SAPR

by Scipio Smith

Keep Calm and Carry On (New)

Keep Calm and Carry On

Lyra had been kicked out of her own room — she was so very obliging — and Dove was with Amber, obviously, and so Bon Bon was free to meet with Tempest.

Tempest was currently sitting on Dove’s bed, watching Bon Bon as she paced up and down the length of the bedroom, hands clenched into fists.

Fists like the one which felt as though it had closed around her stomach, squeezing it until it was in agony. It was all that she could do to keep her back even vaguely straight. A part of her wanted to run to the bathroom; another part of her just wanted to double over in the hope that it would ease the pain.

“We are so dead,” she muttered.

“Calm down,” Tempest replied evenly.

“How can you tell me to calm down when we are so dead?” Bon Bon demanded. “Cinder is going to tell them everything—”

“Calm down.”

“You don’t seem to understand the position that we are in!” Bon Bon cried. “Cinder is going to tell them about us, and then Rainbow Dash is going to kick in that door and come in here—”

“Calm down.”

“We’re going to be shot. We’re going to be imprisoned and then shot. Or we’re going to be hanged from the highest yardarm in the Atlesian navy—”

“I told you to CALM DOWN!” Tempest bellowed, leaping off the bed and striding across the room to grab Bon Bon by the shoulders. Her grip was tight, as tight as the grip of fear on Bon Bon’s stomach and just as painful, as she shook Bon Bon back and forth like a supine tree assailed by a strong wind. “You need to get a grip on yourself,” she declared, punctuating the device by slapping Bon Bon across the face with the back of her hand, hard enough to make Bon Bon’s head snap sideways.

“Ow!” Bon Bon cried.

“We must keep clear and cool heads!” Tempest declared, turning her back on Bon Bon. “We must keep calm and carry on. We must—”

“Keep our stiff upper lips?” Bon Bon suggested, clutching her cheek. “Do you have any idea what you sound like right now?”

“At least I don’t sound like a frightened, mewling infant,” Tempest snapped. She paused for a moment. “I am sorry. We don’t need to fight.”

“Maybe not,” Bon Bon said. “But it might make us feel better before they come to break down the door.”

Tempest snorted, before turning around to face Bon Bon once again. “Things are not as dire for us as your fears make out. So long as we keep our heads and don’t do anything stupid, we will ride out this storm and win through, just as we planned. Yes, the situation is not what we expected, and certainly not what we wanted, but we will win everything nevertheless. This is not even a setback on our road to victory.”

“How can you say that?” demanded Bon Bon. “How can you … do you really believe that? They’ve captured Cinder! And if she has worked out what we are up to, then what makes you think that she isn’t going to tell them everything—?”

“What makes you think that anyone is going to listen to a word that Cinder has to say?” Tempest countered. “She can sing like a nightingale serenading two lovers, and they still won’t want to hear it. What’s she going to tell them? That Amber has betrayed them and is working with us? Who is Ozpin going to trust: his own Fall Maiden, or his enemy who has been nothing but a thorn in his side for a year? Who are Sunset Shimmer and Rainbow Dash and Blake and all the rest going to believe, their friend or their foe? Even if Cinder has worked out everything — and, I admit, she might have — she still has no proof. There is no proof; it’s not like we wrote anything down. All Cinder can do is ask her enemies to take her word for it, and how likely is that?”

Admittedly, Tempest made a good point. A very good point, in fact. Cinder might say a great deal, but she was not the most trustworthy of people, even to her supposed allies. Bon Bon could only imagine how much less trustworthy she seemed to her enemies.

Although I’m one of her enemies now, I guess.

Nevertheless, one thought nagged at her. “I’m not so sure about Sunset. They were close, when Cinder was at Beacon.”

“Hmm,” Tempest murmured. “And they did ally together against Doctor Merlot.”

“They what?”

“Right, of course, you didn’t know anything about that, did you?”

“No, I didn’t, and what do you mean they allied together—?”

“Relax,” Tempest insisted. “It was just a temporary arrangement.”

