Why We Fight (Rewritten)
Why We Fight
Cold Harbour was not a pretty place, and certainly, it was nowhere that Sunset would have come for a visit.
It was a working town, one which existed purely and entirely to serve the needs of the port and the rail line. It had nothing else. They didn’t even build the ships here; they were all Atlesian-made. If the rail line had remained down, if the ships ever stopped sailing from Atlas, if the dust ever did run out, then Cold Harbour would wither and die like a flower in the cold.
And then there was the fact that, while Sunset had no doubt that somebody was making a lot of money out of Cold Harbour and its business, that somebody didn’t live in the city or anywhere near. Most probably, the someone who was making the most money out of this place was Jacques Schnee, and he lived far away from here. The work was done here, but the profits flew away, over the oceans and the land, to fill the pockets of men in Atlas or the city of Vale. Only the scraps of that prosperity remained in the port, where faunus scrabbled for work as labourers and dreamed of one day getting to drive a truck or operate a power-loader because they couldn’t imagine it getting any better than that.
All of which meant that when team SAPR arrived in Cold Harbour on their train, the railway line having been repaired and the first trains already prepped to flow back the other way, they found it a rather grim, dour, and forbidding place. The buildings were dull and functional, in the appropriately-named Brutalist style of architecture of which Sunset was decidedly not a fan, and the atmosphere felt as cold as the chill wind. There was nothing fun about this town, unless one counted the bars they passed where no doubt the labourers were encouraged to spend their meagre lien on bad drink and pleasures more sordid still. It was a place of crushing banality, full of people living to work because they had nothing else to live for, the sort of place where the ideology of the White Fang would flourish amongst the poor and exploited faunus.
She couldn’t wait to get out of this place. Out of the cold air blowing down from the north, out of these ghastly buildings, out from where the humans looked at her with unveiled contempt and the faunus looked at her like she was a traitor for associating with her team.
“How much further until we rendezvous with Blake and Team Rosepetal?” Pyrrha asked.
“Soon, I think, I don’t know!” Sunset snapped. She cringed at the hurt expression on Pyrrha’s face. “I’m sorry, I…I don’t like it here. Too… Atlesian by far.”
“We understand,” Pyrrha said calmly. “You don’t have to apologise.”
“Thanks,” Sunset muttered. She wondered if, perhaps, she wasn’t giving Atlas enough credit. After all, Canterlot had never been this bad… well, that depended on how one defined or described ‘bad.’ It had been an uncomfortable experience for her, but the architecture hadn’t been too terrible, although some of the people had been bad enough.
Or had they? Sunset remembered it that way, but then she also remembered herself as a victim, and a rather passive victim devoid of agency at that, which was… probably not the truth.
But then, what was the truth? If things hadn’t happened the way she remembered them, then how had they happened?
Perhaps I tried to turn the most popular girls in school against one another and got caught doing it, which meant that everyone hated me after that.
Yeah… I kind of prefer the original version over the rewrite.
After all, if everything that happened to me at Canterlot was all my own fault, then that might mean that Flash…
No. No, that’s just ridiculous. Absolute nonsense. He was explicit about the reasons why he was breaking up with me, and he had no reason to lie.
He broke my heart because he couldn’t live with my tail any more.
Didn’t he?
Of course he did. And I was the victim. Except when I wasn’t.
At least, I hope I was.
She had been… not the nicest person back then, but at the same time, why would Flash lie to her about something like that? Why would he pretend to be a racist?
A racist who I never saw have a problem with Rainbow Dash.
Who doesn’t seem to have a problem with Blake.
I know what he said, but Cardin Winchester, he isn’t.
But then why would he say that?
Sunset was roused from these unanswerable musings by the sound of a startled cry and a heavy thud behind her. She whirled around, reaching for her gun – the rest of her team did likewise and grasped at their own weapons – but it turned out to be Blake Belladonna, between a dozen and twenty feet behind them, crouched down in the middle of the road astride the unconscious form of a ram faunus, horns curling out from either side of his head, swathed in a long, dark trenchcoat.
It was a measure of what a dive Cold Harbour was that nobody seemed to find the fact that Blake had plainly just jumped on this guy and knocked him unconscious to be anything worth making a fuss about. All around them on the street, people continued on their way without offering the scene a second look.
“Blake!” Ruby exclaimed. “When did you-?”
“I’ve been following you since you got off the train,” Blake said, as blandly as she might have made an observation about the cold weather – which she must have been feeling, dressed as she was. She got up off the guy she’d just knocked down. “I noticed that he’d been following you as well.”
“Thanks,” Sunset said. “Nice of you to drop in.”
Blake looked at her.
Sunset grinned briefly.
Blake rolled her eyes as she began to walk towards them. “Follow me,” she said. “I’ll take you to join the others.”
Blake led them into a back alley and through various other small, narrow, dark, and mostly uninhabited streets that even the denizens of Cold Harbour seemed to want to avoid. Considering that some of them were covered in garbage, Sunset could well see why, and the smell… – Sunset’s sense of smell was more acute than most, but Pyrrha seemed to be struggling with it too – some of these alleyways stank to high heaven. What a place, she couldn’t wait to be out of here.
“I’m sorry about the route,” Blake said, and as she glanced back at them over her shoulder, Sunset could see from her expression that she wasn’t the biggest fan of the stench either; probably her sense of smell was as good as Sunset’s, what with her being slightly catty and all. “But ever since Team Rosepetal arrived here, we’ve had people trying to find out what they’re doing here, where they’re going next; we’ve been followed, and I noticed that the base was being watched.”
“The White Fang,” Sunset said.
“They don’t wear masks, but almost certainly,” Blake said.
“Have you ambushed and beaten up all of them?” Sunset asked.
“No,” Blake said, with just a thin trace of amusement in her voice. “Mostly, we try to avoid them. After our Search and Destroy mission was complete, we left the base, flying southward on a Skyray which Rainbow Dash left a few miles out of town for recovery, then we snuck back in and found somewhere more inconspicuous to lay low until you arrived. Usually, Rosepetal stay in their room, and I get sent out when somebody has to leave. I still stand out,” – she briefly grasped the handle of Gambol Shroud – “but not as much as… some of the Atlesians. Or you four, for that matter.”
Pyrrha looked a little guilty, as though she had anything to be guilty about. “I’m sorry, I didn’t-”
“It’s not your fault,” Blake said. “You’re a huntress, not a spy, but that’s the point: you and Rosepetal both stand out as obviously being huntsmen, and that makes the White Fang ask why you’re here.”
“Are we going to be able to get onto the train without being spotted?” Sunset asked. If they didn’t have secrecy, then the entire plan was shot full of holes before it had even begun; either the White Fang would leave the train alone, or they would attack in strength sufficient to overwhelm the combined forces of the two teams. Neither option was particularly desirable.
“I think so,” Blake said. “We have a plan and the route already chosen. We’re almost there.”
“So,” Sunset asked, “what’s it been like working with Atlas?”
Blake hesitated for a moment. “They’re… not what I expected,” she said. “I didn’t expect that they would be so… human.”
Sunset pressed her lips together and restrained herself from offering a witty response to that. She came to the end of an alleyway and pressed her back against the wall as she gestured out of the end of the narrow lane. Before them was the rear of a rather cheap-looking motel, with three rows of windows obscured by old-fashioned lace curtains looking out at the insalubrious view of an empty car park and some big blue bins on wheels overflowing with garbage bags. Discarded bottles and cigarette butts littered the concrete, and there was graffiti on the walls of the alleyway in which they waited.
“This is where you’re staying?” Sunset asked sarcastically. “Nice.”
