SAPR

by Scipio Smith

Eminent People (New)

Eminent People

“Blake!” Rainbow cried excitedly. “Blake, Blake, Blake!”

“Yes, I heard you the first time,” Blake said, although a smile played across her face as she said it. She took in the grin splashed across Rainbow’s face, the way that she was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. “What are you so excited about?”

“We’re going to be on TV!” Rainbow squeaked, her voice rising to such a high pitch that even Ruby might have asked if she couldn’t go a little bit lower. “This is gonna be so awesome!”

Blake blinked. “We … on TV?”

“Uh huh,” Rainbow said eagerly, as she grabbed Blake by the arm and began to drag her across the great hall. “Come on, there’s somebody that I want to introduce you to.”

“Wait, who?” Blake asked, pulling back against Rainbow’s tugging for a moment.

“I’ll tell you when we get there, come on.”

“There’s no need to manhandle me!”

“Then move!”

The hall of the Lord Mayor’s palace was lit with green, white, blue, and yellow lights hung from the ceiling — which didn’t look particularly good in Blake’s opinion, even if they did deliver the message of the Vytal Festival with all the subtlety of a brick — and Rainbow dragged Blake through pockets of yellow, blue, and green light with a strength that appeared irresistible before Blake gave up and decided to just follow her, meet this person, and find out the answer to this mystery.

Me? On television? Blake wasn’t sure that she wanted that. She was not at all sure that she wanted that. What did it even mean? More interviews, like the one from Miss Khalisa? If so, why was Rainbow so happy about it? Maybe they were going to make a true crime documentary about Calliope Fearny and her conspiracy? That might be valuable, as a reminder of what she had done, but on the other hand … Blake still wasn’t sure that she wanted to be personally involved. If they were going to do that kind of thing, then she would prefer that the focus be on the victims, not on her.

The truth was that Blake had never wanted to be a hero. She hadn’t even particularly wanted to be a leader, although she had led when the situation demanded it. She knew that Sienna Khan had been preparing her for leadership, grooming her to one day assume a position of power and influence in the White Fang, and while it had been nice to have her skills and potential recognised, Blake had also been savvy enough to understand that her name had a great deal to do with it also.

That was one of the reasons — one of many reasons, and not all of them good — why Blake had been willing to stand in Adam’s shadow, letting him take the lead, gain the glory, build his legend. It had been … a more comfortable position for her, one better suited to her temperament.

The shadows, it seemed, were denied to her now, or perhaps it was more true to say that she had denied herself the shadows by her actions, but either way, it seemed that any chance of hiding in Rainbow’s shadow as she had in Adam’s was gone. She was the Warrior Princess of Menagerie, and even if she hadn’t been, she got the feeling that Rainbow Dash, if not pushed her out in front of Rainbow herself, at least dragged her up so that they were standing side by side much as she was dragging Blake now.

Blake hadn’t wanted to be a hero, a symbol, but a degree of what some might call heroism — although Blake would prefer to call it doing the right thing — and she had become one whether she wished it or not.

That didn’t mean that she had to embrace every opportunity to jump into the limelight that came her way.

Especially when she had no idea in what way, sense, or form it was proposed to put her on TV.

She followed Rainbow Dash — which had the advantage of feeling as though she had more say in the matter — across the tiled floor of the hall, towards one of the arch-shaped windows looking out across the central courtyard of the palace. General Ironwood stood there, and with him stood a tall man with a large amount of sandy brown hair worn in a mullet covering the top and sides of his head, as well as a rather extravagant beard that surrounded his mouth and descended over part of his chest, giving him the look almost of some old-fashioned prophet — or at least a cinematic facsimile of the same. He was dressed in a plum-coloured suit and a purple shirt, with no tie — and no socks either that Blake could see, just deck shoes worn over otherwise bare feet.

He was talking to General Ironwood, gesturing with both hands as he spoke in a voice that had more than a little bit of gravel in it.

“—If they’re willing, then I don’t see what the problem is.”

“The problem is that programmes like yours have the potential to influence public opinion towards Belladonna and Dash on a massive scale,” General Ironwood replied.

“Jimmy, baby—”

“It’s General.”

“General, baby,” the man said without missing a beat. “That’s the whole point! I get the hottest show of the season, and you get half of Atlas believing that your kids are heroes.”

“They are heroes,” General Ironwood said flatly. He glanced at Rainbow Dash and Blake as they approached. “Ah, Dash, you’re back,” he said. “Good evening, Belladonna.”

Blake came to attention. “Sir.”

“So you must be Blake Belladonna, huh?” the man with the mullet said. “You’re even cuter in person.”

General Ironwood cleared his throat loudly. “Belladonna, I don’t know how much Dash told you—”

“Not a lot, sir,” Blake replied, with a slightly reproachful glance in Rainbow’s direction.

“But this is Mister Mockingbird—”

“Call me Funky.”

“He’s a producer with the HUB television network in Atlas,” General Ironwood went on.

“I … see,” Blake murmured. She hesitated for a moment, then held out her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mister Mockingbird.”

“Funky, please, Funky,” he insisted, as he took her hand and, bowing, raised it almost, but not quite, as far as his lips. “And it is definitely a pleasure to meet you, Princess.”

“'Miss Belladonna' will be fine, thank you,” Blake said, softly, but with a touch of steel in her voice, as she shot another glance at Rainbow Dash, this one even more reproachful than the last.

This is the person you wanted me to meet?

Now, it was Rainbow’s turn to clear her throat. “Mister Mockingbird — Funky —” she corrected herself before Mister Mockingbird could correct her, “has a proposition for us; he wants—”

“I want to put you on television!” Mister Mockingbird exclaimed. “Well, not you, you, your story. Well, a story, about you two.”

“You … want us to become actors?” Blake asked. Is this really what you were so excited about?

“No,” Rainbow said, “we’re going to be played by actors. Mister — Funky — is going to make a show—”

“The Adventures of Blake, Warrior Princess!” Mister Mockingbird proclaimed. “An original series, only on the HUB! Title subject to change; we’re still workshopping.”

“The lead characters are going to be called Blake Belladonna and Rainbow Dash,” Rainbow went on, “and they’ll be based on us. and the plot … the plot is…” She trailed off.

“This show is going to have a serialised storyline, of course,” Mister Mockingbird declared. “I mean, this is the golden age of television, after all; what kind of show doesn’t have a serialised dramatic arc?”