“One which might have built trust between them,” Bon Bon pointed out. “How long did this alliance last?”

“Only a few days,” Tempest assured her, although Bon Bon didn’t find that length terribly reassuring. A lot could happen in just a few days.

“It would be ideal if Cinder didn’t get the chance to open her mouth,” Tempest admitted, “which is why I have, on behalf of Sonata, asked General Blackthorn to take her into military custody, where Ozpin and Sunset and all the rest won’t be able to listen to a thing she says. However, even if that doesn’t work and they hear her out first, have you seen the way that they flock around Amber? The way that they fawn all over her? They’re not just bodyguards; they’re her friends.” She loaded the word with a double barrel-load of contempt. “They might have seen a less adversarial side of Cinder not too long ago, but if she accuses Amber, sweet Amber, precious Amber, dear Amber—”

“Stop that!” Bon Bon said sharply.

Tempest frowned. “Stop what?”

“All that … that sneering,” Bon Bon said, waving one hand in front of her face. “Amber is sweet, and she is precious, and she is dear. And if you’re right at all, if you have any chance at being right, the only … maybe not the only but the biggest reason why I think you’re right about all this is because Amber is loveable. Even I … I don’t think that she cares for me very much.” Bon Bon’s shoulders slumped. “I guess I can’t blame her for that, knowing who I work for, but … nevertheless, she doesn’t have to like me for me to find her … when I see them together, her and Dove, it … I want to protect that. I want to see that flower blossom freely into something even more beautiful. Everyone does. It’s not charisma, exactly, it’s not like Blake has or Sunset has, people don’t want to follow her, but they do want to keep her safe, not just because they’re being asked to, or because of what she is, but because of who she is.”

“She inspires the protective instinct, you mean?”

“You make it sound so … cold and unloving,” Bon Bon murmured.

“And you make it sound like a mass of verbiage,” Tempest replied. “But I will take your point; a lot of people care for her, including you. But your point bolsters mine; they won’t believe that she means ill, that she has turned on those who only wish to protect her.”

“I think Amber would deny it too,” Bon Bon replied. “She’s trying to protect them.”

“Does she really believe that?” Tempest asked. “Or is that just what she tells herself to sleep at night?”

“I’m not sure how well she sleeps at night,” Bon Bon murmured. “But she believes it. I think that she believes it.” Her eyes narrowed. “She believes it in part because she’s been promised that Team Sapphire will be allowed to live—”

“So long as they don’t interfere in our plans, future or present,” Tempest said. “An easy promise to make, but one which will be kept, nonetheless.” She paused. “What will you do, when this is over?”

“What?” Bon Bon asked, thrown by the change in subject so sudden that it made her head spin. “What kind of a question is that?”

“A calming one,” Tempest murmured. “A focussing one. Focus on what you want, focus on what you’re aiming for. Cinder’s capture is a complication, yes, but one that we can manage. We just need to keep our eye on the prize: the Relic, triumph here at Beacon, all of it within our grasp. We stand on the verge of a golden world. I’m just wondering what that looks like for you.”

Bon Bon didn’t answer right away. She couldn’t have answered immediately even if she’d wanted to. She was … unsure. She didn’t know exactly what she wanted anymore. When she had started, when Doctor Watts had flattered her and ensnared her, then there had been something she wanted, there must have been.

“I wanted to be you.”

Yes. Yes, that had been it, hadn’t it? She had wanted to be Rainbow Dash, or at least, she had wanted to be like Rainbow Dash: someone respected, someone popular, someone powerful.

Stupid, childish, pointless.

But now? Now what? What did she want? What would she do, when all of this was over? What would she get out of this golden world that Tempest told her they were on the verge of? When they won, when they got the Relic of Choice, what then?

Then … then Amber would be safe, and Dove too, but Amber wasn’t likely to want her around, unless Bon Bon had completely misread the looks that Amber was sending her way. She wouldn’t be welcome in their new life, and that was fair enough, honestly. Bon Bon was part of the thing that Amber feared, the thing that she was trying to get away from.