Blake glanced at her momentarily. “We’ve rented six rooms, the three climbing up the west wall and the three next to that so that nobody can take those rooms and see us coming or going, but everyone actually sleeps in the room on the northwest corner, as it’s the hardest to observe.” She looked back at the members of Team Sapphire. “Does anybody think they might not be able to climb up the drainpipe? Or get up to the top window?”
Jaune raised his hand at once. So too, after a moment's hesitation and slightly more tremulously, did Sunset.
Blake nodded. “Don’t worry, I can help you.” She turned back and looked at the motel windows. “Now, we wait for- there.”
The northwest window opened, and the face of Rainbow Dash briefly appeared there, beckoning to them. Sunset noticed that the window next to it was also open, and she thought… was there someone in there?
“The window to the right-”
“That’s Ciel,” Blake murmured.
“So long as it’s someone on our side,” Sunset muttered.
“Let’s go,” Blake said, and she led the way as they dashed quickly across the open ground between their alleyway and the back of the motel. Blake gestured for them to go first, up to the open window on the northwest corner of the top floor.
Pyrrha was the first up, not bothering with the drainpipe that ran up the side of the wall as she simply leapt straight up to the window and grabbed the ledge with both hands before hauling herself inside.
Ruby went next, scampering up the drainpipe with simian agility before sliding sideways onto the windowsill, where a hand reached out to help her get inside the room.
Sunset went next, and although she had conceded that she might need some assistance getting there, she was determined to at least try and do it herself. She gripped the rusting metal drainpipe with both hands, feeling the cold of the metal and the slight rough unevenness of the surface beneath her palms, and she gritted her teeth as she started to climb. Her aura made her stronger and gave her greater endurance besides, but it didn’t make you good at all the things that you wouldn’t necessarily have been great at otherwise, and Sunset felt no shame in conceding that Pyrrha and Ruby were both more athletic than she was, if only because they’d been training in those skills for longer. But she wasn’t about to let Blake just help her up without at least attempting it herself, and so, though her boots sometimes slipped against the surface of the wall and her hands felt as though they were going to slip on the pipe, nevertheless, inch by slow inch, Sunset hauled her body up the drainpipe and reached out to place her fingers on the windowsill.
Rainbow’s hand grabbed hers, and immediately, Sunset felt the weight on her arms ease off as Rainbow helped her the last bit of the way and pulled her into the motel room. The carpet was faded, there were black stains in the corners of the walls, and there was a dent in the wall like somebody had punched it once.
“Yo,” Rainbow greeted. “Glad you could make it.”
“You say that as though we’re late or something.”
“I’m just bored of having to wait for you.”
“Don’t blame me because you’re impatient,” Sunset countered.
“Hello, Sunset!” Penny said cheerily.
“Hi,” Sunset replied. “Hi, Twilight.”
“Uh, hey, Sunset,” Twilight said, before looking down at her scroll.
“Hey, guys,” Sun said. “Have a good trip?”
“Hey, Sun,” Ruby replied. “What are you doing here?”
Rainbow folded her arms across her chest. “Somebody helped him sneak into our Skyray and hide out there. We didn’t notice him until it was too late to turn back.”
Sunset smirked. “What can I say? I’m a sucker for romance.”
There was a click outside the window, and looking out, Sunset could see the hook of Blake’s weapon bury itself in the wall before Blake lifted herself and Jaune up to the level of the window, where Sunset and Rainbow helped Jaune in before Blake slipped into the room afterwards, shut the window after herself, and closed the curtains.
“Cosy,” Sunset observed as the nine people now present in a room designed for two tried to find some room to stand.
“I know, but it isn’t for long,” Rainbow said. “Once it gets dark, we’ll sneak out of here and slip aboard the train with nobody any the wiser.”
“All loading at the rail yard stops at night,” Blake explained. “Even the night trains are loaded up during the day; there are only a couple of night watchmen around, and we should be able to avoid them.”
“You’ve thought this through,” Sunset remarked.
“We’ve had time to think while we waited for you,” Rainbow said.
“How was your mission?” Penny asked brightly.
“It was mostly pretty quiet,” Ruby replied, “but then this pack of beowolves showed up, and they were led by one of the biggest alphas that we’d ever seen, and…”
They passed the time as best they could in that crowded space – it got even more crowded once Ciel joined them from the room next door, bringing her rifle with her – as they waited for it to get dark outside. Rainbow and Ciel both did weapons maintenance – or tried to as best they could in the conditions – and Sunset cleaned out the chambers of the cylinder in Sol Invictus so that they wouldn’t get fouled in battle; it was, she had to say, much easier for her to do that than it was for the two Atlesians to do their maintenance in the circumstances.
Penny read from a book of stories, not the Fairy Tales of Remnant prescribed for Doctor Oobleck’s class, but a much older-looking book with a cover so worn that Sunset couldn’t read the title. “My new friend Blake gave it to me. It has so many other stories that weren’t included in the book for class. I’ve never read anything like some of these stories before.”
“That’s why I gave it to you,” Blake said. “These stories may be simple, but as Doctor Oobleck said, they represent where we come from; our ancestors told those stories, and by knowing the stories… we can know them, what kind of people they were, what kind of world they lived in. Plus… they’re often very good stories. Simple, but compelling, and sometimes, even beautiful.”
“It looks like an old book,” Sunset said, observing the slightly dog-eared cover, the many creases on the spine, the way the corners of some of the pages looked as though they’d been folded over to mark the place – Sunset, who always used proper book marks, couldn’t help but feel a slightly sense of disapproval at the practice – all marked the book out as having been long-owned and often-read.
“My… my mother used to read it to me,” Blake said, and a look of deep sadness crossed her face for a moment. “A long time ago.”
Sunset’s eyebrows rose a little. “A generous gift,” she murmured. She couldn’t imagine giving a book from Celestia away, to Penny or anybody else.
“Not really,” Blake said, in a voice that carried an undertone of melancholy. “I… I know most of those stories by heart by now.”
“Penny,” Pyrrha said in the tone of someone who is very deliberately changing the subject. “How far have you gotten? Do you have any favourites yet?”
“I’m not sure if I’ve found a story that I like better than The Shallow Sea,” Penny murmured.
The corners of Pyrrha’s lips rose upwards in a smile. “Yes, that’s one of my favourites too.”
“Not many humans know that story,” Blake said, surprised.
“There are many faunus who fight in the tournaments,” Pyrrha replied. “I think it was… yes, it was Metella who told us that story, when we were waiting in the green room for a photo shoot. I was only a girl at the time; I’d just started fighting. She was rather dismissive, but I always found it a rather lovely story.”
“Being seen for who you really are?” Penny asked.
Pyrrha’s smile broadened. “Exactly, Penny. Isn’t that what we all want? Isn’t that what we’re looking for in the end?”
Blake frowned. “Penny, what was the other story you said that you enjoyed? You talked about it last night.”
“Oh, you mean The Little Angel?” Penny asked. “Yes, I think that’s a lovely story, too.”
“The Little Angel,” Ruby repeated. “I don’t remember that one. Yang used to read me stories from books just like that all the time, but… no, I don’t remember it.”
“It’s about an angel, the daughter of a god, who lives in the sky,” Penny explained. “Each night, she watches the people on land and wishes that she could join them, especially after she sees the human prince, and she-”
“She falls in love with him,” Pyrrha said. “And so determined is she for them to be together that she sheds her wings and becomes human so that she can be with the man she loves and finally explore the world that she’s watched from afar for so long. I think it’s a lovely story.”
“I used to like it,” Blake said. “But now… it isn’t one of my favourites.”
“Why not?” Pyrrha said. “What changed?”