“I prefer episodic shows,” Rainbow said. “It feels like there’s more space to get to know the characters.”

“Well that’s why we’re gonna do both, sweet cheeks,” Mister Mockingbird assured her. “We’re gonna intersperse the story arc with cases of the week. Trust me, it’s going to be great. I can see it all now: monsters, villains, gunfights, sword fights, every kind of fights that you can imagine, love, betrayal; this story is gonna have it all!”

“It had … a lot of that, I must admit,” Blake murmured. “But … this isn’t going to be based directly on our lives, is it?”

“It will be inspired by you and your adventures, of course, honey; otherwise, we wouldn’t be putting your name on it,” Mister Mockingbird told her. “With necessary licence taken for dramatic effect.”

“I … see,” Blake said, even though she didn’t, not really. She turned away from Mister Mockingbird and faced General Ironwood. “General, what do you think about this?”

General Ironwood was silent for a moment. “You should be aware,” he said, “that once people see fictionalised versions of you, they may not only mistake those fictional versions for the real thing, but at the same time … feel a sense of ownership over your real selves that isn’t warranted by your roles as huntresses. That said, you do have an opportunity to promote not only yourselves, but Atlas Academy and the Atlesian military, which will have a say in production in exchange for our cooperation.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course, the usual arrangement,” Mister Mockingbird said. “Wouldn’t dream of altering it.”

“Mmm,” General Ironwood murmured. “Ultimately … the military and the academy can do whatever we can to protect not only the reputations of our institutions, but also your own reputations … but it’s something that has upsides and downsides.” He paused for a moment. “It’s something that you’ll have to decide for yourselves, I can’t make that decision for you.”

“I see,” Blake said calmly. She looked at Rainbow Dash. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Uh, sure.”

“Good,” Blake said, and now it was her turn to drag Rainbow away, through the pools of white, green, and blue light, until they were a discrete distance away from Mister Mockingbird and she could hiss at Rainbow Dash without too much fear of being overheard.

“What were you thinking? That’s what you wanted to show me?”

Rainbow frowned. “You don’t seem very happy about this.”

“You think?”

“I don’t get it,” Rainbow said. “What’s not to like?”

“The sleazeball of a producer, for a start,” Blake muttered. “‘You’re even cuter in person’? I feel like I need to wash my hand.”

“Okay, I wouldn’t want to hang out with him,” Rainbow admitted. “But it’s not like we need to see him every day, or ever again; like I said, we’re not going to be acting in his show, it’s just going to be based on us.”

“It’s going to have characters named after us,” Blake corrected her. “Are you really okay with people seeing someone called Rainbow Dash on TV and thinking that that’s you? Thinking that’s who you are?”

“I think it could be kind of cool, yeah,” Rainbow replied. “I think it could even be pretty awesome if they get the show right.”

“And if they don’t?” Blake asked.

“Then the show will get cancelled, and everyone will have forgotten all about it soon enough — if they even watched to begin with,” Rainbow said. “That’s the cool thing about bad shows; nobody even knows they’re on. But a good show, a hit show — and whatever else he is, Mister Mockingbird has put out some hits — our names are going to be everywhere!”

“But it won’t be us,” Blake insisted. “What if I don’t want to give away my name to some fast-talking producer to do with as he wishes, what if I want to keep it for myself?”

“Too late for that; you’ve already given your name away, we both have,” Rainbow informed her. “To all those kids in black and rainbow wigs running up and down Mantle pretending to be Blake Belladonna and Rainbow Dash.”

“That’s different,” Blake said.

“Only in scale,” Rainbow replied. “Look … I get that you're reserved, but did you really think that you could rise up in Atlas without getting a spotlight shone on you?”

“That…” Blake hesitated for a moment. “That, well, that is different!” she said. “That’s me; I can control what I do! This … what if … what if they write me a love interest who isn’t Sun, or—”

“Are you worried that Sun will think that it’s real?”

“No, I just…” Blake trailed off for a moment. “And why is it only my name in the title and not both of ours?”

Rainbow shrugged. “Because Warrior Princess sounds cool, I guess,” she said. She paused for a moment. “Listen, Rudi Antonio says—”

“You’ve read—”

“Yes, I’ve read Antonio; Twilight gave it to me,” Rainbow said quickly. “As I was saying, Antonio says that we need cultural power, doesn’t he? That we need faunus—”

“In head offices, in the headmaster’s office,” Blake said.

“And on TV and in the movies,” Rainbow added. “We need to be everywhere so much that bigots are crying out ‘not another damn faunus,’ isn’t that what he says?”

Blake nodded. “It’s something like that, yes; I’d have to look up the exact quote.”

“Whatever else this is,” Rainbow said, “however it treats us, this is going to be a show about two faunus kicking ass, saving people, hunting things, and doing it all for Atlesian glory. That’s worthwhile. That’s … that’s hierophancy.”

Blake frowned. “Do you mean hegemony?”

Rainbow hesitated. “Probably, yes. I knew it started with an H. The point I’m trying to make is that stuff like this can help change the world, and it isn’t only me that says so. Really smart people say so too.”

Blake didn’t reply to that immediately, because there wasn’t an immediate pithy response that she could make. After all, Rainbow was right: Rudi Antonio had written about the importance of hegemony, the way in which culture, the media, shaped people’s expectations of what was and wasn’t possible, what was and was not acceptable, and — so he had written — in doing so prevented radical change by convincing the people that it was a mere pipe dream. Blake wasn’t sure that two faunus huntresses on television counted as radical change — after all, there were a lot more than two of them in real life — but Rainbow was also right that faunus in the entertainment industry was a specific example given Antonio himself.

It was all there, in a text so seminal that even Sienna Khan had been forced to acknowledge it, even as she had profoundly disagreed with his conclusions.

And I suppose Rainbow has a point that it was naive of me to expect that I could accomplish anything from the shadows, especially in Atlas.

The lights shine too bright there, and — as with everywhere — they shine brighter still the higher you go.

She still wasn’t filled with immense enthusiasm for the idea, but at the same time, she could feel the walls of her resistance dissolving like sand before the inexorable waves of Rainbow’s arguments.

“I…” she began. “Are we going to be played by real faunus? I don’t want ‘the best actress for the part’ to be a human wearing cat ears—”

“We can insist on them casting actual faunus before we agree to do it,” Rainbow assured her.

