Memories (Rewritten)
Memories
Ruby wasn’t sure exactly where Rainbow Dash had set the Skyray down until the hatch on the side of the airship slid open and she could see that they had landed in what had once been the garden of someone’s house. The remains of a stone wall and a few mouldering remnants of wooden fence surrounded an open space where the grass was overgrown and the weeds were invading, but there was no sign that anybody had ever built over this, not like the two-storey house that was falling into decay not far away. This was the garden of that house, a place where it was still – if you cared to look – just about possible to make out the edges of what had been flower beds.
Ruby stepped out of the airship with Crescent Rose at her hip in its carbine configuration, sweeping from right to left in case any grimm leapt out of the shadows or from the abandoned house. As she did so, she couldn’t help but wonder who had lived in that house, tended to this garden… and whether they had managed to get out of the city in time before there was no escape.
Sunset followed her out of the aircraft, with Sol Invictus pressed into her shoulder, even while the barrel was pointing down towards the ground; she’d taped a torch around the barrel, though she hadn’t turned it on yet.
As the other members of the two teams disembarked, Ruby caught Sunset looking at the house, studying it for a moment in a way that prompted Ruby to do likewise. It had holes in the roof and in the walls; the glass had gone from the windows and from all the doors – there was a back door and a set of patio doors leading out onto some stone slabs that were cracking as the weeds grew up between them – as well. If there was still a front door, Ruby would be quite surprised. But most of the walls were still there, and most of the roof too, when it came to it. As a place to make camp – which was almost certainly what Sunset was thinking about, since it was getting dark now – it wasn’t the worst place Ruby could imagine by any measure.
“Make camp here?” Sunset asked as Rainbow Dash dismounted from the airship last of all of them.
Rainbow cast her eye over the house. “Don’t see why not,” she said as the rear door of the plane slid shut behind her.
Professor Goodwitch didn’t say anything. She hadn’t said much since the mission started, really. Certainly not since they’d taken off. She watched, but she hardly said a word to any of them. She didn’t try to give orders or to complain that Sunset and Rainbow were still giving the orders or anything. She just watched them.
Just like she’d said she would.
“Sapphire, we’ll clear the first floor,” Sunset said. “Rosepetal, the ground.”
“Copy that,” Rainbow said. “Ciel, Penny, you’re not armed for tight quarters, so wait until we give the all clear. Blake, you’re with me.”
Blake drew Gambol Shroud. “Understood.”
“I’m not detecting any movement in this area,” Midnight offered helpfully.
“Well, that’s great, but we’ll still check it out ourselves,” Rainbow murmured.
“I don’t know why I bother,” huffed Midnight.
For a computer, Ruby thought, she’s got a lot of sass. It was… a little weird, but hardly the sort of thing to worry about right now.
There were so many more important things to think about.
Pyrrha led the way into the house; she had Akoúo̱ slung across her back and Miló in rifle configuration in her hands. Jaune went next, then Sunset, then Ruby brought up the rear.
They entered through the shattered patio door, walking around the filthy, dirt and dust-covered dining table while trying to ignore the mould that was growing up the walls and the way that the carpet had worn away in places to reveal rotting floorboards underneath. The boards creaked as they stepped on them, and the thing that convinced Ruby more than anything else that there weren’t any grimm in this house was the fact that if there had been, they would have heard the noise and come to investigate.
They left the dining room and passed into the hall where a decorative plate hung on the wall, and despite the dust and the muck, Ruby could just make out that it had a picture of a huntress in a grey cloak, wielding a pair of what looked like scythes and… was she wearing a mask to cover her face? It looked like there might have been a couple of other plates too, but they’d been smashed to fragments on the floor along with the remains of a table. A spider crawled up the wall towards its web, while a couple of woodlice crept across the floor in careless ignorance of the intruders in their home.
The stairs sagged and creaked under their tread but didn’t give way under any of them, and they were able to reach the first floor, where books mouldered on bookshelves covered in a disgusting layer of muck and a long corridor pointed the way towards a bathroom at the far end. An open trapdoor, with no ladder, led up into an attic.
“Pyrrha, can you check the attic?” Sunset said.
“Of course,” Pyrrha said softly as she jogged down the hall, Miló-as-rifle still shouldered and ready, until she stood directly underneath the trap door. She leapt, and she barely needed to grab the lip of the trap as she vaulted into the attic; Ruby heard a thud as Pyrrha landed and found that she could picture her teammate doing so with all her usual athletic grace, red sash and long red ponytail flying out behind her.
They split up to clear the rooms. Jaune went straight ahead down the corridor. Sunset took the first room on the left. Ruby took the first room on the right. A sign on the door – still visible despite the black mould climbing up it from the floor – proclaimed that it was Azure’s Room. Ruby pushed open the door, finding a patch of wood that wasn’t too disgusting to push against. The door swung back with a creak of the hinges, revealing a room where the pink wallpaper was slowly peeling back to reveal the plaster underneath. The bed was pink too, with an equally pink stuffed elephant sitting on it. Dust was everywhere, and dirt was in a lot of places too. There was a… was that Uncle Qrow on the wall?
Ruby stepped a little closer to the bed so that she could see the poster tacked up above it. It was! It was Uncle Qrow, younger but unmistakable to anyone who knew him like she did; she guessed that this must have been from his Beacon days when he was taking part in Vytal Tournaments, maybe. Had he been wearing that same shirt for twenty years?
