River
Rivers
Time passed slowly on the barge that carried them out of Vale and up the river to the north-east, headed for the mountains the formed the spine of eastern Sanus and the limits of the Kingdom of Vale. Beyond lay the untamed eastern wilds, the land over which the Great War had begun but which had lain abandoned since that war, given over to the monsters. Beyond the mountains lay a hundred Mountain Glenns or more, and though they were older and smaller than the dead city Ruby found that it was no less tragic to imagine them all: the towns and villages gone, the light snuffed out, the life extinguished.
Perhaps it was not completely deserted, not completely given over to the grimm and to nature; perhaps there were still some people living there, natural outsiders who were willing to risk the grimm in order to live completely beyond the bounds of Valish law, to freer even than people on Patch or the more outlying settlements within the kingdom’s boundaries. Ruby hoped so anyway; she didn’t like to think of such a vast expanse of land just being left, dead and forgotten; she didn’t like the idea that mankind had just turned away from it all.
Perhaps, if there were people dwelling east of the mountains as she hoped, they might come across. That was where they were headed, after all; it was to the east that their road led; eastward, ever eastward, up the river and over the mountains then across the wilds to the farther shore. And then…then to Anima and Mistral.
She ought to have been happy about that. At least Ruby felt as though she ought to have been happy about that. They were going to see Jaune and Pyrrha; they were going to put their team back together, Team SAPR once more…for a little while, at least, before Sunset had to go away again. It should have made her happy, and it did, but only…only a little. If joy was like a fire then what Ruby felt at the prospect of reuniting their team was more like the glowing embers left behind.
The fire had been snuffed out some time ago.
Time passed slowly as the fat barge beat its way upriver, sailing against the current passing them by as it flowed westwards to the sea, leaving Vale behind and passing into the Forever Fall forest, where the ever-crimson trees pressed close against either bank, their roots bursting free of the soil to dangle their toes in the muddy water while the leafy branches hung out overhead like sundered lovers reaching, yearningly, to touch one another’s fingertips. They were pressed so thickly together that when she was on watch Ruby found that she could barely see into the forest on either side for the sheer number of trees so densely packed together, branches intertwining as the grass turned red beneath them.
The weather didn’t help with visibility or Ruby’s mood, or the mood of anyone on the barge for that matter. Whiffs of dark cloud had followed them upriver from Vale, although it was sometimes hard to see them because the sky was so grey and overcast above their heads that it wasn’t always possible to make out anything else. It either rained lightly or it poured down heavily, but there was never a time when it wasn’t raining, when you couldn’t hear something either pattering or hammering down upon the roof of the little cabin at the back of the barge or upon the blue tarpaulin that they raised above the main part of the barge as a little protection against the rain. It was the difference between Ruby needing to put her hood up when she was on watch or whether she could bear the raindrops falling on her head. The tarpaulin turned out to be not much help; it leaked in places, and in others it simply allowed water to pool up within it, sagging further and further downwards in the middle as the puddle grew until it burst, getting water everywhere.
The cabin, although most people retreated there as often as they could as a shelter against the rain, wasn’t much better. Yes, it had a roof, but everyone kept dripping water inside until the floor was completely soaked and there was nowhere dry to sit down.
Some people fared better than others; Sunset seemed able to tolerate the fact that her hair was ruined and she looked like a wet dog – no offence Zwei – while Cinder was a good deal more fastidious.
Ruby didn’t know whether it was the rain, which sometimes fell so hard that you couldn’t even hear the softly purring engine of the barge, that made people quiet or whether it was the company, but nobody talked to one another on this trip and it was one more thing that didn’t help her mood. Okay, that wasn’t entirely true, it wasn’t completely silent: Sunset talked to her, and always wanted to know how she was doing, not to mention that she and Cardin both barked orders to everyone else, but there was no chatter, not like there would have been if this had been a mission with SAPR and RSPT, or if…if Yang had been there.
It was just one more thing that made this feel…empty, uncomfortable, not right. Ruby was doing the right thing but she took no joy in it. No joy at all.
In the absence of any talk it was easier to think about her new travelling companions by what they did rather than by what they said: the terrier faunus whom Torchwick called Bullseye whistled as he stood at the tiller, guiding the barge upriver; Neo would sometimes sit on the edge of the barge in spite of the rain, dangling her legs out over the water below; Bon Bon kept her helmet on and let the weather rattle off it, while Lyra kept her hat inside the cabin, preferring that her hair get drenched than her headgear ruined; Torchwick never went outside except to go on watch, and muttered under his breath about the state of his suit; Cinder seemed to be avoiding Ruby out of…Ruby wasn’t quite sure why, but she didn’t really mind not having to have much to do with Cinder Fall and so left it alone); Sami kept stealing glances at Ruby when she thought the other girl didn’t notice.
Someone (besides Sunset or her father) did speak to her, on the third night out of Vale; the rain had let up for the most part – not completely, that would have been too much like good fortune, but it was only drizzling on top of Ruby’s head, and she had her hood down because it wasn’t so bad as to do otherwise – and Ruby was standing on watch near the flattened, blunted prow of the barge. Bon Bon was on watch as well, looking to the other bank to Ruby. It was evening, or at least Ruby thought it was; with the sky the way it was difficult to tell for sure.