“Good,” Blake said. “Good, that … good.” She took a deep breath. “We’re not going to regret this, are we?”

“No,” Rainbow replied. “I mean, I hope not.”

“If we do—”

“Then you can blame me,” Rainbow told her.

“Yes,” Blake said. “Yes, I will.”

---

The Lord Mayor's palace did not look particularly palatial in size: it was only three storeys high — that was by counting the windows, although the ceiling rose significantly above the third row of windows and so possibly it could accommodate more floors than that within — and not that much wider than the ballroom at Beacon, at least Sunset didn't think so. She would not have called it a palace based on its size. But she had to admit that what it lacked in size, it made up for in the grandeur of what little there was; the architecture of the palace was a riot of buttresses jutting out of the grey-brown stone walls; at each corner of the building, there rose a tower with a sharp roof, like the point of a spear, or perhaps, considering all the lumps of stone set to those roofs, like some sort of mace or other bludgeoning weapon. Another tower rose above the high roof, and stone gargoyles mounted on the high places kept watch upon the streets below. The windows were arched, and for the most part very tall, with stonework separating the panes of glass. The wooden doors were set into a great archway of white stone, and around the arch was built something almost like a gatehouse emerging from the palace itself, white against the brown grey, with the coat of arms of the City of Vale — two hippogriffs supporting a shield bearing the image of a crown in one quarter and an axe diagonal to it, the shield surmounted by a helmet with the crest of a gryphon's wing — sat atop the gatehouse, carved in white stone.

Two stone giants, each as large if not taller than the building which they guarded, stood on either side of the gatehouse; they were both armoured in a slightly ornate style, with pteruges hanging from their waists and cuirasses upon their chests and cap-like helmets whose tops curled up above their heads. One bore a spear, the other an axe; they both looked down with open, snarling mouths upon the people down below.

"What … are they?" Penny asked, sounding a little less than impressed by the sight of them.

"That's Gog and Magog," Ruby explained. "Two giants who used to live here, or at least that's how the story goes. The very first king of Vale killed them both and took their land to found this city. The statues commemorate them."

"That doesn't sound very nice," Penny pointed out. "Killing someone to take their land."

"They were man-eating giants," Ruby replied. "Anyway, it's just a story. Someone lived here before the Valish — you can see some of their ruins down in the basement, if you want — but they were long gone before Vale was founded, and they weren't." She paused. "They probably weren't giants."

"Most likely the same people whose relics can be found in the Emerald Forest," Pyrrha murmured.

"Maybe," Ruby said. "But there are two sets of cliffs between there and here, and who knows how many peoples have risen and fallen before the four kingdoms we know came to be?"

"True," Pyrrha acknowledged.

All told, there were eight of them outside the doors: Sunset, Pyrrha, Jaune, Ruby, Penny, Yang, Nora, and Ren. Blake was in there already, with the Rosepetals.

The invitations they had all received on their scrolls after their teams had been announced as Vytal Festival competitors had stated the dress code as school uniforms or combat attire if presentable. That was a little disappointing — moreso for some than for others, admittedly — but, Sunset supposed, understandable enough: they were, in a sense, being honoured as contestants in the tournament, and so, they were expected to look the part. Pyrrha, Ruby, and Penny had gone down the combat attired route, as had Ren and Nora; Sunset, Jaune, and Yang wore their Beacon uniforms.

Sunset felt that Nora might have done better to have worn the school uniform as well but kept that to herself.

"We should probably go in, right?" Yang asked.

"Or we could not go in and go somewhere actually fun instead?" suggested Nora eagerly.

"No," Sunset said.

"Sunset's right," Yang said. "This … we might not enjoy ourselves, but we'll get the benefit for years to come. Hopefully."

"But what do we do once we get inside?" asked Penny, her voice trembling slightly.

"Mingle, in a word," Sunset said.

"Ah, okay," Penny said. She paused. "How do you do that?"

Sunset put one arm around Penny's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Penny. Stick with me; I'll show you how it's done."

"Because you have so much experience with this," Yang muttered.

"Yes, I do, as it happens," Sunset replied proudly.

As it happened, her experience was more with … being mingled with than mingling, if that made sense; she had spent many nights stood at Princess Celestia's side at this reception or that soirée — if she'd been lucky, there had been a concert or something beforehand — and she had watched countless obsequious and, in Sunset's opinion, quite unworthy ponies line up to kiss the hoof of Princess Celestia and seek special access to the princess through currying favour with her favourite student.

Sunset had taken a rather proud and haughty line with them at the time, disdaining to sully her relationship with Princess Celestia with anything so base as trying to wheedle favours for other ponies out of her; it was something that Sunset regretted somewhat now. Not the disdaining to sully her relationship part — that, she did not regret at all — but she probably hadn't had to be so harsh in her rebuke of anyone who tried to reach the princess through her.

I took a torch to all my bridges, but not before I'd doused them in oil.

Not that they would have helped me much, but still…

The point was that she knew a little about how to approach eminent people. She'd even done some of it herself, if only under great duress at Princess Celestia's urging.

She knew enough to help Penny navigate this first step into a new world.

"Don't be daunted, Penny," Pyrrha said. "Or anyone else for that matter, although it may seem daunting. Remember that we're the stars of the show tonight. Everyone is here for us, or for our competitors, friends, rivals; as much as you might imagine everyone standing aloof, waiting to be approached, they're far more likely to come to us."

"Is that why you were standing alone at that reception in Mistral?" Jaune asked.

Pyrrha paused, her mouth open. A little nervous laugh escaped her lips. "That's … none of us are so well known here in Vale for familiarity to have bred that kind of … it will be different," she declared. "I promise."

“Besides,” Yang added, “we’ve faced grimm hordes; compared to that, this is nothing.”

“Speak for yourself,” Ruby muttered.

Yang laughed. “It’ll be fine,” she assured her. “Come on, let’s go.”

They headed inside, the frontage of their little group narrowing as they advanced up the steps towards the gatehouse and the wooden door which, however wide it might be, was not quite wide enough for all eight of them to walk through in line abreast.

There were two men upon the door: one older and stouter, with round spectacles upon his fleshy face; the other younger and leaner, bouncing impatiently upon the balls of his feet. Both were dressed in red jackets and matching waistcoats over white shirts and black ties; the older fellow wore a top hat, although the younger did not. Both held squat black scanners in their hands.

