Let's Just Live (Rewritten)
Let’s Just Live
Sunset arrived at the garage last; everyone else had beaten her there and was standing slightly awkwardly, waiting upon her pleasure. Pyrrha’s back was straight, but her hands were clasped together in front of her like one the maids in her house, and her head was bowed down, chin resting upon her gilded gorget. Jaune had one hand upon her arm, which she seemed to be ignoring; he was frowning, no doubt trying to work out what was bothering her. Ruby was examining Sunset’s motorcycle, although whether she was actually studying it or just trying to look busy was something Sunset couldn’t tell.
Blake was leaning against the back wall of the garage but somehow maintaining good posture as she did so; she appeared to have decided that nobody was going to say anything until everyone was here, and so, she was reading something off her scroll while she waited.
Rainbow Dash, in contrast with Blake, was slouched, her arms folded across her chest, one leg cocked and foot pressed against the wall. Twilight was looking at her, holding one arm with the other; like Pyrrha, her head was bowed. Ciel stood at ease, hands clasped behind her back, looking out of the garage and into the middle distance. Penny looked utterly lost.
It was the reactions of Pyrrha and Twilight that worried Sunset the most; she thought she’d gotten them both past this.
Mind you, I guess that ‘this’ is a lot. More than one speech can be taken care of, maybe.
“I’m sorry if I kept you all waiting,” Sunset murmured.
“It’s fine, Sunset,” Pyrrha assured her. “We haven’t been here long.”
“Although we do look a little stupid all standing around in a garage like this,” Rainbow pointed out.
“Well, that,” Sunset replied, “is why we’re going to shut the door, isn’t it?” She clicked her fingers, and the door into the garage descended behind her with much grinding and clunking before it finally completed its downward progress, enclosing them all inside – and in impenetrable darkness.
“Might have been nice if you’d put the light on first,” Rainbow pointed out from out of that same darkness.
Sunset raised her hand, and a ball of glowing magelight rose from out of her palm to drift lazily upward into the centre of the garage, illuminating all within.
“Showoff,” Rainbow muttered.
Sunset smirked briefly at her. Her tail swished behind her as she ran her eyes around the room. “Thanks for coming, everyone.”
“It’s no problem,” Jaune said. “We all want to know what Professor Ozpin told you.” He glanced at Pyrrha. “I mean, I think we do. Do we?”
You may well ask, Sunset thought. “I… that’s something that you’ll have to decide for yourself, but you deserve to know.”
“That… doesn’t sound great,” Jaune pointed out.
“Well…” Sunset trailed off for a moment, “I’m not sure where to start.”
“Why don’t you start with Cinder?” Blake suggested, putting her scroll away. “That way, we can get the small stuff out of the way before we move on to what you learned from the headmaster.”
Sunset pursed her lips together. “I… I’m afraid I can’t do that,” she murmured.
“Sunset?” Pyrrha asked, surprised.
Blake frowned. “You can’t?”
“That’s right,” Sunset replied. “I can’t.”
“Can’t what?” Rainbow asked.
“Sunset knows about Cinder’s past,” Blake said.
“Is that what Professor Ozpin and the General wished to discuss?” Ciel asked.
“No,” Rainbow said. “This is something else.”
“'Something else' is right,” Sunset muttered. She raised her voice to add, “And Blake is right, for what it’s worth. While Cinder and I were fighting, I… I discovered my semblance. My real semblance, not the magic that I’ve been passing off as my semblance.”
“Really?” Twilight gasped. “That’s incredible! What is it? No, don’t tell me; if it let you see Cinder’s past, then… you’re a telepath?”
“I wish it was that simple,” Sunset said. “Or that cool. I’m only a touch telepath. And an empath.”
“You are an empath?” Rainbow repeated incredulously.
“The irony has not escaped my notice,” Sunset said with a sigh as her ears pressed down against her head. “However, although it did give me some glimpses of Cinder’s past, I will not be sharing those glimpses with you,” – she glanced at the friends she had already told – “and I would thank you not to spread the word any further either.”
“Why?” Blake demanded. “I don’t understand; you said that you would tell them.”
“It does seem rather strange to suddenly refuse,” Pyrrha murmured. “I trust there is a reason for it.”
“There is,” Sunset assured her. She took a deep breath. “I promised Cinder that I wouldn’t tell anyone else.”
Silence descended upon the garage, at least for a few moments.
“Uh, you promised Cinder?” Ruby asked.
Sunset nodded. “That’s right. She wasn’t happy that you four knew the truth about her past – she isn’t even happy that I know – and she certainly doesn’t want anyone else to know.”
“And when did she tell you this?” Rainbow demanded.
“Just now, when she called,” Sunset said blithely.
“You’ve got a pretty casual way of bringing that up!” Rainbow cried.
“I was going to mention it at some point,” Sunset responded. “We’ve got a lot to get through, if you recall, and Cinder calling me up isn’t even the most important thing that we’ve found out today. The point is that she called, she was not happy to find out that I hadn’t kept her secret, and I promised not to spread the word any further than I already had.”
“So you will say nothing?” pressed Blake. “You’ll just let… you’ll just let them get away with it, with everything that they did?”
“That’s what Cinder wants,” Sunset said softly.
“Just because it’s what she wants doesn’t make it right!” Blake cried. “It doesn’t even make it what she needs!”
“I made a promise,” Sunset declared. “I gave my word.”
“Your word to an enemy,” Ciel pointed out.
“Even enemies can show respect to one another,” Pyrrha replied. “I know… I know full well what kind of struggle we are engaged in, what kind of enemy we fight… but so long as may at once face our enemies with unyielding resolve upon the battlefield and then treat them with gentle courtesy off of it… then I believe things are not yet as bleak as they may appear.” She paused. “More to the point, even if we cannot treat our enemies that way, it is no excuse for treating our friends in a manner unbecoming. We have no right to force Sunset to break her word, solemnly and sincerely given, and I for one will not be a party to doing so.”
Ciel said, “In Atlas, we have a saying: ‘honour ends when the kingdom begins.’ If you have any information that is of strategic interest against our enemy, then it is not enough to simply say that Cinder does not wish it to come out. Of course she does not, but we must have it nonetheless.”
“There is no strategic interest in it,” Sunset said, and spoke true according to her lights; what could they gain from Cinder’s past that would help them defeat her in the present? “Nothing but a past which… which Cinder is entitled to keep to herself. Something I should have remembered before I told any of you.” It was ironic, to an extent, that the reason she had been so quick to divulge Cinder’s past was because Cinder’s own emotions had prevented Sunset from thinking clearly.
Makes a change from my own emotions tripping me up, I suppose.
Ciel glanced at Pyrrha, and then at Blake. “Is that correct?” she asked. “Is there no value in this information Sunset holds?”
“No,” Pyrrha replied immediately. “None that I can think of.”
Blake hesitated, silently, her golden gaze fixed upon Sunset.
Please, Blake, do not make a liar of me. Sunset’s tail began to curl upwards in anticipation.
“Nothing,” Blake admitted curtly. “As Sunset says, it was… just her past.”
“I see,” Ciel murmured. “Very well, if you will have it so, then let the matter be closed.”
