SAPR

by Scipio Smith

Prowling the Streets (New)

Prowling the Streets

"So, there isn't a table?" Blake asked.

Mom shrugged apologetically. "There are rather a lot of you," she pointed out. "Which isn't a criticism, by any means, I'm delighted to meet all your friends; it's just that I'm told a table for nine would be a difficult fit at the best of times, and, well, what with so many tourists in Vale for the tournament, these are not the best of times."

Blake supposed that she could understand that, but even so, she would have thought that Mom could have gotten a table in the restaurant of the hotel at which she was staying. But then, of course, the hotels would be full up too as part of the influx of visitors from across Remnant, drawn — despite the shock of the Breach, or perhaps reassured by the measures that Councillor Emerald had announced in response, or by the presence of General Ironwood's forces — by the allure of the Vytal Festival.

As a result, the nine of them — Blake, her mother, Sun, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Sunset, Weiss, Starlight, and Trixie — were stood outside of the large, towering hotel where Mom was staying. It was not one of Vale's grandest hotels with a proud pedigree — Mom might be the High Chieftain's wife, and on Menagerie, that might come with many perks, but it didn't make her rich by the standards of the world beyond Menagerie — it looked too modern for that, a building in the new, featureless style, all plain walls and large windows rising up into the night sky. The name, Traveller's Rest, made Blake think that it might be part of a chain of hotels, all identically named. Nevertheless, it looked reasonable enough, it wasn't obviously disgusting to look in through the large, glass, automatic doors, and looking through the windows into the restaurant, it did seem to be quite full. Whoever had told Mom that they couldn't fit her party in did not seem to have been being disingenuous.

Not that that was much consolation to anyone standing outside in the darkness of night, as the light of the stars above mingled with the lights of the warships, Atlesian and Valish and Mistralian all alike that were crowding up the sky and blocking the stars, shining their counterfeit lights down on Vale in place of the celestial illuminations. How many people consciously looked up at those lights and felt safer about coming to Vale for the Vytal Festival because of their presence, Blake wondered, and how many people simply felt instinctively more secure as a result?

Mom hadn't changed, probably because she'd travelled quite light, but everyone else was wearing something a little different.

Rainbow Dash was wearing what she referred to as the dress whites, which meant that all trace of grey had been banished from her Atlas uniform: in place of her grey waistcoat, she wore a crisp, white, long-sleeved jacket, with her red aiguillette looping adding a splash of colour as it looped around her right sleeve before disappearing under one of the silver epaulettes that sat upon her shoulders; her skirt, too, was white, and so too the white stockings that she wore and might well have been glad of in this chill air; even her hands were enclosed beneath a pair of white gloves; the only things about her that were not white — aside from her skin and hair, obviously — were the black shoes on her feet and the black tie, the beginnings of which were just about visible before it disappeared beneath her jacket.

Twilight had pinned her hair up into a high bun, visibly rising above her head, with only a pair of strands of hair falling down on either side of her face to frame her cheeks. She was dressed in a light blue blouse with a collar — around which she was wearing a moderately-sized pink bow, like a bow tie, but bigger and more bow-ish — and short puffed sleeves which, unfortunately in the current circumstances, left most of her arms bare and exposed to view; her skirt was lavender and a little longer than thigh length, with her emblem of the six-pointed star emblazoned upon one side. Her socks were a light lilac colour and went up to just beneath her knees, which might have felt as much of a chill as her arms were doing. Her shoes were black, with a pink border around them, and high heeled, adding some inches to her height; there were sparkling crystal buckles on the toes.

Sun … well, it was easy to see what Neptune had done. What Neptune had done, in point of fact, seemed to mostly have been lent Sun his clothes; fortunately, they were so similar in size that any poor fit was not noticeable, but that didn't mean that Sun looked at ease in an ocean blue jacket with white and turquoise trim around the cuffs, a pair of pristine white pants, or the red shirt with blue tie that he had on beneath the jacket. The only thing Sun was wearing that appeared to be actually his were his yellow trainers, which rather stood out against the rest of what he had on.

Sunset was wearing an emerald cocktail dress of a shimmering fabric, even in the darkness outside the hotel; it had a V-neckline that was low enough to begin to reveal without going on to reveal too much and a skirt which flared outwards from the waist before ending around her knees. A couple of inches of translucent black lace descended just below the hem of the skirt and covered Sunset's chest and shoulders from the neckline and the sleeves that Blake couldn't see to her neck, ending in what looked like a black choker fastened around her throat. Blake couldn't see the sleeves, but whatever they were, they were sufficiently unobtrusive that Sunset was able to wear her leather jacket over the top of it. Over her hands, emerging from beneath her jacket sleeves, she still wore her white gloves.

Weiss had chosen to change her outfit but not to dress up; in fact, since she was wearing the same thing that she had worn to assist Blake and Rainbow Dash in Low Town — the white double-breasted coat and flaring skirt with black petticoats, the white boots that rose higher than her knees; the only thing different was that she had shorted the length of her black stockings, which now ended just above the top of her boots and left her lower thighs exposed — one might almost say that she was dressing down for the occasion. Nevertheless, she still managed to wear it in such a way as to imply a class not borne out by the garments themselves, and she had changed clothes, after all.

Trixie was dressed all in blue, a dark blue bodice with a square neckline and long sleeves that were more of a midnight blue, with ever so slightly puffed shoulders. Her skirt was knee length and of the same shade as her sleeves. It all looked rather plain, but Trixie made up for that; first with the light purple cape around her neck, descending to below the level of her skirt and decorated with a riot of stars, gold, silver, shades of blue, all sparkling even in the light from the street lights on the pavement; and second with her incredibly chunky boots that were a deep, dark blue, high heeled, and looked thick and heavy enough to be used as clubs in an emergency. A purple band ran around the ankle of each boot, decorated with three silver stars in front and fastening at the back with golden buckles, while the tops of her boots folded downwards like the collar of a shirt, with purple amethysts set in gold — or the appearance of gold — pinned to the top.

Starlight Glimmer had joined Rainbow Dash in wearing the Atlesian dress whites, with the only differences being the lack of any sort of aiguillette and the fact that her stockings were jet black as opposed to white. Blake thought the contrast might work better than the continuity.