“Can I check your scrolls please, ladies and gents?” the younger man said, holding up his scanner. “Just need to check your invitations.”

Sunset got out her scroll — Penny did likewise, as did everyone else — and found her invitation to the event, holding it out to the younger man, who flashed his scanner over the QR code embedded in the invitation. There was a beeping sound, and Sunset caught sight of her own name and face appearing briefly on the scanner.

“Thank you very much; head right on inside and have a good evening,” the younger man said as he proceeded to scan Penny’s scroll.

Sunset waited for Penny, and for the others, as they all got their invitations scanned.

“Well, what do you know, I think I left my scroll back at Beacon!” Nora exclaimed. “Oh, well, I guess I’ll just have to—”

“I have your scroll here,” Ren said, holding it out to get scanned. “I picked it up from where you left it on the bed.”

Nora pouted and made a wordless sound that was almost, but not quite, a growl, but said nothing.

“Have a good evening, folks,” the older man said, and the fact that he was saying it to Pyrrha after he scanned her invitation didn’t make it any less apposite.

Inside, Sunset found the floor was stone beneath her feet, grey flagstones, occasionally painted with this or that coat of arms — a black cross on white here, a blue shield with gold fleur de lis there — painted on them, along with names like de Belleme and Clito that she did not recognise but possibly would have if she’d been better versed in Valish history.

On the left, there was a set of stairs leading downwards, and a sign indicating that way to the crypt and the ruins, but it was cut off by a red velvet rope. The way forward was open, and so Sunset and the others went that way, down the stone corridor until they entered into a high, cavernous hall, the vaulted ceiling set so high above them that those stone giants on guard without could almost have fit inside.

The stone walls were partially obscured by wall hangings, the banners of Beacon, Atlas, Haven, and Shade hanging in order down between the windows. Coloured lights hanging from the ceiling cast the chamber in shades of white, blue, green, and yellow, which … Sunset could see what they were going for, but it did give the hall something of the air of a disco.

A string quartet sat in the corner of the room, playing soft, soothing mingling music, while wait staff in black waistcoats and trousers mingled as assiduously as the guests, bearing trays of hors d'oeuvres and glasses of sparkling wine and orange juice.

It seemed as though the Beacon students were amongst the last to arrive, because Sunset could already see the Rosepetals in their Atlas uniforms, Blake in her black and white huntress attire, Trixie Lulamoon in her starry cape, and Arslan Altan, who had bent the dress code just a tad by wearing a robe with two sleeves instead of the one that Sunset saw her in most often.

And, of course, the guests — or perhaps if one took the view that the students were the guests, then one might call them the dignitaries — of whom Sunset recognised Professor Goodwitch, First Councillor Emerald and Bramble, Skystar Aris — that was bound to be awkward for Cardin — General Ironwood, and … a lot of other people Sunset didn’t recognise.

Penny isn’t the only one who needs to do some mingling.

“Penny,” Sunset said, “how would you like me to introduce you to the First Councillor of Vale?”

“Um—”

“Come on, Penny; it’s the First Councillor,” Sunset insisted. “And while there is a risk he might be gone soon, and his polling ratings were bathypelagic when he took office, things seem to be going up for him now.”

At least his party’s polling was going up, to the point where it was now merely submerged and reaching out towards the surface, and the news sites were full of praise for his ‘competent, managerial’ style of government, ‘a welcome change from the chaos of the past year’; Sunset felt that was both a little unfair to Councillor Aris, who hadn’t done anything to cause the chaos of the last year, and a little over generous to Councillor Emerald, who had benefited from events without doing anything to influence them.

But that, she supposed, was politics. And she had to admit that Councillor Emerald had been dealt a rough hand — and she had better admit that she was the one who had shuffled the cards — and he had played them about as well as could be expected.

All of which was somewhat beside the point in any event; the real point was that it would do no harm for Penny to meet him, and it might do Penny a lot of good.

"Let me introduce you," Sunset said, guiding Penny forwards across the stone floor.

"Okay," Penny said. She paused. "What's he going to do when he's not First Councillor anymore?"

"That…" Sunset trailed off. "That's a good question to which I don't actually know the answer." Obviously, that wasn't an issue in Equestria, and she hadn't really paid much attention to what Atlesian councillors did when they left office. "Don't ask him that, though; it might seem like an insult."

"Oh, right."

Councillor Emerald was wearing a dark suit, with his emerald green tie the only splash of colour on his outfit; he was half-turned away from Sunset and Penny as they approached, talking to an avian faunus in a Valish military uniform. Bramble Emerald, wearing a chocolate-brown t-shirt that matched his eyes, fidgeted beside him, looking a little bored.

Probably for that reason, it was Bramble who noticed the two of them first, his eyes lighting up even as he bounced up and down on the balls of his feet. "Sunset! Sunset Shimmer!"

Sunset smiled as she knelt down in front of him, one elbow resting on her knee. "Young Master Emerald," she said, "what a pleasure it is to meet you again. And how are you this evening?"

"A little bored," Bramble admitted.

"'Bored'?" Sunset cried in mock, exaggerated, theatrical — even more theatrical than usual — shock. "'Bored,' when there are so many awesome huntsmen and huntresses around here for you to meet?" She leaned forwards. "Some of them are even faunus. Get to know them, and you might have other playground options. How … you know, hold that thought; where are my manners? Master Emerald, meet my friend Penny Polendina; she's going to be competing in the tournament as well; Penny, this is Bramble Emerald, son of the First Councillor."

Penny beamed; rather than kneeling down as Sunset did to get on Bramble's level, she picked him with both hands so that he was on her level as she held him up above the floor. "It's nice to meet you, Bramble Emerald!"

Bramble looked down at the gap between his feet and the floor, and then at Penny's smiling face. "You're funny."

Penny's eyes closed as her smile widened, and she cocked her head slightly to one side. "Oh, thank you!"

Bramble laughed. "It's nice to meet you, Penny. Are you a faunus too?"

Penny's face fell a little. "No," she said. "No, I'm not; I—"

"But you don't have to be a faunus to be really cool," Sunset said. "Or brave or admirable." She put a hand on Penny's shoulder. "Or feel different from the people around you."

