you both not to be among them."

Sunset and Rainbow exchanged a glance at one another.

“If I may rebut, Professor,” Sunset said, “I don’t deny your point, but there are a lot of ways to make memories. Sometimes by dancing, and sometimes…” – she raised her cup of punch – “by sharing a drink with a rival you respect.”

Professor Ozpin’s voice carried with it an undercurrent of amusement. “Well, Miss Shimmer, since you’ve been so good as to accept my point, how can I refuse to accept yours? I’ll leave you to it.”

They watched him walk away, to talk to Professor Goodwitch and the newly-arrived General Ironwood.

“Weird old guy sometimes, isn’t he?” Rainbow asked.

“Oh, you have no idea,” Sunset said. Even I don’t have nearly as good an idea as I’d like.

Rainbow drank down the rest of her cup of punch. It left a bit of a red stain on her upper lip. “So, rivals, huh?”

“Yep,” Sunset said. “If our teams don’t meet in the Vytal tournament, I’ll be very disappointed.”

“You shouldn’t be,” Rainbow said. “'Cause if you and I find ourselves facing each other in the arena, it’ll mean Pyrrha won’t be getting into the singles round.”

“Oho!” Sunset couldn’t hold back a guffaw at the audacity of that remark. “And talk like that is why we’re rivals, not friends.” She took a sip from her cup. The punch was sharp on her tongue. “So, who are you going to put forward for the singles round?”

“Who do you think?” Rainbow replied. “I mean, obviously, I’d like it to be me. I’d like to stand alone in that arena with all my friends watching… but it’s all about Penny. She’s the reason we’re here so…” Rainbow shrugged. “My dreams don’t count next to that.”

“You’re the team leader; you can do whatever you like.”

“Then why don’t you put yourself forward to the singles round?” Rainbow asked. “Tell me you don’t want to be in the spotlight as much as I do, and I’ll call you a liar to your face.”

Sunset smirked. “How do you know that I won’t do that?”

“Because when I talked like it was going to be Pyrrha for sure, you didn’t correct me,” Rainbow said.

Sunset shrugged. “Yeah, sure I want it. I want them to see me, I want them to cheer for me, I want the whole thing. And maybe I could even win… or else my ego is just that big. As Pyrrha herself – unintentionally – pointed out to me, tournament fighting is a business, and the business is pleasing crowds; nobody’s going to want to watch Sunset Shimmer kicking ass when the Invincible Girl of Mistral is stuck on the bench. That and, well… Lady Nikos has been very generous to me; it would be churlish on my part if I didn’t give her the thing that she wants most in all the world: the chance to see her daughter become the champion of champions.”

And besides, as she thought, but didn’t see the need to add for the benefit of Rainbow Dash. A win for Pyrrha is a win for the team; all our names will get set down, even if it’s only her head that wears the crown of victory.

And anyway, I’m definitely putting myself forward into the doubles.

“Hey, Sunset!”

Sunset turned around. Flash had hailed her as he walked into the ballroom, alone, waving one hand but then looking surprised when other people stopped what they were doing to look his way. He slouched down a little in the face of all the attention, walking more quickly over to where Sunset stood.

“Hey,” he said again.

“Hey,” Sunset replied.

Flash didn’t say anything for a little while. He looked briefly away from her, thrust his hands into his pockets, and frowned. “Can we talk?” he asked. “Somewhere… private?”

Sunset glanced at Rainbow Dash, who shrugged. “We can go outside,” Sunset suggested. “Or the balcony upstairs?”

“Yeah, the balcony sounds great,” Flash said. He gestured out in front of him. “After you.”

“Okay,” Sunset said, with more curiosity than anything else, as she took the lead in climbing up the spiral staircase onto the second floor balcony. She turned, leaning back against the wooden railings as Flash followed her up and out into the night air.

It was only when he emerged into the moonlight that she noticed that he wasn’t wearing a tie; his collar was undone, and he didn’t have a waistcoat on either. Compared to most of the men here (okay, compared to all of the men here not called Sun), he looked a little underdressed.

“You look good,” Flash said, nodding his head to indicate her pink-and-lavender gown.

“Are you okay?” Sunset asked. “You look a little…” – she waved her hand to take him in – “dishevelled.”

“I’ve been for a walk.”

“Did someone steal half your suit while you were walking?” Sunset asked.

“No, I didn’t put it all on,” Flash said. “Jaune gave me a lot to think about, and I had to… I’m sorry, Sunset.”

Sunset’s eyes narrowed. “What did Jaune say?” I swear, I’m going to-

“He wanted to know just what it was that I did to you,” Flash said. “And what I was going to do to make it right.”