Plus, three was a crowd and all that.

They’ll join their hands in wedding bands, and married, they shall be, Bon Bon thought, as some words from one of Lyra’s old country ballads came to her mind. And they won’t want someone like me hanging around for that.

But maybe … maybe I could find a kind of happiness of my own. Maybe with Lyra, if she’ll come with me. We could do what Amber and Dove will do, just walk off the board. Go somewhere, anywhere, where we don’t have to be a part of all this.

Find a small village somewhere and wait for … for whatever happens at the end of all this. And just live until then.

Just live.

“I think … I think that I might try and see what it’s like to live a peaceful life,” Bon Bon said. “I’m not sure exactly where yet, but not in Vale. Well, not in the city, anyway. Maybe out in the countryside somewhere, north or south of here, or maybe in Anima, some out of the way place where nobody goes. I’ll try my hand at farming or fishing or foraging, or I could use my aura-given strength and become a woodcutter, felling trees with my hands and carrying the logs back home. But something peaceful, somewhere out of the way. Somewhere I’ll bother no one, and no one will bother me.”

She did not mention Lyra to Tempest; she didn’t want to give away that much of herself to the other girl.

Tempest’s eyebrows rose. “That’s it? After all this, after retrieving one of the four Relics, artefacts handed down by the gods themselves, you’re just going to walk away from it all and live in the woods, tearing down trees?”

“I’m going to live a life where I don’t have to look over my shoulder, or remember who I lied to, or what I said,” Bon Bon replied. “I know that I haven’t given much service, but even that little — and you wouldn’t have gotten close to Amber without my help — is enough to earn me the right to be left alone, isn’t it?”

“Everyone has the right to be left alone,” Tempest agreed. “Their rights stop when they decide to deliberately put themselves in harm’s way, in the path of misfortune. Go, if you want to, though you will miss the rewards to come.”

“'To come'?” Bon Bon asked.

“There will be other battles, other wars, other kingdoms and academies to bring down,” Tempest said. “Other relics to retrieve.”

“And you will be there for them,” Bon Bon murmured.

“I will be there for all of them,” Tempest declared, spreading her arms out wide and pirouetting on her toe. “I will lead the assaults on Atlas and Haven, I will bring down Shade—”

“Beacon isn’t enough for you?” Bon Bon asked.

“Beacon doesn’t give me what I want,” Tempest replied.

“And what’s that? Power?”

“In a sense,” Tempest said. “I want…” She paused for a moment, her head dropping forwards a fraction. “I want to stand above Atlas, and look down as everyone who ever spurned me for my arm, everyone who ever looked at me funny, everyone who judged me, everyone who made fun of me, everyone who ever made an inappropriate remark, I want to look down upon them all as they reach out for me and beg for me to save them. And then I’ll turn away, the way that Atlas turned away from me.”

Bon Bon shivered. “Seriously?”

“They have it coming,” Tempest told her. “So much of the world has it coming. Think about it: this whole world, so proud and so mighty, so full of itself and its accomplishments, brought to its knees by a band of outcasts. Doesn’t that sound like something? Doesn’t that sound like something amazing? Of course, that was Cinder’s dream as well, only she was too easily distracted, too willing to let her delusions lead her off course, too prone to chasing dreams of glory instead of the realities of victory and revenge. Well, I’m smarter than she is, I’m more focussed than she is, and I’m twice the outcast and more than she is, so I won’t lose my way. I will be the nemesis that this world deserves, and all these would-be heroes will watch the monuments to wickedness they sought to defend crumble before their eyes.”

“Assuming that you’re not arrested in the next few minutes,” Bon Bon pointed out. “You’re almost certainly right about Amber, but what about us? Will they really be so quick to dismiss what Cinder tells them about us?”

“Why should they suspect us?” Tempest asked. “We’ve done nothing suspicious. I tried to protect Amber from the rampage of the dangerous Cinder Fall.”

“You’re being very blasé about this,” Bon Bon said. “You can’t really be so certain that they won’t act; you can’t know that there is nothing that Cinder might say that will strike a chord with them.”