Sunset’s tail unwound down to the floor. “Thank you,” she whispered.
The tightness of Blake’s mouth suggested that she wasn’t thrilled with this, but she said, “If this is what you both want, then…” – she managed to raise a smile – “who am I to complain about wanting something that isn’t necessarily what you need?”
“That’s it?” Penny asked. “You don’t want to know?”
“We are soldiers, Penny, not grocery store gossips,” Ciel explained. “We have no need of every detail of Cinder’s youthful comings and goings in order to defeat her. We have sent her running once without already.”
“I know,” Penny conceded. “But aren’t knowledge and learning supposed to be a good thing? Isn’t that what you’re always telling me?”
“And I am correct, in the main,” Ciel asserted.
“These things are complicated sometimes, Penny,” Rainbow told her. “Sometimes… sometimes your enemy is… it's complicated.”
“Speaking of Cinder,” Blake said, “I was just looking at the news before you came in; nothing about Cinder or her attack on the CCT.”
“Maybe no one cares?” Jaune suggested.
“An attack on the CCT, the keystone of communication across Remnant, and no one cares?” Blake replied incredulously. “I’m sorry, Jaune, but I can’t believe that.”
“More likely, it hasn’t been made public yet,” Sunset said. “Professor Ozpin is sitting on it.” He does like his secrets after all.
“How long can that last?” asked Ruby. “I mean, everyone at school knows what happened; they all know it was Cinder, right?”
Jaune nodded. “Everyone who was at the dance heard it from the Atlesian specialists.”
“Maybe Professor Ozpin and the General don’t want to keep it a secret forever; they just want to control how they manage the story,” said Twilight.
“That is plausible, and sensible besides,” Ciel said.
“While we’re still on Cinder,” said Rainbow, looking at Sunset, “I take it that she didn’t just call you up to ask you to keep her past to yourself?”
“No,” Sunset answered. “She didn’t. She asked me to come and meet her… at Mountain Glenn.”
“Mountain Glenn!” Ruby gasped.
“Do you know it, Ruby?” Penny asked.
“You ought to recognise the name too, Penny,” Ciel informed her sharply. “It was covered in Doctor Oobleck’s history class.”
“It was?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Ciel was silent for a moment, before she glanced upwards – heavenward, rather than at the ceiling, to Sunset’s guess – and muttered, “These things are sent to try us.”
“You know what Mountain Glenn is, don’t you, Jaune?” Sunset asked.
“Uh, yeah,” Jaune replied, not sounding as convinced of it as Sunset would have liked, but convinced enough for her to give Rainbow a smug smirk.
“Yeah, yeah, I knew you were a slavedriver already,” Rainbow muttered.
Blake tutted. “You two. Now, of all times?”
“So what is Mountain Glenn, Jaune?” Penny asked innocently.
Jaune hesitated, and it began to look as though Sunset would find her smirk turned back against her by Rainbow Dash, when Ruby spoke up and said, “Mountain Glenn is the biggest disaster in the history of Vale since the Great War. It was supposed to be the biggest new settlement established by Vale – maybe by any of the kingdoms – ever. Not just a village or even a town but a whole new city, southeast of Vale, at the southern tip of the mountains.”
“Never figured you for a history buff,” Rainbow observed.
Ruby smiled, if only faintly and for a short while. “I… didn’t learn this from books,” she admitted. “Mountain Glenn had been founded just before my parents came to Beacon; according to my Dad, and Uncle Qrow, this was the biggest thing that was happening at the time: humanity was reclaiming territory from the grimm. There was even talk of using Mountain Glenn, once it got set up, to drive on and recolonise the eastern territories lost in the Great War, without having to go over the mountains to do it.” Ruby frowned. “From Mom’s diary, it doesn’t seem like she thought that would happen, or maybe it’s that she wasn’t sure if she wanted it to happen.”
“If Summer Rose came from beyond the kingdoms, then it would be natural for her to have mixed feelings about the kingdom extending into that beyond territory,” Pyrrha murmured.
“I guess so,” Ruby agreed. “And I guess it doesn’t matter anyway.”
“The old story,” Ciel murmured.
“I don’t get why anyone wants to move to these new colonies,” Rainbow observed. “I mean… if you want to move outside the kingdoms to get away from the man, then fine, I think you’re nuts, but okay. But if you move out to a new settlement, you’re still part of the kingdom, only it's more dangerous, and there’s nothing to do.”
“Canterlot’s a colony,” Twilight pointed out.
“Yeah, okay, but it’s not a new colony,” Rainbow replied.
“Everything has to start sometime,” Twilight reminded her.
“I guess,” Rainbow muttered.
“Like I said, this wasn’t just a town or village with nothing but farms and houses,” Ruby said. “This was a whole city, and Dad said that by the time he was in school, you could hardly move in Vale for ads trying to persuade people to move to Mountain Glenn: there was supposed to be a swimming pool in every apartment building and homes that people could actually afford. Apparently, lots of people moved out there.”
“But Vale couldn’t protect them?” Penny murmured.
“No,” Ruby said sadly, bowing her head a little. “I suppose everyone must have thought that once it became established as human territory, the grimm would stay away. You know how rare it is for a horde to come too close to Vale because, well, because they know we’ll stop them, I guess.”
“That is the general assumption in colony planning,” Ciel said softly. “It is… not always accurate.”
Ruby shook her head. “At Mountain Glenn… the grimm just kept coming. Until there was no stopping them.”
“Did they get the people out?” asked Rainbow Dash. “When the levee broke?”
“Some, maybe,” Ruby whispered. “Not enough.”
“How awful,” Penny moaned. “But… why would Cinder want to go to a place like that? Does anyone live there now?”
“Nobody,” Twilight told her. “It’s a dead city. A necropolis slowly crumbling into ruin. A monument to the hubris of mankind.”
“Hubris, indeed,” Pyrrha said despondently. “The hubris of believing that we can make a difference.”
“We can,” Sunset insisted.
“Pyrrha,” Jaune murmured, “what are you talking about?”
“I’ve never heard you say anything like that before,” Ruby added anxiously.
“We’ll get to that in a little bit,” Rainbow assured them. “Let’s stay on Cinder for now and her invitation which one hundred percent sounds like a trap.”
“Quite,” Ciel agreed.
Rainbow looked at Blake. “Do you think that Mountain Glenn could be the White Fang base?”
Blake frowned. “I… I’m not sure. When I was in the White Fang, we would never have gone anywhere near a place like Mountain Glenn; it’s infested with grimm, and we avoided places like that. Yes, we wanted secluded hiding places, but we also wanted safe ones. I know that it’s been some time since I was part of the White Fang, and I know that things have changed in my absence, but have they changed that much? How could a place like that be safe? If the White Fang established a base in Mountain Glenn, then surely they would have all been devoured by now? Adam would never sacrifice his people like that.”
“What if the White Fang aren’t there?” Jaune suggested. “What if Cinder isn’t there either, or going there for that matter? What if this is just about luring Sunset – and maybe the rest of us – to a place where we can get devoured by the grimm. I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time, right?”
“What do you mean?” Sunset asked.
“I’m talking about the Emerald Forest and the practical exercise,” Jaune explained.