As for Blake herself, she hadn't bothered to change. She didn't see why she needed to; after all, while her mom might be Lady Belladonna, ma'am, the High Chieftainess, or their girlfriend's mother to the rest of the group gathered here, shivering outside, to Blake, she was just … her mom. A mother with whom, after everything that Blake had done, after everything that she'd been through, after everything that had passed between them, she was probably past the point of being able to impress by dressing well.

The one concession Blake had made to altering her appearance in any way was to tie her long, wild black hair back into a ponytail, which hung down behind her almost to her waist. Blake … couldn't say she liked it. It might work for Pyrrha — or Ilia, for that matter — but it wasn't working for her, at least in her own opinion. Sun had said it was cute, but he was either lying to be nice, or he was mistaken. Still, at least it looked as though she had made some little effort to change things up.

"Never mind, ma'am," Rainbow said. "I'm sure we'll find somewhere that can fit us in."

"You'd certainly hope so, in a city this size," Mom replied, smiling somewhat. "If anyone has any ideas, lead the way."

"I checked a few places before we came down here, just in case we had any trouble," Twilight murmured. "Not that I … just in case. As a backup."

"And you found somewhere?" Rainbow asked.

"There were a couple of places that seemed nice," Twilight replied. "Unfortunately, I didn't try to actually book us a table, but hopefully, they'll be able to find us somewhere."

"As I said," Mom said, "lead the way."

"Right," Twilight said, nodding her head. She got out her scroll, her slight and nimble fingers tapping on the scroll once, twice, three times. "The closest place … let's see if I can book us a table … no, they don't have anything free right now."

"With luck, they'll be keeping some tables free for walk-ins," Mom said. "We may as well head there anyway and find out; it's as good as standing around out here, isn't it?"

"Okay," Twilight said, sounding not too confident about Mom's assessment. Blake wasn't too confident about it either, but she had a point that they might as well get on the move as stand here in front of this hotel all night.

"It's this way," Twilight said, gesturing to her left. She began to walk in that direction, walking past Trixie and Starlight in order to do so.

Rainbow followed, undoing the top button of her jacket for some reason, and everyone else present began to flow in that direction.

"Blake?" Mom asked quietly, as she did not immediately join the others. Rather, she moved closer to Blake, leaning in a little bit to speak in a hushed voice. "Your friends are all very deferential. Are you sure they're your friends and not your sycophants?"

Blake smiled softly, even as a snort escaped her nostrils. "It's not me, Mom, it's you. The Atlesians are taught manners on the curriculum, and Sunset's a snob, and frankly a bit of a bootlicker to the aristocracy — or at least to their parents; I don't seem to count in her eyes, and even Pyrrha counts less than her mother." At least, Blake had never caught Sunset referring to her as 'Lady Pyrrha' the way that she so fastidiously referred to Pyrrha's mother as 'Lady Nikos.' Perhaps familiarity bred … not contempt, but an erosion of deference in her eyes. Or perhaps it was merely that she would not force titles on those who would not want them. "The point is, they are my friends. They're just your sycophants."

"Except for Sun," Mom pointed out.

Blake's smile became a little wider, and a little less soft. "Sun is from Vacuo," she reminded her mother. "They do things differently there."

"Do things better, perhaps," Mom suggested. "Are you sure that Atlas is where you want to go?"

"They're courteous, Mom; they're not bad people," Blake said.

"I never said they were; I like Rainbow already," Mom declared. "I'm just not sure I'd want to live with the stuffiness all the time."

Blake chuckled. "Well, fortunately, you don't have to." She took her mother by the shoulder and turned her in the direction in which the others had begun to move. "Now come on, before any of them start to wonder why you're still standing here."

As a matter of fact, Sun appeared to have already noticed, having stopped to wait for them, thrusting his hands into the pockets of his white pants as she did so. "Is everything okay?" he asked.

"It's fine," Blake assured him. "But thanks for checking."

"So," Mom said, raising her voice as they caught up with the others. "I know most of you already, which means that you must be … well, one of you is Starlight Glimmer and the other—"

"The Grrrrrrreat and Powerful Trrrrrixie at your service!" Trixie said, turning elegantly on her toe and beginning to walk backwards down the street even as she bowed to Blake's mother.

"Which would make me Starlight," Starlight said, smiling. "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am."

"The pleasure is all mine, meeting my daughter's friends," Mom said. "I'm so glad she has some; she was such a moody, lonely child."

Blake groaned wordlessly. "Rainbow Dash?"

"Yeah?"

"I might have to take my revenge on you for this."

Rainbow laughed. "Your parents can embarrass you for a few hours at a time, Blake, but they can love you for their whole lives."

"Perhaps I should have brought your parents with me," Mom said.

"I'm glad you didn't make me practise what I preach, ma'am," Rainbow said, smoothly and without a trace of shame.

As they walked down the street, cars whizzing past them on their way to somewhere or other, Mom said, “So, have you all fought alongside Blake?”

“'Fighting' is a bit of a strong word, in my case,” Twilight replied. “But everyone else … yeah, I think so.”

“If there’s anyone here besides Twilight who hasn’t fought with Blake, then stick your hand in the air,” Sun said.

Nobody raised their hands.

“Comrades in arms,” Mom murmured. “Not the life that I envisaged, but … better than a lonely life, I suppose.” She smiled. “Much better than being lonely.”

Sunset smirked. “Of course, if we were to use a different definition of ‘fighting with Blake,’ then how many people here could raise their hands for having not done so?”

“If you mean what I think you mean,” Starlight said, sticking her hand in the air.

Twilight also raised her hand.

Sun half-raised his. “I mean, what counts as a fight?”

“I think the other person has to be there for it to count as a fight; you can’t just stew in their absence,” Sunset informed him.

“Oh,” Sun said. “Cool.” He lowered his hand.

Mom’s eyebrows rose. “All the rest of you have…”

“I … may have gotten off to something of a rough start,” Blake admitted, turning her face away and giving serious consideration to leaving a clone of herself behind while she scarpered back to Beacon.

Except Rainbow would probably just fly Mom up there to talk to her about this.