"Quite right," Councillor Emerald declared, crossing the not too great distance between them, his Valish officer following silently behind him. "Go too far down that road, and … well, best not." He cleared his throat as he looked down upon Sunset, and seemed to look even further down upon her by virtue of the majestic antlers that spread out on either side of his head and added an extra foot or two to his already considerable height. "Miss Shimmer."

Sunset curtsied. "Mister Councillor," she said, "allow me to introduce my friend Penny Polendina, who will be attending Beacon Academy from next year."

Penny opened her mouth, then stopped as she remembered that she was still holding onto Bramble Emerald. She put him down, gently, then straightened up and held out one hand. "It's nice to meet you, sir."

Councillor Emerald chuckled lightly as he took her hand gently, holding onto her fingers rather than her palm. "A pleasure, I'm sure, Miss Polendina. If you will not be a Beacon student until next year, then—"

"She's from Atlas," Bramble supplied. "Team Rosepetal: Rainbow Dash, Ciel Soleil, Penny Polendina, and Twilight Sparkle."

Councillor Emerald raised his eyebrows. "If my son put half as much care and attention into his homework as he did into all things huntsman- and Vytal-related, he would be the top of his class, I'm sure."

Bramble pouted. "It's boring," he complained.

"And sprouts taste foul, but they are good for you nonetheless," Councillor Emerald replied. "Homework is boring, but you won't get into a good school with a knowledge of huntsman-related trivia."

Bramble mumbled something that Sunset couldn't make out, before he said, "Do you have to do maths at your school?"

"Uh … no, not at Beacon," Sunset admitted. As Councillor Emerald's face assumed a thunderous aspect, she quickly added, "But I was brought up by someone who, like your father, was a great believer in the virtues of education. I wasn't allowed to study any of the cool stuff until I had all the boring basics down and could calculate square roots in my head."

"Ninety two," said Penny.

"Nine point five nine one six six to five decimal places," Sunset said without missing a beat.

"You're supposed to be on my side," Bramble complained.

"We're all on your side," Councillor Emerald said. "You're just too young to realise it at the moment." To Penny, he said, "So, Miss Polendina? You are an Atlas student, and you wish to transfer schools?"

"Yes, sir," Penny said. "And I will; all my papers have been submitted and approved."

"I'm glad to hear it," Councillor Emerald said. "It's rare but good to meet an Atlesian who doesn't automatically assume that their own kingdom is the best at everything." He paused and glanced away for a moment, a frown crinkling his brow. "The … recent ugly sentiments expressed towards Atlas and Atlesians in some parts of Vale didn't put you off, then?"

"Nothing like that has happened to me, sir," Penny said. "I … had to go home for some … treatment after the semester ended, so I only got back to Vale pretty recently."

"But you want to study at Beacon nonetheless."

"Yes, sir," Penny said. "I do."

"Why, if I may ask?"

"Um … because I think I'd prefer it," Penny said. "Does it matter?"

"No, I suppose it doesn't," Councillor Emerald admitted. "This kingdom needs all the huntsmen and huntresses that it can get; I'm sure you'll be a fine addition to Beacon's ranks, Miss Polendina, and I hope you'll be very happy there."

"I'm sure I will, sir, thank you," Penny said. "And I … I'm at your service."

Councillor Emerald's eyebrows rose, and stayed that way for a moment, before the corners of his mouth turned upwards in a slight smile. "Indeed, Miss Polendina? That is very kind of you; I shall let you know if I require your services." He actually sounded as though he meant it.

"Miss Polendina," the Valish officer standing behind Councillor Emerald said, taking a step forward to accompany his interjection. "Colonel Sky Beak Aris, Mount Aris Light Dragoons, presently the liaison officer with the Atlesian forces."

Penny started to salute, then stopped herself. "It's nice to meet you, sir."

"Perhaps, as an Atlas student transferring to Beacon, you might have an opinion—"

"You don't need to canvas the opinion of the student body, Sky Beak," Councillor Emerald muttered.

"Of a notion that I've been toying with over the last few weeks," Colonel Aris went on, heedless of the First Councillor, "something that I think the Council should take into active consideration."

"The public won't wear it," Councillor Emerald insisted. "The principle of voluntarism is too well-established to be cast aside so quickly."

"Even in circumstances like this?" asked Colonel Aris.

"What are you talking about?" asked Penny.

"A Valish Corps of Specialists, on the Atlesian model, to support our defence forces," Colonel Aris explained. "Beacon students funnelled into the Valish Defence Force and used to spearhead military operations without the need to rely on the mercurial inclinations of individual huntsmen and huntresses."

"I don't know what Miss Polendina might have to say about that," Professor Goodwitch said as she stalked over, her high-heels tapping on the stone, "but I know that Professor Ozpin would not approve of anything of the sort."

"Surely, the changing times require at least a willingness to consider changing one's mind in turn?" asked Colonel Aris.

"That depends on what you are asking us to change our minds to," replied Professor Goodwitch. "Funnelling students? Are you talking about mandatory conscription, or simply the use of incredibly heavy-handed pressure to join the military such as Atlas applies to its students? I must confess, neither option thrills me. The independence of Beacon Academy, and of the huntsman system, is well established."

"Just because something is well established doesn't mean that it works," Colonel Aris insisted. "Just because something has been done doesn't mean that it is the best way; the Atlesians have the ability to respond much more swiftly to situations that require huntsmen because the huntsmen are under the control of a central authority—"

"With all due respect, Colonel," Sunset murmured, "I think for some students, that might be the problem." She looked around for Ruby, spotting her and Yang having just drifted away from … someone. "Hey, Ruby!" she called out, gesturing with one hand. "Come over here a second."

Ruby came, with Yang following on behind her.

"Mister Councillor, Colonel, Master Emerald," Sunset said, "allow me to introduce my teammate Ruby Rose and her sister Yang Xiao Long; Ruby, Yang, this is First Councillor Emerald, Colonel Aris of the Mount Aris Light Dragoons, and Councillor Emerald's son Bramble, who is a big fan of huntsmen and huntresses."

"Is that right?" Yang asked, grinning as he put her hands on her hip and bent at the waist, her long blonde hair falling down over her shoulder as she descended closer to Bramble. "You must be looking forward to the tournament then, huh, kid?"

Bramble nodded eagerly. "It's going to be brilliant, isn't it?"

"Oh, it's going to be better than brilliant," Yang promised. "It's gonna be awesome!"