Sunset’s eyebrows rose. “You think that was Cinder?”
“I think that we should consider that the person who tried to kill Twilight last night might have been the same person who tried to kill us before,” Jaune said.
“We don’t know that anyone tried to kill us before; what happened in the forest could have been an accident,” Sunset replied. “Nobody was accused of deliberately engineering what happened in the test, and there’s certainly nothing linking it to Cinder.”
“She tried to blow you up!” Jaune cried. “And Ruby!”
“That wasn’t Cinder either,” Sunset maintained. “She told me so herself.”
“That’s reliable,” Rainbow muttered.
“She told me that she did not bring The Purifier to Vale, that he was sent by the leader of the White Fang to take control away from Adam and from her. He was never under her command, and he never acted under instructions,” Sunset informed them. “I believe her.”
“Sunset,” Pyrrha said gently, “I know that… as much as you liked Cinder, in light of what we know about who she is and… and who she serves, I think… it seems that… she was never your friend.”
Sunset’s tail started curling upwards. “I don’t believe that either,” she whispered.
“Are you going to be okay?” Rainbow asked.
Sunset’s eyes narrowed, and her ears flattened down against the top of her head. “Why do I get the impression you’re not asking out of concern for my wellbeing?”
“Because we both know that we might end up going up against Cinder again, and I want to know if I can trust you,” Rainbow demanded. “Are you going to have our back?”
“Of course I’ll have your back,” Sunset snapped. “I have always had… okay, your back, I have not had, but come on! I was there for Blake more than once, I got stabbed for Twilight, I have always fought for my team when they needed me, so don’t you dare come at me with this ‘how do I know that I can trust you’ crap! Just because you’re General Ironwood’s precious protégé doesn’t mean that I have to take stuff like that from you!”
She snorted, more like a bull than a unicorn, and ostentatiously turned her back on Rainbow Dash, who could go to hell for all she cared. Was she going to have their backs? Insulting! There may have been a time when Rainbow could look down on Sunset like that, but that time had passed long ago. They were equals now, as team leaders and as members of this secret society, so Rainbow Dash could knock it off.
“Sunset, I’m sure that Rainbow didn’t mean anything by it,” Twilight ventured. “She didn’t mean to upset you-”
“Yeah, well, she did,” Sunset snapped. She turned back to face everyone. “I will not allow anyone in this garage to die!” she declared. “I will fight for everyone here.” She spun a circle with one finger to encompass them all. “And I will bring you all back home safe, that is my vow. And if that’s not enough for you-”
“It is,” Rainbow said, taking a step forward. “I just… I’m sorry.” She took another step forward, her ears drooping with contrition as she offered her hand. “I know that having a friend on the other side of the line can… can make things difficult. Can make choices difficult. I just wanted to make sure where you stood.”
Sunset looked at Rainbow’s hand without taking it. “Where I stand is with them,” she declared, gesturing to her team with one hand. “With you,” she reached out and clasped Rainbow firmly by the hand.
Rainbow nodded. “Well, okay. So, Mountain Glenn, you’re going to run it up the line, right?”
“Yes, I’m going to tell Professor Ozpin about it as soon as we’re done here,” Sunset said. “And I’m under no illusions, yes, it’s a trap. Cinder said she wouldn’t try and blow me up, but she admitted that she’d stab me in the front. Like the heroes of old who respected one another so much that they fought like demons to spill one another’s blood upon the soil.”
Pyrrha sighed. “That is one valid interpretation of the legends, certainly.”
“So, if it is a trap,” Jaune said, “then we should ignore it, right?”
“That’s for the General to decide,” Rainbow said. “But sometimes, even when you see a trap, you’ve got no choice but to walk into it anyway.”
“What?” Jaune cried incredulously. “Why?”
“To see what kind of jaws slam shut on you when you do,” Rainbow explained. She grinned. “That’s when you gotta hope you’re tougher than whatever it is waiting for you.”
“I still don’t understand,” Penny complained. “How could Cinder or the White Fang or anybody survive in a place that’s been overrun by grimm?”
“That is a valid question,” Ciel agreed.
“It’s also the main reason why we asked you to meet us here,” Pyrrha murmured. She glanced for a moment at Sunset, as if she would rather that her team leader should take the, well, lead on this, but despite the look, she nevertheless went on, “This is what we learned from Professor Ozpin and from General Ironwood. You see… what we discovered is…” – she took a deep breath, and raised her head – “the grimm have a leader. A mistress, as Professor Ozpin called her. Her name is Salem, and she commands them… as she commands Cinder, and her team, and by the sound of it, others like her. Professor Ozpin describes that she gathers followers to her side to be her agents. Or her weapons, as the professor put it.”
“Commands the grimm?” Ruby repeated. “How? What does that even mean?”
“I don’t know,” Pyrrha admitted. “Professor Ozpin didn’t say.”
“Which doesn’t mean that he doesn’t know, just that he didn’t tell us,” Sunset interjected.
“Sunset,” Pyrrha murmured disapprovingly.
“What?” Sunset demanded. “I’m sorry, but I was right. The headmaster is more than we thought he was; he knows a lot more than he lets on, and he gives out his knowledge according to his own designs; he didn’t mention magic once or the four prophets or Ruby’s silver eyes-”
“None of which was relevant,” Pyrrha pointed out.
“According to his definition of relevance,” Sunset replied.
“He probably thought that he had told us quite enough for one day,” Pyrrha said sharply. She frowned. “Personally, I am… inclined to agree with him. This is enough to take in already.”
“I do wish he’d explained what it means to command the grimm if he knew,” Ruby muttered. “Like, if we kill Salem, then does that mean all the grimm will die, like in a video game?”
“Probably not,” Jaune said. “I don’t know, but I don’t see how it could work like that. If it did, someone would have taken her out already, right?”
“Your logic is sound, but I am nevertheless sure that someone has not, as you put it, taken her out already,” Ciel declared. “The death of an enemy commander-”
“She can’t be killed,” Rainbow said.
Penny and Ciel both looked at her.
“She… can’t?” Penny repeated, her mouth forming an O of disbelief.
Ciel blinked. “Come again?”
Rainbow sighed. “I asked the General the same thing. I asked why we hadn’t taken her out already, and the answer is that we can’t. She’s immortal, and invincible.”
“Even with-”
“Even with,” Rainbow agreed. “By the sounds of it, we could hit her with the biggest guns in the fleet, and it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.”
Ciel stared at Rainbow Dash. “There is… that is… that means… I see.” She turned away. “That is indeed a piece of information.”
“Ciel-” Twilight began.
“Thank you for informing me of this,” Ciel said, stiffly and sharply, cutting off Twilight’s attempt at consolation.
“So the grimm… they’re not just mindless creatures,” Jaune murmured.
“They might be,” Sunset said. “Some of the time, at least. I don’t think that everything they do is part of someone’s master plan, but… at the same time, Salemcan direct them. At least a bit. We think. Like we said, Professor Ozpin wasn’t exactly clear on his terms. What we got was the… general outline.”
“Did they say why she’s doing it?” Ruby asked. “Why anyone would want to control the grimm, spread destruction and death and chaos all across Remnant? Who would want power like that? What does she want?”