“I see,” Mom murmured. “Except I don’t, which makes me think that I’m going to need to hear a lot more details than I’ve gotten so far about all of this, starting … well,” — she looked around, her skirts swishing a little as she turned while she walked, casting her golden gaze around the assembled group — “I’m afraid I’m going to have to rely on you to tell me exactly where the beginning is. How did all of this start, this road that led Blake to Atlas, this rough start that made you all so fond of her?”

A moment of silence descended on the company. If they were all wondering where they ought to begin, and how much they could or should or wanted to say, then their thoughts were only mirroring those of Blake herself, who didn’t really want to tell her mother the whole story, even the bits that weren’t secret, because … well, because it was kind of embarrassing in places. Despite how far she had come, despite the esteem in which Rainbow and the other Atlesians held her, the fact remained that she had not covered herself in glory in the early days at Beacon, and she was not particularly keen to revisit that with her mother.

She decided to take the initiative, before anyone else could do it for her. “I had a quiet first few weeks at Beacon—”

“Well,” Sunset said, cutting her off almost immediately, “that isn’t entirely true, is it?”

Blake honestly had no idea what she was referring to; her time at Beacon had been entirely placid and uneventful until Rainbow Dash had shown up; it was a little funny to think that if Penny hadn’t run away to Vale and forced Team RSPT to come and get her, then she, Blake, might have remained the leader of Team BLBL all year.

And nobody would have stopped the White Fang from robbing the dust at the docks.

Everything might have been peaceful — or Vale might have been overrun on the Breach.

Either way, it’s all because of a curious girl with a yearning to be free.

On such things do the fates of kingdoms turn.

Take that, socio-economic forces of history!

Although I doubt Sienna will be pleased by the vindication of Great Man history.

She said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m talking about the first time you went out of your way to put yourself in harm’s way,” Sunset said. “During the … leadership exercise, for want of a better word.”

“Oh,” Blake. “Oh, that … that wasn’t—”

“I don’t think I know this story,” Rainbow said.

“Okay,” Sunset said, putting one hand into the pocket of her jacket, even as she gestured with the other, holding it about level with her face, turning back and forwards as she walked so that she was looking at everyone, her eyes meeting theirs, “there was a grimm horde moving towards Vale—”

“A different grimm horde, I take it, to the one that the White Fang planned to loose on the city?” Mom asked.

“Yes, Mom, a different one.”

“How many grimm hordes have you had to deal with?” asked Mom, concern in her voice.

“It was only a small horde, level one,” Sunset assured her.

“Still,” Starlight said, “a horde is a horde. But what does this have to do with Blake?”

“Because we had to go and deal with it,” Weiss said. “'We' being the team leaders, which at that time included Blake.”

There was a moment of silence from the Atlas students.

“So,” Starlight said, “you got plucked out of your teams and sent … where, exactly?”

“The Emerald Forest,” Blake replied.

“You got plucked out of your teams and sent into the Emerald Forest to fight an approaching grimm horde.”

“A level one grimm horde,” Blake insisted.

“A horde, as I said, is a horde,” Starlight declared. “That … how is taking you away from your teams supposed to teach you anything about leadership?”

“We were supposed to work together, without just barking orders at people who felt they had to obey,” Blake said. “That, in itself, teaches something about interpersonal dynamics, how to obtain consent or obedience, how to make plans that command confidence—”

“Did it work?” asked Twilight.

“It doesn’t matter if it works or not; it was reckless,” Starlight said. “I would not have allowed that.”

Trixie chuckled. “Trixie appreciates the concern, provided it stays on the right side of patronising, but I’m not sure you would have had much choice.”

“So you never do anything like that in Atlas?” Mom asked.

“Beacon does more fieldwork than any other academy, ma’am,” Weiss said. “That’s one of the reasons why it’s the best.”

“Really?” Rainbow said. “Really?”

Weiss didn’t say anything, but there was a faint smile upon her face.

“What would Atlas or Haven have done in that situation?” asked Mom.

“I don’t know if I’ve been at Haven long enough to say what Haven would have done in that situation,” Sun admitted. “Maybe … I don’t think they would have done that; I’m not sure that students would have been used at all—”

“Students were used when one grimm roamed too close to Mistral for comfort,” Sunset pointed out. “Although from what Professor Lionheart said, that was only as a last resort, due to the shortage of huntsmen present in Mistral at the time. I think that under better circumstances, Lady Terri-Belle would have led out her forces to confront the grimm, as Professor Ozpin once led out the huntsmen of Vale after Mountain Glenn.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Sun agreed. “Professor Lionheart did say that we wouldn’t be doing any fieldwork until the end of the second semester at Beacon at the earliest. That was one of the reasons why I left; being stuck in the classroom listening to Professor Mars talk into the blackboard about old Mistralian history sounded really boring.”

“In Atlas,” Rainbow said. “Well … it would depend upon a few things really: availability of air assets, the exact path the horde was going to take. In cases where a settlement is vulnerable…” She trailed off, and her head dropped forward a little bit. “In cases where a settlement is vulnerable, students are sometimes deployed to assist in evacuation efforts, but not as a front line force.” She paused, and Blake guessed that she was thinking about Kotetsu, General Ironwood’s son, and how he had lost his life in just such a support role, a role which wasn’t supposed to put him on the front line but the front line had found him anyway. “That’s not to say that stuff doesn’t happen: surprises, accidents … mistakes. But it wouldn’t be done intentionally. First preference is to smash them up from the air if possible.”

“I feel, even though I’m not actually from Vale, that I should point out that there was a warship standing by,” Sunset said, “and military forces.”

“Then why didn’t they use them?” asked Starlight.

“Because it was an exercise for us,” Sunset said. “Now, can I go back to telling the story, or do you have more points to make about how wonderful Atlas is?”

“Please,” Twilight said, “go on.”

“Thank you, Twilight,” Sunset said. “As I was saying, we team leaders were set down in the Emerald Forest. Now, most of the leaders of our cohort moved forwards to confront the grimm, but Weiss, Blake, Yang, and I, we decided to—”

“Be too clever for our own good,” Blake muttered, because if she was going to be dragged through the mud over this, then Sunset was going to share in it.

Sunset paused a second. “Yes,” she admitted. “Yes, it was … yes, it was too clever of us. Of me.”