She heard the squelching footsteps on the deck before she heard Lyra’s voice behind her. “Are either of you two hungry? I thought you might be.”
Ruby turned around, although she tried to keep half an eye on the river bank all the same. Lyra was holding a pair of plates in her hands; the galley was well stocked with canned food…but unfortunately none of them had labels, making every meal a game of chance as to what you were going to end up with.
“I’m hungry,” Bon Bon acknowledged, taking off her helmet. “But dare I ask what the choices are?”
“We have spaghetti,” Lyra said, holding up one plate. “Or…beefy chunks in gravy.”
Bon Bon blinked. “As in…dog food?”
Zwei barked eagerly.
“Beef and gravy is beef and gravy, right?” Lyra said, not sounding entirely convinced. “Anyway, what do you want?”
“The beef,” Ruby and Bon Bon both said at once.
Bon Bon looked at Ruby. “…I was just being polite.”
“Are you kidding, canned spaghetti is, like, the worst thing that comes out of a can,” Ruby said. “Like you said, beef is beef.”
Lyra’s eyebrows rose. “Are you sure?”
Ruby nodded.
“Okay then,” Lyra murmured, handing over the plate of beef chunks.
“Thank you,” Ruby said, as she hopped up onto the side of the barge. “Come on, Zwei.” Although there was a fork, Ruby picked up one chunk and popped it into Zwei’s mouth as he leapt up beside her, before using the fork to shovel a mouthful into her own mouth in turn.
Bon Bon took the plate of spaghetti, and began to eat it slowly, turning the worm-like pasta around and around her fork as it scraped upon the bottom of the plate.
Silence descended between them, for a moment at least.
“Ruby,” Lyra said, as the raindrops fell upon her head; upon all of her and all of the other two, actually. “I owe you an apology. We both do. We…all do.”
Ruby inhaled through her nostrils. “I’m not the only one,” she said quietly.
“We know,” Lyra said. “But Sunset scares me too much to say this to her face.”
Ruby couldn’t help but snort at that. “She might be pleased to hear that, but you wouldn’t say it if you knew her better.”
“Assuming that we want to,” Bon Bon said. “That’s the other thing, the thing that Lyra is too polite to mention.” She ate a small mouthful of spaghetti. “It’s hard to apologise to someone whose done things worse than you have.”
“Bon Bon,” Lyra clucked disapprovingly.
Ruby frowned. “You think so?”
“She let a whole horde of grimm into Vale,” Bon Bon said.
“And you helped…” Ruby fell silent for a moment. The barge wasn’t huge, and not everybody knew everything. “You helped you-know-who get one of the four you-know-whats.”
“I know,” Bon Bon said harshly. “And we’re sorry for that.”
“Are you?”
“Yes,” Lyra said quickly. “Even if she’s terrible at showing it.” She glared at Bon Bon momentarily. “We could blame it on Amber’s semblance but that would be…not right. And besides, it wasn’t as though letting Amber into our lives was the first mistake we made.”
Ruby tilted her head slightly to one side. “It wasn’t?”
“No,” Lyra said. “That was throwing Blake out of our lives.”
“She was-“ Bon Bon began.
“Bon Bon, stop,” Lyra said. “Just…stop, okay? Please?” She sighed, her body sagging forward a little bit. “It doesn’t matter what Blake was in the past, she proved herself valiant and stalwart through all the battles; at a time when she went to Atlas with General Ironwood and we went to prison don’t you think it’s about time to admit that we were wrong about her?”
Bon Bon was silent for a moment. She stared down at her plate as though the wisdom of ages could be found in pasta out of a tin. “At least we got Dove out of it,” she said.
Lyra was silent for a moment. “Yeah,” she said. “I suppose we did.”
Ruby allowed the silence to drag on for a moment or two while she chewed on some beef chunks, the food unfortunately doing little to fill the cold empty feeling in her stomach. “You miss him?”
Bon Bon nodded. “He wasn’t the smartest guy, he wasn’t the bravest guy, but…he was our guy and he tried his best.”
“Not everyone can be you, or Pyrrha Nikos,” Lyra said. “Not everyone can be the greatest huntsman. Some huntsmen are just people trying their best, and that…we thought…maybe we liked to think that…that was us. We weren’t the cool team like Iron, we weren’t the rising stars like Sapphire…but we had one another and that…I tried to tell myself that was enough. And then…”
“It feels wrong to go on without him sometimes,” Bon Bon said, in a voice that was half a growl. “To have…Torchwick on our team instead of Dove, to replace him with that…that…sometimes I want to wring his neck. The fourth member of our team is Dove Bronzewing, not him.”
“Losing somebody’s never easy,” Ruby whispered.
Lyra winced. “This must all seem pretty petty to you, mustn’t it?”
“No,” Ruby said. “We don’t always get to choose who we care about, and how much we care about them doesn’t always have to make sense.”
Lyra nodded. “That was what I thought, when I was able to think about Amber. That was how I explained it, before I found out that she was just using her semblance on us all along. Mind you…when I think about it now…I think that our hearts still chose, in the end.”
“She means the answer to the question why us and not you guys,” Bon Bon said. “Why was Amber able to affect us and not you. And we think that it was because…because we wanted it.”
“You wanted to betray Professor Ozpin?” Sunset said, stepping out of from behind a pile of crates that had hitherto concealed her. She had a metal flask in her hand, the plastic cap removed and filled with gently steaming liquid.