She noticed that Azure had drawn a heart around his face in lipstick, and Ruby couldn’t help herself as a fit of giggles escaped her lips.
And then she realised that the girl who lived in this room and had a crush on Uncle Qrow might well have died horribly when grimm overran the city, and suddenly, it didn’t seem so funny any more.
Ruby crossed to the shattered window, looking out over the other side of the house from the one they’d landed on. A deserted street ran outside, with overturned garbage cans rusting on the road alongside the remains of crashed cars, fallen lamp-posts, and even, a little way away, an overturned bus. Everywhere, the weeds were coming through the road. There was no sign of any grimm, nor sound that might suggest their presence. There was no movement that Ruby could make out at all.
She glanced at the dressing table that sat beside the window. The vanity mirror had been broken, but there were a lot of bottles and tubes of skin lotion, make-up, lipstick, perfume all piled upon the dusty wood. Along with a scroll.
Gingerly, tentatively, Ruby picked it up. She opened it up almost without a second thought.
She didn’t really expect it to work – it was twenty years old or more after all – but as she opened up the device – it was thicker than the newer scrolls, heavier in her hands, and the screen wasn’t completely transparent – it flickered to life.
“Hey, uh… future me, I guess?” the voice of a girl about Ruby’s age emerged from the old device. There was no picture, but the sound was clear, considering how old this was. “Here we are in our new home. Now that we’re here, I can see why Dad wanted to move out to Mountain Glenn: they could never have afforded a place like this in the city. But everything’s so much cheaper here, and so, we’ve changed our old apartment for this whole house! We have a garden and everything! And thanks to the subway system into Vale, I don’t have to change schools or say goodbye to any of my friends. And I have a room that’s, like, twice as big as my old one. Cerise and Maisie are going to be so jealous of all this space when they come over.
“Mom’s still a little nervous about all of this. She hasn’t said anything, but I can tell. But Dad says that the huntsmen are going to keep us safe, and you know… I believe him. I’ve got a good feeling about all this. I think that everything here is going to be just great.”
Ruby shut the scroll as a frown creased her face. What happened to her? Do I even want to know?
“Is everything okay?” Sunset asked as she came in. “I heard something; it sounded like a voice”
Ruby held up the old scroll. “Turns out, the battery on these things last forever.”
Sunset wandered into the room. She spared a glance for the Qrow poster with its lipstick heart. “Someone had a thing for bad boys.”
“Uh… yeah, I guess,” Ruby said, a trifle nervously as she decided not to give away the fact that the bad boy in question had helped raise her and her sister. She looked down from the poster, at the bed with the pink stuffed elephant. “Her name was Azure.”
Sunset’s brow furrowed. “You don’t know that she’s dead. She might have evacuated the city before the decision to retreat into the catacombs was taken.”
“She could have gotten out,” Ruby allowed. “But she probably didn’t.” She turned away and once more looked out the broken window. “These people were counting on huntsmen to keep them safe.”
“I’m sure they tried.”
“But they failed,” Ruby said. “Even if Azure got out, even if her family got out… most of the people living here didn’t.”
“The same could probably be said of a lot of the huntsmen,” Sunset replied.
“For what?” Ruby asked. “They gave their lives, but they didn’t save anyone. How… how could they let this happen? Huntsmen are supposed to save people!”
Sunset was silent for a moment. “I don’t know. I don’t know enough about the history of this place. It wasn’t something that I ever needed to study, although I know a little about Ozpin’s Stand that came after. I don’t know whether the huntsmen did everything they could or not. I don’t know if they failed or not.”
“They failed,” Ruby said. “Even if they did everything they could, even if they gave their lives. Huntsmen are supposed to save lives and protect people.”
“Maybe that’s not always possible,” Sunset conceded. “Maybe we can’t always win. I’m not going to say that I like the idea, but… I can’t just dismiss it.”
“If we lose Vale, there’s nowhere left to run to,” Ruby said.
“We’re not going to lose Vale,” Sunset said. “Ruby, look at me.”
Ruby turned away from the window and looked into Sunset’s face.
“Maybe we can’t always win,” Sunset said. “But we’re not going to lose here. Not to the White Fang, not to Cinder, not to anyone. We’re too late to save this city, but that doesn’t mean that huntsmen are going to fail in Mountain Glenn a second time. Come on, I’ve finished checking the other rooms, and it's obvious there aren’t any grimm around.”
“Right,” Ruby said. “Hey, Sunset?”
“Yeah?”
“I think I’m going to stay here for a while,” Ruby said. “It’s a good place to stand watch.”
“We haven’t assigned watches yet.”
“I volunteer to take the first shift.”
Sunset hesitated a moment before she nodded. “Okay. I’ll bring you something to eat once dinner’s ready.”
“Thanks.”
“No problem,” Sunset said, before she turned away. She didn’t shut the door behind her, but Ruby lost sight of her pretty quickly anyway, though as she turned to face the window and the dark and unlit street outside, she could hear Sunset’s footsteps joining those of Jaune and Pyrrha heading downstairs.
Ruby looked down at the scroll she was still holding in her hands.
Dad says that the huntsmen are going to keep us safe.
Ruby’s brow crinkled. “Mommy, where are you going?”