“Our deaths,” Pyrrha replied, her voice startlingly gentle for the subject matter. “Our deaths… and four relics left behind by the gods.”
“The gods?” Jaune repeated. “The gods are real?”
“Two gods,” Sunset explained. “One of light, one of darkness.”
“The Two Brothers,” Pyrrha added.
“I took the road from Mantle to Alasius, but tarried in a certain place along the way because the sun was setting,” Ciel said, and it sounded like recitation to Sunset’s ears. “I thought it a terrible place: no house, no hearth, little shelter from wind or cold or creatures of grimm. But that night I dreamed a ladder set upon the earth and reaching towards the heavens, and atop the ladder stood a shining figure made of light, and He said ‘I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places wherever thou goest; I will not leave thee.’” She paused. “A figure made of light. A god of light, if you will.”
Sunset frowned. “If you believe in a god, then why do you always pray to the Lady?”
“Because the Lady of the North was chosen to stand between us and Heaven,” Ciel explained. “To intercede on our behalf with a god who has little use for us, sinful creatures as we are. Through her example, we may approach divinity; through following in her footsteps, we may live as she did, with virtue and grace in equal measure. And we may do our duty, as she sought to all her life. We are not worthy of God’s consideration, but we may earn the Lady’s aid, and even if it is not so, then by following her teachings, we may overcome our trials without it. The Lady smiles on those who keep faith and march onwards.”
“That’s probably wise of you,” Sunset said. “According to Professor Ozpin, the gods aren’t doing much these days.”
“Why would they be otherwise than quiescent, men being as they are?” Ciel asked. She paused. “I confess these relics are new to me.”
“Join the club,” Rainbow invited her.
“What are they?” Blake asked.
“You might have heard of them by other names, Blake,” Twilight said. “Apparently, some, if not all, of the mythological devices in, well, mythology have their roots in the relics: Caliburn, the Crown of Wise King Paul, magical objects of that kind, all the relics.”
“Hmm,” Blake murmured. “I… I see. Four relics, you say?”
“Four relics for the four aspects of the divine, as Professor Ozpin put it,” Pyrrha agreed. “Creation, Destruction, Knowledge, and Choice. Salem seeks these relics as much as she seeks our destruction, for if she obtains them…”
“Bad things,” Rainbow said. “Very bad things.”
“How come nobody knows about any of this?” Blake asked. “How come nobody knows about it?”
“Because Professor Ozpin is keeping it that way,” Sunset said.
“That’s a rather harsh and, if I must say so, rather slanted way of putting it,” Pyrrha observed.
Sunset shrugged. “It also happens to be accurate.”
“Professor Ozpin is the current leader of a group,” Pyrrha said, offering her own explanation. “Of which General Ironwood and Professor Goodwitch are also members. They are… a secret society, you might call them, dedicated to opposing Salem and keeping the relics out of her hands.”
“Opposing how?” Jaune demanded. “She can’t be killed, she won’t die; what’s to stop her getting the relics, and how can Professor Ozpin stop her?”
“Professor Ozpin doesn’t stop her; he uses people like us,” Sunset said. She looked at Ruby. “People like your mother.”
Ruby gasped. “My… my mom was-”
“Yes,” Sunset said, her voice becoming hoarse and her throat clogged up a little with phlegm. “Your mother was a part of this group. We follow in her footsteps.”
“That could have been put more gently, don’t you think?” Pyrrha asked.
“How?” Sunset demanded.
“You could have not simply dropped it into the middle of the conversation?” Pyrrha suggested.
“It’s fine, Pyrrha,” Ruby assured her, although her head was bowed, and she did not look up. “I guess… I guess that if I’d only read further ahead in Mom’s diary, then I would have seen this coming.” She looked up, a sad smile upon her face. “If I’d done what Raven said and read faster, then I would have known all of this before you did, I guess. Unless it was too secret for Mom to write it down. You… you still didn’t answer Jaune’s question, though.”
“We are protected by the nature of princes,” Sunset declared. “Just as Professor Ozpin will not leave his tower to do battle, so too Salem will not come forth from Drachyra to obtain that which she desires. Any stretching forth of her hand she does is strictly metaphorical. Like her opponent, she works through her agents.”
“Agents like Cinder,” Pyrrha added.
Jaune nodded. “So… so the answer to Penny’s question, about how she or the White Fang could survive in Mountain Glenn, is because-”
“Because the grimm won’t harm her or her allies,” Blake murmured.
“We don’t know that,” Sunset said. “But it makes sense.”
“As much sense as any of this does,” Rainbow muttered.
“It doesn’t feel right that this should all be kept a secret,” Ruby said. “If people knew the truth, then-”
“Then they would despair, I fear,” Pyrrha said softly. “As, I must confess, my own heart quailed when Professor Ozpin told it to me.” She glanced at Sunset. “I think Sunset is the only one who was not afraid.”
Sunset looked away. “Ordinarily, I’d welcome being put on a pedestal, as well you know, but right now… I just didn’t want to see you all lose heart. I don’t want any of you to lose heart. Professor Ozpin has chosen to keep this a secret. He even asked us to keep this a secret from the rest of you. Obviously, we haven’t done that, but I’m not sure about telling anybody else.”
“You mean you want me to keep this from Yang?” Ruby asked.
Sunset hesitated for a moment. Put so baldly, it seemed quite a lot to ask. “You’ll have to use your own best judgement on that,” she said, which was a complete cop-out on her part but also probably the most honest thing that she could say to Ruby upon the subject. She paused for a moment. “I think that’s everything, don’t you agree?”
Pyrrha also took pause a moment before she nodded her head. “I think so too, unless anyone has any questions?”
“Do you know where the relics are?” asked Ciel.
“No,” Rainbow answered.
“Was my Dad or the rest of their team-?”
“We don’t know that either,” Sunset answered before Ruby had even finished. “I’d say ask him, but that might make things awkward if he doesn’t already know. Maybe your mother’s diary will have some answers.”
Ruby nodded. “Maybe.”
Sunset glanced around the garage. Most of the expressions that confronted her were grim, or else confused, or sad in Ruby’s case, or a mixture of all three. “I know that this is a lot to take in-” she began.
“Indeed,” Ciel cut her off. “It is not every day that you learn your commanding officer is part of a conspiracy.”
“Please don’t say it like that,” Twilight said. “I’m sure that General Ironwood is doing what he thinks is best, for Atlas and for Remnant.”
Ciel glanced at her out of the corner of her blue eyes. “I suppose that the word has pejorative meanings, but I did not mean it pejoratively. I am merely… surprised. General Ironwood is not the kind of man I would have thought to stand in shadow, nor fight a war in the darkness out of sight.”
Jaune ran one hand through his mop of untidy blonde hair. “I… I don’t know what to say. Where do we even start?”
“We start where we always started from,” Ruby said, her voice unwavering. “With what we came to Beacon for in the first place.”
All eyes turned to Ruby Rose.
Sunset could not keep the smile off her face. “This doesn’t change anything for you, does it?” That’s our Ruby Rose.
The silver in Ruby’s eyes seemed to gleam a little brighter now than it had done before, as she said, “I never wanted to… I never thought that I could save the whole world.”