Bon Bon frowned. “You’re one to take that tone about betrayals.”
“I told you to stop,” Lyra hissed at her.
Sunset inhaled through gritted teeth. “There are people who have the right to look down on me for what I’ve done,” she said. “And one of them is sitting over there. But I won’t take self-righteousness from someone who helped kill Professor Ozpin.”
“And you shouldn’t have to,” Lyra said quickly. “She’s sorry.”
“Is that right?” Sunset said, her eyes fixed on Bon Bon.
Bon Bon couldn’t hold Sunset’s gaze. She looked down, back at her diminishing meal. “Yes,” she said, in a slightly sullen tone. “I’m sorry for everything we did. At least nobody died because of your betrayal, and you got to save all of your friends too, gah! You even do the wrong thing better than us!”
“It’s not your fault,” Ruby said. “Amber-“
“Could get in because we let her in,” Lyra said. “When I said…when I said that we had each other so that was enough…that was wishful thinking on my part. Maybe it should have been enough…but it wasn’t.”
“In her end of year address when we left Canterlot Combat School Principal Celestia told us to go out and make a difference in the world,” Bon Bon said.
“Oh, you made a difference alright,” Sunset muttered.
“Sunset,” Ruby said reproachfully,
“She probably says that every year to the graduating classes,” Lyra said. “But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t true, or that it doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t mean that her words aren’t worth taking to heart. It doesn’t mean that we didn’t take them to heart. Only…when we got to Beacon it didn’t seem like we were going much chance to live those words. We watched your team – and Blake – stride on ahead, going on missions, coming to the attention of Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood, defending Vale, and we…”
“When Amber came into our lives we thought…we thought that if we couldn’t make a difference to the big picture we could, maybe, at least make a difference to this one girl’s life,” Bon Bon said. “To make a difference was all we ever wanted.”
“And maybe we can,” Lyra said. “All four of us.”
“Four?” Ruby asked, wondering if they were thinking about the absent Dove or the detested Torchwick.
Bon Bon nodded her head towards Sunset. “We all helped break this kingdom,” she said. “But maybe we can put it back together again, if you tell us what’s really going on.”
Sunset snorted. “What makes you think that you haven’t been told what’s really going on?”
“Because Ruby’s here, for one thing,” Bon Bon said.
Sunset stared at the other girl flatly. “You know everything that you need to know, for now,” she said. Her ears bent downwards into her hair. “I know that you must like the idea of me judging you about as much as I like the idea of you judging me, and I know that I probably shouldn’t blame you for Amber’s semblance, it’s just…Professor Ozpin meant a lot to me.”
“That’s understandable,” Lyra said. “And we would never claim to be blameless for what we did, semblance or no semblance. We still did things and we have to live with them.”
“I know, believe me I know,” Sunset said.
“Do you think it’s possible,” Lyra said. “To really make amends?”
“I don’t know,” Sunset said. “I hope so, but I don’t know. The only thing I know we can do is do better next time.” She took a step forward. “You can both go inside, I’ll relieve you here.”
“My watch isn’t over yet,” Bon Bon said.
“It is now,” Sunset said. “Go.”
Bon Bon hesitated for a moment, before she nodded her head and – with Lyra – walked through the slightly water-laden barge towards the little cabin at the back.
The tip of Sunset’s tail was getting a little wet as it trailed in the water, as Sunset walked towards Ruby. She held out the flask with its plastic cap. “I brought you some…I hesitate to call it tea, but it’s hot…and brown, so it ought to be good for something.”
“Thank you,” Ruby said quietly, as she took the flask from Sunset’s outstretched hand. “I think they really do want to make things right.”
“I’m not surprised, that’s what we all want,” Sunset said. She leaned on the side of the barge, looking out towards the riverbank.
“Sunset,” Ruby said. “What are we going to do when…when we have to tell all these people the truth?”
“By that point I hope none of them will be in a position to do anything with the truth,” Sunset said.
Ruby nodded. “Sunset?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you still have that journal?” Ruby asked. “The…” her voice lowered. “The magic one?”
Sunset looked at her. “It’s in my bag,” she said, one hand going to the satchel slung across her shoulder. “I keep it with me because…I don’t trust leaving all of my stuff where people like Torchwick or Jack could get at it. I swear, if I had any money Jack would be charging me to guard my stuff.”
Ruby frowned. “Guard it from what?”
“From his own base instincts,” Sunset said. “It’s only the fact that we’re all as broke as one another that stops him, I’m sure. There are some things that I prefer to keep close at hand. Why?”
“Can I borrow it?” Ruby asked. “I’d like to talk to Twilight.”
A spark of understanding flashed in Sunset’s eyes. “Of course,” she said, opening up the satchel and fishing out the thick, heavy journal with the blazing sun embossed upon it. “Do you need a pen?” Sunset asked as she handed Ruby the book.
Ruby took a sip of the hot brown liquid. “Yes, please.”
“Here.”
“Thank you.”
“Take as long as you need,” Sunset said. “I’ll keep watch.”
“Thanks,” Ruby said, settling the book upon her knees – Zwei tried to sniff it, but she shooed him gently away – and opening it up.
Her hand trembled a little as she started to write.
Twilight? Are you there? It’s me, Ruby.
A moment passed, and then another. Words in reply began to appear below Ruby’s own hand.