“No,” Tempest acknowledged. “I don’t know that; I can’t know that. That’s why I have a plan.”

“'A plan'?” Bon Bon repeated. “If you had a plan all along, then why didn’t you say so before you…? I was really worried here!”

“Worried over mostly nothing,” Tempest said.

“'Worried over' … never mind,” Bon Bon muttered. “What is this plan of yours? What are you going to do? Are we going to step up the plan and go tonight?”

“No,” Tempest said. “That’s not possible, not on this short notice.”

“Then what?”

“I’m going to divide our enemies and turn them against one another,” Tempest said. “So that they’ll have no time, no energy, and no inclination to look for any more enemies without.”

Bon Bon frowned. “You’re talking about Vale and Atlas? Or Mistral?”

“I’m talking about Sunset Shimmer,” Tempest said. “And what a bad girl she was under Mountain Glenn. You know that it’s her fault that Sky died?”

Bon Bon blinked, the furrow of her brow grew deeper, as though it had been ploughed anew. “What do you mean? Cinder—”

“It wasn’t Cinder who blew up the mine and caused the Breach,” Tempest said. “It was Sunset.”

“'Sunset'?” Bon Bon repeated. “How, why?”

“Because Cinder had left her a detonator to do it with,” Tempest said. “That’s the how. The why is that her team was trapped down in a tunnel with a horde of grimm on their heels, and she didn’t want them to die. So your teammate died instead, and five others besides. Not to mention a hole blown in the centre of Vale, a great amount of property damage, fear, panic, political upheaval … all in all, that seems like something people would want to know about, doesn’t it? It seems like something that her upright teammates, not to mention Professor Ozpin, might want to know about as well.”

“They don’t know?” Bon Bon asked.

“I don’t think they do,” Tempest said. “I haven’t read their minds, but I don’t think they’d be so nice and friendly with her if they did, do you?”

“No,” Bon Bon murmured. “No, they wouldn’t.”

Forget knocking her tooth out, I should have strangled the life out of her for what she did.

But then, who would punish me for what I did?

No. No, as much as she grieved for Sky, Bon Bon was not so lacking in self-awareness that she could fill herself up with a righteous anger at Sunset Shimmer for what she’d done. Sunset might have set off the mine, but it was Bon Bon who had led her team down into the maelstrom. It was Bon Bon who had colluded with the person who had, regardless of who pressed the detonator switch, stolen all the dust used to make the mine and stored it under Vale ready to blow.

No, Bon Bon didn’t have the right to blame Sunset for this.

But other people? Yes, there were other people who had the right to blame Sunset, absolutely.

“But how are you going to do it?” she asked. “I mean … you don’t have any proof, do you? And in order to expose her, you’d risk yourself being exposed when the accusation was traced back? All Sunset has to do is deny it—”

“Which she will, I’m sure,” Tempest said. “But there will be some who don’t believe her denial, some who think that she’s guilty, maybe even some in her own team. And as a result, she will be under a cloud of suspicion, and suspicion, recrimination, accusations flying of who knew what, who was involved, and why they covered it up.”

“But how?” Bon Bon demanded. “How are you going to do it while keeping your name out of it?”

Tempest smirked. “Did you know that nothing is ever really gone from the CCT network? Even the emails that you deleted because you decided not to send them. They don’t disappear, they just … sink to the bottom and get lost amongst the sediment. Unless you’re a bottom feeder who makes a habit out of looking for that sort of thing. I thought that it might be useful to have something in my back pocket, so I had some of Sonata’s new friends in the military go scouring the depths for anything useful, and lo and behold, they found treasure there amidst the waste. Treasure that, while it might not destroy Sunset Shimmer, will certainly make her life very difficult for a while.”

“Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out,” Bon Bon said. “Except for one thing.”

“One thing?” Tempest repeated. “What one thing, what don’t I have figured out?”

“Amber,” Bon Bon said. “With Cinder in custody, and after the way that Sunset and Pyrrha and the others rescued her … are we sure that she’s still with us? Are we really and truly certain that she isn’t having second thoughts?”