“Not the story,” Blake said, “but I realised… the prince, if he really loved her, then he wouldn’t ask her to change who she was so completely for his sake. If he loved her truly, then he’d take her as she was and not ask her to change a thing.”
“But he didn’t ask her to change,” Pyrrha said. “He didn’t know her; she made the decision to transform herself all on her own.”
“Is that better?” Blake asked, without malice or anger of any kind in her voice. “Can we really say that she loved him? Or was it just a shadow that she loved, the idea of something that was never really there at all?”
“I… I don’t know,” Pyrrha said. “But I do know that there’s nothing wrong with the idea of transformation. Sometimes, when we descend from the heavens and into a whole new world, we transform for the better. We become… what we were always meant to be, better than what we are now. Like The Shallow Sea, so many stories are about that, that moment of transformation, of becoming.”
“Transforming and becoming are not the same thing,” Blake replied. “One is revelation of what was always there but was hidden behind rags or an ugly exterior or whatever it is; the other is being remade by some external power deciding that what you are, as you are now, is just not good enough.”
“Are you sure you’re not both reading too much into this?” Ruby asked. “I love a lot of these stories myself, but they’re just stories.”
“Stories matter,” Sunset said from where she leaned against the wall. “Just as every story began with a life lived somewhere, so each of our lives contains a story within it. We have to remember that and bear it in mind if the story is not to become a tedious and repetitive thing filled with inconsequential happenings and transient experiences amounting to nothing. Sound and fury signifying nothing.”
“Live like you’re the hero of your own story?” Ciel remarked. “From literary analysis to egotism.”
“I’ve read that in Mistral of old, there were few among the mighty there who didn’t consider themselves to be the hero of their own history,” Sunset said.
“An attitude that did much to bring Mistral to disaster in the Great War,” Pyrrha remarked.
“Maybe,” Sunset conceded. “But before that, it first made Mistral great. How can we seek to be heroes if we do not understand what a hero is, what made them heroes, and what made them acclaimed as such by those around them? That’s why stories matter, because without them, how will we know what to do?”
“That’s why what they mean matters too,” Blake added wistfully, “or we might… do the wrong thing and not realise it until it’s too late.”
That night, once the darkness had descended upon Cold Harbour and the activity of the streets had slowed as people retreated either to their homes or to their favourite bar, it was time to leave the cramped hotel room behind and get to their train before it left without them.
Blake confirmed that there was no one watching the back of the hotel as they slipped out the window and down to the ground below – Rainbow Dash carried Twilight down in her arms like a bride, the rest of them jumped and trusted to their aura to dull the impact, and Jaune tripped and almost fell as he leapt – as quickly and as quietly as they could with all their gear and weapons with them, not to mention supplies for the journey, sleeping bags and all the rest. Blake led the way, taking the two teams and Sun through more dingy back alleys of the same kind that they had used to get to the hotel in the first place. Now, they headed back towards the railyard, avoiding the main streets that SAPR had first taken before Blake showed up and instead taking the more indirect route which brought them step by step and back alley by alleyway back to the yards, which now were dimly lit and quiet. When SAPR had dismounted the train they’d arrived on, accompanied by Red’s working crew, the yard had been abuzz with activity; the word that the railway had been repaired had travelled ahead of them, and so, a half dozen trains were being loaded at the time to make the trip to Vale during the evening and night, crates bearing the snowflake emblem of the SDC by the multitude being lifted into railway cars. Faunus by the score and the hundredfold had worked by hand and primitive machine while power loaders painted in yellow and black strode amongst the trains carrying especially large and heavy containers, and all the while, the overseers and the foremen called out directions to the workers. Judging by what Blake had said, the chances were that the White Fang already knew what was in every single train and had known since preparations to move the trains as soon as the rail line was reopened had been made.
The Atlesian military train had, according to the plans that Sunset and Rainbow had made, been loaded up and standing by for some time now. The White Fang could have robbed it in the yard by now if they’d wanted to, but of course, it was much easier to do it in the wilds of the Forever Fall than in the middle of a city where there might be a law enforcement response and with an Atlesian military base so close.
In any case, they could see it in the yard ahead of them as they crept across the empty railway lines and in between the stationary and unattended containers. Rainbow took the lead at this point with Twilight; Blake dropped back, presumably because the Atlesians knew what they were looking for. As they approached, the engine began to hum and thrum with suppressed energy.
“Quickly,” Rainbow hissed. “It’s about to leave.”
They quickened their pace, though those of them that had super speed stopped short of actually using it. They ran, covering the ground more quickly as Twilight Sparkle got out her scroll. Sunset could hear a faint beeping sound, and the doors to one of the cargo cars slid open with a hydraulic hiss.
Rainbow and Twilight reached it first, and Rainbow leaped aboard the car; she turned and helped Twilight up inside a moment before the train began to move. The rest of the group ran faster still, with Rainbow and Twilight already aboard and waving them on, and rushed for the open door as it began to crawl away down the rail line.
They just about made it, leaping or scrambling aboard or being helped aboard moments before the train began to accelerate to the point where it would have been impossible to get on – nor, indeed, was it possible to get off now. They were on this train until it stopped again, which it was not scheduled to do until it reached Vale but it might do depending on how the White Fang decided to stop it.
They were trapped aboard the train absent destination or external influences, which is why, as the eight huntresses and the two huntsmen crouched in the darkness of the train car and the door shut behind them, it was a little disconcerting to see a pair of red eyes light up in the darkness as a metallic and synthesised voice said, “Intruder, identify yourself.”
“Twilight,” Rainbow said, urgently but not so urgently that she might seem frightened.
Twilight, on the other hand, squeaked with alarm. “R-right. I’ll just…um, give me a second.” In the darkness, Sunset could hear Twilight tapping on her scroll.
The lights came on, revealing row after row of Atlesian security droids standing in ranks like a column of old-fashioned soldiers ready for an assault, all of them staring right at the huntsmen who had the temerity to board their train.
But then, the red eyes faded. “Understood. Atlesian forces recognised. Your facial patterns have been uploaded into our database and logged as friendly.” The droids, apparently deactivated again, lowered their faces and said no more and did no more and troubled them no more.
“These guys are a lot creepier than the ones you had on the base,” Sun observed.
“Yes,” Twilight agreed. “That’s kind of the point of the 200. One of the biggest points, anyway.”
Rainbow Dash walked up to them, looking them up and down. “Old 130s; I thought we were replacing all of them.”
“Upgrading our entire capability takes time,” Ciel reminded her. “The first available knights are being deployed to front line positions, 130 models will remain in service in some rear-echelon areas for a considerable length of time.”
“'Upgrading'?” Pyrrha said, her voice soft as she rose to her feet. “Is that what you call it?”
Rainbow turned back to her. “We’re replacing the old models with the newer ones; what would you call it?”
“Terrible,” Pyrrha said. Her brow furrowed. “The idea that this is the future of warfare… it horrifies me.”
“Pyrrha?” Jaune asked.
“You don’t like robots?” Rainbow said.
“I don’t much care for them, no,” Pyrrha replied.
“Is there any particular reason for that?” Ciel asked.
Pyrrha was silent for a moment. “Do you know why the faunus were victorious in their rebellion after the Great War?”
“Because of the faunus generalship of…” Ruby trailed off. “Um, Blake, what was his name again? I’m sorry, I know we did our essays on it, but that was months ago now and-”
“And it’s only Modern History, I get it,” Blake said easily. “It was Ares Claudandus, and his preparation and generalship led to a decisive victory as much as the mistakes of General Lagune.”
Pyrrha smiled thinly. “That’s why they won the battle at Fort Castle, but in my opinion, it isn’t why they won the war.”