Ruby, hi. It’s been a long time.
Yeah, it has. Has a lot happened for you since then?
You could say that. I became an aunt recently!
Really?
Yes, my brother and sister-in-law had their little filly.
What’s her name? Is she cute?
Her name is Flurry Heart and she’s most adorable little thing that you ever saw in your life. If you could see her, I mean. True, she did almost cause the destruction of the Crystal Empire – that’s the city her mother rules – but it wasn’t really her fault and you just can’t stay mad at a little sweetheart like her.
How does a baby almost destroy an entire city?
Magic in young fillies and colts can be wild and uncontrollable, it only settles down once they get a little older; unfortunately Flurry’s magic destroyed a very important magical artefact which kept away the cold weather – if you think of the Crystal Empire as being a little like the city called Atlas in your world, only instead of technology it uses a magical artefact called the Crystal Heart to make the tundra survivable – but with the help of my new student and an old friend of hers from magic school we were able to restore the heart and get Flurry’s magic under control so that none of this can happen again.
Ruby smiled. I’m glad. It’s good to hear that there’s still a place where things work out happily for everyone.
There was a pause on the other end of the book. I’m sorry, this must seem so insensitive, me prattling on about my neice and how happy I am.
No! Not at all. I’m really happy for you. I suppose Sunset told you then, about Yang?
She mentioned it. I’m sorry for your loss. How are you doing?
I’m okay.
You know that you don’t have to say that if it isn’t true.
Ruby closed her eyes for a moment. I’m sure that you’ll be a really cool aunt. She wrote. The kind of aunt that I won’t ever get to be, now. She found that it was surprisingly easy to imagine Yang with kids; she had such a big heart, with so much love to go around, and she’d practically raised Ruby after Mom passed away. She would have been a really cool mom, a supermom just like Mom, baking cookies and slaying monsters. Who the father was wasn’t really important, although when Ruby imagined Yang as a mom for some reason the father ended up looking a lot like Sun, which was weird and made absolutely no sense whatsoever. But that wasn’t the point, the point was that Ruby would have liked the chance to be a cool aunt, to teach her niece or nephew to be a complete badass the way that Uncle Qrow had taught her; she could imagine them really looking forward to her visits in between secret missions for Professor Ozpin that would imbue her with an air of dangerous mystery that would just make her seem even cooler.
“Aunt Ruby! Did you miss me? Did you miss me?”
“…nope.”
But that would never happen now. Yang would never have children, just like so much else that she would never get to do.
I don’t know how many people would honestly describe me as cool, but I’m going to try and be the very best aunt that I can be. I’m sorry, we’re talking about me again.
It’s fine, I didn’t really want to talk about myself anyway. I wanted to ask you something about your world.
Ask away.
The other Ruby Rose, the one in your home, do you know if she has a sister? Is there another Yang there who’s okay? Who’s still around? Could you ask her for me? I know it’s stupid, but it would make me feel, that is I’d like to know that she’s alright.
I will ask her for you, but I have a feeling that I might know the answer already.
Really? How?
There’s a series of books that I and my friend Rainbow Dash both quite like called Daring Do
You have Daring Do in Equestria?
You have Daring Do in Remnant?
Yeah. Yang wasn’t a big reader but she was a fan of those books.
I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised seeing as how they’re based on reality.
They are?
In Equestria, at least. All the adventures of Daring Do really happened to the author A K Yearling. I would guess there’s at least a good chance the same is true in your world.
But Daring Do is always fighting weird monsters. I mean I’m not talking about the grimm – although she does have to fight them sometimes, or avoid them, when they get in her way – even though she graduated from Atlas Academy at the top of her class Daring Do isn’t a huntress first, and she always ends up opposing made-up creatures that don’t exist.
What if they do and you just haven’t seen one yet? After all it wasn’t too long ago that you didn’t know that magic was real, but magic was always real even before you knew about it.
I guess you’ve got a good point there. But what does that have to do with Yang?
Because the latest book in the series, Daring Do and the Eternal Flame, features an older Daring Do who is starting to grow weary of travels and treasure hunts; that is until she crosses paths with a young adventurer named Yang Xiao-Long who reignites her zeal for adventure and reminds her of why she got into that life in the first place as together they foil another scheme of Ahuizotl.
Ruby smiled. Yeah, that sounds a lot like Yang. I’m glad that she got to live her dream somewhere, some place.
Do you still want me to talk to the other Ruby?
Yes, please. But thank you anyway, Twilight. I needed to know that. Thank you.
It was about mid-morning on the next day when they arrived at the first stop on their journey. It was still raining – between the highs and the lows the rain today was about middling, although it still plastered Sunset’s hair to the sides of her face – but nevertheless everyone had, for once, come out on deck as Bullseye guided the barge into a shallow bay alongside a wooden jetty. The jetty itself, once it reached the bank, turned into a wooden path laid out over the muddy ground, which ran past a little wooden hut and into the woods. It was a little hard to see due to the rain and the clouds, but in the gloom Sunset could see an old stone tower rising above the trees.
“Is this the place?” she asked.
Bullseye nodded. “That old tower’s been abandoned since who knows when. We built a shed for the trucks and cut a road out of the forest. This place gets left alone except for the railroad, which is nowhere near here.” He raised his voice. “Hey, Charlie, you want to give me a hand out here?”