“It doesn’t matter, sweetie; it’s just a mission. I’ll be back soon, I promise.”
“But why do you have to go at all?”
“Because people need me, Ruby; maybe even more than you or Yang need me. Because people are in danger, and I can’t just do nothing. Because saving people… is what a huntress does.”
Ruby didn’t have many memories of her mother, but she still remembered the smile on the face of Summer Rose as she had said that. The way she smiled as she promised to return soon… before leaving on a mission from which she had never returned.
Ruby had never forgotten those words. They were etched into her mind and her heart alike. Saving people was what a huntress did; even if it cost them their lives, they still saved the day.
But all the huntresses and huntsmen had failed at Mountain Glenn.
She let Azure’s scroll fall to the dressing table. Whether she’d made it out or not didn’t really matter now. Even if she’d escaped… there were too many who hadn’t.
“I won’t let this happen to Vale,” Ruby whispered to herself. “I won’t let the city fall, I promise.” She promised Azure, she promised Mom, she promised all the ghosts of Mountain Glenn: she wouldn’t let this tragedy be repeated.
The peace that was purchased with blood that was red like roses had been shattered by Cinder’s actions and Salem’s malice, but the peace would come again. She would make sure of it.
“See anything, Miss Rose?”
Ruby almost jumped as she turned, pointing her gun at Professor Goodwitch, who stood in the doorway with a steaming bowl of something in her hands.
“Professor,” Ruby cried. “I, uh, didn’t hear you.”
“I am a fully qualified huntress, Miss Rose,” Professor Goodwitch said. “I hope that a beowolf on the prowl would be a little less stealthy.”
“Yeah, I hope so,” Ruby said, with a nervous laugh in her voice. “So… what brings you up here, Professor?”
“I thought that you might like something to eat,” Professor Goodwitch said, holding the bowl up a little higher.”
“Oh, thanks; you didn’t have to do that.”
“No,” Professor Goodwitch said. “But I did it regardless.” Ruby slung Crescent Rose behind her back and took the bowl of dark broth out of Professor Goodwitch’s hands. “I take it then that you’ve seen nothing?”
“No,” Ruby said. “Not a thing. This part of the city seems to be pretty quiet.”
“Don’t let your guard down,” Professor Goodwitch said. “The creatures of grimm aren’t known to give too much advanced warning of their presence.”
“I know,” Ruby murmured. “Professor?”
“Yes, Miss Rose?”
“Why did Mountain Glenn fall?” Ruby asked. “Why couldn’t the huntsmen and huntresses defend it?”
Professor Goodwitch joined Ruby at the window. Darkness had well and truly fallen now, and the moonlight shone down upon them, teacher and student alike, through the shattered bedroom window.
“Miss Rose… Ruby, do you remember the night that you and I first met?”
“Of course,” Ruby said. “You showed up after Sunset and I let Torchwick get away.”
“Although, of course, you caught him later,” Professor Goodwitch noted.
“Sure, but we let him get away that first time,” Ruby murmured. “Professor… did you know that Torchwick was going to be at that dust shop that night? You got there very quickly, too fast for you to have come once you heard about the fight.”
Professor Goodwitch snorted. “Torchwick’s flamboyance was almost his undoing. He walked down the street bold as brass, and someone was brave enough to call it in. I volunteered to attempt to apprehend him and his men.”
“So, if Sunset and I hadn’t been there, then you would have caught him that night?”
“Perhaps,” Professor Goodwitch allowed. “But it’s equally possible, perhaps even more so, that I would not. There is little point in asking questions like that. You can only analyse the actions that you took in the situation that you were faced with, understand what you did wrong, and then do better the next time you’re faced with a similar scenario. Beyond that, wondering what might have been is a pointless distraction. Do you remember what else happened that night?”
“I remember everything that happened that night,” Ruby said. “That’s the night that a whole new part of my life started.”
It was hard to tell, but it seemed as though Professor Goodwitch smiled, if only for a moment. “You told me that you wanted to become a huntress so that you could help others, the way your parents taught you.”
“Yeah,” Ruby said. “The way they taught me… and the way they showed me, if you know what I mean.”
Professor Goodwitch nodded. “To say that the first duty of a huntress is to help others, to protect them against any danger, is not an inaccurate statement to make. But it would be more accurate to say that the first duty of a huntress is to try.
“We are not superheroes. Although we possess extraordinary gifts and have had the highest standard of training lavished upon us, we’re ultimately only human. Despite our best intentions, we can fail, and fall, as so many did here at Mountain Glenn. Some close friends of mine amongst them.”
“I-”
“My partner at Beacon was a girl named Elphaba Westwick,” Professor Goodwitch continued. “She’s buried here at Mountain Glenn, if 'buried' is the right word for it.”
“I’m sorry,” Ruby murmured, aware that the words were inadequate but at the same time not knowing what else to say.
“She died doing what she loved,” Professor Goodwitch said. “Fighting for what she believed in, as she had sworn to do. But we’re only human. We can fight with all of our strength, and yet, we can fail all the same. All we can do is vow to do better next time. If we are permitted to do so. Do you know what happened after Mountain Glenn fell?”
“Ozpin’s Stand,” Ruby said.
Professor Goodwitch nodded. “The horde of grimm that had destroyed Mountain Glenn swept through the woods towards Vale. Professor Ozpin himself led out every available huntsman and huntress he could muster to stand against them. I was there, and so were your mother and father, and your uncle, Qrow.