“You’re talking about the mutiny at Camp Fury, aren’t you?” asked Sunset, who thought that she had worked out where this was going. “When the faunus rose up, the veteran troops refused to march against their old comrades, the ones they’d fought alongside in the Great War. And because of that, Mistral and Mantle were forced to fight the war with green recruits, boys dragged out of the fields and off the streets.”
Pyrrha nodded. “And because of that, the faunus won the war.”
“I think we would have done alright against the most experienced troops that humans could find,” Blake muttered. “Although I suppose the inexperience of your troops didn’t hurt.”
“The point is that those soldiers did what they thought was right, not what they were ordered to do,” Pyrrha said. “They had that freedom, just as we do now. If Professor Ozpin ordered us to burn down a city block with all the people trapped in their homes, would we do it?”
“No,” Jaune said. “Of course not, that would be murder.”
“Exactly, and we know that,” Pyrrha said. “But these automatons.” She gestured with her shield hand at the Atlesian androids. “This is an army that will never tell its commander ‘no,’ no matter how monstrous the order. An army without conscience.”
“Its conscience is that of the man who wields it,” Ciel declared. “General Ironwood has conscience enough for an entire army. He is a good man, perhaps the best; he would never wield his power to wicked purposes.”
“Can you guarantee the same about the man who will succeed him, or their successor after that?” Pyrrha asked.
Neither Ciel nor Rainbow Dash said anything in reply. What could they have said, in any case? Penny looked sad and a little upset for some reason.
Rainbow put one hand on the door leading into the next carriage. “We should go,” she said firmly.
“Fine by me,” Sunset replied. “Does anyone want to sleep in here with the robots?”
“Not me,” Sun muttered. “I don’t know about what Pyrrha’s been saying, but they give me the creeps.”
“Then let’s go,” Rainbow said. “Twilight, do you want to give us the layout?”
“Right,” Twilight said, pulling up a map on her scroll and displaying it as a three-dimensional hologram. “We’re here, in carriage six of a ten-car train. Car number one is directly behind the engine; car ten is the caboose. Cars six, and ten are filled with droids; that’s the standard security complement for this kind of train. Cars one, two and three contain the paladin mechs; cars four and five contain small arms and ammunition. Car seven contains munitions for the heavy weapons mounted onto the paladins, while cars eight and nine contain dust for military purposes. There should be enough space in car five for us to sleep in.”
“Thanks, Twi,” Rainbow said. “Let’s go.”
“So, icebreaker question,” Rainbow said. “What are we all doing here?”
The ten huntsmen sat amongst the crates of guns and ammo in the middle of the Atlesian train as it rattled along down the recently repaired railroad towards Vale.
Sunset sat on the floor, with the portable stove that they had used to heat up their dinner still burning in front of her. Sunset turned off the stove with one hand while, with the other, she held onto her bowl of noodles. “What do you mean, what are we doing here? We’re here to ambush the White Fang when they try and rob the train.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Well, obviously. I mean, why did we all want to become huntsmen in the first place? If we’re going to go into battle together-“
“We’ve already gone into battle together,” Sunset pointed out. “Twice.”
“Yeah, but we didn’t plan it that way either time,” Rainbow reminded them. “I just… I want to know who you all are.” She looked at Sunset. “Better than I thought I did, maybe. I’ll even start us off if you like.”
“We already know why you’re here,” Sunset presumed. “For the Glory of Atlas.”
Rainbow folded her arms. “You say that like it’s such a terrible thing.”
“Well I, for one, find thoughtless chest-thumping a little gauche,” Sunset declared.
“'Gauche' is the least that I could say about you,” Ciel muttered. “We stand for the flag; there is no shame in that, nor will we be intimidated into feeling shame by being told that our patriotism is somehow indecorous.”
“Don’t you find it a bit exhausting to have to talk up your kingdom all the time?” Sunset asked. “To feel obliged to defend it constantly?”
“I find the arguments deployed against Atlas to be rather wearisome in their weakness,” Ciel replied in a dismissive monotone.
“Anyway,” Rainbow said, “it isn’t all about the glory of Atlas. In fact, it isn’t even mostly about the glory of Atlas. Yes, Ciel’s right, we stand for the flag, and we fight for our kingdom, but it’s more than a flag, it’s more than just an idea; people can trash talk Atlas all they want, and I’m not even going to say that it’s a perfect place to live, but… but it’s home. It’s home to all my friends and to people like them. Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and hundreds of thousands of people just like them, they’re all kept safe by the strength of Atlas. So you can go ahead and make your fun of us and how we do things, you can look down on us like we’re idiots who need to wake up and realise that the General is an evil dictator or something, but while you’re all doing that, my friends sleep safe. While I’m here, they don’t have to be afraid. Even though the world is full of grimm, even though it sometimes feels like we’re only one step ahead of the monster taking us out, even though, in spite of everything… they don’t have to be afraid. Because they’re my friends, and they can sleep safely tonight because I’m out here, watching over them, keeping the monsters at bay. That’s why I do what I do. For them.”
“A worthy motivation,” Pyrrha murmured. “For my part, if I have ever given you cause to feel slighted, I apologise.”
“Don’t worry, Pyrrha; you’re not the one I had in mind,” Rainbow replied.
“I’ve already said sorry,” Blake muttered. “Wasn’t that enough?”
“It was,” Rainbow agreed. “From you.”
Sunset shuffled uncomfortably in place. “I know that you care about your friends,” she said. “Everyone knows that you care about your friends. But couldn’t you care about them with a little less of the oorah stuff?”
“Nope,” Rainbow said. “Sorry, but I’m going to keep on being proud so long as we’ve got stuff to be proud of.” She paused for a moment. “So, come on, who else wants to share with the group? Sunset, what are you doing out here? Why did you want to become a huntress?”
Sunset shrugged. “For the fame. For the glory.”
Rainbow snorted. “'Glory'? What glory?”
“The great glory that will accrue to us as a result our deeds in the field and in the tournament arena,” Sunset declared grandiloquently. The glory that is our due. “And the immortality that we will win there.”
“There is neither immortality nor glory for soldiers,” Ciel said. “History remembers the generals who commanded the battle, it remembers the politicians who ordered the battle, but it does not remember the soldiers who fought in the battle.”
Sunset smirked, undismayed by Ciel’s words. “Is that so? Good thing that we’re not soldiers, isn’t it?”
“Do you really think that you will accrue such great glory as to deserve the name immortality?” Ciel asked. “From being a huntress?”
“I believe it so,” Sunset assured her. “I cannot believe that it is otherwise. This… this is my destiny; I cannot doubt it. I have come too far to be halted by mere doubt. I will do great things, and in the doing, I shall become more, much more, than I am now.”
“What if you don’t?” Ruby asked, her voice high and soft but clear in the cramped, enclosed space in which they found themselves.
Sunset drew breath in through her nostrils. “What if I don’t? What if we don’t? That outcome is not possible. I will not suffer it.”
Ruby frowned; her face could sometimes seem childlike, but now, she seemed older, and Sunset was reminded that there was only a two-year difference in their ages, that this was a girl who, for all that she might sometimes act immaturely, had endured and suffered much. “Rainbow Dash,” she said quietly. “My mom was a huntress. My uncle is a huntress. My dad teaches at Signal CombatSchool on the island of Patch. I… I guess you could say that I was always going to be a huntress, because of whom my mom was, who my family is, because of all the stories about huntresses and huntsmen that my sister Yang used to read me when it was time for bed.”
“You say 'was,'” Twilight said softly. “Your mother was, not your mother is. Then… does that mean…”
“She’s… she’s gone,” Ruby confirmed with the melancholy of a scar over an old wound. “She died on a mission when I was little.”