Sunset stared at him in silence for a moment. She looked away out of sheer embarrassment. Jaune, come on, really? I know Pyrrha wants you to be her hero, but that doesn’t mean that all the girls on your team feel the same way. Come on. “I’m sorry about that, Flash; I swear I didn’t put him up to that. You’d think he’d know that I don’t need a white knight to ride in and make everything better, but apparently-”

“Sunset, it’s okay,” Flash said, taking a step towards her. “I said I’m sorry, and I meant it. I… I didn’t break up with you because you were a faunus; I just told you that because… because I thought that it was kinder than telling you the truth, which is that-”

“That you broke up with me because I was a terrible person?” Sunset murmured. She gripped the cold metal railings of the balcony tightly, and looked away, down towards the ground. “I know.”

“You know?” Flash repeated.

“I think I’ve always known, deep down,” Sunset whispered. “I almost asked you about it, after the Forever Fall field trip.” After she had, for want of a better word, seen herself. Perhaps it was overstating the case to say that she had always known, but she had certainly had an inkling of it after that. Once you accepted the idea that you were or had been grievously flawed, it wasn’t that hard to start to wonder if that was the reason the love of your life didn’t want anything to do with you any more. She had almost gone to him, but… but fear had talked her out of it, fear and the fact that it had been easier to get swept away by her teammates and let it lie. Easier to believe the lie that Flash had told her and continue to think herself wronged and blameless as surely a lovestruck maid must be. “I don’t know whether to tell you that you ought to have been honest with me or thank you for giving me an excuse to hide behind.”

Flash frowned. “I… I never meant to hurt you.”

Sunset closed her eyes; her whole body shuddered, and not from the cold. What do I say? What do you want me to say? Do I tell you not to worry about it? Tell you that Jaune was overreacting? Tell you that I forgive you?

Or do I tell you the truth?

Twilight, what do I do?

Sunset opened her eyes and looked at him. “You might not have wanted to hurt me, but… but you did. I…” her voice dropped to barely a whisper. “I loved you.”

“I… I didn’t realise,” Flash said hoarsely. “I wasn’t sure that you could still love, back then.”

“I trusted you,” Sunset said, her voice rising a little with an anger that she couldn’t wholly suppress. “You were the only one I trusted, and you betrayed me.”

“You needed more than I could give you,” Flash said. “You needed… you needed what your team gives you. I… I don’t apologise for what I did: breaking up with you. I couldn’t… but I am sorry for the way I did it, for lying to you about it… and for what that did to you.”

“You should be,” Sunset said. “I’m not saying it would have much of a difference back then; I still would have been mad at you, but… maybe I wouldn’t have found it so hard to trust anybody else afterwards. Maybe I would have been able to trust Jaune with Pyrrha without having to try and decide whether I needed to give one of my teammates the shovel-talk. Maybe I wouldn’t have hated Rainbow Dash quite so much for being the good faunus.” She frowned. “Or maybe it wouldn’t have made any difference at all. Who can say?” She shook her head, sending her hair shaking back and forth. “It doesn’t matter now. I have a great team, great friends-”

“You don’t have a date,” Flash pointed out.

Sunset snorted. “Neither do you, by the looks of things.”

“No,” Flash said. “You… seems like you’re a tough act to follow, Sunset Shimmer.”

Sunset’s right eyebrow quirked upwards. “You mean Weiss Schnee wouldn’t give you a second look. Don’t act like you haven’t been making moves because you’re not over me or something, I know better. And I don’t need your pity.”

“I wasn’t-”

“And don’t lie to me, either; we’ve established it was a mistake the first time,” Sunset said. She debated telling him that she’d asked Twilight, but that might sound fake or petty or both. And anyway, the fact that she got shot down wouldn’t do a lot to improve her standing, all things considered. “So, what do we do now?”

“Well, there is a dance going on downstairs,” Flash said.

“Really?” Sunset asked. “I don’t think we’re there any more, do you?”

“Maybe not,” Flash said. “But… we didn’t exactly leave it in a good place, and… we never got a last dance.”

Sunset smiled. “A last dance.”

Flash held out his hand. “Sunset Shimmer… would you care to come down to the dance with me?”

Sunset’s smile got a little bit wider as she slipped her hand into his open palm. “I would be delighted.”

And so they walked downstairs, hand in hand, like the prince and princess at the proverbial fairytale ball; all that it was missing was all the eyes in the room turning towards them in awe and fascination as they descended.

In actual fact, nobody gave them a second glance.

Not that Sunset cared. For once, this wasn’t about how the rest of the world saw her, this wasn’t about performing for the crowd, this wasn’t about her image. This was about her, and Flash, and picking up where they left off long enough to give it the ending that they needed and deserved.