---

"Have I made a terrible mistake?" asked Amber.

She was in the bathroom, in Team RSPT's bathroom, with Dove.

She didn't care what they thought she and Dove were doing in here together; what mattered was that there was a door between her and Dove on one side and Rainbow Dash, Ciel, Blake, and Twilight on the other side. A door that was shut.

For good measure, she had the shower on, so that the sound of the water would drown out the sound of their voices to anyone listening from outside.

Plus, she liked the way it felt.

Amber was sitting in the shower itself, letting the cold water cascade through her hair, letting it fall through her bangs to drip down onto her face, letting it wash off the makeup that Ciel had so carefully and expertly helped her with, letting it trickle down her scars, like rivers following the ruts carved into the earth.

It was getting into her clothes as well, for which Amber felt a little guilty because they weren't really her clothes; she'd borrowed another of Pyrrha's dresses, the black and green one with the fetching cape — although she hadn't borrowed Pyrrha's bracelets, but still wore her own — and now, the water was soaking through the bodice and the skirt, maybe ruining it for good.

But she hadn't had time to change, and she did like the feeling of the water on her face, her skin, even the way it made the fabric of her bodice feel as it stuck to her.

Dove was in the shower with her; he had worn a suit to the carnival, a turquoise suit like the head of a rock dove, with a light maroon waistcoat and a white shirt with a black bow tie. He had taken the jacket off and draped it around Amber as a sort of extra cape above the green cape she wore, and the water had soaked his white shirt so that it was beginning to turn see-through and expose his chest where the waistcoat wasn't hiding it.

The water was falling down his hair too, matting it to his forehead as it ran in rivulets in front of his eyes.

She didn't think it was the running water that was giving his face that tight, sort of almost cringing expression.

"I think…" He began, before trailing off. "It doesn't matter."

"Yes," Amber said. "Yes, it does; of course, it does; it matters so much. I love you, Dove, and I … I want to hear what you think. I don't … I'm sorry if you think that I've taken you for granted, I just … please, tell me."

"I never felt that," Dove assured her, as he put one hand around her shoulders. "It's just that this is your magic, your enemies after you—"

"Ozpin's enemies," Amber interrupted. "Not mine. I never wanted any part of this."

Dove nodded. "But, if you want to know what I think … I think you've made a mistake."

Amber nodded. Things … things no longer seemed as certain to her as they had done just a little while ago.

Amber laughed, a little giggle slipping out of her at how absurd it was. "It's funny, isn't it?" she said. "It's funny that … Cinder's gone now. Well, she's not gone, but she will be soon, and … and even now, she can't hurt me anymore, but … I don't feel any less worried; I don't feel safer."

"Because of what you did?" Dove murmured softly and without reproach. "Or because there are more like Cinder out there waiting?"

"Both," Amber murmured, her words barely rising above the pitter-patter of the cold shower water that rained down upon them.

In truth, she didn't really know what she was thinking right now. Perhaps in the past, she had thought too little, but now, it felt as if she thought too much, thoughts whirling around her head, round and round.

When she had fought Cinder, when Cinder and her henchmen had attacked her, and Amber had been left with no choice but to defend herself, she had conjured up a mighty wind, a tornado turning furiously around her, and in those winds, she had swept up all the leaves that lay roundabout and coated them with ice until they were as sharp as daggers. Just so, now, did it feel as though a mighty wind blew about her head and swept up all her thoughts and made them painfully sharp.

They did not just prick her conscience; some of them felt like they were stabbing it.

She had trusted Salem's people. She had trusted that they could keep her safe, and they had … well, the most charitable thing that could be said is that they had tried. The image of Tempest Shadow being swatted aside by Cinder with contemptuous ease was seared into her mind. Had it been Tempest alone on whom she was reliant for her protection, then Amber would be dead. She had trusted them; she had accepted their offer, for all that they asked of her, because she had thought — she had believed — that they could protect her from Cinder.

More fool her, it seemed.