“Huntsmen had failed to save Mountain Glenn, but in the three days of fighting that they now call Ozpin’s Stand, with the Kingdom of Vale at stake, we learnt from what had happened there, and we did not fail.
“We don’t need to succeed every single time, Ruby. We only need to succeed often enough to preserve humanity and the kingdoms.”
Ruby had been eating the sticky, spicy broth while Professor Goodwitch had been speaking. Now, she set the mostly empty bowl down on the dressing table. “Professor, can I ask you a question?”
“If you like, Miss Rose.”
“You taught my Mom, didn’t you?”
Now Professor Goodwitch smiled for sure, and unlike her earlier smile, it didn’t fade so quickly that Ruby couldn’t be certain it had ever been there at all. “I had that honour, yes.”
“Could you tell me… could you tell me what she was like?” Ruby asked. “Only I don’t remember very much about her, and Dad doesn’t like to talk about it. It makes him sad.”
Professor Goodwitch nodded. “I can understand why. Your mother… Summer Rose didn’t always appear to be a very serious student. I have to admit that when I first met her, I thought that she was not serious about studying to become a huntress at all. She laughed easily, she sometimes joked around in class, she sometimes preferred having fun with her friends to doing her homework. But when a fight started – be it a battle against the grimm with lives on the line, a tournament match with the whole of Remnant watching, or a simple sparring match in my class – all of that fell away, and she became incredibly focussed: once the fight had begun, then the fight was all that mattered. She never gave anything less than all of herself in battle; she always fought as if there were lives and kingdoms on the line.
“And if she liked to have fun outside of battle, well… nobody who saw her in action would begrudge her the relaxation.”
Ruby smiled. “So, you liked her then?”
“I try not to think about my students in those terms, like or dislike; I’d prefer not to practice favouritism,” Professor Goodwitch said primly. “But I respected your mother’s skills – it was impossible not to, once you’d witnessed them – and, later, her leadership. She was given the leadership of an exceptionally talented team, the most talented that I’ve ever seen walk the halls of Beacon until… but Summer mastered the various egos of her teammates and won the respect, and even the affection, of even those least inclined to give it to her.”
Based on what she’d read of Mom’s diary, Ruby took that to refer to Raven.
“But, perhaps what I remember best of all about your mother was her kindness. No matter the circumstances, Summer’s first instinct was always to see what she could do to help. I think she’d be proud that it’s a principle you seem to have inherited from her.”
Ruby smiled. “Thank you, Professor.”
Professor Goodwitch said, “Miss Shimmer will be up to take over watch soon, I believe. Goodnight, Ruby.”
“Goodnight, Professor.”
Sunset did indeed relieve Ruby and took up the position that her partner had vacated at the window. There was no need to stand there – she could have chosen anywhere she liked – but Ruby had picked it for a reason: it offered a convenient view of the street outside.
The dead street. As she stood there, at the broken window in this decaying monument to teenage tastes – that man, honestly; who in Remnant or Equestria would find someone like that attractive? He hadn’t even bothered to shave! – she tried to imagine what this street, what this city, might have looked like before it died. With her mind’s eye, she tried to peel back the rust, the decay, the rot, and the ruin, tried to put the cars back on the roads, to right the bins, to plant flowers and trees in the gardens, even as she killed off all of the encroachments that nature had made.
It was hard, verging upon impossible. This was no small matter to conceive of. Even if she had seen pictures of Mountain Glenn in its brief heyday, she would probably have struggled to reconcile it with what she saw before her now. All human life had fled this place, and it had been claimed by older and by fouler things. To challenge that reclamation was almost beyond her powers of imagination.
She could not imagine how this girl, this Azure, had lived in the fleeting days of this city’s glory. For all that she was surrounded by her life, it was nevertheless out of reach of Sunset’s ability to conceive of. It was true that human life in Remnant was, in some ways, permanently under siege, but there were places in the world where that fact was hardly felt. As Professor Port had said in his first lesson, the four kingdoms were safe havens, and the point about a safe haven was that it felt safe; in fact, the feeling safe was almost as important as the being safe. People in Atlas, in Vale, in Mistral, they did not feel as though they were squatting in a fortress while outside it grew dark. They felt safe, behind their walls, protected by huntsmen, under the guns of the Atlesian fleet. Had Azure felt safe? Had anyone in Mountain Glenn felt safe?
They trusted the huntsmen to protect them, that’s what Ruby said. Sunset… well, she supposed it wasn’t too dissimilar from the way it felt to live in Canterlot, which seemed vulnerable to attack and yet escaped attack, and had done for many years. That was the point, in Sunset’s eyes, that ‘for many years’; Canterlot had proven itself to be a safe place. Sunset wasn’t sure that she could have trusted to live in a place like Mountain Glenn, that was new and vulnerable and had no record of protecting its inhabitants.
And yet, Azure had, and so had many others who flocked to Mountain Glenn in hopes of a better and more comfortable existence.
Because they trusted the huntsmen to protect them.
We are not trusted, on our errand of secrecy, but we are no less relied upon.
We are the tip of the spear, and if we are turned aside…
Sunset frowned. They could win. They would win, of that she had no doubt, but… but the cost…
Of the cost, she had grave doubts and misgivings.