There was no response. Everyone on the barge was waiting but there was no sign of this Charlie person, or any sound that might have come from him.
Bullseye frowned. “Charlie, get out here and help me out!”
Still no answer. There were no human voices, nor – now Sunset thought about it – any birds in the trees. There was nothing but the rain, and the gentle humming of the barge’s engine.
“What’s wrong?” Sunset asked.
“There ought to be someone in that hut to help out when a barge comes down,” Bullseye said, as he leapt out of the barge and onto the jetty. “Big guy, give me a hand with these,” he added, as he grabbed one of the heavy mooring cables and threw it to Cardin, who started tying the barge off against the pier.
Sunset also left the barge, scrambling over the side and onto the wet wooden planks. She heard someone starting to follow her, and looked back to see that it was Ruby.
“Wait here,” Sunset said, holding up one hand to stay her before returning her attention to the wooden planks which lay like a road over the water and onto the bank. Sunset raised Sol Invictus to her shoulder, but kept the muzzle pointing low to the ground as she walked past Bullseye and towards the hut. Her footsteps thudded upon the planks, as well as squeaking thanks to the water.
I suppose it’s possible he’s got his headphones on. Very loudly.
Yeah, that’s what it is.
Since when are we ever that lucky?
There was a camera mounted on the wall of the hut, which Sunset guessed went to that tower where the smugglers’ main base was. She waved at it, in case they really didn’t know she was here.
The hut had a metal latch, rusting a little but not too resistant to Sunset’s touch as she grabbed it – she was glad of her gloves, it was probably pretty cold to the touch – and flung the door open, stepping inside what turned out to be an empty little shed. Empty of people at least; there was plenty of stuff – a scroll, open but dark, possibly because the battery had run out; a fishing magazine; a pistol with some bullets lying on the desk beside it; an empty lunchbox – to indicate that someone had been here at some point.
But no one actually there now.
Sunset left the door open as she trotted back down the jetty towards the barge. “It’s empty,” she said.
“Maybe they went back to the tower because of the weather?” Bullseye suggested.
Sunset wondered if he really believed that. She looked at her travelling companions and tried to guess from their faces how many of them believed that.
I’d like to believe that, but…
“Do we have a Plan B?” Torchwick asked.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Sunset said. “I’ll go check out the tower. If everything’s fine I’ll come back and let you know.”
“Alone?” Bon Bon said. “We’ll come with you.”
Sunset pursed her lips at that. She didn’t really want the company of Bon Bon, or either of her team-mates…but she thought about what she and Lyra had said last night, about wanting to do better, to make a difference. She wasn’t the only one with something to make up for, after all.
“Okay,” she said. “The four of us will go.”
“I-“ Ruby began.
“No, Ruby, you stay here,” Sunset said. “We can’t all go, after all. The point is that most of us stay here in case…just in case.” And, although I’d never say this to your face, if it comes a fight I’m not sure that you’d retreat instead of sticking it out no matter what. “We’ll go, everyone else wait here.”
“You’ll get no argument from me,” Jack said.
I know, Sunset thought, as Bon Bon, Lyra and Sky climbed out of the barge and onto the jetty. Sunset knelt down, motioning with one hand for Cinder to come closer.
Cinder, her expression slightly puzzled, leaned in, “Do you want to explain to me why you’re taking some of the weakest members of the group?”
“They volunteered.”
“Does my skill count for nothing if I don’t stick my hand up in time now?”
“I need you here,” Sunset whispered. “If you hear anything wrong then I need you to slip the cables and get under way, okay.”
Cinder’s eyes widened. “You want me to leave you behind?”
“I’ll try and come back,” Sunset said. “I just don’t want you to wait for me until it’s too late.”
“You want me to sacrifice you,” Cinder said flatly.
“I want you to make sure that Ruby gets to Mistral,” Sunset said. “I’m trusting you with my mission and my friend.”
“Ruby’s never going to leave you behind.”
“That’s why I’m telling you to do it, you’re the only one strong enough,” Sunset said.
“What makes you think I’ll do it?” Cinder demanded. “Would you leave me?”
“No,” Sunset said.
“Then why do you think I’ll abandon you?”
“Because I’m asking you too,” Sunset said. “Don’t sacrifice Ruby in a futile attempt to wait for me, okay? Just…don’t.” She stood up. “I’ll back as quick as I can,” she said more loudly. “With some good news,” she added, in a balance of hope and expectation. “Come on,” she added to the members of Team BLBL, who – a little to Sunset’s surprise – accepted her authority and fell in behind her as she led them down the plank road which wound between the crimson trees towards the tower.
As they got closer Sunset was able to see said tower better, as the obstacles of cloud and rain disappeared or lessened. It was, she began to see, more than just a completely isolated watchtower stuck in the middle of the wood (or predating the Forever Fall, depending on how old it was); rather it was the centre of what had been, at one time, a small fortress, with a circular outer wall ringing the perimeter and the ruins of various buildings – storehouse and stables and the likes, probably – still visible. Only the tower remained in any state of repair; the wall had as many holes in it as it had standing sections, and the other buildings were little more than stumps of stone tracing the outline foundations of what had been. Even the tower itself was starting to feel the effects of age, although someone, the smugglers presumably, had patched the holes in the walls with wood and corrugated iron and covered the roof with a tarpaulin like the one that had manifestly failed to keep them dry on the barge. There were no windows that Sunset could see but there were arrow slits through which the wind was whistling. There was no door at ground level, but rather a recently installed metal staircase led up to a door on higher up the tower, closer to the roof.