“Would we have heard of her?” Ciel asked, earning her a bit of a frown from Pyrrha.
“Does that matter?” Jaune demanded.
“No,” Ciel admitted. “Forgive me. I was wrong to impose simply to satisfy my curiosity,” – she glanced at Sunset – “for all that it might be said to bear upon the previous line of discussion.”
“Even so,” Pyrrha murmured, “that hardly seems reason to-”
“It’s fine,” Ruby said.
“Ruby,” Jaune murmured. “You don’t have to talk about this if-”
“It’s okay, Jaune,” Ruby said. “But… no, you probably wouldn’t have heard of her. My mom’s name was Summer Rose. She was a great huntress, and she was…” She glanced at Sunset, and the words ‘silver eyed warrior,’ though they lay unspoken in the presence of Atlas, hung heavily between the members of Team SAPR. “She was a great huntress,” Ruby repeated. “She led her team, and she fought the grimm right up until the day she died. She was a great huntress, but nobody ever built a statue of her or wrote a book about her. Nobody remembers her, nobody even knows her name apart from her family. She was a great huntress, but she didn’t get any glory from it.”
“Then wh-?” Sunset cut herself off before she could say it.
Ruby looked at her. “What?”
Sunset looked away, paying particular attention to the rust on the walls of the train car. “Nothing.”
“Sunset-”
“I said, it’s nothing,” Sunset said, more sharply this time. She didn’t want to seem unkind, but… well, if she said what was on her mind right now in front of Jaune and Pyrrha and the Atlesians, then she was afraid that she would seem very unkind. Let Ruby think what she liked, let the fact that her mother had died in ignominious obscurity, tell her something about the lot in life of the average huntress, but they were not average. Sunset would not endure to be average. She would win. She would rise. She would claim all things that she desired and deserved.
And she would not ask in the presence of all this company whether or not Ruby really believed that her mother’s blood, sweat, tears, and very life itself had been worth it for… for what? For a little plot of earth to lie in and the memories of a handful of people? Whether she was ready to launch herself on that same course for that same reward.
But she couldn’t say it in front of all these people; it would seem too harsh. She would not seem unkind, even if she was.
And besides, she didn’t want to be unkind, not to Ruby. She didn’t deserve it, especially not over something like this.
She didn’t want to hurt Ruby with her words, even if she would defend to herself the sentiment that underpinned those words.
She exhaled. “Somebody say something else. Please.”
“My family has a long history of military service, predating even the foundation of Atlas itself,” Ciel said, picking up on the cue without complaint. “Soleils have fought for Mantle, and they have fought for Atlas. And now I fight for Atlas, as I will send my daughter to fight for Atlas one day in her turn.”
“As simple as that?” Sunset asked.
“As simple as that,” Ciel said.
If you live to have a daughter.
Sun grinned. “And the award for shortest answer of the night goes to Ciel!” He looked a little disappointed at the lack of response.
“You may not have to send your daughter to fight for Atlas,” Pyrrha said, softly but solemnly too.
“Why would I not?” Ciel asked, sounding genuinely curious.
“I am here… I believe… I’ve always believed that my destiny is to protect the world,” Pyrrha said, sounding halting as if she was afraid that at any moment people would try to mock her for what she said. “I came to Beacon because I wanted to do more than just win tournaments, because I wanted to protect humanity from its enemies and put my skills to better use than entertainment. I’m here because I want to save lives and because I believe, I truly believe with all of my heart, that we can do more than just hold the line against the grimm, more than just take back a little territory beyond the boundaries of the kingdoms or found a few new villages. I believe that we can retake our world from the monsters who plague it.”
Silence greeted her pronouncement. Rainbow let out a puff of breath. “That would be awesome. That would be the greatest thing… no more grimm, no more fighting, no more risk. You’re talking about a world where kids like Scootaloo and Apple Bloom can just be kids without having to decide if they want to learn how to kill monsters, where Pinkie and Rarity and Fluttershy wouldn’t have to worry about what happens when the levee breaks, where…you’re talking about everything. And I’d love to believe that you can do it, I’d love to believe that we can do it, but… Pyrrha Nikos, I’ve seen you fight, and you are good. But I don’t believe that even you are that good. Do you really think you’re that good?”
“I don’t know,” Pyrrha said, “but I know that we have to try, all of us, together. If we don’t try, if all that we do is bequeath the battle to our children so that they can leave it to their children, I…” She reached out, and placed a gloved hand on Ruby’s shoulder. “I mean no disrespect to your mother, Ruby… but I believe that we have to aim higher than that.”
“To make a world where there’s no need for people like us?” Rainbow asked, as her ears twitched and a smile played across her face.
“That is my ambition,” Pyrrha said. “I cannot promise I’ll achieve it… but it’s what I aim for.”
“And maybe we will,” Ruby said, looking up from where she sat on the floor into Pyrrha’s face. “Maybe we’ll do what no one else could. If we stick together and keep getting stronger and never give up, then-“
“Then what?” Blake said. “Say that you did it. Say that you exterminated the creatures of grimm… somehow. Let’s say for a moment that that actually happened. There would still be a need for huntsmen and huntresses. Even if all of the grimm disappeared tomorrow, the world would still be full of cruelty and injustice and corruption, and I’m not just talking about the White Fang but also all the things that created the White Fang in the first place. That’s why I’m here, to fight against all of that, and that won’t change just because the grimm are gone.”
“Did you just explain why you became a huntress or why you joined the White Fang?” Rainbow asked.
Blake was sitting a little removed from the rest, her knees up and her arms wrapped around them. “I know why I’m here,” she said, “and I’ll fight against the White Fang or the grimm when I have to. If that’s not good enough for you, then I’m sorry.”
Sunset, who fancied that she knew more about why Blake was here than some but still wouldn’t claim to be able to answer for her, locked eyes with her for a moment. Sunset’s green orbs met Blake’s golden eyes before Blake looked away.
“It’s alright,” Rainbow said. “I trust you. How about you, Sun?”
“Like I told you before,” Sun replied. “It seemed-”
“'Like a good idea at the time,'” Blake quietly interrupted.
Sun chuckled. “Yeah, you could put it like that. I like to travel. I don’t… or at least I didn’t… staying in one place too long never appealed to me, you know. Having a regular job, a house, all that kind of thing. It’s just not who I am. I’m more of a ‘roam from place to place’ kind of guy, never settling down and always moseying on. And I figured that being a huntsman was a good way to do that, taking jobs in lots of different places, helping lots of different folks. Because I don’t want to be a burden, you know? I wanted to help out, and… well… that seemed a good way to do it.”
“That’s nice, Sun,” Ruby said. “I think that’s pretty much what Yang wants too. Although, to be honest, it makes me worry about her sometimes, whether she’ll be okay on her own, wandering from place to place with one to help her.”
“From what I’ve seen, Yang’s plenty tough,” Sun said. “Tougher than I am, that’s for sure.”
“A Vacuan admitting to weakness?” Sunset asked.
“Hey, we’re not all like Team Indigo,” Sun insisted. “The point is, don’t worry about your sister, Ruby; she’ll be fine.”
“I know,” Ruby said. “I just don’t always remember.” Her brow furrowed. “Hey, Sun… you said ‘didn’t.’”
“Huh?”
“You said you didn’t want to stay in one place, not don’t,” Ruby pointed out.
“Oh,” Sun said. “Well… it’s just that lately… I guess that I might have, you know, found a different reason to fight.”
“Aww,” Ruby cooed. “That’s so sweet!”
“It is rather lovely,” Pyrrha agreed.
“Don’t you think so too, Blake?” Ruby asked.