“What did you do?” asked Rainbow.

“We decided that instead of meeting the grimm head on in a battle we couldn’t possibly win, we would work our way around the flank of the horde and try and take out the apex alpha,” said Sunset.

Trixie whistled. “That was bold.”

“That was reckless,” Rainbow said. “You could have got yourselves in a lot of trouble.”

“Mmm,” Weiss murmured. “Nevertheless, it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“Although this doesn’t seem like a story in which Blake bears greater culpability than the rest of you,” Mom pointed out.

“Not yet,” Sunset said. “You see, we did manage to avoid the rest of the grimm, we worked our way around the horde without being spotted by any outriders, and we even came upon the apex alpha, the four of us.”

“Apex alphas are heavily guarded,” Starlight pointed out. “They surrounded themselves with powerful grimm; some of them are alphas in their own right.”

“That’s why I did—”

“Something rash—”

“Something necessary,” Blake insisted. “Someone had to draw off some of the apex alpha’s bodyguards, and I thought that I had a better chance of doing that and staying ahead of the grimm than Sunset, Weiss, or Yang. My semblance makes me uniquely suited for evasion, and I’m fast and nimble. It wasn’t mere recklessness; it was a calculated decision based on the necessity of the moment.”

So long as Rainbow doesn’t tell Mom about the time I said I wished Neon had blown my head off, I should be able to get away with presenting my reputation as overblown.

And, to be fair to myself, I wouldn’t wish that nowadays. I’ve changed since then, so she doesn’t need to know about it.

“That is as may be, but you still scared us for a little bit,” Sunset said.

“What happened?” Mom asked, sounding a little anxious even though the proof of the happy ending was the fact that Blake was standing right there, whole and entire.

“We killed the apex alpha, causing the grimm horde to begin to dissolve, although the remnants of it remained in the Emerald Forest for some time,” Weiss said. “But … Blake’s decision may have been reckless, but we were all reckless; we got ourselves into a situation from which we had no escape plan; if Professor Goodwitch hadn’t been monitoring us, then we would have been in a lot of trouble. In some ways, Blake performed the best of all of us; she wasn’t there for the kill, but she did manage to find her way back to safety without being picked up.”

“You outran all those grimm, on your own?” Rainbow demanded. “You definitely didn’t tell me that.”

“Why would I?”

“Because it’s really awesome, that’s why!”

Blake shrugged. “I’m not one to boast.”

“You won’t fit in in Atlas with that attitude,” Weiss muttered, an undercurrent of amusement in her voice.

“So why did the four of you decide to go after the apex grimm?” asked Mom. “Why didn’t you go with the others to meet the horde head on? What made you do it?”

The three of them who had been there — Sunset, Weiss, and Blake, minus the absent Yang — were all momentarily quiet.

“None of us here can speak for Yang,” Blake said, “but—”

“Personally, I’m afraid to say that it was for the glory,” Sunset confessed. “I wanted to make my reputation, and how better to do that than by cutting the head off a grimm horde, even a small one?”

“I wouldn’t put it so crudely,” Weiss murmured, “but I would probably say the same thing with different words. I … whatever you may think about my family, ma’am, to me, the name of Schnee, descending as it does from Nicholas my grandfather, who tamed the wilds and brought nature itself under our control, is a great burden to live up to. I wished to do some great deed that would demonstrate my worth in that regard.”

“I…” Blake hesitated. “It sounds … I supposed I’d forgotten about the Valish destroyer or the defence forces; I thought … I was genuinely worried about what might happen to Vale if the grimm horde continued on its way. And so, to stop the horde, to keep the grimm mired in the Emerald Forest, that, for me, was worth the risk.”

“Sure, make the two of us sound really bad by comparison,” Sunset said, rolling her eyes.

Rainbow grinned. “Well, when you put it like that, it makes it really hard to condemn you.”

“You’re so brave and so selfless,” Sun told her, rubbing her back and up and down with one hand. “Are you even real?”

Blake chuckled. “Yes, Sun, yes, I am quite real.”

“Some of the most rrrrrreal people in the world are also the most extraordinary,” Trixie declared. “Like the Grrrrreat and Powerful Trrrrrixie.” She smiled. “Or the Brrrrave and Selfless Blake Belladonna!”

“I am not calling myself that,” Blake said flatly.

“I don’t know,” said Mom. “I think it has a certain ring to it.”

“Mom!”

“Do you think it’s better or worse than the Warrior Princess of Menagerie?” asked Twilight.

“Can I say I think they’re both equally bad?” asked Blake.

“Warrior Princess? Now, I like that,” Mom said, “Although I should point out that Menagerie isn’t a hereditary monarchy, so Blake won’t automatically inherit the title of High Chieftain once her father dies.”

“Which won’t be for many years yet, in any case,” Blake said.

“That’s probably for the best, what with Blake coming to Atlas and all,” Rainbow said. “But who will be the next High Chieftain, ma’am?”

“My father is still in very good health,” Blake said. “Isn’t he?”

Mom nodded. “Oh, yes, of course, dear; your father’s fine; I wouldn’t have left him if he wasn’t. As for who will succeed him … well, as Blake said, it’s early days at this stage; I’m sure that Ghira will attempt to groom a successor, someone he feels has the strength of character to be a good ruler for our people, but ultimately, the people themselves will decide who will rule over them. Ghira’s dying voice will carry some weight, but nothing is certain.”

“You mean there’ll be an election?” Rainbow asked. “Like for the Council?”

“It sounds more informal than that,” Sunset said.

“Quite,” Mom agreed. “Those who wish to be High Chieftain will present themselves, or be presented, before an assembly of the people of Menagerie, who will cry out for the High Chieftain that they desire.”

Rainbow’s eyebrows rose. “You’re going to pick the next High Chieftain with a shouting match?”

“It is the old way,” Sunset said. “Or an old way, at least.”

“I think we’re almost at the restaurant,” Twilight announced. “The new restaurant, anyway. Let’s hope that they can fit us in.”