Just as they had patched the tower, the smugglers had strung wire mesh between the gaps in the wall and made a crude new gate out of scraps; but the gate was open, and prevented no obstacle to them getting in. Trees grew in what had been the fortress courtyard, and red grass and ferns overwhelmed what stones remained.
There was no sign of anyone within, and no sound coming from within the tower.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Sky muttered.
“Lyra, scout the area around,” Sunset said. “Sky, check the door. Bon Bon, you and I will search the courtyard.”
“Okay,” Lyra said, her cloak rustling as she darted to the right, circling the outside of the wall, her sword drawn and held lightly in one hand.
The other three walked through the open gate. As Sky walked straight forwards towards the metal stairs, his halberd held warily in front of him, Bon Bon and Sunset split up, Sunset going to the right and Bon Bon the left.
Sunset found the garage first, built out of corrugated iron and wooden beams. It was behind the tower, and had been hidden out of sight until she made her way around the empty courtyard. Everything within the garage was consumed in shadow, hidden from her sight.
She could hear Sky’s footsteps rattling on the metal steps as Sunset walked inside the shadowy garage. Once she was inside she could make out a truck that might, at a pinch, be big enough to fit them all in.
If there was nobody here, for whatever reason that might be, there was no reason why they couldn’t take the truck regardless. They’d paid enough, after all. So long as it still worked.
Sunset approached the vehicle. She climbed up onto the sideboard and opened the door.
She started to clamber in when she felt something wet and sticky underneath her hand as she placed it on the seat. Wet and stick…and red.
Sunset wasted a moment staring at the blood on her fingertips before she leapt down out of the truck and ran out of the garage, dashing around the tower. She looked up to see that Sky had almost reached the door into the tower. Sunset whistled frantically for his attention. He stopped, and looked down at her. Bon Bon emerged into view as well, coming back the way that she’d come.
Sunset gestured furiously for Sky to get down, not speaking on the – admittedly slim – hope that they had not yet drawn the attention of anything that might still be here. If they could get back to the barge and set off again without-
The blast of purple energy – magic – tore the door to shreds and struck Sky squarely in the chest, knocking him off the ledge and hurling him backwards, propelled by the blast which bore him backwards and tore through his aura as he screamed. He flew beyond the wall of the ancient fortress and into the trees of the Forever Fall as his aura rippled over his body and his attacker emerged from out of the darkness.
It walked on two legs and upon a pair of cloven hooves, although it also moved with such a hunch that it could easily have gotten down on all fours like a beringel if it wished, save that in one hand in held a long staff with a glowing blue crystal that might have been – but Sunset thought it was not – ice dust in one hand. Its face was long, and slightly simian, not in the heavy fashion of the brutish beringels, but more like a baboon or something like that. Four horns crowned its head, and its arms and legs were completely covered with armour plates.
Its red eyes were fixed on Sunset.
“Sssssunset….Ssssshimmer.”
Sunset stared at it for a moment, this creature that in power if not in form she guessed to be cut from the same cloth as the one that had attacked her and Ruby at the house in Patch; and then once that moment was passed she ran.
She ran and she did not look back, although she heard a blast from behind her and heard besides – and more importantly – the clattering on the metal steps as the creature descended.
Sunset ran, and Bon Bon was running too but running in the wrong direction, running towards the creature, her voice echoing from out of her helmet as she charged, swinging her Morningstar.
Sunset intercepted her, and as she grabbed hold of Bon Bon she felt the other huntress pushing against her with all her strength in the moment before Sunset teleported away.
They reappeared in a burst of green light not far from the hut that sat upon the riverbank.
“Cast off!” Sunset yelled to the astonished people still on the barge. “Get underway, quickly!” To Bon Bon she added. “Get on the barge.”
“Sky-“
“I will go back for Sky and for Lyra,” Sunset said. “But in the meantime I need you to get on the barge right now.”
“I could have-“
“No, you couldn’t,” Sunset said. “I can explain it to you or I can go back for your friends but I cannot do both so shut up and get on the barge!”
She let go of the other girl, trusting that she would do as Sunset said, and teleported back to just outside the crumbling walls of the fortress.
She reappeared with a crack, which meant that she instantly had to move in case the creature found her by the sound. She crouched behind a tree, sneaking a peak out. The creature was still there, she could see it through the gaps in the fence. It looked annoyed, as far as you could tell with a face like that anyway.
It began to walk towards the open gate. Sunset bit back a curse. All it would have to do is follow the wooden trail and it would reach the barge, maybe before she found Lyra and Sky. Maybe she could bury it like she had the other, buy enough time for-
“Bon Bon? Sky?” Lyra shouted as she came running out of the woods towards the fortress. “I heard screa-“ her voice trailed off as she beheld the creature. She raised her sword. “What in the name of-“
The grimm seemed to almost smirk as it raised its staff.
Sunset teleported. She reached Lyra as the beam of purple, streaking from the staff, soared through the air towards her. She grabbed Lyra just before the beam reached her. She teleported away and the beam passed harmlessly through the space where she had been.