But if the image of Tempest's swift defeat reminded Amber of her foolishness, another image reminded her that … that she was wicked, or that others might call her so.

She was … wicked, or something like it, or thoughtless, or unkind, or all of them, maybe. She was something, and the proof was in the other memory, of the way that everyone had been before Cinder had reached them: Sunset, Pyrrha, Ruby, Jaune, Penny, all of them ready to fight, to fight Cinder with her magic, to fight in Amber's defence.

It was one thing to have Pyrrha vow to her that she would rather die than let Amber come to harm; it was another to see it happen with her own eyes, in spite of all of Amber's entreaties to them.

She had not asked them to fight, to risk death for her, but they had done it anyway.

And they had won, which felt beside the point and yet at the same time very, very much the point.

Amber didn't want them to die. She didn't want them to suffer pain or heartbreak; she didn't want Jaune to be without Pyrrha, or Pyrrha without Jaune, or any of them to be alone, bereft.

But they had won the fight. They had captured Cinder — though Amber had rather they had killed her and been done with it.

They had won. Those that Amber had trusted to protect her had proven themselves feeble; those she had sought to protect had proven themselves to be strong indeed.

It was backwards.

Amber, it seemed, had had it backwards.

And yet…

Salem.

Salem the immortal, Salem the inexorable, Salem the undefeatable, Salem who was the reason, even more than Cinder, why Amber had done as she had done.

Salem was still out there, and would not be proven as feeble as some of her servants had been.

Salem would never stop coveting the Fall Maiden's power, hunting the Fall Maiden, not until she had what she wanted: the Crown of Choice.

All these thoughts besieged her, turned her first one way and then the other, the valour of Team SAPR warring with the danger of Salem which fought in turn against the wretchedness of Tempest Shadow.

"I don't know what to do," Amber said. "I don't know what to think, what to feel, I … maybe I should have been braver, like Sunset and Pyrrha; maybe I should have had more faith in them and told them about Bon Bon when she told me what she was. But even if that's true, isn't it too late now? If I tell them what I've done, then—"

"Then they will forgive you," Dove declared.

Amber laughed softly, a mocking laugh, although she hoped it did not sound cruel in mockery, for cruelty was not her intent. "Just like that? So easily? No, no, that isn't possible, not after what I was ready to do."

“It is,” Dove insisted. “For them. They are … they’re good people, you know that; you know that as well as anyone.”

“'Good' doesn’t mean—”

“It does for them,” Dove said. “You know that too. Look at the way that they’ve taken you into their hearts, welcomed you, welcomed us. Sunset didn’t have to bring us back together, but she did, out of the goodness of her heart. And they all have good hearts. They have … some of the best hearts of any people I’ve ever met.”

Amber nodded, or at least got halfway to nodding before she felt compelled to add, “You said the same about Bon Bon.”

Dove frowned. “I know,” he admitted. “And I was wrong about her. But I’m not wrong about the others, about Team Sapphire. I … I’m not wrong about them. If you go to them, now, or as soon as they get back, or just quickly … or not even quickly, maybe, whenever you do it, if you go to them and confess and say you’re sorry … they’ll forgive you.”

That … that was a wonderful thought. It was a wonderful, beautiful thought. The idea of laying it all before them, like a gift, almost, except a very unwelcome, almost poisoned gift, but nevertheless … the idea of laying it before them and having it accepted. The idea of this burden being lifted off her shoulders, being free of it…

That was what it was all about, wasn’t it? Being free of burdens? She’d wanted to be free of being the Fall Maiden, and now, she wouldn’t mind being free of what she’d done to be free of being the Fall Maiden.

“Don’t worry about it,” said the Sunset in Amber’s head. “We’ve all made mistakes. We just have to learn from them and move on.”

“We understand that you’re afraid,” said Pyrrha, “and fear can drive us to do things that our best selves would not. But it does not make you any less of a good person or our friend.”

“You just wanted to take care of the people you love, right?” asked Jaune.

“So long as you’re sorry, that’s all that matters,” said Ruby.