Blake almost smiled. “I’m aware of my good fortune,” she said as she reached out to take Sun’s hand in hers.
“Okay, get a room you two,” Rainbow said. “Right, who’s left… what about you, Jaune?”
“I…” Jaune looked away from Rainbow Dash; for a moment, he glanced at Pyrrha sitting beside him, but then he looked away from her as well. He got up off the crate of rifle rounds that he was sitting on. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he said and began to walk away down the car towards the head of the train.
“Jaune, wait!” Pyrrha called as she got up herself and began to follow him. Jaune didn’t stop, but Pyrrha followed him nonetheless into the darker recesses of the badly lit cargo car.
Sunset was content to follow him with her eyes alone until he passed out of sight, but she could see why Pyrrha had followed because his behaviour was inexplicable to her. She’d always thought that Jaune’s motivations were simple enough and similar to her own in many ways. He wanted to be the hero, and if he didn’t have skill to commend him for the heroic role, then, well, Sunset Shimmer had many faults, but she wasn’t one to fault anyone for having big dreams. His ambition was probably the thing that she respected most about Jaune Arc: he knew what he wanted, and he was willing to put his life on the line for it; whatever else you could say about him, that fact entitled him to a little respect.
But then why be so reluctant to say it in front of everyone? It wasn’t as if it was especially ridiculous, no more so than what Sunset had said or even Pyrrha. It wasn’t as if the Atlesians were going to laugh at him. So why?
Hopefully, it’s nothing. Hopefully, he’s just out of sorts tonight for whatever reason. Pyrrha will get it out of him, and hopefully, it will blow over after that.
“What’s with him?” Rainbow asked.
“Nothing you need to concern yourself with,” Sunset said. “He’ll be fine when the time comes. We all will.”
“Sure,” Rainbow said, sounding unconcerned by it all.
“What about you, Twilight?” Ruby asked. “Why are you here?”
“I, uh,” Twilight murmured, looking at Rainbow Dash. “I… I’m not really a huntress. I’m just here to help Penny, you see…wait, where is Penny?”
It was only when Twilight drew attention to the absence of the fourth member of Team RSPT that Sunset noticed that she wasn’t there. There were only seven people here now, with Pyrrha and Jaune having gone elsewhere. Penny was nowhere to be seen.
Ruby got to her feet. “Maybe she’s still in the other compartment. I’ll check there.”
“Ciel, go-” Rainbow began, but Ruby had already sped off in a burst of falling rose petals. “Okay, Ciel, follow her and keep an eye on Penny.”
“Affirmative,” Ciel said as she leapt up and began to follow in the direction Ruby had raced off in.
Perhaps Jaune isn’t the only one who’s out of sorts tonight.
Ruby raced across the coupling joining the two compartments – the one they’d been squatting in and the one with all the robots where they’d first boarded the train – and into car six with its cargo of rank upon rank of Atlesian battle droids. The door to the car was open, and for a moment, Ruby feared that Penny had fallen off the train or something, but after a moment, she could see her standing in the doorway, framed by the moonlight coming in through the open door which cast her white smock in a shade of blue. The silver light danced upon her fair skin.
Penny was staring up at the source of the moonlight, at the broken moon that hung in the sky above.
“Do you ever wonder how it got that way?” Ruby asked as she walked across the carriage to join Penny at the open doorway. The moonlit landscape – in the moonlight, the leaves of the forest seemed to glow like burning embers, as though it was a forest of flame that they were passing through and not a forest of leaves – rushed by as the train devoured the miles. “When I was a kid, I used to wonder what happened and why all those pieces didn’t fall down and hit us. I still don’t know what’s holding them up.”
Penny looked at her. “I’m sorry, Ruby, but I’m afraid I don’t know either.”
Ruby smiled. “That’s okay, Penny. I didn’t expect you would, I just… I came to find you because no one knew where you were. I was a little bit worried about you.”
“That… that’s very kind of you,” Penny said. She looked back up at the moon. “As you can see, I’m fine.”
“Are you?” Ruby asked. “Are you really? Why didn’t you come in and eat with the rest of us?”
Penny said, “I thought it might be better not to. I… I don’t think Pyrrha likes me very much.”
“What are you talking about?” Ruby asked. “Pyrrha likes you. She likes you a lot. What would make you think she doesn’t?”
Penny turned around and gestured to the massed ranks of the Atlesian androids. What moonlight reached inside the carriage to touch them glimmered upon their metallic carapaces. “Pyrrha… doesn’t like robots.”
“I guess not,” Ruby said, failing to see the relevance. “But-”
“Ruby, can I tell you a secret?” Penny asked, her voice suddenly sounding urgent. “This is a big secret, but I’ve been given permission to tell Team Sapphire, and I want you to know first of all. Can I trust you, Ruby?”
Ruby looked into Penny’s eyes. “Of course you can, Penny. You can trust me with anything and everything. Whatever secret you might have to tell, it’s safe with me, I promise.”
Penny clasped her hands together above her heart, and for a moment, she cringed as if the mere act of considering telling Ruby her secret – whatever that secret might be – made her afraid. “I… I’m not a real girl,” she said. “I… I am a robot, the world’s first ever robot with aura. I was created in a lab in Atlas by my father and Twilight and their team; Mis- General Ironwood sponsored my creation because he believes in me. General Ironwood says that I can save the world one day, but… what that means is that… I’ve been lying to you. I’m not a person, Ruby; I’m not that different from those robots behind me-”
“You’re nothing like them,” Ruby said in a voice that was simultaneously both firm and gentle.
Penny’s eyes widened. “Ruby… but-”
“You’re nothing like them,” Ruby repeated as she reached out and wrapped her hands around those of Penny. Penny’s skin felt natural; if Ruby hadn’t just been told that it was artificial, she would never have realised on her own. It was soft, a little cold, but it felt like skin and not plastic or anything like that. “You just said that you have aura, right? The first robot to ever have aura. But do you know what that means? You know what it means to have aura: it means you’re alive. You have a soul, because that’s what aura is: it’s a manifestation of your soul. You’re not just a machine, even if you do have processors and a power core or whatever. You have a soul. You’re a person, just like me. Just like all of us.”
Penny’s eyes grew wider still. “You… you mean it?”
“I do,” Ruby said solemnly.
“But… Pyrrha said-”
“Penny,” Ruby interrupted. “If General Ironwood ordered you to kill me, would you do it?”
“O-of course not!” Penny exclaimed. “You’re… you are my… my friend. I could never hurt you, Ruby.”
“I know,” Ruby said softly. “I trust you, Penny. If you ever doubt that you’re different from the other robots again, just remember that: you can make your own choices; you don’t have to do just what you’re told.”
Penny smiled sadly, her bright green eyes filled with melancholy. “Ruby… thank you. To hear you say that means more to me then I know how to say. But that’s not entirely true.”
She turned away and looked out the open door again, pulling her hands gently out of Ruby’s grasp.
“What? Why not?”
“I… I couldn’t help but overhear you talking in the other car,” Penny said. “You were all explaining why you became huntsmen and huntresses. You all have something that you want, something that drives you. All of you… except me.
“I was created in a lab by Atlesian scientists to be a weapon for the Kingdom of Atlas. I was created to fight. I didn’t choose to become a huntress… I was designed that way.”
“Penny,” Ruby murmured. “Is this not what you want?”
“What I want doesn’t matter,” Penny said. “I was created by Atlas to serve Atlas.”
“Of course it matters!” Ruby exclaimed. “What you want matters; it matters more than anything else in the world. It doesn’t matter what General Ironwood wants or what your father wants, or your team or even the Council of Atlas. Penny, if… if you don’t want to fight, then… then I promise that I’ll do whatever it takes to help you be free of all of them. If that’s what you want.”