It turned out that they could not, in fact, fit them in. The restaurant was already crowded; just standing huddled in the doorway before the desk, they could see how crowded it was, how ram-packed with patrons; the sound of their conversation echoed to the ceiling and spilled out on the street behind them. The maitre’d apologetically informed them that they didn’t have a table, still less a table for nine, at least not now, possibly not at all tonight. The best he could offer was that if they waited an hour or so, then he might, might be able to fit them in.

And it was the same story, or much the same story at least, wherever they went. They trudged — certainly, it eventually came to feel like trudging, their steps heavy, their stomachs empty — through the city of Vale, searching for somewhere, anywhere in this whole city that might be able to seat and feed them.

Surely, in a city the size of Vale, there must be somewhere they could go to eat.

So, at least, you would have thought.

Twilight shivered from the cold as they walked across a pedestrianised square, with trees planted on the corners. Rainbow took off her jacket and draped it over Twilight’s shoulders like a cloak. Twilight smiled at her gratefully and, with one hand, grasped the jacket lapel and pulled it a little tighter around herself.

Everywhere they went, as the night sky grew darker, had no room for them. Some of them were obviously full up, they could tell that from looking; some of them were so obviously full up that the group didn’t even bother to go in, just looking in at the windows was enough to tell them that there was no chance of getting a table at some of these places.

Which was a pity, because some of them had nice-sounding menus.

Some of them did not look quite so full, although the staff insisted that they were, that any tables that might look empty were reserved for diners who were due to arrive at any moment; they might even have been telling the truth, although the way that their eyes flickered to the ears atop the heads of Blake, her mother, Rainbow, and Sunset, the way they looked at the tails of Sun and Sunset, made Blake think they might not have been entirely honest in the regard.

Some restaurateurs were honest with them, although it was hard to commend them for it.

“We don’t serve your kind in here, not anymore!” one woman snapped at them, flapping her hands to drive them from the doorway as though they were errant cats. “Not after what you did! I don’t know how you have the nerve to walk around here as though you own the place; clear out, all of you, and your damn Atlas friends! You northerners lie down with dogs, you’ll get fleas; clear off, we want none of you! Get out! And go back to the jungle you came from!”

Sadly, she wasn’t the only person to express such sentiments, either in refusing to serve Blake and her friends or just shouting at them as they passed on the street or in the square.

“Animals!”

“Murderers!”

“Atlas scum!”

“Go back where you came from!”

“You’ll get what’s coming to you!”

“Is it always like this?” asked Mom, her ears drooping. “I thought Vale was better than this.”

“It was,” Sunset replied. “It’s got worse recently.”

“This is why I didn’t want you to walk back to your hotel alone, ma’am,” Rainbow said.

“Yes,” Mom murmured. “Yes, I find myself glad that you insisted.” She paused, then seemed to make an effort to brighten visibly. “So, what happened next?”

“Ma’am?” asked Rainbow.

“You were telling me all about Blake and how you’d fought alongside her,” Mom reminded them. “What happened after that business with the grimm horde?”

“Then things went back to being quiet,” Blake said.

“Until we disturbed your peaceful life, is that it?” asked Twilight, smiling a little.

“More or less,” Blake admitted apologetically. “But please, don’t take that as me being ungrateful. If I hadn’t … well, I was just thinking that if you hadn’t arrived in Vale when you did, then a lot of things would have been very different.”

“Does this mean that we’re going to get to hear why you took your team to Beacon early, Rainbow Dash?” asked Trixie. “Trrrrrixie can hardly wait.”

“Is this some sort of secret?” asked Mom, sounding rather thrilled at the idea.

“It’s not a secret,” Rainbow assured her.

“It is to us,” Starlight pointed out. “A few weeks into semester, you bailed on us; next thing we know, it’s been announced that your secondment to Beacon has started early. So what happened?”

Rainbow shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. Penny … Penny wasn’t happy at Atlas. In fact, she was so unhappy at Atlas that she’s transferring to Beacon next year, but nobody was ready to take that step then, so … she stayed at Beacon for the year. Which I suppose should have been a pretty big clue as to how things would shake out, but … yeah, that’s it. It was for Penny, it was for… for her happiness, I guess you could say.”

That’s probably about all you can say without telling everyone what Penny really is, Blake thought.

“Is that why you didn’t invite Penny to join us?” Mom asked.

“Penny and I aren’t that close,” Blake said. “Even when I worked with Team Rosepetal, we never … we’re just not that close. We’re like … ships passing in the night; we have friends in common but that doesn’t make us friends. Penny … Penny is a friend of Team Sapphire. That’s … how I met Team Rosepetal.”

“Through Sunset and her team?”

“No, because Team Rosepetal was sitting with Team Sapphire when I came down for breakfast,” Blake said. “I … I don’t think that you need to hear again what happened between me and Rainbow Dash at first, and I don’t want to go over it.”

“Me neither, if it’s okay with you, ma’am,” Rainbow muttered. “I thought, I did some things that I’m not proud of, Blake and I have moved past all that, way past it, but … I’d rather not go over it all again.”

“We both made mistakes,and reacted with prejudice,” Blake said. “And we both learned better, to look deeper, to see further. I … I’m sure you’d much rather hear about how I first met Sun!”

It was like distracting a cat with a laser pointer. “Oh, yes, do tell.”

“It was about halfway through the first semester at Beacon,” Blake explained. “Weiss had heard a rumour that the Shade students would be arriving that day for the Vytal Festival—”

“That would have been a little early, wouldn’t it?” asked Starlight.

“I know, I was taken in, and I didn’t think it through,” Weiss admitted, “but I wanted to check out the competi— I mean, I wanted to welcome our guests from foreign shores.”

“Who’d want to welcome a Shade student anywhere?” Trixie asked mockingly.

Nobody answered her.

Blake went on. “So, Weiss dragged myself, Sunset, Yang, and Rainbow Dash down to the docks to see the Shade students arrive. As it turned out, there were no Shade students.” She glanced up at Sun. “But there was a certain Vacuo-born Haven student who had stowed away on a ship bound for Vale which had just docked on the same day.”

“A stowaway?” Mom asked, her tone making it unclear what exactly she thought of this revelation.

Sun laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head with one hand. “Well, Mrs. B, you see, the thing is—”

“You know, Blake’s father and I used to stow away all the time on ships travelling between Anima and Solitas in the early days,” Mom said.