Ozpin … somehow, Amber couldn’t imagine Ozpin being quite so forgiving.

But there was such hope in Dove’s eyes, such enthusiasm, it was making him smile, making his face light up. The look of it, so much more pleasant, so much lovelier than his wincing look of earlier, made Amber smile a little too.

“You never liked this, did you?” Amber asked him. “You never liked … what I was going to do?”

“No,” Dove admitted. “I understand why you did it, but … if we could find a way back, if we could go back to the light, then I … I would feel a lot better.”

Amber leaned against him, throwing her arms around him. “Don’t forsake me, Dove,” she whispered, as the cold water fell upon them. “Please.”

“Never,” Dove whispered in return, kissing her on top of the head as he put one arm around you. “I swore that I wouldn’t leave you, and I don’t mean to break my word. I lost you once, I won’t do it again, I’m by your side, but—”

“But you wish that my side would be the right side,” Amber murmured. “The side of Sunset and Pyrrha and the others, the side of Ozpin—”

“The huntsman side, yes,” Dove said. “Perhaps I should have said something before, but I wasn’t sure…”

“I’m sorry,” Amber said. “I will always listen to you.”

“Listen to your own heart,” Dove urged. “You know that … they’ll forgive you. They’ll all forgive you everything, so long as you come clean, but if you wait, and if you go through with this plan, however good your intentions are, they won’t forgive that; you know it.”

Amber frowned. That wasn’t something she really wanted to think about.

Because he was right, and she knew that too.

“And you know,” Dove said, “after tonight, I really believe that they can protect you better than any promise from Bon Bon or Tempest or whoever it is they work for.”

Amber didn’t reply. On that … she both agreed and did not agree. Dove might be right, probably was, in the small scale, but on the grand scale? On the grand scale, nothing had changed.

“Whatever you decide, I’m with you,” Dove said. “But I won’t pretend to be neutral when it comes to the choice you make.”

“I … I don’t know,” Amber said. “I really don’t know.”

Who can protect me? Who can I trust?

I want to be safe and free.

But who can give it to me?

Can Team SAPR win all the battles? Can they fight every enemy?

If I give the crown to Salem, then it is done, and so am I. But… what if it isn’t?

What do I do?

What should I do?

“I don’t know,” Amber said again. “But I’ll think about it, Dove, I promise I will. I’ll think about it, and … and I’ll decide. Tonight, I’ll decide … if I dare tell them everything that I was going to do.”

Comments

[Mastermind4892]

... Wow, Tempest is pettier than Cinder ever was. Does she understand what an achievement that is?

I'm curious about Blackthorn's "evidence." Not even Atlas pries into private information like that without a warrant that requires prior evidence and probable cause, rendering it illegally obtained evidence and thus inadmissible for an arrest, let alone hold up in court.

Still, Tempest is correct that it would still cast doubt. But that brings me to something I've been waiting to say for a long time: even if others such as Pyrrha and especially Ruby give Sunset grief for it, NO ONE has any right to condemn her when everyone's forgiven Blake Belladonna for far worse.

That is, in fact, a major point of My Little Pony. Sometimes, MLP sometimes comes off as pure sugar and the characters easily overlook and forgive the grief caused by others, friend and foe alike. But that's the greater lesson. Good friends will bail you out, but true friends will help hide the body. True friendship and harmony are not about tearing others down, but to help build them back up. Help them through the trouble and make sure they come out a better person for it. That is why Friendship is Magic.

[Stet709]

If Tempest ousts Sunset, then that will be a similar change to what happened with Cinder. In the original, Cinder willingly gave herself up where as in the rewrite, she's captured and caught. Similarly, in the original, Sunset willingly confesses to causing the Breach and gives herself up into Valish custody to be tried, but she might lose that in the rewrite thanks to Tempest...

Funny how Cinder's credibility hangs on Amber's decision to confess to betraying SAPR and Ozpin.

Amber is pretty naive to think SAPR will be spared, since they'll oppose Salem no matter what. Salem wants all silvereyes dead or eliminated which speaks ill for Ruby, and Sunset has powerful Equestrian magic at her disposal which is a threat to Salem. Eliminating Pyrrha and Jaune completes the set.