“No,” Pyrrha agreed. “No, you didn’t, did you? Only I, in my vanity, thought that.” She paused. “I fear that we have reached the end of vanity.”
I hope not, Sunset thought. For to reach the end of vanity is to reach the death of self, for if we cease to love ourselves then… do we not also cease to be? What is Sunset Shimmer without her vanity?
“I didn’t mean it like that!” Ruby complained apologetically, a difficult feat which she pulled off with aplomb by some miracle known only to herself.
Pyrrha smiled sadly at her. “I know you didn’t,” she murmured, “but nevertheless…” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Ruby, I shouldn’t have interrupted you.”
“It’s fine,” Ruby said. “The point is… I don’t see that this changes very much. I mean, I’m glad that you told us everything, because I hate the idea of the two of you going on these dangerous missions without me and Jaune, and I kind of hope that Dad and Uncle Qrow know about all this for the same -” She staggered. “Do you think that’s why Raven left?”
“Come again?” Sunset asked, thrown by the sudden leap in Ruby’s logic.
“If my mom knew,” Ruby explained, “and if my Dad and uncle knew, which I think they did, then Raven must have known too, right? And it would explain what she meant about Ozpin and wanting to get me to read Mom’s diary. She thinks that the answers are in there, and she wanted us to find them out before… maybe she thought that Professor Ozpin would tell me instead of you two.”
“Possibly,” Sunset conceded. “But what does this have to do with leaving?”
“Maybe she was scared?” Jaune suggested. “It is a lot to find out.”
Sunset sighed. “I really wish you hadn’t said that, Jaune,” she muttered, her eyes flickering across the room. It was like a flea had leapt from Jaune’s mind into hers, and now, she couldn’t help but scratch the itch, the itch of wondering who would be the Raven here, who would be the one to forsake all bonds and be so cruel and heartless as to abandon the team to-
Oh, Celestia; it’s me, isn’t it?
“Stop it,” Blake said firmly.
“Stop what?”
“I know what you’re thinking,” Blake declared. “I can see your mind working, and I’m telling you to stop it.” She took a step forward, and another, until she was standing in the centre of the garage. The ball of magelight began to move slowly towards her, casting her in the brightest light in the room.
“Perhaps I’m not somebody who should be talking about trust,” Blake said, “and the truth is that… before I came to Beacon, before I met all of you, I wasn’t somebody who would have talked about trust. The only person I had really trusted in years was Adam, and he… you all remember what I was like,” she whispered. “You remember what I was like when the year began, or when you arrived at Beacon: suspicious, closed off, someone who thought that she had to do everything by herself. But I don’t think that anymore because you’ve opened my eyes. You’ve opened my heart. I’m alive thanks to some of you here, but more than that, I think I’m a better person than I was, thanks to all of you here. And for that, I will always be grateful. And because of that, I say that I trust all of you here with my life. That was true before we found out the truth about Cinder Fall, it was true before Sunset walked into this garage, and it’s true now. I don’t believe that anyone here will betray us, or run away and abandon the others, or do anything except stand alongside the rest of us, together, comrades… friends. I believe, no, I know, that anyone who decides to get involved in this will until…”
“Until the end?” Pyrrha suggested.
“Until we are released,” Blake clarified. “After all, if Ruby’s father was involved in this business, then he must have been let go at some point to raise his daughters without any knowledge of it.”
“Marry Sun quick and make your escape,” Sunset urged, a smile pricking at the corners of her mouth.
Blake responded with a look of amused disdain.
“So it doesn’t bother you?” Rainbow asked.
“It bothers me that the White Fang have gotten into bed with someone who wants to destroy everyone and everything,” Blake admitted. “Hopefully – and I hope too that Cinder was right about The Purifier, because if Sienna Khan feels that she’s lost control of Adam, then that gives me cause for hope – the rot is only confined to the Vale Chapter.”
“And Salem?” Rainbow pressed.
Blake was silent for a while. “Salem,” she said quietly. “Salem doesn’t change what I have to do. She doesn’t change… anything, for me.”
That would be a lot more reassuring coming from someone who didn’t seem set on getting themselves killed before the year ends, Sunset thought with only a touch of sourness.
Judging by the way that Rainbow’s eyes had narrowed as she looked at Blake, Rainbow was feeling much the same way.
“That’s what I was trying to say, before I got sidetracked,” Ruby added. “I didn’t… well, I won’t start again because you heard that part.” She grinned sheepishly. “Also I’m kind of worried about any more interruptions.” She laughed nervously. “The point is that I came to Beacon so that I could learn to become a huntress. So that I could help people. And finding out that the grimm are controlled – or controlled some of the time, at least – by an immortal monster or that there are gods around even if they’re not up to much right now or that they left these things called relics behind… it doesn’t mean that I can’t help people, any more than all of the magic that Sunset and Twilight found in those old books means that I can’t help people.
“Just because I know more than I did yesterday doesn’t mean that I have to give up on my dreams. And I won’t. I’ll become a huntress and save everyone I can… from anyone.”
Ruby was another one whom Sunset feared was too in love with the possibility of her own glorious ending, and so it was interesting in a certain sense of the word that the two who cared least for their own lives had so far demonstrated the least fazed reactions to this – at least once they had had time to process the information laid out in front of them.
At the same time, as glad as she was that this had not plunged Blake or Ruby into the depths of existential despair, Sunset would need someone with an all around healthier mindset to comment before she could breathe easily and worry that it was a result of Blake and Ruby’s… nuanced relationship with the concept of safety and survival. Someone like Jaune, or-
“Well said, both of you,” Ciel said, quietly but firmly. To Blake she added, “You know that I have not always spoken fair to you, nor regarded you with the greatest fondness of anyone on this team, but… that was well said, in words and tone and argument all alike.”
“Does that mean you feel the same way?” Rainbow asked her.
Ciel clasped her hands together behind her back. “There is an argument that could be made classifying this as treason.”
“Do you really think that General Ironwood has acted against the interest of Atlas?” Twilight said.
“No,” Ciel said quickly. “I understand the reasons why this information is kept classified. That is why I said that the argument could be made.”
“The way I see it, it comes down to trust,” Rainbow said. “Sunset may not trust Professor Ozpin, but I trust the General. He gave me a shot when some others wouldn’t have. He brought me in on this when he didn’t have to. He’s taken care of Twi. I trust him, just like I did before, just like I always have. If he says that he’s doing the right thing, and that we’ll be doing the right thing by getting involved in this, then I’m not gonna say he’s wrong.”
Ciel nodded, before fixing her attention on Twilight. “And the fact that you’ll be deceiving your sister-in-law on the council doesn’t trouble you?”
“Yes,” Twilight confessed. “Yes, it does, and I’m sure it will be hard. But it’s like Rainbow says, I trust General Ironwood, and I don’t think I’d be able to live with myself if I didn’t get involved in this to the best of my ability.”