They slipped into a gap on the ballroom floor, and Sunset rested her arms over his shoulders and felt his hands around her waist and it felt so natural, so right that Sunset began to wonder if this was a bad idea; was it just going to leave her wanting more in the end?

And that’s different from now… how, exactly?

“Is everything okay?” Flash asked.

“Yeah,” Sunset said. “Everything’s…perfect.”

They began to sway in time to the music-

The music that abruptly cut out, to be replaced by what Sunset recognised after the first few bars as a Rainbooms number.

We’ve just got the day to get ready,

And there’s only so much time to lose,

“What?” Sunset asked, looking across the room at Rainbow Dash, who looked just as surprised as Sunset.

“What can I say?” Yang announced to the room at large. “It would be rude to have a lead guitarist in the room and not play any of their numbers.”

'Cause tonight, yeah

We’re here to party,

So let’s think of something fun to do,

Flash shrugged. “Nobody said our last dance had to be a waltz, right?”

Sunset grinned. “Let’s do this.”

Shake your tail,

'Cause we’re here to have a party tonight,

Shake your tail,

Shake your tail!

Sunset shook her tail and a whole lot more, her whole body shaking in rhythm to the music, her hands in the air; Flash was in front of her, and their bodies intertwined as they jerked to the music.

Shake your tail,

'Cause we’re here to have a party tonight,

Shake your tail,

Shake your tail!

Blake laughed at Sun as his tail performed ludicrously convoluted moves, tracing patterns in the air behind him. After a moment, she rejoined the dance, her face still flushed with mirth.

So what you didn’t get it right the first time,

Laugh it off,

No one said it is a crime,

Do your thing,

You know you’re an original,

You’re ideas are so funny that it’s criminal,

Ohhh-ahhh!

Flash was looking into her eyes, smiling at her the way he used to, and for a moment, for a glorious, beautiful, wonderful moment as the music swelled and they moved in time to the beat, it was as if everything that had come between them had been washed away and all the wounds had been cleansed of bitterness and hurt. It was like they had been taken back in time, given a second chance to do it all over again… and do it right.

Shake your tail,

'Cause we’re here to have a party tonight,

Shake your tail,

Shake your tail!

Pyrrha and Jaune were moving in perfect sync with each other. Everyone was dancing by now; whether they had partners or not, they were all out on the floor; nobody was standing out that Sunset could see. Everyone was dancing, but as the music began to slow down, so too did Flash and Sunset. She put her arms around him and allowed him to pull her close.

“I have a confession to make,” Sunset whispered into his ear, and for some reason, her eyes felt suddenly very moist and watery. “I don’t think things are going to work out between us.”

The Rainbooms' song ended; they swayed to the renewed sounds of a slow dance.

“I know what you mean,” Flash said. “I wish I didn’t, but I do. It’s going to be hard finding anybody to top you.”

“Liar,” Sunset said. She hesitated, swallowing the lump that threatened to form in her throat. “Goodbye, Flash Sentry.”

She closed her eyes as she felt him kiss her on the cheek.


Dove couldn’t meet Ciel’s eye.

He was too… ashamed, yes, that was the word. He was too ashamed to look her in the eye.

They were… he had lost track of what dance it was; it was hard to tell, when the music was all blending together like this. Perhaps he just had no ear for this kind of… whatever the blend of sounds was that was mostly flowing from the mixture of the DJ and the string quartet.

He took some comfort from the fact that Ciel didn’t really seem to appreciate it, although that hardly made him blameless in all of this.

He was sat, they were both sat – although he didn’t expect that to last for much longer – at one of the round tables that dotted the outskirts of the ballroom. A plate of nibbles, some fancy and others less so, sat in front of him. Dove, heedless of the way the chicken wing was staining his fingers with fat or sauce or both, used it to push some of the other food around on his plate, like a child presented with a meal he does not care for.

Ciel drummed her gloved fingers upon the tabletop. He didn’t look at her face, but the drumming she was making nevertheless told him a great deal about her expression.

“Mister Bronzewing,” she declared, “I would apologise for my bluntness save that would involve apologising for a lesser offence than that which you have offered without reserve, but do you intend to ask me to dance again, or will you continue to ignore me as you have done for most of the night?”

Dove sighed and bowed his head. It was not good. He had tried, he really had, but… but when he had held her, when he had looked into her eyes, all that he could see staring back at him was Amber, her expression filled with reproach. It cut him to the quick; it froze his legs in trunks of stone. He… he could not do it. He could not turn his back on her.

He heard Ciel sniff, whether with distaste or upset. “I see,” she said, her voice sharp and cold. “When you asked me to accompany you tonight, I took you for a gentleman; I see now that I was mistaken. If you will excuse me.” He heard her start to rise.

“I’m sorry,” he said, before he got too far away to hear him over the music. “I… I’m sorry,” he repeated.