[Adser]

11727064
Comparing Sunset with Blake does make it really noticeable. Blake willingly server a terrorist organization and has killed definitely FAR more than 6 people with her actions, while Sunset was pushed against the wall and the deaths were her finally having some of her luck run out when she tried to roll the dice for a perfect result.

I understand why the population would want Sunset dead, her actions were big, easily attributable and negatively affected a lot of people, while Blake terrorist work is nebulous (who the hell knows who were her direct victims) and affected people who "don't matter".

The team on the other hand have no excuse, Blake did every single thing Sunset did but worse and yet they forgave her easily.

[Mastermind4892]

11727138
Exactly my point. Blake has done far worse and we've had over 200 chapters of everyone helping her through it, no matter how much she tried to tell everyone she didn't deserve it. Even Ruby is in full support of Blake, knowing she feels genuine regret and is doing nothing but good work from now on.

It's also important to remember how much Sunset has done for everyone. Even back during her more selfish days, Sunset has done nothing but move heaven and earth to help her team, along with Blake and so many others. About two years ago, I wrote a review with an extensive list of everything she's done to help her friends, of how they in fact owe Sunset Shimmer everything. That list took up an entire page, and it's only grown since then. Team SAPR and many others have never really, truly, returned the favor... but only because there was never any need.

[Kiue Jin]

11727067
Amber seems to assume that SAPR would walk away from all this if they could. Or at least this is the lie she's telling herself. Appeasement never works out in the long term... and just because Salem doesn't need to hunt for the Fall Maiden anymore doesn't mean that Tempest won't murder her in order to gain her powers anyway. Because being a maiden grants one incredible power and if you're going to be hunting other maidens...

[Stet709]

11727165
Ahh yes, yet another reason to put a target on SAPR's back: Pyrrha becoming the Fall Maiden

[Mastermind4892]

11727165
I truly hope that Amber will walk away from Salem's deal, even though Tempest's fragile ego will likely perceive it as an attack against her. The way Tempest speaks about Amber with such scorn... it's clear she resents her out of pure envy, much like Cinder once envied Pyrrha.

Anyway, if Amber confides in Sunset, Ozpin and the others, then marvelous! All she did was try to make an offer to the enemy, but no transaction was made, no any tangible betrayals. But if she goes through with it anyway... I won't have to throw accusations at Amber for her betrayal and all the devastation to come. Because deep down, she's a good person, and thus she would torture herself every day. Amber would have her free pass, but she won't be sleeping well.

[Plotbuster]

I dunno. They have Cinder in custody. What's stopping them from asking her if Sunset pushed the button? I can't see this Cinder, at this point, throwing Sunset under the bus. Especially as, if I recall correctly, Cinder wasn't sure which one of them actually pushed it first. Even beyond that, regardless of what Sunset did or didn't do, that button was getting pushed. Cinder wanted the breach, not to kill Sunset. She might have given Sunset the illusion of choice, but the outcome was set in stone. Blaming Sunset for something that would have happened regardless is idiotic.

It'll be interesting to see how it all washes out this time around. Amber's much less repugnant this time around, less an outright antagonist and more of a weak, thoughtless, selfish person. I still wonder to myself how widespread knowledge of Salem's ultimate goal is. You'd think the Maidens at least would be told, although I don't know how much time Ozpin had or how much he'd be willing to tell his darling Amber before she ran off. Seriously, why is Ozpin not telling people who're in the know about Salem wanting to glass the planet? Would Fizzlepop's vision of grinding her heel into the backs of those that slighted her still seem so shiny with the knowledge that they'd be dead before she had much time to enjoy it? Her too, of course. Just something in the setting that always gnawed at me.

[Adser]

11727428
If I remember well, in canon Ozpin only figured out what was Salem's endgame long after the fall of Beacon. Salem's plan may be obvious to us given what we know about the gods, the relics and Salem herself, but for everyone else it is a complete mystery.