“Very commendable of you,” Ciel murmured. “For myself, I am reminded of General Colton, who was appointed to assist in the reconstruction of the North after the Great War and came to love it as his own land. It is said that after landing in Solitas for the first time, he never set foot in Vale again after, but dedicated his whole life to restoring the north kingdom to, if not its former glory, then at least to a kind of glory once again. It is said that he worked himself to the bone because, by his own admission, he feared to die with his work unfinished. Twenty years later, it was still undone, and yet, he lay dying, consumed with regret. The former King of Vale, although a frail old man himself and without many years left in him, had come to see the old general upon his dying bed, and it is reported that the king said to the general, ‘all men die with their great work unfinished; do not regret it; rather, rejoice rather that you have left such immense foundations for your successors to build upon.’
“We will not defeat Salem,” Ciel concluded. “We may never be able to imagine such a thing. But so long as we fight well against Cinder Fall and all of this Salem’s followers, then we need not fear leaving the fight unfinished, for we will have left firm foundations behind us for others to build upon. For my own part, a Soleil has always answered the northland when it called, and I do not intend to be one to break that particular family tradition. So long as Atlas requires a soldier, here is Ciel Soleil, present for duty.”
“That’s easier for you to say,” Penny muttered.
“Penny?” Ruby asked anxiously.
Penny didn’t look at her. She didn’t meet anybody’s eyes. She was looking down at the ground, making it impossible to see her expression, but it was nevertheless easy to guess – from the fact that she was looking down at the ground, and clasping her hands together at her… heart, for want of a better word – how she was feeling.
“Penny, I know it probably seems rather fatuous to ask what’s wrong,” Pyrrha said softly. “Nevertheless, I hope that you’ll tell us, in case there’s something… something we can do.”
“General Ironwood told me that I could save the world,” Penny whispered.
Ruby frowned. “He did?”
Penny nodded. “That’s what he said. He told me… he told me that it was the reason why I was created. But it was a lie, wasn’t it? He lied to me, and he didn’t even hiccup while he was doing it.”
“Penny-” Twilight began, but was silenced by a hand on her shoulder from Rainbow Dash, who shook her head briefly.
Ruby frowned. “I…maybe he…I’m sure that…I don’t know, Penny. I don’t know why he’d say that if he knew it wasn’t true. I don’t know why anyone would lie to you like that.”
“It turns out that the General has been lying to all of us,” Rainbow said bluntly. “But for a pretty good reason, just like he has a good reason for everything that he does.”
“I believed him,” Penny said, ignoring Rainbow Dash’s defence. “I didn’t understand how I was supposed to do it, but I believed him. I wanted to believe him. I was built to fight, and I knew that maybe I’d have to spend my whole… my whole life fighting. But I thought that maybe, if I learnt everything that I could and saved the world like General Ironwood said that I was supposed to, then maybe, after that, they’d let me go, and I could do something else other than fight.”
“What would you do?” Pyrrha asked. “If you could be away from all of this and live in a world free from duty or obligations, what would you do?”
“I… I don’t know,” Penny admitted. “But I’d like to have the choice, and maybe find out for myself what I’d like to do, if that makes any sense. But now I’ll never-“
“That’s not true,” Ruby said. “If you don’t want to fight, then you don’t have to, and nothing that Professor Ozpin said changes that any more than it changes the fact that I want to fight and protect the world and the people I care about. If that’s not what you want, then you should be free to do something else, no matter what General Ironwood or anyone in Altas has to say about it. If you want to find out who you really are, then you should, and you shouldn’t worry about anything or anyone else.”
She glared at Rainbow Dash, who held up her hands in front of her as though she was surrendering. “I won’t stop her,” Rainbow assured Ruby. “If Penny wants out, she can take that up with someone higher than me. I can’t let her go, but I won’t make her stay, either.”
Penny did not acknowledge that. She was quiet for a moment, quiet and still, and she wasn’t even making any little robot noises like whirring servos or squeaky joints or anything like that.
“Thank you,” she said. “Ruby, my friend. I am your friend, aren’t I?”
Ruby reached out and took Penny’s hand in her own. “Of course you are, Penny.”
Sunset saw Ruby wince as Penny’s grip upon her hand tightened.
Penny didn’t appear to notice as she smiled down at Ruby. “You say that I should find out who I am, but I think that that is who I am right now. I’m a soldier of Atlas, built to fight… but I’m also your friend, and I’m a friend of Pyrrha and all your teammates and of my teammates as well, but I think… I think that I am your friend most of all, Ruby Rose. And maybe there is more to me than that, or maybe there could be, but for now… for now, I think that’s enough.
“I don’t want to be a true huntress. I don’t have a dream like so many of you do to inspire me to keep fighting. I don’t really know what I want to do with my life or whether I really want to do the thing that I was built to do. But I do know what I don’t want to do, and that’s abandon my friends. My friend. And so, even if we can’t win, so long as you’re still fighting, so long as all of you are still fighting, then so am I, my friend.”
“Penny, I… I don’t know what to say,” Ruby said. “I… are you sure about this? This… this could be dangerous. Everything we do can be dangerous.”
Penny nodded. “I know,” she said. “That’s why I won’t leave.”
“I would say that I will be honoured to fight by your side again,” Pyrrha said, “but in truth, I have no right to say such a thing, for you shame me with your valour.” She sighed. “So many of you shame me with your valour.”
“Pyrrha?” Jaune asked, reaching out to her with one hand.
Pyrrha took a step forward, so that his hand closed upon empty air.
“Sunset,” Pyrrha said stiffly, in a brittle voice. “Would you please open the door?”
Sunset half wanted to keep her here while they talked this out, but she had no right to do that, no right to do anything but to click her fingers and let the garage door grind upwards, to admit the sunlight once again.
“Thank you,” Pyrrha whispered, and her boots tapped upon the garage as she walked out and away.
“I’ll go after her,” Jaune said a moment later, following swiftly.
Sunset watched him pursue her for a moment and wished him good luck with it. “Right,” she said, “I suppose I’d better tell someone about Cinder, hadn’t I?”
Jaune trailed after Pyrrha as they headed in a direction that it took him a moment to realise was in the direction of the dining hall. It was closed now, being after breakfast but too early to be open for lunch, and so, the lights were dark within, and the tables hadn’t been set – or re-set – yet. There was no one around, which he guessed was how Pyrrha wanted it.
She stopped in front of the windows in that darkened room, and she looked into the hall for a moment before she turned away from it.
She looked so… downcast. It hit him like a body blow, even worse than that night in Mistral, because this time, he knew exactly what was troubling her, and honestly, it was kind of troubling him too. The grimm had a boss? An unbeatable boss? An unbeatable boss who wasn’t going to stop until she killed everyone.
So much for being the hero. It sounded like the best that even the greatest huntsman could hope for was to stem the tide for a while, and what kind of hero could settle for that?
Looking at Pyrrha, who was more of a hero already than he would be in a lifetime of effort, was all the answer that he needed.
And yet, in spite of his own discomfort about this, Jaune found that, at the moment, it was Pyrrha that he wanted to focus on. He wanted to make her feel better before he started to focus on himself.
“Pyrrha-” he began.
“I didn’t want to tell you,” Pyrrha said. Her voice was small and faint, but nevertheless, it completely silenced his own, just as she completely outmatched him in battle.
Jaune didn’t reply; he just looked at her, waiting.