"Ahem," Councillor Emerald cleared his throat.

Yang laughed nervously as she straightened up, but said nothing.

"What can we do for you?" asked Ruby.

"Colonel Aris here," Professor Goodwitch said, disapproval dripping from her voice, "believes that Beacon students should be forced or strongly encouraged to join the Valish military, in a specialist branch emulating the Atlesians."

"What? No," Ruby said at once, "that's a terrible idea."

"Yeah," Yang agreed. "Yeah, it is."

"You both sound very certain of that," Colonel Aris pointed out.

"Because we are," Yang said simply.

"Why should we trust your judgement on where to go and where to fight over our own?" asked Ruby. "Why should we let you make the decisions for us? That … that's the big question; that's the only question. That's all there is to it; I just don't think that you should."

"You don't consider that someone older, more experienced, might know better than you on who needs protection, what battles need fighting?" asked Colonel Aris.

"According to you," Yang said. "I won't speak for Ruby, but I'll say this: I don't live in Vale, I live in Patch, where there aren't always enough huntsmen or huntresses, because the places that need them can't always afford them, and because the Council doesn't care. And the Council still wouldn't care if the military had control over the huntsmen and huntresses; you'd keep them all in the cities where most of your voters live, and you'd ignore Patch and the outlying villages because they don't get you elected."

"A remarkably cynical attitude, Miss Xiao Long, I must say," Councillor Emerald murmured.

Yang shrugged. "But am I wrong, Mister Councillor?"

"Considering that the Council has been paying for huntsmen to protect the outlying villages for more than half a year now, I would say that some charity might not go amiss, if not some gratitude," Councillor Emerald replied. He paused. "And yet, I doubt that you're saying what many others would not also say. Another reason, Sky Beak, why this will not work: the people will never trust a state-run system to be as responsive to their needs as the current private system."

"It's about freedom," Ruby said, "the freedom to ask for help and the freedom to give it without having to get permission first." She paused. "But, that's not to say that things are perfect right now."

"You have criticisms, Miss Rose?" Professor Goodwitch asked, eyebrows rising above her half-moon spectacles.

"Well … not exactly, but…" Ruby hesitated for a second. "Like, take Sunset and Yang. Say that they were both huntresses, looking at the job board. Someone's put a job up there for three hundred lien, and someone else put a job up there for one hundred lien because its all the kingdom will pay out for that type of job, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t urgent for the person who requested it.

“Sunset takes the first job, and that means she gets three hundred lien—"

"Before tax," Councillor Emerald murmured.

"But Yang only gets a hundred lien when she takes the second job. And maybe she needs to get her bike fixed, or … get her hair done, or—"

"Are you groping for the financial responsibilities of adult life, Miss Rose?" Councillor Emerald suggested.

"I'm saying that maybe that hundred lien isn't enough to live on," Ruby said. "So … yeah, I guess so. What I'm trying to say is maybe Yang doesn't take that job because she can't live on the money, and there are other jobs that pay better. But then who comes to help the person whose job only pays a hundred lien?"

"A valid question," Councillor Emerald said. "You have an answer?"

"Well," Ruby said, scratching the side of her nose for a moment, "what if Sunset and Yang worked together? They didn't work together like go on the same jobs, but when Sunset took the first job and Yang took the second job, they both put the money in a pot and then split it equally between them so that they both had two hundred lien—"

"And that is why you need to study maths," Councillor Emerald said to his son out of the corner of his mouth.

"And there'd be no reason why they couldn't take the low paying jobs as well as the high paying ones, because it would all even out," Ruby said, "and the more people you got together, sharing the fees they got like that, the more money everyone would have—"

"Possibly," Councillor Emerald said, "in your hypothetical example, if Miss Polendina were to go into this business with Miss Shimmer and Miss Xiao Long, she would have to earn at least two hundred lien to compensate the other two for the reduced amount they would receive from their initial four hundred lien now divided three ways instead of two."

"Okay," Ruby admitted. "Yeah, you might be right about that, but it's still better than a hundred lien for a huntress taking that job all by herself. It would mean less chance that people would just be left behind because their jobs don’t pay enough to make it … huntsmen and huntresses could do the jobs like that and not worry because they'd have that, like a safety net underneath them."

It would help out those who work for Ozpin too, since they don’t get paid for it, Sunset said. Ruby would never be so cynical as to suggest it out of her own self-interest, but nevertheless, it would do no harm.

“It could also encourage some members of this collective not to pull their weight and rely on the rest of the group to support them,” Professor Goodwitch said. “One of the reasons the system is set up as it currently is is so that all huntsmen and huntresses must work hard and strive for excellence.”

“I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t do that anyway, Professor,” Ruby replied. “Can you?”

Once again, Professor Goodwitch pushed her glasses back up her face. “… No, Miss Rose, I cannot.”

“And besides,” Ruby added, “If it meant that people didn’t have to worry that no huntsman would show up for what they could pay, I think it would be worth it.”

“It sounds all well and good, I must say,” Councillor Emerald replied, “but it also sounds entirely like something that huntsmen and huntresses would have to decide for themselves, how to apportion the profits, how to organise; I take it the lack of role envisaged for the Council or the Kingdom was quite intentional?”

“Yes, sir,” Ruby said, nodding her head. “I think … I wouldn’t want to give up my freedom to act, and I don’t think I’m the only one.”

Councillor Emerald nodded. “And Miss Polendina, our soon-to-be Atlas transplant, what say you?”

“I don’t really want to join the Valish military any more than the Atlesian one,” Penny said, “but Ruby’s idea makes a lot of sense.”

“Indeed,” Councillor Emerald murmured. “Well, Sky Beak, the students don’t want it, and the public won’t want it—”

“The public haven’t been asked,” Colonel Aris replied. “Although I accept the fact that student resistance is an issue. None of you can see any advantage to it at all? None of you?”

“I’m sure you’ll find plenty of takers for it amongst the Atlas students, sir,” Sunset said softly, “but we’re not Atlas students.”

“No,” Colonel Aris muttered. “No, you’re not, are you?”

“We will continue to provide Vale with a strong defence, supported when necessary by huntsmen and huntresses,” Councillor Emerald declared. “That will have to suffice, as it has done. And frankly, the last thing we need is reckless innovations disturbing the public just as things are getting back to normal. Remember, Colonel; you’re there to watch the Altesians, not to become one of them.”