How many lives are at stake in this endeavour? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions?
How many lives matter to me?
A handful or two, and most of them are downstairs.
It was not very noble of her to admit the fact. It was hardly the sort of thing a hero ought to think, and yet, there it was. She cared little for Vale, or for those who lived there. Who did she even know who lived in Vale? Skystar Aris, Cardin’s ex? Her cousins, whom she had met once? Jaune’s friend who worked in the ice cream parlour? Four people, and all of them tenuous acquaintances at best.
And Flash. She would not see Flash die, not now, not after… not ever, if she was being honest with herself.
Flash’s life, if no other, was worth the salvation of Vale to her, and yet…
And yet…
Sunset looked down upon the dead city as she contemplated the ‘and yet.’ Soteria felt very heavy across her back, the sword of Achates Kommenos, the sword bestowed on her from the treasures of the Nikos family, the sword carried into battle for the last Emperor.
Only one side fought for a just cause, but be in no doubt that there were heroes on both sides. Isn’t that right, Professor?
If Achates could be a hero in an unjust cause, then though she made her cause the little band beneath then… did that even rise to the level of injustice? Was universality required to be just? Did she have to care for those she fought for to do her job?
No, but… it would probably be good if I didn’t resent the possibility that my friends might die for their sake.
And she did resent the possibility. Here, alone in the night, with nobody and nothing to take her mind off it, Sunset found herself confronted with the inescapable fact of that resentment. Wherefore should Pyrrha die, the Evenstar of Mistral snuffed out, a noble and an ancient line extinguished, for the base and ignoble herd of Vale. For Vale? What was Vale to Sunset Shimmer, when set against Pyrrha, against Ruby, against Jaune or Blake or even Rainbow Dash? Wherefore should they die that Vale should live?
Wherefore should Cinder die, that Vale should live? That… that was rotten ice indeed to tread on, yet Sunset’s thoughts inclined in that direction nonetheless. If ever there was a thought that Sunset would not dare voice aloud, it was that she valued the life of her enemy more than those that she was charged to protect. And yet, here, all alone in the night, she could not deny it. Cinder was… Cinder was brilliant: intelligent, erudite, witty, charming; perhaps that had all been a mask, but Sunset did not believe it so. She was worth more than life had granted her. Worth as much more than Vale as many in the company that slumbered down below.
None of them would see it that way. Pyrrha, Ruby, Blake, and even Jaune would not; Ciel would not, Penny would not… Sunset was not so sure of Rainbow Dash. She sought the mantle of the true hero, aped the swaggering soldier’s part, mouthed the pieties of a daughter of the North, but Sunset thought she could see through that, to all the fears that lay beneath. If she ripped off her glove, strode downstairs, and grabbed Rainbow by the arm, Sunset would wager she’d feel as much fear in there as Atlesian pride and esprit de corps. Not for herself; Sunset didn’t think Rainbow Dash a coward, but for Applejack and Fluttershy held captive, for Twilight, for her teammates, for Blake, even for Team Sapphire. She was a leader, and like Sunset, she shared a leader’s fear for those set under her. She shared the fear that Blake was too in love with death – although she didn’t know Ruby well enough to detect that same sickness.
Rainbow… Rainbow might understand. Or she might not. There was no way that Sunset was going to talk to her about it to find out.
As for the rest… Pyrrha was set above the common run of men in part by her willingness to give all for those same men, Blake and Ruby’s flaws needed no further elaboration, Ciel was the Altesian soldier Rainbow Dash only pretended to be, Penny had been made for this, and Jaune… Jaune had too kind a heart to be as selfish as Sunset was with these wild thoughts.
He was too humble to set himself above the vulgar general.
Sunset turned towards the door as she heard a board creak outside.
“I’m sorry,” Pyrrha said, holding both hands up as she walked into the room. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Sunset frowned. “It can’t be time for you to relieve me already.”
“No,” Pyrrha admitted. “I… I couldn’t sleep.”
“You should try,” Sunset said softly.
“I know,” Pyrrha conceded, but nevertheless, she did not go back downstairs but walked to the window where Sunset stood, standing beside her. Her fair skin seemed almost ethereal under the light of the shattered moon, as though she were a rich garment made of silk, not flesh and blood. The light upon her circlet gleamed more silver than gold, as if a shining star were set upon her brow. “But I fear that I will find sleep difficult in this place.”
“Because it’s so icky?” Sunset suggested.
Pyrrha glanced at her, looking as if she wasn’t sure if Sunset was joking or not.
“I am not looking forward to trying to lie down amidst all this,” Sunset continued. “We shall probably all need to be disinfected when we get home, you do realise that?”
The corners of Pyrrha’s lips twitched upwards. “When we are home, I will endure such a thing, and much else, gladly. For it will mean that we are home, and away from this terrible place.”
“You dislike it for more than the dirt,” Sunset murmured.
“Do you not?” Pyrrha asked. “I feel… I feel as though you especially must feel how oppressive it is to be here.”
“I, especially?”
“You are the most ambitious person I know,” Pyrrha explained. A sigh escaped her lips as she looked out of the window. “And this city mocks ambition, does it not?”
“You are in a melancholy mood, aren’t you?” Sunset muttered.
“Am I wrong?” Pyrrha asked.