“I didn’t think it was fair to put this burden on you,” Pyrrha continued, unprompted. “On you or Ruby. You want to be the hero; I didn’t think that you’d want to find out that… that there is no hope. It was Sunset who thought that you deserved to know the truth. Was she right? Was I wrong?”
“I’m glad you told me,” Jaune said.
“Then I was wrong.”
“It’s not about right or wrong,” Jaune said. “It’s about knowing. Sure, I wanted to be the big hero when I first came here, but I made my peace with the fact that that wasn’t me a while ago.”
“Jaune, I want nothing more than to see you reach your dreams.”
“And now, all I want is to stand alongside you, or even behind you if that’s the best way to help you,” Jaune said. “I just... Pyrrha, I want you to make me a promise.”
Pyrrha looked at him, the gold chains dangling from her circlet swayed back and forth a little. “What kind of promise?”
“Don’t send me away,” Jaune said. “Don’t leave me behind because you want me to be safe or because you think it’s too dangerous or because you’re worried that I can’t keep up with you. I know that I’m not a great warrior like you, and I know that I probably never will be, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t help you. So let me help you. You don’t have to carry the whole weight of the world on your shoulders alone.”
Pyrrha turned her back on him. She stood, with the wind blowing through her luscious red hair, her hands balled into fists by her sides. Standing there, motionless but for the effect of the wind, she looked almost like a painted statue, like one of the statues of her heroic ancestors that filled the garden of her house in Mistral. Jaune was abruptly reminded of what a different world she came from to any that he was familiar with: an older and a grander world.
For a moment, his heart quailed. What did someone like him have to offer someone like her, a hero and the product of a heroic line and a heroic world? But she had, in some way, chosen him. She had accepted him in spite of the great gulf in everything between them and who was he to question that?
She needed someone to stand beside her, or just a step or two behind; of that, Jaune was absolutely convinced. And, being convinced, he was determined to be that person for her, whatever it took. He might not be worthy, but he had been chosen nevertheless.
“Jaune,” Pyrrha said. “Do you believe in destiny?”
Jaune hesitated for a moment. “I guess I…never really thought about it.”
“A lot of people confuse or conflate destiny with fate,” Pyrrha said. “Something predetermined that you can’t escape, three spinners weaving the threads of your life until, in the end… snip. But I’ve always thought of destiny as something that you choose, a final goal that you work towards your whole life.”
“I can see that,” Jaune said. “It’s… certainly a lot more hopeful.”
Pyrrha looked over her shoulder at him, and she smiled, and in spite of everything, she still looked so lovely. “That’s why I want to help you, Jaune; that’s why I don’t want to see you give up on your destiny, because you can reach it if you work towards it.”
Jaune smiled back at her. “I’d like to think so,” he said, even though he would accept it now if it turned out that was not the case.
Pyrrha looked away again. “I… I’ve always thought that I was destined for something great. I suppose that sounds very arrogant of me, considering that I’ve just said that we choose our destinies.”
“Not really,” Jaune said. “It’s about the usual for this team, right?”
Pyrrha chuckled. “Yes, I suppose we are… what you might call an ambitious group, each in our own way.” Her face fell. “I was born into a line of heroes, from the first Pyrrha who fought beneath the walls of Mistral, and I’ve always felt that my destiny was to do something, to accomplish something, that would make me worthy to stand level with those ancestors of mine. If I was going to have to fight, I wanted to do something more worthwhile than fight in tournaments for entertainment. That’s why I came to Beacon: because I thought that my destiny was to become a huntress and protect the world.”
“'The world'?” Jaune repeated.
“Yes,” Pyrrha murmured. “Ambition. I wasn’t thinking of anything small scale. I wanted to protect the whole world; I wanted to become… but now, it seems that something is standing in the way of my destiny.” She bowed her head. “I know that we have to fight, and I will. I know that we can still do so much good, but still…”
“Yeah,” Jaune said. “I get it. It’s daunting, knowing what we know now. But I guess that all we can do is-”
“Keep fighting?”
“I was going to say 'make the best of it,' but sure, 'keep fighting' works too,” Jaune said. “Maybe we have reached the end of vanity, like you said…” He ventured a smile. “So it’s a pretty good job that we’ve already found something else to fight for, right? Friendship… love.”
Pyrrha turned to face him, her mouth and eyes alike wide with astonishment. “Jaune, you…”
Jaune smiled, or tried to smile, and nodded.
Pyrrha’s expression settled into a smile likewise, as she reached out and took him by both hands.
“I will never send you away,” she vowed. “So long as you want to stand by me. That is my promise to you, Jaune Arc.”
They stared into one another’s eyes for a moment. And then he kissed her.
It seemed like the thing to do.
Sunset’s tail swished from side to side as she got out her scroll, shielding it with one hand against the glare of the morning sun. She retreated into the shadows cast by a nearby tree, glancing left and right for any signs of eavesdroppers.
She called the headmaster. He responded very quickly considering how busy he was.
“Ah, Miss Shimmer,” Professor Ozpin said. “And what can I do for you?”
“It’s more what I can do for you, Professor,” Sunset replied. “I recently got a call from Cinder Fall.”
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That scene with Penny and Ruby made me think back to the RWBY Chibi short "Fireflies". Just heart-warming.
This is a beautiful chapter! A perfect balance dedicated to everyone's own ideals and thoughts towards the greater battle. Ruby's purity and Blake's cynicism, Pyrrha and Jaune's intent to live on, and Ciel and Rainbow's desire to continue the work. Absolutely fantastic as we look at everyone's own perspective. So that we may see all sides of this life.
i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/413/624/8eb.jpg
Except Ruby and Sunset, all just surrender. Maybe Blake, too. Hopefully they’ll manage to keep motivating their friends.
Please tell me that Qrow is stumbling around town in a drunken stupor and Ozpin's calling Ruby to go and deal with her uncle! :D
9486239
Nope it's propably about Torchwick
9486260
Oh yeah... forgot about that... HOW DID I FORGET ABOUT THAT?!?!?! IT HAPPENED LITERALLY 4 HOURS AGO!!! XD XD XD XD
9486270
There was a lot of stuff going on in those 4 hours
Jesus, this story is absolutely amazing. All the interactions here are just amazing. It gives them all so much depth, even more so then the canon in some cases. Even characters like Ironwood who were otherwise just kind of there to drive the plot along feel so much more fleshed out and real.
It's also interesting to see the many differences building from Sunset's presence here. With Blake now in on the circle secret but hiding it from the already worried and suspicious Yang, it could still follow the betrayal storyline but in a different way. Torchwick definitely has a different arc then in the original, and his connections with Neo and Ruby are really interesting (although as a side note I'm not sure why you made Neo so young, as she really doesn't come across as 13 in the canon, especially with her season 6 reintroduction).
I really cannot wait to see where you go with all this. Great work
9485881
I have a feeling Cinder is more clever than that. Sure, maybe all the good guys could destroy whatever trap is set up there, but maybe the actual trap is getting them away from Beacon or something.
Really nice Blake Sunset moments here.
I did say you were brilliant bastard right? If rainbow was in the room when Sunset talked about magic then she would have asked all the pertinent questions of the who's the why's the where's and the hows. possibly revealing Sunset origin's.