Penny stared at her. Her mouth gaped open. She was completely silent, robbed of speech. She stared at Ruby for so long, it was honestly starting to get uncomfortable.
“You… you would do that for me?” Penny said.
“I would,” Ruby said without a trace of hesitation to diminish the resolution of her tone.
“But… Ruby, do you realise what you’re saying?” Penny asked. “You can’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
“But… why?” Penny asked. “Why would you do that… for me?”
“Because it’s the right thing to do,” Ruby said, “and because…you’re my friend.”
“Ruby…” Penny enveloped her in a hug that would have been bone-crushing if she hadn’t had her aura up at just the right time. “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you so much. Ruby; why do you fight? Is it only because of your mother and your father and your uncle?”
Ruby shook her head before she realised that Penny couldn’t see that right now with the way they were hugging. “No, Penny, it isn’t. It’s because… it’s because I can. There are things that I can to protect other people, things that they can’t do to protect themselves. And so… because I can do those things, I think… I think that I ought to do those things, because if I didn’t, then other people might get hurt.”
“Then that will be my reason for fighting too,” Penny said. “Until… until I can work out what I want to do.”
“Then when you do,” Ruby murmured. “I’ll be waiting.”
Ciel Soleil lurked in the shadows by the car door, silent, watching. She watched everything, heard everything, and as she watched and heard, a smile spread slowly across her features.
She was a soldier of Atlas, but not a mindless one; she wasn’t a drone like all those AK-190s in there. If Penny could find a reason for fighting beyond the fact that it was what she was made to do, if she could find a cause to drive her on, to light a fire in the pit of her soul and keep her going in the darkest of moments, then so much the better. If Ruby Rose could help her find that cause, then good for her.
And if Penny couldn’t find that cause, if she in the end decided that she had no desire to fight, then…
Then Ciel Soleil would not stand in her way. She was a soldier, not a slave-owner.
Penny Polendina was growing up before her eyes. And it was wonderful to see.
“Jaune, wait!” Pyrrha called.
Jaune finally stopped. There were no windows in these cargo cars, and the ventilation was terrible, so there was a door open ajar near the front of their car to let some fresh air in for them. Jaune stood in front of that partially open doorway, letting the moonlight fall down around him. It fell on Pyrrha too as she approached him. It made her fair skin look ethereal, as though she were a statue made of marble or alabaster.
She gazed at him with concern in her eyes, eyes that seemed brighter now than he’d ever seen before, the green of her eyes popping out more than they had seemed to do in the past.
God, she’s beautiful.
“Jaune,” she repeated. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he said, and he meant it. Nothing was wrong; he just… he couldn’t quite bring himself to admit the truth in front of the Atlesians or Sunset. Or even Ruby, to tell the truth. “I just… I didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Why not?”
“Because…because there are things that I feel like I can only say in front of you,” Jaune confessed. He was a little surprised at how true this was, how true it had become. Pyrrha… he could talk to her. He could unburden himself to her. He could pour out his heart and soul to her in a way that he couldn’t do to anyone else because he felt in some way that wasn’t true of anyone else that she would listen to him. She wouldn’t judge, she wouldn’t criticise, she wouldn’t rail at him for the mistakes he’d made; she’d just listen and counsel him and forgive him everything that he did, even when it hurt her. “Pyrrha… do you remember that night on the rooftop when I told you what… what I’d done? I told you then why I wanted to come to Beacon.”
“Because you wanted to be a hero, like your ancestors,” Pyrrha said.
She remembered. Of course she remembered. Jaune got the impression that she remembered everything that he’d ever told her. Every single word. “I meant it then,” he said. “I meant that I wanted to be the hero, not the idiot stuck in the tree while his friends fought for their lives-”
“You’re not,” Pyrrha said. “You’ve come so far, so quickly, Jaune. I’ve never seen anyone push themselves as hard as you.”
“Thanks, but I didn’t bring this up so you could put my mind at ease,” Jaune said quickly. “I might not be the idiot stuck in the tree any more, but… I’m not the hero, Pyrrha. And I never will be. I get that now. I just… I couldn’t say it in front of everybody else. Only you.”
Pyrrha took a step closer to him. “I don’t understand.”
“I used to think that I could be the hero,” Jaune said. “Save the day, save everybody, kill the monsters, beat back the darkness.” He hesitated, taking in the way she looked in the moonlight. “And then I met a real hero.”
Pyrrha’s face flushed bright red. “Jaune, I-”
“I believe in you,” Jaune said. “I believe that you can do all the things that you said you wanted to do back there, if you only try. I believe that if anyone can defeat the grimm and save the world, it’s you, Pyrrha. I’ve never met anyone so brave and so committed as you. And I want to be there to see it when you do, and I want to help you any way I can. But I’ve got no illusions anymore. I’m not the hero, Pyrrha, not of my life and not of this story. You are, or Ruby is, or perhaps even Sunset. But not me. I don’t have… it’s not me. I’m just the backup, but that’s okay. Even if I couldn’t tell the rest of them that, it’s still okay, because I can tell you. If all that I can do is help you reach your destiny, then… then that’s fine by me.”
“Jaune,” Pyrrha whispered, and it was ridiculous, but he thought for a moment that he heard longing in the way that she said it. “Don’t.”
He blinked. “Don’t… what?”
“Why should you be the only one who has to give up on your dreams? It isn’t fair,” Pyrrha declared. “Why should Sunset and I have the right to chase our destinies when you have to give up on yours so that you can support us? I know that you have a semblance that makes it seem like that’s what you need to do, and I know that you don’t have the training that I have, but I don’t think that you… I don’t want you to give up on your dreams. The fact that you don’t, the fact that you can hold on to what you want, I… I admire that about you. The fact that you believe in yourself… it makes it a little easier for me to believe in myself too. Please don’t let that go. Keep reaching for your dreams, and I… I promise that I will help you to reach them.”
“Pyrrha, I…” Jaune could only stare at her. She looked so beautiful. The way the moonlight shone on her skin. She always looked gorgeous, but somehow, in this moment, she looked even lovelier, even moreso than he had thought possible.
He kissed her, because how could he be expected to resist, with her looking as beautiful as she did, as fair and lovely? He took her in his arms and felt her melt into his embrace as their lips met. Their kisses were fumbling, inexperienced still, but Jaune didn’t care; he was pretty sure that Pyrrha didn’t care either, given the way that he seemed to leave her breathless even though he had no more idea what he was doing with kissing than he did with romance in general. And even after the kiss was done, Pyrrha kept her arms wrapped around him, leaning against him, his arms around her in turn.
“Thank you,” he said, “for caring whether I give up or not.”
“Jaune,” Pyrrha murmured. “I’m sorry.”
“'Sorry'?” Jaune repeated. “Pyrrha, what do you have to be sorry about?”
“I’ve been…” Pyrrha hesitated for a moment. “Conservative, in my training of you. I’ve been able to justify it to myself, able to tell myself that I was teaching you as I was taught: the same techniques, the same footwork, the same style of fighting. But you’re not me, and my style isn’t a perfect fit for you.” She took a deep breath; Jaune could feel the rise and fall of her chest against his own. “For all your improvement, you don’t have my agility, my speed; you need to learn to fight differently from me, and I could see that, and there are techniques that I could have suggested to you, but I didn’t. Because the truth is… the truth is that I was afraid that if I pointed you in the direction of flashier, more powerful techniques, then you’d neglect the basics.” She took a step back. Jaune’s arms fell away from her; he had no desire to hold her in place against her will. “And perhaps… perhaps I just didn’t want to lose you to another teacher; I enjoyed the time we spent together too much. But I should have had more faith in you, and I should have put your desire to improve above what I wanted. I’m sorry,” she repeated.