“Really?” Sun and Blake said at the same time.

Mom nodded. “Especially before Blake was born; after I had a child, we tried to be a little bit more legitimate in how we moved around, but in those first years, when we’d just gotten together, when we were first married? Yes, we stowed away, we snuck onto liners without tickets and hid where we could, we slept in cargo holds; you have to understand that there wasn’t a lot of money in the White Fang in those days, and what donations we received went to support faunus in need. So, when it came to going to this kingdom or that kingdom, to make a speech or attend a rally, to lobby for change, we made do; we cut our cloth as short as it would go. That’s why, now that Ghira is the High Chieftain, I do my best to help faunus get to Menagerie if they wish to: because I remember when our travel options were limited and so were our means, and I hate to leave people trapped that way.”

“I’m sure that everyone appreciates it, ma’am,” Rainbow said. “I know that my parents do.”

Mom nodded in acknowledgement of Rainbow’s gratitude before she returned her attention to Sun. “So, is that what you meant about not wanting to spend time in class?”

Sun laughed again. “I … my feet were getting a little itchy, I suppose.”

“And are you sure your feet won’t get itchy in Mantle?” asked Mom.

“If they do, I’ll give them a scratch,” Blake said, with almost a purr in her voice.

“Thanks, Blake, because that was an image that I wanted,” Rainbow muttered.

“The point is,” Blake said, “that the first time I saw Sun was when he was running down the street having just leapt off the boat, pursued by a group of angry sailors and cops. That kind of thing … leaves an impression.”

“Although you were the only one on whom that particular kind of impression was made,” Weiss pointed out. “The rest of us were rather more preoccupied with Sun’s lawbreaking.”

“It’s a victimless crime!” Sun cried.

“You’ll note that the word ‘crime’ is still in that sentence,” Weiss pointed out to him. “I don’t deny that there are some people whose circumstances are so strained and their need is so great that they have no choice but to resort to such measures, but you … it wouldn’t have killed you to stay at Haven that semester, would it?”

“Maybe not, but I’m glad he did all the same,” declared Blake as she leaned against Sun. “Sun … was the only one who was there for me that night, when no one else was.”

“Because we couldn’t find you,” Sunset said. “We were looking.”

“Is this…?” Mom trailed off. “Is this when … when you first found out that Blake had—”

“We didn’t find out that Blake hadn’t been an Atlesian agent undercover with the White Fang for a while yet, ma’am,” Rainbow said quickly.

“Yeah, an Atlesian agent,” Starlight said, a knowing smile spreading upon her face. “Undercover with the White Fang as part of Operation Tissue Thin.”

“Starlight—”

“Come on, Dash, we’re all friends here, right?” asked Trixie. “And we’re not completely stupid. Speaking for herself, the story … Blake’s story, shall we say, in case anyone is listening, is … an inspiring one. To go from that … that to a true hero of Atlas! We’ll keep your secret; just don’t think that we don’t know that it’s a secret.” She winked at Blake.

Blake chuckled softly. “I suppose … thanks.”

“For what?” Starlight asked with deliberate disingenuousness.

Rainbow shook her head. “But yes, ma’am, that is where I found out who Blake had been … undercover with. Blake—”

“I ran away,” Blake said. “And while I was running away, I ran into Sun again, and he suggested that we ought to stake out the docks in case the White Fang tried to rob a large dust shipment that had just arrived.”

“It made sense to me at the time,” Sun added.

“And we did,” Blake said simply. “And that … that is how this whole adventure got started. The White Fang, Cinder, me being exposed as an … undercover agent, working with the Atlesians, deciding to go to Atlas … it all came down to that one day.”

“Sounds like fate,” Mom said. “But, if you’ll forgive me, Starlight, Trixie, I’m still not seeing how the two of you come into this.”

“We’ve been in the background,” Starlight admitted, “but we did have the honour of fighting alongside Blake on a mission to a little village called Badger’s Drift.”

“General Ironwood suggested I might like to see what other Atlas teams were like, besides Team Rosepetal,” Blake explained, “and so, I agreed to join Team Tsunami, and Twilight, when they went to check on a village where contact had been lost. We also got off to a rough start.”

“Every team leader has their own style,” Trixie declared. “It took Blake a little while to appreciate the unique style of the Grrrreat and Powerrrrrrful Trrrrrrixie. Just as it took Trixie a little while to appreciate Blake’s own sterrrrrrling qualities.”

“Was everyone alright?” Mom asked. “In the village that had lost contact, I mean?”

“Most of them,” Starlight said. “We found them sheltering in some nearby caves. Blake delivered the coup de grace to the grimm that was threatening them. Carried the grenade herself to blow up the nexus of a rat-king.”

“Are you sure you don’t have a reckless streak, dear?” asked Blake’s mother.

“I’ve chosen a risky life, Mom,” Blake informed her, “and I do what I have to do to get the job done, to save lives.”

“And Blake has saved a lot of lives, ma’am,” Weiss added. “On her own or in part.”

It was shortly thereafter, after some time walking fruitlessly around Vale looking for somewhere with the will and the capacity to take them in, when it seemed that they had finally found somewhere: a hole in the wall place in just outside the boundaries of Vale’s Little Mistral, sandwiched between two other, larger establishments, with a scrawny-looking man standing outside with a handful of fliers in his hand.

“Good evening!” he called out to them as they approached. “Are you looking for somewhere to eat?”

“Is it that obvious?” asked Twilight.

“Just the place for you right here, three course meals for just twenty-five lien a head,” the young man said, holding out one of the fliers. He did not quite reach all the way to Twilight, who grasped the flier with her telekinetic semblance and pulled it into her hand.

“What about tonight?” she asked. “I don’t suppose you could fit a table of nine tonight?”

“Yes! Yes, we could, absolutely; just go right down, someone will help you get settled.”

The little gap, the hole in the wall, was a staircase that led down underground, into a basement with a beige carpet and a room that was half separated by a dividing wall, but with no door, just a doorway.

There were tables here, some large and some small, and all of them completely empty. Vale was heaving with hungry diners, so many of them that they were filling up all the other restaurants in town to the extent that Blake and her family and friends could not get a seat anywhere, but this place was empty.