Sunset hesitated for a moment. “No,” she confessed. “No, you are not wrong. Even if Atlas should fall from the sky, it could scarcely be a greater monument to the hubris of men than this vast mausoleum.” She paused. “Now, see, the reason I know that Rainbow Dash isn’t behind me right now is that she’d be choking to hear me say something like that.”
Pyrrha marred her own features ever so slightly with a tiny frown. “Are you trying to cheer me up?” she asked.
“Evidently, it isn’t working,” Sunset replied.
Pyrrha didn’t respond to that. She looked away from Sunset, out of the window. “Do you think-?” she murmured. “Do you think that when they built this place, when they made their plans, when they encouraged people to come here, do you think they ever believed that it could fail so catastrophically?”
“If they did, they hopefully wouldn’t have gone ahead with their plans,” Sunset remarked. “We… we rarely see how wrong things can go; that is what separates hubris from bad luck, no?”
“Perhaps it was simply ill fortune,” Pyrrha said softly.
“With an enterprise upon this scale, there was surely some pride involved,” Sunset insisted. “And now, that pride is dead.”
“Like so much else,” Pyrrha agreed. “And mocks all other kind of pride by its mere existence.”
“You are proud,” Sunset acknowledged. “But you are not… the hubris of this place is not in you.”
“Is it not? If hubris is not in one who seeks to save the world, then where shall it be found?” Pyrrha asked. “I feel… in this place, I fear… the thought will not leave me that-”
“That this is the fate of all things?” Sunset guessed. “That our best efforts will be as vain as though who came before us in this place? That is not your vanity revolting; that is your good heart letting the fears that rise like odour from this ruin. Be glad you are not blessed with darker thoughts.”
“Such as?”
“What kind of team leader would I be to put my burdens upon my subordinates?”
“What kind of friend refuses to share their burden with a friend?” Pyrrha countered.
“The friend whose burden is one of leadership, mine and mine alone,” Sunset declared, half turning away to signify that the matter was closed. How could I tell you that my fear is that you will die for a city unworthy of you? Even to say that you are too good a girl for Vale would revolt you, or I fear it would be so.
Pyrrha was silent a moment. “You fear to lose Ruby.”
“I fear to lose any one of you,” Sunset admitted, the words slipping from her mouth. “Perhaps it is simply that this place inclines to thoughts of death, but I fear this mission could make martyrs as easily as heroes.”
Pyrrha glanced down at the floor. “If that is our fate.”
“I would not have it so!” Sunset hissed.
“Nor would I,” Pyrrha agreed. “I would have many years yet… and yet-”
“Don’t say ‘ten thousand fates of death lie all around us,’” Sunset said.
“And yet, our cause may require it,” Pyrrha said. “And how could we refuse so just a cause as this when it demands a sacrifice in blood?” She shuddered. “I will be glad to leave this place; it breeds such sad and melancholy thoughts as easily as it breeds fungus on the walls.”
“I fear such thoughts will tend your way wherever you go,” Sunset replied.
“And your thoughts?” Pyrrha asked. “Will they be cheered to be away from Mountain Glenn?”
“That depends if we are all away from Mountain Glenn,” Sunset muttered. “I would have it so – I mean to have it so if it is at all within my power – but… I fear it is not in that power to safeguard all our lives.”
“Then we must trust that we have power combined to safeguard one another,” Pyrrha said. She paused for a moment, looking out of the window into the dead city street. “I wish we fought this battle somewhere else,” she declared.
“Mhmm,” Sunset agreed.
Pyrrha continued to look out of the window for a moment longer. “Sunset… would you like to hear a joke?”
Sunset blinked. “A joke?”
“Even in this dark place, perhaps especially, we should try and lighten our moods as best we can, no?” Pyrrha explained.
“I suppose,” Sunset conceded. “But all the same… I don’t think I’ve heard you tell a joke before.” She folded her arms. “This will either be very good, or it will be terrible.”
Pyrrha hesitated. “How many Mistralians does it take to change a light?”
Sunset’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know. How many Mistralians does it take?”
“One,” Pyrrha replied. “But in the grand old days of the empire, hundreds of servants would change a thousand lights upon our slightest whim.”
Sunset stared at her.
“I’m sorry,” Pyrrha said, cringing away. “That wasn’t very good, was it?”
“It might come better from someone who didn’t still have hundreds of servants.”
“I do not have hundreds of servants,” Pyrrha insisted. “I have about three dozen, or at least, my mother does.”
“Even so.”
“Even so, I’m sorry,” Pyrrha said. “I should have told you a funny story instead.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Humour me,” Pyrrha said. “Please. I cannot sleep in this place, and I do not like the thoughts it breeds in me.”
“Nor I,” Sunset admitted. “Say on, then.”
“Thank you,” Pyrrha murmured. “In Mistral, it used to be a custom that the armies of the realm would bring certain chickens, sacred to Seraphis, with them on campaign. Auguries were read into their behaviour, to the extent that no battle could be fought unless the chickens had eaten that day.”
Sunset’s eyebrows rose. “Sacred chickens?”
“Indeed,” Pyrrha confirmed. “There are some who say that my ancestor brought his defeat in the Great War upon himself by giving battle although the chickens had not eaten that day, and that if he had waited until another day when the chickens ate, he would have overthrown the Valish King.”
“I’m not sure the Last King would have given him the chance,” Sunset replied.