Colonel Aris coughed. “Yes, First Councillor.”

“And now, if you’ll excuse me,” Councillor Emerald said, taking his son by the hand. “Miss Polendina, Miss Xiao Long, Miss Rose … Miss Shimmer.” His voice dropped when he got to her name. He gave a nod in their direction and turned away, leading Bramble off in the direction of another part of the room. Colonel Aris followed after him.

Professor Goodwitch stayed but a moment longer before she murmured, “Children,” and also left them to it, heading off towards a different part of the cavernous-ceilinged hall.

Sunset looked at Ruby. “So,” she said, “how long have you been keeping that idea under your hood?”

“Well … I thought about what you said about how the more people started working together, the more someone would have to be in charge and everyone else would lose their freedom,” Ruby said. “So I thought about ways that no one would be in charge, and I thought about people … working together but not working together; they’d cooperate, but they’re not a unit or anything.”

“And the working together?” Sunset asked. “The cooperation, for when numbers are required?”

“That’ll happen anyway, if it needs to,” Ruby said. “I mean, it did after Mountain Glenn fell, right? People will come together, if they need to.”

“Yeah, you’d need a heart of stone not to in those circumstances,” Yang agreed. “I mean, your idea wouldn’t suit me — it kind of seems like it relies on everyone staying in more or less the same place so they can pool their money, apart from anything else — but it doesn’t seem like it could hurt.”

“It seems like a pretty good idea,” said an unfamiliar, rather calm and deadpan voice.

A voice that was coming from right behind them.

Everyone flinched a little bit as they turned around, to see that they had been stolen upon by someone as tall as Professor Goodwitch and brawnier in the arms, armoured in the Mistralian style with a black linothorax cuirass and pteruges protected her torso and thighs, iron vambraces upon her forearms, and iron greaves and cuisses covering her legs. The greaves, the cuisses, the vambraces were all adorned with stars — stars embossed upon the metal — and set with little gemstones that sparkled under the multi-coloured lights.

Or were they all gemstones? Sunset thought that actually some of them might be dust crystals; the purple stones set on her wrists, for example, might be gravity dust.

Gravity, lightning, fire; decorative and functional.

Like Pyrrha, she wore a band of gold around her left arm. Unlike Pyrrha, there was no decoration upon the band; it was just a simple band of plain unvarnished gold, standing out against the lesser metal of her armour.

The woman’s hair was a brownish blonde, the colour of honey, and tied back in a severe bun at the nape of her neck. Her eyes, that looked down upon them all, were a similar golden brown.

“Hello,” said Penny, with a wave of one hand.

“Down here,” said the voice, although the Mistralian woman’s mouth did not move.

Their eyes travelled downwards — quite far down, as far as the big woman’s waist and a little further — to where a child stood in front of her, wearing a crinkled blue tracksuit, bottom and top, and a pair of blue and white trainers on her feet. Her hair was light brown, cut in a bob that framed her face, although her bangs were half-hidden behind the large pair of goggles that she was wearing over her forehead, just above her stone-grey eyes and the pair of rimless glasses that she wore over them. She was holding a bright lollipop in one hand, that glistened in such a way as to suggest that she’d already been licking it.

“Oh,” Penny said. “H—”

“Please don’t pick me up like you did Bramble Emerald,” the little girl said. “It would be very bad for my dignity.”

“Uh…” Yang murmured. “Hey, there, kid; how did you get in here?”

“I’m an invited guest,” the girl said. “I’m Iona Rockshaw, the CEO of Starhead Industries. This is Antiope, my assistant.”

“I’m your bodyguard,” Antiope murmured.

Sunset blinked. “You … you’re the CEO of Starhead Industries?”

“The company that makes the circus robots?” Ruby asked.

“What’s the point of being the boss if you can’t greenlight the occasional fun project like a robot circus, right?” Iona asked as she stuck her lollipop back in her mouth.

“I guess you’ve got a point there,” Yang admitted.

“I’m sorry,” Sunset said. “You’re the CEO?”

Iona took the lollipop out of her mouth. “Didn’t I already tell you that?”

“Yeah, but … how old you are?” Sunset demanded. “Eight?”

“I’m eleven,” Iona said, with just a touch of pique entering her voice.

“That still seems very young to be running a company,” Penny said.

“I inherited it from my father,” Iona said. “He had a tragic accident with a robotic elephant. An army of lawyers assure me it’s fine for me to take over the company. Anyone who disagrees is free to take it up with them.”

“No, no, I’m sure that’s fine,” Ruby said. She paused for a moment. “Those circus robots really were cool. I suppose you just told someone that’s what you wanted—”

“No, I designed them myself,” Iona said. She smiled, if only a little bit. “The truth is, I much prefer getting into the guts and the programming of a robot than I do signing … business stuff. I do that because I have to … and because I don’t trust people not to steal my company, but I prefer to design and build the robots. Robots … are much easier than people. You can understand them perfectly. You connect their circuits in just the right way, you put the code in just the right way, and you can make them do anything, and they always do just what you want them to.”

“Apart from the one that killed your father,” Sunset muttered.

“Right, that,” Iona murmured. “Well, maybe not that one.” The smile remained upon her face as she put the lollipop back in her mouth.

Sunset found herself taking a step backwards.

“Yeah, I get it,” Ruby said, seemingly oblivious to the implications of what Iona had just said. “Machines are cool that way, they make sense, there are no—”

“Hidden meanings behind what they say?” Sunset suggested.

“Yeah,” Ruby agreed. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

“Sooooooo,” Yang said, drawing out the word, “it’s nice to meet you Miss Boss Girl, I’m—”

“Yang Xiao Long, Penny Polendina, Ruby Rose, Sunset Shimmer,” Iona said. “I studied all of your files before coming here, obviously.”

“'Obviously'?” Sunset repeated.

“Antiope,” Iona said, “what’s the one valuable lesson my father taught me?”

“Always do your research before you invest, Miss Iona,” Antiope said.

Iona nodded as she sucked on her lollipop for a few more seconds, the straw shifting across her mouth, first to the left and then back to the right again. She pulled it out of said mouth and then pointed the diminished, still glistening red lollipop at Ruby. “You.”

Ruby’s eyes widened. “Me?”