Although perhaps there were other people here; they were just hidden on the other side of the wall.

And besides, it wasn’t as if everywhere else in Vale was completely full; some of them were just racists.

A young woman, about the same height as Ruby, with sandy brown hair, appeared, a smile fixed on her face. “Good evening ladies and gentleman, are you all together?”

“We are, yes,” Twilight said. “The man outside said—”

“Yes, yes, we can fit you in, no problems,” the girl said. “Just … oh, yeah, there’s a nice big table over there if you want it, that round one there.” She gestured to the corner, where there was indeed a large round table with room for ten.

“Perfect,” Twilight said, “thank you.”

“Great! Just sit yourselves down, and I’ll be back in a minute with your menus.” She turned, and bustled off.

They all sat down. Sunset took off her jacket and draped it over the back of her chair. Twilight did likewise with Rainbow’s jacket. One by one, they pulled out their chairs and took their seats. The restaurant was silent; there was no canned music, nothing. No sound but what they would make themselves.

Mom began, “So, Weiss—”

“I’m not staying here!”

The voice that had spoken so loudly, and so harshly, belonged to a woman about the age of Blake’s mother, perhaps a little younger, a firm voice, with a somewhat strong accent, although perhaps the volume and the anger in her voice was making it seem stronger. It was coming from the other side of the wall, wafting in through the doorless doorway.

“Look at that,” she said, although to whom she was saying it, Blake couldn’t tell, perhaps the waitress. “That’s not cooked!”

“Well, I—”

“Some of this, I’ve got to say, some of this stuff that you’ve put here in front of this, it’s absolutely disgusting. You shouldn’t be serving food like this; it’s an absolute disgrace.”

“Madam—”

“I’m not paying for that. I’m not paying for it, and I’m not eating it. Come on, love; we’re not staying here.”

“But Mum!”

“No, we’re not staying here, we’ll find somewhere else; come on, grab your coat.” The woman’s voice rose again. “I wouldn’t serve a dog some of that.”

A woman bustled out through the doorway, leading by the hand a young boy in a bright blue raincoat. The woman herself cast an eye on Blake and the others where they sat. “I wouldn’t, if I were you,” she muttered, before leading her son past them all and up the stairs towards the exit.

There was a moment of quiet as the group at the table looked around.

“Do you guys want to go somewhere else?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, Celestia, yes,” Sunset said.

Of course, once they had got up from their seats, and got out, and ignored the young man pleading with them to come back as they walked away, they were faced with the return of the fact, on the evidence, there really just wasn’t anywhere else to go.

“We could always go back to Beacon?” Sunset suggested. “I bet Benni Haven's could fit us in.”

“It’s hardly food for Lady Belladonna, is it?” Rainbow replied.

“Pyrrha’s eaten there,” Sunset pointed out.

“I doubt that Mom will mind,” Blake said. “Would you, Mom? They’re talking about the diner near Beacon.”

Mom didn’t answer; at least, she didn’t answer that question. Instead, putting one arm around Blake’s shoulder, she said, “You know, this reminds me of my very first date with your father.”

Blake blinked. “You and Dad?”

Mom laughed lightly. “You say that with such surprise, as if you thought that he and I leapt straight into marriage.”

“No, obviously not,” Blake said. “I just … I’ve never really … I suppose it didn’t help that by the time I was old enough to think about you and Dad getting together, you’d already gone to Menagerie.”

Mom smiled and drew Blake in a little closer to her. “Your father wasn’t quite the leader of the White Fang at the time; that would come a little later, although he was important. He’d come to meet with Sienna, who was still a professor at the University of Mistral at the time. And I was her teaching assistant.”

“You were a TA to Sienna—?” Twilight began, before she was hushed by Rainbow.

Mom bowed her head a moment as she laughed some more. “When he met me … it seemed incredible that this tongue-tied man standing in front of me with his face turning red could be a leading figure in the White Fang, the future of the movement. I mean, how was he going to make a speech when he couldn’t even say two words to me? But he kept coming back, day after day, to meet with Sienna. It was on about the fifth or sixth day that Sienna told me that he hadn’t had anything new to say or ask her about faunus history or her thoughts on the political situation since the second day at most and that he either repeated himself or … asked about me. And so, when he came on the seventh day, I said to him, ‘you know, if you want to ask me out, you should just go ahead and do it.’”

Blake smiled. “And what did Dad say?”

“He stood there, in front of me, looking down at me, and after a moment’s silence, he said, ‘Well, how about it?’” Mom chuckled. “And I told him to pick me up at seven. Which he did. Only it turned out that he didn’t have anything planned; poor boy had been so nervous that he hadn’t booked a restaurant, he hadn’t thought about where we’d go … he said he hadn’t wanted to lock me into something that I wouldn’t like, but … well, as with tonight, we found that because we weren’t locked into anything, there weren’t any doors that would open. And, as tonight I’m afraid to say, the fact that we were two faunus certainly didn’t help.”

Blake’s brow furrowed a little bit. “So what did you do?”

“A moonlit picnic,” Mom said. “We bought a couple of boxes of noodles from a ramen stand and found this delightful spot overlooking one of the waterfalls. And so we sat there, in the dark, watching the moonlight dapple on the water, listening to it babble by, looking at the city down below. Nice meals in classy establishments are all very well, but sometimes, all you need are noodles and good company.”

There were smiles on every face as she said that. Starlight put an arm on Trixie’s shoulder around her neck, drawing her in slightly. Twilight leaned against Rainbow’s side.

Sun reached out to take Blake’s hand.

“You know,” Sun said, “I think I might know a place where we can go.”

They couldn’t find a noodle stand, but they did find a van parked on the side of the road that was selling burgers, hot dogs, and fries, and so, they bought polythene boxes filled with warm, greasy burgers, the fat of which was turning the boxes wet and soggy from the inside out — regular burgers, cheeseburgers, bacon cheeseburgers, hot dogs, fries, fries with cheese, macaroni cheese, some of them had more than one box, piled up in their arms as they followed Sun through the streets, under the lights of streetlamps and under the much higher lights of the airships flying above, following him down to the docks, down to the very waterfront.

The very waterfront where they’d met.