“Perhaps not,” Pyrrha agreed. “In any case, though there are no more Mistralian armies now, the tradition has been inherited in the arena. No day of matches, though it has been scheduled on every television network, can be held unless the chickens eat.”
“Surely, that can’t be a rare occurrence,” Sunset said quietly.
“You would not think so, but it once caused considerable embarrassment,” Pyrrha told her. “You see, the final of the tournament is traditionally held on a weekend, to ensure that everyone can see it either live or on television without work getting in the way, and so when the chickens flatly refused to eat, the whole thing had to be postponed for an entire week.”
“When was this?”
“Two years ago,” Pyrrha said. “Every Saturday, Arslan and I would go to the Temple of Seraphis not far from the Colosseum, and every Saturday, we would watch the chickens flat out refuse to touch their feed, to which the priests and the officiants could only shrug and say that it would have to be postponed again. One month, this went on, with the television people getting increasingly frustrated and even the fans beginning to grow restive. And so, on the fifth week, I went to the temple alone because Arslan was nowhere to be seen – or so I thought. When I got there, I discovered that Arslan had beaten me to it, wearing a chicken costume and making clucking noises, bending down to mime eating corn off the ground. And when I asked her what in Mistral she was doing, she told me that she was reminding them of what to do, since they had clearly forgotten how to feed themselves.”
“I do not believe a single word of that actually happened,” Sunset declared. She grinned. “But I think it would be marvellous if it did.”
“It’s all true,” Pyrrha insisted. “Every word of it.”
“I know that Mistral is a land steeped in tradition, but that’s a bit much,” Sunset replied. “All the same… it doesn’t need to be true to be a good story.” She scratched the back of her head with one hand. “Did you… I don’t suppose that-?”
“I did go down to the farm in the morning, before Professor Ozpin’s speech,” Pyrrha admitted. “I know that they aren’t sacred animals, but still.”
“Did they eat?” Sunset couldn’t help but ask.
“Yes,” Pyrrha said, after only a slight hesitation.
“Thank you for telling me that too,” Sunset said.
“Of course,” Pyrrha murmured. “Sunset?”
“Yes?”
“Since we’re both awake, would you like to see if we can start training your semblance now?”
Sunset considered it for a moment. It wasn’t something that she particularly wanted to do, but on the other hand, they both seemed as though they could use all the distractions available to them right now.
“Very well,” she said. “Where do we begin?”
Stats
Page generated in 0.055 seconds
Total duration
950 users online
211,536 hits today, 2,314,256 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Good GODS I love Roman here in your fic! He's such a smarmy asshole, but he's the one thing that they can't deny: he's a smarmy asshole who's giving them advice, straight up.
Good or bad advice? Well, that's up for THEM to decide.
Westwick. The Brunswick farm. Could we have found links to Roman Torchwick's parents? Elphaba was a huntress who died in combat. One of Roman's parents died in combat. And these names are so similar.
I see The Grim Reaper. Will we be getting more of Maria? Our favorite Katara look-alike.
Torchwick it too smart for his own good. He doesn’t even realize that he has a soft spot for Neo, even if he doen’t believe in concepts like good or evil. But perhaps he does and just needs a push to admit it.
You can't always save everyone, Ruby. Just like how not everyone (or everypony) can be redeemed. But when the Grimm come, they come for everyone. If a huntress fought to protect 100 people but a fifth of them still died, it isn't that 20 of them were killed... but that the huntress saved 80 people from the Grimm.
Huntresses, soldiers, firemen, doctors and many others... Such heroes count their victories by the people that they save. By the husbands they return to their wives, by the fathers they give back to their children. Every time you save a life, you make a difference.
We brought Torchwick here because he has key Intel on this Mt. Glenn and who's going to be inside. I'm sure that Ciel will have plenty of questions about the base layout and personnel.
Everyone will also want to know more about Cinder, the mastermind behind the whole thing. How she's likely to manage her hostages, details about the rest of her team, about Emerald, Mercury and Lightning's combat skills, etc. And also to get a better idea about Cinder's semblance which has confused them thus far. They've seen her wield Dust, fire, deflect bullets, detonate the ground beneath your feet and she can even fly!
9513019
I believe the last name was mostly because of West, aka the Wicked Witch of the West. In the play, Wicked, Elphaba was her name. It's a really great musical!
9513020
"Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye."
-Matthew 7:5
9513378
Which fits in Goodwitch's inspirational system...
Provided my knowledge of the Kamen Rider of Oz is limited...
So Torchwick is thinking the girls (and Jaune) are going to cut and run out on each other if the chips are down?
Man, even after all this time with Neo, he really doesn't think people can be there for eachother... he is a bit blind to something right under his own nose isn't he.
@Scipio
Where do you get your RWBY lore? Never heard mention of Goodwitch's counterpart in the show.
9524227
If you're talking about her partner Elphaba, it's a reference to the musical Wicked, where Glynda, the Good Witch of the North, and Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West, were best friends at school.
9513332
Do we actually what Cinder’s semblance is? All we’ve seen in the show are her maiden powers or her dust capabilities.
Why is the story makes it seem like Roman deduced that one of Ruby’s parents died on his own? She him that in the interrogation room just a few chapters ago.
Ruby... In the wise words of Spider-Ham:
"The hardest part of being a hero, is accepting the fact that you can't save EVERYbody."
Hang in there Red, and don't give up yet.