Iona nodded. She pointed the lollipop at Yang. “You don’t interest me.” She pointed it at Sunset. “Nor do you.” She pointed it at Penny. “You’re … very cool, but not in that way.” She pointed the lollipop at Ruby once again. “But you… I’ll pay you a hundred thousand lien to come and work for me.”

“What?” Ruby said flatly.

“What?!” Yang cried.

“Huh?” Penny said. “What just happened? I’m confused.”

“You’re not the only one,” Sunset said.

“It’s simple,” Iona said. “I’ll pay you a hundred thousand lien, and you drop out of school and come and work for Starhead Industries.”

“Doing what?” Sunset asked.

Iona shrugged. “Whatever I ask you to,” she said. “Of course, I’ll pay you a salary on top of your starting bonus.”

Ruby’s mouth hung open, the same way that Ruby seemed to hang with her shoulders bent forwards, like she might flop down face-first onto the stone floor. “Wh—… why…?” She stopped. She took a step forward as she shook her head. “That’s really generous, but … no. I’m sorry, I’m not looking for a corporate job, not even for a hundred thousand lien. I … I need to do what I think is right, not what you want. I hope you find someone, but that someone isn’t me.”

“Yes,” Iona said. “Yes, it is. Because you just passed your interview.”

Ruby’s brow furrowed. “But I—”

“If you were the kind of person who’d take my money to run errands for me, you wouldn’t be the kind of person I was looking for,” Iona said.

Ruby blinked rapidly. “I … I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”

Iona was quiet for a moment. “My … my brother wanted to be a huntsman,” she said.

“Miss Iona, you don’t need to tell them this,” Antiope murmured.

“Yes,” Iona said. “Yes, I do.” She looked down at the lollipop in her hand. “Coll … wanted to help people. He wanted to help the world. But he never got the chance.”

Ruby held out a hand towards her, reaching out gingerly, not quite touching the other girl. “What … happened to him?”

“The White Fang,” Iona said. She was silent for a moment. “I don’t want to become a huntress and honour Coll’s memory. I probably wouldn’t be much good at it. But I still want to make his dream come true, and I need a huntsman or huntress to help me do that. What you said, about places and people that can’t afford a huntsman to come and help them … Coll talked about that. He used to say that he’d help people for nothing, since he was so rich it would be wrong to ask people to pay him.

“You’ve got a good idea, but there are a couple of things missing from it.”

Ruby licked her lips. “What are they?”

“A wealthy backer,” Iona said, “and all the dust and tech support that you could ask for. Weapons, vehicles, gadgets; if we can build it, then it’s at your disposal. And I’ll pay you, and anyone else in your group who goes in with you, so that you won’t have to worry about the fees from any job you do. And all that you have to do in return is be a great huntress and make Coll proud.”

Sunset’s eyebrows climbed so high that they were nestling in her hair. That … this was … assuming this was legit, and the burly Mistralian bodyguard certainly suggested that this was at least somewhat on the up and up, then this was incredible. This was great for Ruby. This was … this was the world on a plate for her.

Free to do anything and everything she’d ever wanted, without needing to worry about any of the practicalities.

Considering everything we’ve put her through, I can’t say she doesn’t deserve this.

Sunset didn’t quite take another step back, but she did lean backwards a little, rocking on the balls of her feet as she clasped her hands behind her back and allowed a slight smile to cross her face.

Ruby … would be free. Free to do as she wished, no team leader to hold her back, no teammates to mother her, no one to treat her like she was too young, no one to disagree with her, no one to argue with her.

Free to be a huntress as she thought a huntress ought to act.

Of course, that sense of how a huntress ought to act was what they’d been arguing about in the first place.

But, as Ruby had pointed out, the principle mattered; if it was good for Amber to be allowed to do as she wanted, why wasn’t it good for Ruby as well? Because they were worried about her? It seemed she wasn’t worried about herself, so why should they worry?

Because I know better.

Debatable. The little rich girl with all the money certainly doesn’t seem to agree.

“Why…” Ruby asked. “Why me?”

“Because I think you get it,” Iona said. “I think you’re the kind of huntsman that Coll wanted to become. One who just wants to help. Or am I wrong?”

Ruby was silent for a few seconds, and then for a few seconds after that. She glanced down at the ground, and with one hand, she reached for the silver rose at her belt, stroking the jagged leaves with her fingertips.

“No,” she said, “you’re not wrong. At least, I sure hope you’re not wrong. But I am just a student. I don’t have my huntsman licence

“You can start when you get it; I’m not going to get old waiting for you to graduate,” Iona said. “It’s not like I’ll be twenty. And in the meantime, if you want anything, you can just ask.”

“What … what kind of things?” Ruby asked.

“Anything,” Iona said. “You have any ideas, show them to me, and I’ll tell you if we can build it.” She paused, sucking on her lollipop. “So, you wanna come by the lab some time and talk about toys?”

“Uh, yeah!” Ruby squawked. “Yeah, I would, I … I’d like that a lot.”

“Good,” Iona said. “I’m counting on you.”

“I know,” Ruby said. “I … I’ll make your brother proud, I promise.” She gave a firm, vigorous nod of her head as she brought one hand up into a fist above her heart. “I’ll make everyone proud, I promise.”

Comments

[Kiue Jin]

...And Ruby has just found the sugar mommy of all sugar mommies in an eleven year old girl who may or may not have had her father murdered by robots.

[Mastermind4892]

Welcome back, old friend! Hope your interview went swimmingly!

And it looks like that everyone’s successes over the last year are getting noticed. They’re getting things done for the right reasons, and that gets attention. They’ve finally arrived. Just remember, first you have to get your foot in the door, and then you have to prove you belong there.

11621158
Let’s just hope that this eleven year-old really is a better person than her father. He was a corrupt human supremacist scumbag.

[Stet709]

Am I wrong for being skeptical about Iona's offer, and think everyone's (understandably) optimistic about it because they want Ruby be happy? Like, a "too good to be true" deal?

[Alysion]

11621158
After having read the summary of the light novel it's based on, parricide by robot-elephant seem like a non-0% possibility.

[RanmaChaos]

11623017
What light novel?

[Cyrus Windstrider]

The Lord Mayor's palace did not look particularly palatial in size: it was only three storeys high —

Should be "stories", no?

Loving the depth this story is growing, keep it up!

[Cyclone Knight]

11627156
British spelling: https://grammarist.com/spelling/storey-story/