“Moonlight on the water,” he declared, gesturing out to sea, where it was possible to see the moonlight like silver, like seafoam, topping the waves as they rose and fell, rose and fell, pulling outwards from the city, out towards the open ocean.

Out, like the first faunus called to the island by the God of Animals, if you believed in such things.

“Moonlight on the water,” Twilight repeated. “It’s lovely.”

“Yes,” Mom agreed. “Yes, it certainly is.”

And so they sat down on the waterfront, some of them sitting on the metal railings, some of them sitting behind but with their legs dangling out above the water, all of them just sitting on the waterfront, eating burgers and hotdogs and fries, keeping one eye open for seagulls.

“If we keep our eyes open,” Sun said, speaking very softly and very carefully, “we might see a mermaid.”

“A what?” Blake asked.

“You know, a mermaid!” Sun cried. “A huge sea cow that lives … you know, in the sea. They’re grey, they have a big flipper on their backs, they sing beautiful songs out in the ocean to entertain sailors … or lure them to their deaths, I can’t remember which one it is, but they live underwater, and they mostly come out at night. Mostly.”

“That sounds like a myth,” Twilight said.

“I’ve heard sailors tell stories about them,” Sun insisted. “Do you think they were all making it up or something?”

“I can believe it,” Sunset added. “There are a lot of things in the oceans.”

The waves rolled high and low, and the moonlight fell upon them.

“Mooooo!” Trixie called out, attempting to deepen her voice. “Mooooo! I am a sea cow, and I can’t decide if I want to please you or eat you! Moooooo!”

“Moooooeeeeeeeoooooo!” The sea cried back, or at least a voice from the sea, a voice that was both high pitched and low, a voice that rolled like the waves themselves, echoing out of the darkness towards them.

Trixie let out a startled, wordless cry of shock as she toppled backwards off the railing and landed on her backside. She scrambled backwards a couple of feet. “What … what the—?”

“It’s a mermaid!” Sun cried. “Just like the sailors’ stories!”

“Moooooeeeeeeeoooo!”

Those who were sitting got to their feet, and all of them — aside from Trixie — stood at the rails, looking out across the dark but moonlit water, hoping for a glimpse of this creature Sun had spoken of, this thing that Twilight had dismissed but which was apparently very real and calling out to them.

Blake could see nothing. Her eyes were better attuned to the darkness than most, but she could see nothing. Nothing but the water.

“I wish I had my goggles with me,” Rainbow muttered.

“I don’t know; I think it might be better this way,” Sunset replied. “A few mysteries make the world feel a little larger, don’t you think?”

“No,” Twilight said. “We should strive to solve mysteries, to understand all things—”

“And when you understand everything, then what?” Sunset asked. “Where’s the wonder, where’s the excitement, where’s the novelty? You’d be bored. There is nothing that this mermaid out there could look like that would match what our imaginations conjure up. I like to think it has horns.”

“'Horns'?” Twilight said.

“Bulls have horns,” Sunset pointed out.

“Okay, okay, leave the mermaids for a second; I’ve got something to say,” Rainbow declared, turning to look down the rest of the ground where they were lined up against the railing. “We are all here tonight — with aching feet but full stomachs at last — because of one person: Blake.

“We’ve all fought alongside her. We’ve all seen her in action, and we’ve all seen that she is someone who never gives less than one hundred and ten percent to the job. Sometimes, that scares us, who care about her, but I don’t think that it’s ever failed to impress us a little bit, even more than the skill with which she fights.

“It’s easy to fight for a place that’s treated you well. It’s harder, I think it must be a lot harder, to look at a place that hasn’t treated you as well as you deserve and still see its good points and decide to fight for it anyway and to fight for it so well.

“I know that we don’t have glasses to raise, or even cups, but nevertheless, I’d like you all to raise them in spirit to Blake Belladonna, Atlas’ hope and Menagerie’s glory. To Blake!”

“To Blake!”

Comments

[Mastermind4892]

I keep worrying about Gilda and Ilia, keep expecting them to try something against Blake, Rainbow, and even Kali any moment. Throughout the chapter, I had to keep reminding myself they were surrounded by almost twenty of the best students in Beacon and Atlas.

[Kiue Jin]

11588126
Personally, I think part of why they might not have acted was because Kali is there. Blake and Rainbow are one thing, but killing the leading lady of Menagerie is a whole different ball game. That is Menagerie civil war turf right there.

[Mastermind4892]

11588158
And yet she's already at ease with assassinating the Chieftan's only daughter. Sienna has already proven to have White Fang-centric priorities. If she actually believed that Blake and Rainbow's reforms wouldn't lead to anything, she would have just let them "die to the gears of the Atlesian machine," as she said. Let them fail and fade into obscurity without her needing to do anything. Instead, she wants them dead because they're making the White Fang not only look bad, but seem unnecessary. It would not take much for Sienna to extend this belief to Kali Belladonna if she believes Kali is collaborating with Atlas as Blake is. She would see that as treason to the faunus.

Besides, Sienna has apparently given Ilia the means to eliminate Blake and Rainbow without it tracing back to the White Fang.

[Stet709]

Blake smiled softly, even as a snort escaped her nostrils. "It's not me, Mom, it's you. The Atlesians are taught manners on the curriculum, and Sunset's a snob, and frankly a bit of a bootlicker to the aristocracy — or at least to their parents; I don't seem to count in her eyes, and even Pyrrha counts less than her mother." At least, Blake had never caught Sunset referring to her as 'Lady Pyrrha' the way that she so fastidiously referred to Pyrrha's mother as 'Lady Nikos.' Perhaps familiarity bred … not contempt, but an erosion of deference in her eyes. Or perhaps it was merely that she would not force titles on those who would not want them. "The point is, they are my friends. They're just your sycophants."

I'm still amused by the fact that Sunset's a bit of a snob in this universe. I mean, I get it: Raised by a princess + lived in Equestrian Canterlot + Appreciation for Mistralian culture that reminds her of home = snob (apparently)
Still, I'd take Sunset's snobbery over the typical Canterlot kind.

[Raul]

“If they do, I’ll give them a scratch,” Blake said, with almost a purr in her voice.

Um. Woah. That. I wasn’t ready for that line.