He looked up. Ciel had stopped. Her ballgown swirled around her, her petticoats rustling as she turned back towards him. “Are you?” she asked.

“I am,” Dove declared. “I… I shouldn’t have put you in this position, it was unfair. I should never have even asked you. If it helps, it isn’t your fault.”

Ciel raised her chin the better to look down on him. “I was never under the impression that the fault was mine,” she declared proudly. “Although I am curious to hear you admit fault so readily.”

Dove let the chicken wing fall from his fingers. Idly, he picked up a napkin and wiped his fingertips with it. “There was… there was a girl, back home,” he confessed. “She lived… not far from my village. I met her in the woods one day, and she… and we… I loved her, or at least I thought I did.”

Ciel’s expression softened. She sat back down. “What became of her?”

Dove laughed bitterly. “I have absolutely no idea,” he confessed. “I thought I’d find her here! She told me that she was coming here; she promised to wait for me, but… but here I am, and here she isn’t. Maybe she’s gone, maybe she’d think I’m a fool for acting like this, but… I just can’t… I’m not ready to…”

Ciel placed a hand upon his shoulder. “Faith is nothing to be ashamed of, Mister Bronzewing-”

“Dove, please,” Dove begged her. “Please, Miss Ciel, Mister Bronzewing makes me feel very old.”

Ciel nodded, and it almost looked as though she smiled briefly. “Very well, Dove; faith is nothing to be ashamed of, no more than love. That you keep faith, even knowing that she may not, speaks well of your character. What does not speak so well is that you approached me regardless of these feelings and in doing so have, if you will permit me to say so, ruined my evening.”

“I know,” Dove admitted. “And I know that I can’t make it up to you; I can only say that I’m sorry, and that I hope the rest of your night is better than what I’ve given you.”

“That remains to be seen, but thank you for your sentiment and for your belated honesty,” Ciel said. Once more, she got to her feet. “I hope… I will pray to the Lady that the winds of fortune bring this girl back to you, or at least bring you news of her.”

“Really?” Dove asked. “That… that’s very kind of you.” His guilt was magnified by the fact that he had wronged a lady of such evident good quality.

Ciel did not seem to know how to acknowledge that, doing so only by a stiff nod as she walked away from his table, her gown trailing after her.

The empty seats at the table were soon filled, as he had thought – dreaded, somewhat – that they might be as Lyra and Bon Bon swooped down upon him like a pair of awkwardly affectionate vultures.

“What was that?” Bon Bon demanded.

“What was all of this, this whole night?” Lyra added. “No wonder she walked away; you’ve been terrible.”

Dove glanced first at Bon Bon, and then at Lyra. “Have you been spending the whole night watching me?”

“Clearly, we should have done more,” Bon Bon said. “Like give you an earpiece and fed you instructions.”

“I know how to talk to girls,” Dove insisted.

“Not on this evidence, you don’t,” Lyra muttered. “What happened? Where did all the charm go?”

“I’m not ready,” Dove told them. “I just… I can’t. Every time I looked at her… I saw Amber’s face. I can’t just betray her. And before you try and convince me that it’s not a betrayal: it is. It feels like it to me.”

Lyra sighed as she started rubbing his back. “Dove.”

Bon Bon frowned. “Are you going to stay like this forever?”

“I don’t know; who can say what the future holds?” Dove asked. “All I know is that I’m going to stay this way for now. I have to. I can’t force myself to do anything else. And neither can you.”


Cinder was for other than for dancing measures.

Let others dance, the fools; let them revel, let them waste their time in such frivolity.

How she despised them all.

And yet… how she envied them, also. They did not know how swift the world could change, how easily joy could change to terrible sadness.

How easily the world that seemed to adore you could switch to hating you with a terrible cruelty.

Not even Sunset understood, though she might learn, in time.

To her sorrow.

She pitied them that they would all learn soon enough.

Cinder hated them, that they might dance and revel and fill the room with so much laughter, little dreaming of how cold and dark the world might be, uncaring of the unseen suffering of those who toiled in misery and despair.

She wished them the joy of their summer while it lasted.

But for herself, the world afford no such merriment. But she would use the joy of others to her best advantage. While the whole school danced and pranced within the ballroom, she would blind the eyes of the Emerald Tower and turn them to her mistress’ purposes.

Her sable arms were as black as the night as she slipped behind the guard upon the tower door and broke his neck with a single blow. She dragged the body just out of sight and then slinked her way, hips swaying, into the tower.

She waited until her presence attracted the attention of the guards.

“Hello, boys,” she purred, her blades of obsidian appearing in her hands. “Care to dance?”

Author's Note:

Rewrite Notes: No big changes here, just a few tweaks and a couple of extra scenes added for Pyrrha and Dove.

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