Sunset reappeared where she had deposited Bon Bon, who fortunately was-
“Lyra!” Bon Bon called, from on the barge.
“Go, get aboard,” Sunset said, a little less pleased to see that they had not cast off yet. Cardin had slipped the cables but he and Taiyang were holding onto them, their muscular arms straining against the effort of bodily holding the craft in place. At least the engine was still running.
“Sky?”
“I’m going back for him,” Sunset said.
“What was-“
“I don’t have time,” Sunset said quickly. She took a deep breath. She thought she still had enough for two teleports. Which was lucky, as two more was exactly what she needed.
She teleported away, and once more reappeared not far from the fortress.
No sooner had she materialised then she was hit in the chest by a bolt of purple magic.
Sunset winced as she was flung backwards and into a tree, shaking loose a crowd of red leaves to fall upon her like a crimson rain. The blast had not been strung enough to break her aura – she hadn’t been hit for so long as Sky – but she could feel that she was in the yellow even without having to check.
The grimm roared as it charged towards her, staff raised above its four-pronged head to club her into submission and then to death. Sunset grabbed a boulder of a promising size that she could see not far away and hurled it with a mix of telekinesis and wind, slamming the rock into the side of the creature and knocking it sideways while Sunset scrambled to her feet and began to run.
Sky had been blown directly south, back towards the river, so if she kept on heading in this direction from the tower then-
She had to swerve to avoid a blast of magic from the staff – was it really a staff, or was it a part of the grimm that looked like a staff? Sunset had no time to consider the matter – that this ape-like grimm was carrying as it caused an explosion beside her, blowing apart the grass and showering damp mud into the air.
Sunset turned, skidding a little on the slipper ground, and slammed one hand down onto the soil. As the grimm charged after her a hole opened up in the ground beneath its feet as the soil in the earth appeared above him; but unlike the last this monster was too nimble to be caught out by that trick, he leapt deftly aside the hole to reach the ground beside it as the mud and muck that Sunset had displaced dropped harmlessly into the pit from whence it had been drawn.
Gritting her teeth Sunset cast another spell, this time raising up a wall of earth in front of her as the ground changed shape to throw up that stout barrier between her and her pursuer.
She started to run again, having little hope that the barrier would hold for long.
A blast behind her told her that if it hadn’t already breached the wall then it would soon.
Sunset channelled magic through her feet, something that she wasn’t so practiced at but which did have the advantage of not requiring her to stop and stand still to do it. With every step she took she through up more barriers between her and her pursuer, pillars of earth – dry earth would have been better, but she didn’t have time for that – to obstruct the way between her and her pursuer. Conscious of the fact that she needed to keep enough unicorn magic on hand for one last teleport back to the barge with Sky, Sunset began to use pegasus magic, blasting a wind behind her, a hurricane strong enough to rip the ever-crimson trees up by their roots and hurl them backwards into the face of this second of the too-strong grimm who had crossed their path.
And how did it find us in the first place? Sunset thought as she squelched through the mud, hearing the roars of her pursuer and the pounding of its hooves.
And then she found Sky. He lay on the ground, among the roots of a cracked tree, still and unmoving, his body bent at an unnatural angle like a snapped twig holding together by a little strip of bark. The blast of magic that had hurled him here had not only broken his aura but burned a hole in his cuirass and left black burned flesh beneath.
He was dead, Sunset saw as she skidded to a halt beside him, his eyes were open but lightless, his face was frozen in a rictus of pain and fear, he was not breathing.
He was gone.
Sunset screwed her eyes shut. If she had never, if she had only…there was no time for that now. All she could do for Sky now was spare his body further desecration.
She grabbed hold of him, and as the grimm bore down upon them both she teleported away.
No sooner had she reappeared upon the wooden steps than Sunset began to run, awkwardly holding Sky’s limp and lifeless form in her arms. She slipped on the wet wooden boards and tumbled to the ground. Strong arms helped her up. Cinder’s arms.
“Here,” Cinder said. “I’ve got you. Both of you.”
“I told you to go,” Sunset said as she regained her feet.
“And I decided I was strong enough to ignore your bad decisions,” Cinder replied, taking Sky from out of Sunset’s arms and cradling him in hers.
Together they ran back to the barge, where Cardin and Taiyang were still holding the cables taut against the desire of the fat craft to drift back into the river.
“Let go!” Sunset yelled as she and Cinder leapt aboard, and no sooner had the words left her lips than the two strong men released the cables and the barge began to slip sideways out of the little bay and bay and back towards the channel.
“Sky,” Lyra moaned. “Is he-“
“I’m sorry,” Sunset said. “Get us out of here.”
“What happened-“ Bullseye began.
“They’re all dead, go!” Sunset snapped.
As the barge regained the channel Sunset’s attention was drawn by a cry from Ruby, who raised Crescent Rose to point in the direction from which Sunset had just come.
Sunset turned to see the grimm that had been waiting for them – the grimm that had killed Sky – pounding down the wooden boards towards them, its staff aglow.
Sunset raised her hands, and a shield of green spread out across the entire flank of the barge against any attack that it might make against them.
But the grimm did not attack. It simply stared at them, its red eyes like burning embers, as the barge carried them upriver and away.
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So now we get to see another of the Four Kings, and it's deadly. Wonder what the other two are like...