I feel like Sunset was supposed to say something meaningful about Rosepetal but it was cut off
9485770
It’s what he does best. Lies, cheats, steals, and survi-*CHOMP*
Hey, i had a rather hilarious idea. Dunno if it would break your story but thought i'd share it at least.
What if Discord found out about Sunset's little world and decided to hop over for a visit? Would certainly freak Sunset out if she knew about him and his power. The biggest reason for him coming over may be for giving Cinder a warning to not harm/touch Fluttershy again (even if it's not his Fluttershy). Just show up and throw a few dozen cream pies into Cinder's face as a warning shot.
Idk, i thought it was funny at least. Discord's power would break a lot of things, but then he is a being a chaos so he doesn't have to do anything to help Sunset much. Maybe screw around a few things, but only as pranks. Inb4 he changes Yang's hair to purple or another color.
So much shipping in this chapter. Also, whatever happened with Applejack and Fluttershy? Last I remember reading, they were hostages for the White Fang and that never really got resolved. Is that just being used for later, or did it get resolved and I don't remember?
9487440
That's going to get picked up again soon once the extended gang heads for Mountain Glenn.
I hope we'll get to see more of Rainbow Dash's thoughts that Sunset Shimmer has magic. Not to mention Ciel's reaction as otherwise the most 'logical' member of the group to seeing actual magic.
And of course, I'm especially looking forward to Twilight's many, many questions for Sunset about her magic. All her life she's been looking for magic, and now she's friends with one! She's brilliant and relentless in her questions. May Celestia have mercy on your soul, Sunset.
9487298
Having Discord randomly show up in the middle of an otherwise serious story isn't likely to go well. Either you have him as an antagonist (but he's supposed to be reformed) or you have him helping the protagonists (and destroying all semblance of challenge and danger unless the other side either escalates or is already strong enough to ignore him, both of which bring their own problems) or you have him screwing around for the lulz (in which case you're sabotaging the tone of your work).
That reference made me laugh more than it should have.
9489354
A little late, but another route you could take is to write Discord a bit like Beerus from Dragonball, an altogether indifferent god that, while he does like the main characters, doesn't actually help them with almost anything unless he's getting something he wants in return, and then only mildly. Discord is quite a bit more of a good though, so I'm not sure how the author would do that, but it's an option. Still wouldn't want Discord to show up though.
All the bacon in the world couldn't save you now. (Ironic, considering baconhair.)
One of my wishlist items is to know exactly how Twilight reacted at the time of the reveal. By now though, I'll settle for this. It's still a wishlist item! hahaa!
Speak of me confiding last chapter's review, here she is laying out a bit of her history with Blake. The one not on her team, but the one she has more in common with (such as being a runner). One wonders, what would the team have been, if not for Ozpin? (Or even just Sunset on her own).
Pyrrha and Jaune confide in one another, no surprise there, but it is well written in my less than humble opinion (So I share some of Sunsets vices, sue me). And more than confide, of course. Ruby and Penny have their exchange, it's a confiding all around chapter!
I will try to lay off my sarcastic attitude a bit now, I swear.I love this exchange. Rainbow Dash is a good leader in a lot of ways, and being able to pull her teammate's mind to better things is one of her better skills. She's not always successful, I know, but in all part one I'm not sure she has any distinct weakness in leadership. (Based on the bit in part two, it seems to be something else instead.)
Okay just reached a portion of this chapter and one thing made it clear to me that this chapter and future chapters are heavily different compared to the rewrites - for starters and this might be spoilers for most who haven't reached a certain point in the story, in this chapter it reveals that Rainbow and Ciel didn't know Sunset and Ruby had magic, unlike a prior rewritten/new chapter they do show this reveal earlier in the story.
Having reach this point in the story... I might have to pause and wait until the rewrite/new chapter is out before continuing, sad and while I desperately want to read, it'll feel like reading a different story entirely than the one I was reading prior, that and information will change as the story progresses and I rather not mix in redundant/old information that isn't related/a part of the story anymore.
So I guess this the end of the story for me until a rewrite/new chapter is out, love the story and hope for the next update to come soon!
As we about to reach Mountain Glenn,this promise shows itself in a new light
Can't wait to read the rewrite of The Breach, considering how problematic the aftermath of it was, i wanna know, how you will proseed with it this time
(Oh, joy, let Sunsets suffering begin)
Hey Rainbow, stop bashing best girl
this is what we gave to decent persons, Cinder and her cause are worse than the soviets and the nazis, and neither deserve anything but unmerciful and painful death
.*
Oooh
, so that's why it's kind of his own thing then (although still as much racist as dear Atlas 
)
Bravo Sunset
i kinda hope she won't have Rainbow's back honestly (well, except in worst cases scenarios, because she is a bitch, but i don't want her dead or crippled).
It's interesting how it is Penny who was the one shaken to the point of stopping actually believing in a actual higher cause, but yet, despite this, she will stay and fight.
This is the greatest proof of how much of a coward and a vile person, no, a monster Raven is, Penny lost her illusions about "the cause" but due to her love for her friends, she stayed, while Raven didn't merely left the direct circle like Tai, she didn't left in a way which would make her far away but still sometimes visiting Yang, making sure than her friends were alright, and assuming a identity as a simple huntress, and there is enough jobs than she could do as a huntress while being far from the circle, no she abandonned her baby daughter, her friend, her lover (or husband ?) and her brother to stay with a bunch of useless (most likely rapists) scums, sacking villages and boasting about strength, stealing the magic from one of the Maidens who apparently trusted her for help her and keeping it for herself and being cowardly enough to use one of her clan girls (her apprentice maybe ? It seemed so but it's not exactly clear) as a fake.
Penny just destroyed the "i was desilusionned with this shit" argument of Raven, and i love her for it.
*Now, i talk of Scipio current Cinder and the canon one, it is likely (well, i hope) than i will change my tone in the future if Cinder is redeem and than her redeem is well done ...
and if she become Sunset waifu
Sunset is not entitled to Cinder to keep her past secret. They are not friends, Cinder is a criminal terrorist. I don't really get it that honored buddy system
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The reason Sunset still honors her is for a couple reasons:
-Sunset is still of the opinion that, if Cinder isn’t worthy of honor or good graces, neither is she. This thinking, although flawed, has her keep respect for Cinder as to keep what remains of her original philosophy intact.
-Remember that Sunset has, quite literally, seen inside of her head; Cinder is by all metrics currently a terrible person, but when you can LITERALLY see the good in someone, combine that with the old Equestrian values of “it’s never too late for second chances,” and you have a recipe for wanting to keep them at arm’s length in order to see vulnerabilities and opportunities for change. She can’t do that nearly as effectively with Cinder cursing the ground she walks on like, say, Pyrrah.
I like that Ciel’s worldview on religion was less shattered this go around. It felt almost cruel last time.
One thing I don’t get about the Salem is invincible thing is that she’s technically not right? We see in a later volume that you can blow her up. While yes she’ll get back up, but it takes a while to do so which you can do stuff with. I don’t know if it’s different here or if Ozpin is just not saying it for some reason.