I'm really liking this interpretation of Torchwick! he was always a favorite character of mine and it's nice to see him getting some good development scenes with the main cast.
I'm prefacing this that I really enjoyed Torchwick in this chapter, but the language is less of what was on my mind with this chapter, whereas for once my mind elected to frame this chapter against what's to come, mainly relating back to two bits:
This is the first time Ruby seems to be even confronting the idea of huntsmen failing. It says a lot, I think, but perhaps could be looped back around to more... maybe. I am both surprised and, given this is ruby, not surprised that she doesn't wonder about how her mother passed, when she (I presume) isn't familiar with what mission she ultimately passed on. Was the mission a success? A failure? I don't think there's a canon answer, and I don't recall one in SAPR so far (though I've yet to start reading the rewrite as of yet).
It contrasts her original point from previously (if still included) how she believes that you can always save everyone, with this flying in the face of it. It's also important to consider that the rest of the team already did confront this while in Mistral when pursuing the Grimm that Leo sent them out on with Mama Nikos (and Cinder), so this is Ruby's first time really getting a good look at the aftermath of true failure. I had wanted to see how the others might think about this, but given that fact, I feel it'd be redundant other than the more apocalyptic setting.
It's only now that I really think about it, that this is where Ruby does have some potential for growth in this story that I might have overlooked, in her moving on from that earlier stance on saving everyone. I'm not sure how prevalent it is beyond here, but I'm also hard pressed to answer 'why would it be?' Regardless, something to chew on, and it transitions well into the next bit.
Good foreshadowing, as this promise/remembrance of Mountain Glenn does impact some of her decision making there (Though her wanting to go back outside the gates after declaring it remain locked really emphasizes just how self-sacrificial her impulses are)). I could honestly see Skye and her mother being a bit more haunty in her mind after this experience, though perhaps that's Dimitri's derangement with the Dead (Fire Emblem Three Houses, basically he hears voices of the dead and promises to avenge them in conversation with them) that's leaning into that thought.
Not exactly a lot commented on, but my thoughts were generally more broad with this. I did absolutely love the atmosphere set up though, which is what let Ruby and others really react to the environment. Skye is most likely dead, but I wonder how Ruby would subsequently react if she encountered her still alive. I'm sure there'd be an interesting tale to that too, if it were the case. It's probably not, but a possible bite of fun.
Uh-oh… I know where that is going. we’ll just remember Ruby that no one huntress, no one person, is infallible in their duties. No one knows everything that is to come. You are not a god. In fact, even the Brother Gods have proven how Fallible they are .
I will say again what I stated in my original review of this chapter. What matters most is how many lives you manage to save.
Re-reading as they are re-written, I'm reminded of the fact Scipio is not American. 'Torch' instead of flashlight (or taclight to use the more military term), 'first floor' being above the 'ground floor' instead of them being synonymous. Nothing important, it just struck me that both franchises are very American, and this fan-fiction combining them... isn't. :)
Possibly one of the reasons I like it.
Hello,Maria!
The Grimm Reaper in her prime! I wonder if she will make an appearance in this story?
Well that's just sad.
How old was Glynda when she became a teacher in this story ? because she must have been like 10 years older than team STRQ for teaching at this time.
everytime i read a discussion between those two, i feel like i had just read a ancient Play, they really both are old fashioned aristocrats, wether Pyrrha admit it or not.
i would like to see Sunset talk with her aunty Luna (to me, princess Celestia is Sunset adoptive mother, i will die on this hill !) .
Poor Princess Luna would definitly want to finally communicate again with someone who talk in a similar fashion (if not with the same expressions) as her.
Ah ! Rich jokes.
Don't worry Pyrrha, it's just like recieving actual respect from the Haven aristocracy, no one get it.
And that is one of the reasons why Sunset call your mother "my Lady" unironically.
well, this is going to be interesting.
10925076
Glynda had only just started teaching when Team STRQ were in their first year, and wasn't much older than they were. That's why, as recounted in Summer's diary, Raven was all 'I'm not going to learn form someone my age!' and then Glynda handed Raven her ass with all the trimmings, establishing a tradition that continues to this day.
10925232
so she was 22 or 23 ? Since she would had been around 21 when she had finish Beacon ?
10925291
Something like that, yes.
Yay, Sunset is training her semblance! Much earlier than before too. It is probably the thing that will help end the menace of Salem the most!
That's a Wicked-ly coo reference. Poor Elphaba.
PRAISE THE CHICKEN! PRAISE THE MOTHA CLUCKIN CHICKENS!
Okay, i have to know, is that Chicken thing based on reality? Which culture? I gotta know if that was real or you made up something that I could totally believe to be a superstition.
11535144
The Romans had sacred chickens that were consulted before battles, if they did not eat this was considered a bad omen, and wise commanders would avoid battle if at all possible in the circumstances.
11535327
Or give them a drink by tossing them into the ocean and then continuing onto the battle as if nothing had ever happened, that works too I'm told
Ruby’s mindset here is definitely dangerous and I think it is a little disrespectful to be huntsmen who have their lives to save the people they could at that place. I know she didn’t mean it, but still shows she’s missing some important aspects with her mindset.
It’s a pretty good contrast to Sunset to where Ruby cares about the population and Sunset cares about the individual and how they both have the exact opposite problem with their mindsets.