Oh yeah, Daring Do is apparently a thing in Remnant. What are the going odds that it's real in Remnant too?
Daring Do is in Remnant? Huh... more magic in the world than just the geodes then. Sunset might need to take a look into that.
So, I think we have just been introduced to the Storm King of Remnant as well, joy.
Poor Sky. This Grimm is going to pay one day.
Well, team useless loses yet another member.
First King Sombra, and now the Storm King. That leaves two more Kings... If they're also MLP characters (which would make sense, given they are meant to be threats alien to what Remnant normally allows), I'm not sure who they are. There are two Kings I'm aware of from the comics but they're not anywhere near the threat level of Sombra and Stormy, so they'd need to be really upgraded to fit the pattern. Unless we're dealing with figurative Kings and it's just accidental that the two so far actually used that title, in which case.... oh. Oh no.
Yeah, Sunny, run. Just run. You are seriously outmatched on this one. They are going to tear you apart if they catch you, and you don't have the knowledge or the tools yet to scratch them. You barely have enough to formulate the right *questions* to ask Princess Twilight about the Equestrian Equivalents, if that even occurs to you.
So a grimm like Sombra and a Storm King. I guess Tirek and Discord could be other choices, or the "Pony of Shadows". But in case the "four king" thing is a metaphor Chrysalis could be one, too.
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My vote is on Chrysalis as the last king. Even if Remnant Discord would be nowhere near as strong as the Equestria one, his personality would still be too chaotic for Salem plans.
I can see the other 4 bowing their heads to Salem for power, but not Discord.
Whoa, wow! This chapter was both heartwarming and epic! I did not expect one of the Four King's to be waiting there! Great work!
I guess there's going to be a few more questions getting asked around now. Tai will certainly feel back in the game now he's seen another one of Salem's magical creatures. I wonder how Torchwick will react to seeing a Grimm like the Storm King. And will Cinder, Tai and/or Ruby be asking Sunset any time soon about her new magic?
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10053103
Chrysalis was mentioned in a previous chapter as a shape-shifting member of the White Fang.
10053188
Ugh, completely forgot about that. Such a waste of character, given how low is my opinion of the White Fang in general.
I still doubt that the last king is Discord, so maybe Grogar?
Killing the character we had the least amount of investment in? Cold. On several levels.
Also, I’m right now calling Grogar. Ain’t no way he ain’t one.
10052962
Well, fodder has uses too.
10053103
it could also be Scorpan or Grogar
...ok, so my first thought was that this new Grimm was Tirek, but the consensus seems to say it's the Storm King. I'll defer to that since I never watched the MLP movie and completely forgot the character existed.
First off: love the twilight bits, more of those please. Second, first thought was scream, but storm king makes more sense. Either way great chapter and keep up the good work Scipio
First Sombra, now the Storm King?!
Putting odds that Tirek and Grogar will make up the last two...Ruby and Sunset got one each, so I'd guess that the last two will be after Phyrra and Jaune?
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Jaune vs. one of the four kings on his own would scream deathflag in my head. Plot armor or not, Jaune has not the skill to go alone against one of the four.
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Good thing for him that he has Phyrra then.
Nobody likes Jaune anyway, ^^
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The traveling party was too large to not have any fatalities. Still, it felt like killing off a character just so he didn't need to be mentioned again. Until he was mentioned on the walk to the tower, I didn't even know he was there.
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Very true. Jaune does have his magic sword, but that won't be enough. Perhaps his sister can help in some way with the geodes.
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I'm wondering if Daring Do is a foreshadowing where Yang is on Remnant right now.
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That Third reply. I hadn’t thought about that possibility yet.
I am really just loving all these Zwei mentions. Just a little fluff of happiness among everything else going on.
sad Zwei noises
Don't look at me like that, it's great. Then again, I'm pretty sure Russell already played up the spaghetti joke in part one, but we could always use another.
Zwei barked eagerly. I am banning this joke from my further commentary or else this is going to devolve into exclusively Zwei reactions.
This whole conversation is heavy, but well done. I'm not even sure how much we're going to get out of it by the end, but it really allows us to read in on where a lot of these characters are. I don't have much to say about it, it's well done and dense with meaning without being wordy or moving slow or anything like that. There's maybe not exactly much pizzazz outside some of Sunset's edge, but it's not the type of talk to warrant that either. Just a quiet little moment, with four girls trying to make sense of the world, and where it all went wrong.
Also, a Sunset Ears followed by a Sunset Tail callout, with the latter being an interaction with the environment. Gotta love it, just that extra little bit. It can be easy to forget Sunset is a Faunus sometimes, or maybe not so much of forget as look past it when it isn't important to the current narrative. Bit of introspection there rather than story commentary, but it is what it is, so I'll leave it.
It's going to be really interesting getting the Equestrian updates, since we are officially into territory I haven't watched now. I doubt I'll mind though. I should go hunt down some of the Daring Doo fics again. It's been a long time since I've read any of my old favorites out of those, and I'm sure there's some new good ones too.
And for all the love I'd like to give to the fight scene and the death of Sky (which even knowing it was coming was still written with a strong urgency that really hammered it home), I'm now stuck on if Ahuizotl is a Faunus off doing his own thing, or some manner of servant of Salem. I mean, he absolutely would be the kind of character to hunt down a relic, now that I think about it. I wonder how it didn't occur to me my first time through this chapter.