“Pyrrha, you don’t need to say that,” Jaune said.
“But I’m the reason that-”
“That I’ve come as far as I have,” Jaune cut her off. “All of that is down to you. If it wasn’t for you, I’d still be disturbing Weiss up on her rooftop every night, exhausting myself and getting nowhere. And the truth is… you might have been right, at first. I would have jumped at a shortcut and not bothered with all of the basics that I needed to get down first. And I’m not sure that I would have been ready for another teacher, at first. I’m not sure if anyone else would have put up with me, but I know that no one else would have been as patient with me as you, as understanding as you, have explained everything to me as well as you. You’re the best teacher I could have asked for, the best partner I could have asked for. I got really lucky, when I ran into you, first day at Beacon.”
“Oh, Jaune,” Pyrrha murmured, looking away from him as her cheeks flushed red. “That… that’s very kind of you. But the truth is…” She grasped her sash in both hands, playing with it. “The truth is that I think that you’re ready for the next step.”
“Which is?”
“Well, I have two ideas,” Pyrrha explained, still not looking at him. “The first is that I’m going to ask Dove to be your sparring partner one night each week; I think that… do I guess right that you sometimes find it hard to see how much you’re improving against me?”
Jaune laughed nervously. “Well, I don’t seem to be getting any closer to beating you.”
“Dove is a little closer to you in skill, so I’m hoping that your improvement will be more obvious.”
“That sounds fair enough,” Jaune replied, “but why should Dove help me out like that?”
“I’m not sure of that yet,” Pyrrha admitted. “I’ll see if I can find a way to persuade him. My other idea is to use your aura more to attack.”
“You mean like Rainbow Dash?”
“Something like that,” Pyrrha murmured. “I have to admit,” – she looked around, as if she was worried the Atlesian team leader might be listening – “that I find Rainbow’s technique rather wasteful; she expends a lot of aura for the effect she achieves and squanders a lot of it in the sound effect; my old rival from the arena, Arslan, uses a similar technique but much more efficiently. In any case, I was thinking less of expelling your aura through your hands and more through your sword. I never learned how to do that, and I’m not sure at the moment who the best person to teach you would be, but I’ll find someone.”
“We’ll find someone,” Jaune corrected her. “After all, I should probably put in a little work for my own tuition, right?”
Pyrrha turned back at him, smiling. “All right then, we’ll find someone. Just don’t give up, Jaune; promise me you won’t give up. In time, you’ll be as strong as any of us.”
“I promise,” Jaune vowed. “I won’t give up.” He wasn’t sure that she was right, wasn’t sure that he could ever become that strong, but he would try.
For her, he would try.
For her, he would keep his promise.
For her, he would do anything.
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So Sunset is still thinking that she gets her place in the history books? I don't think many would like to see her at the top, specially the Faunus hating type. Though that Jaune is as thick as ever when it comes to recognizing social cues was to be expected.
Not since day one buddy
Are you sure they're on a train, not a ship?
9371862
God, wheres a Pinkie chortle emote when you need one?
Also I really do hope you make Jaune into a badass later, like have him continue growing until one day he just is the hero that he always dreamed of.
I bet Ruby and Pyrrha are going to realize they both like Jaune before Jaune ever notices anything...and Ruby will awkwardly bring up that thing that may or may not have happened between her mom, dad, and Yang's mom. To which Pyrrha replies, "That's an option?"
Uh... is there something we should know about Qrow?
9372021
Well he has worn a skirt before.. and had the legs for it.
Missing words or punctuation here.
*an
Well, nice to see that Jaune is every bit as oblivious as I've been about women over the years. And I really like that Ceil isn't just portrayed an android in human skin. There is sometimes a required coldness to the life of a soldier, but it need not be an amoral or unthinking coldness. The fact that she has a conscience makes her sense of duty an admirable virtue rather than the blind obedience it would have been without her morals. It's a small scene, but one of my favorites in the story thus far.
It's an interesting dichotomy, Sunset, the one who cares the least what people think of her, is almost entirely driven by the desire to be remembered fondly by those same exact people (in the most abstract sense of the word people, but still).
Nice chapter. I think Pyrrha Jaune is where you're headed. Sunset and her would have been intersting. At the moment I'm thinking Blake or even Cinder for Sunset. As long As it isn't Flash though I'm ok.
Equestria is a beautiful place. It is full of magic, peace, and harmony. Fighting, war and other forms of violence are rare, and borderline alien to ponies. So they will ask... why must you fight? But to ask why we fight is to ask why leaves fall. Perhaps there is a better question.
There is no one that joins up and risks their life on a whim. Everyone (and even everypony) has a reason to risk their life for. Is it fame and fortune? Honor and duty? Adventure and thrill-seeking? Family tradition? To fight for your country? To avenge the lost? To protect the innocent? To stand against oppression, corruption and evil? To find yourself? To stand up for something bigger than yourself? To be a hero?
If the monster frightens you, then swing the sword. And that is the beauty of this marvelous chapter, just like in the Mt. Glenn episode, as they ask each other and ask themselves what is their reason for bearing the sword? You cannot fight without reason, without purpose. So what is it you seek, why do you fight, what do you wish for? And once you know it, then you know why this is the path that you have chosen. And then nothing can stop you.
And so, it is not about why we fight. The true question is... what is worth fighting for?
9373396
Nice Mysts of Pandaria reference
9373396
Wonderful use of language
9373396
~A girl worth fighting for!~
Mulan aside, that is very poetic.
9371991
You really think Pyrrha or Ruby would want to take the "have a child with man only to immediately abandon them both after giving birth" route? Ruby only exists because Raven left Taiyang. They weren't in a polygamous relationship as far as we know; Tai was with Raven, and Summer stepped in after Raven left.
I like how you basically combined two episodes' conversations - that of the reason they chose to become huntresses, and Ruby's conversation with Penny- seamlessly. It's a bit of a shame that the "nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts" line didn't make it in though. One of my favorites.
9371830
Is that Aiden Gillen?
They are projecting, child
Sunset needing about a thousand words to describe her intricate keikaku regarding the two-way love triangle going on in her team. All I could think of was how she should've just thrown Pyrrha and Ruby in a pit, thrown a knife between them and have them duke it out. However as hilarious as that plan would be, it would be a little dumb because then they'd be literally fighting over some dumbass.
So plan B would be better: distract Ruby with something shiny. Specifically a shiny metal ass. And I'm not talking about Bender.
The worldbuilding and how it relates and makes Sunset feel at the beginning is fantastic, it is description with a purpose, but still description for our benefit as well.
I have been looking for this sort of detail and picture, and am both glad I found it, and sad I've actually missed it so many times. I want a gif of this. And of her teammates watching but not interrupting, since perhaps her tail isn't normally so animate (or perhaps it is when she's in thought like this, but this does seem deeper than most).
This sort of thing puts a smile on my face. I can't really be more specific in praise than that, other than just letting the reader's imagination do a lot of the work is a plus and helps with the comedic tempo while reading.
Wow. Wow. I... has Sunset and Penny talked much at all before this, anything resembling a one on one conversation? Not that there was much need for it for Penny, but boy I just had the weirdest reaction to realizing I don't remember them talking much at all. Granted, neither are exactly social butterflies, but it's just so... weird, thinking about it.
Oh gosh is Ceil actually snarkier than I remember her being? Or is she so... plain spoken that it comes off as snark? I know she is terribly literal, but still.
Among the rest of the chapter, it's a lot of good introspective for the characters. Some of it we might know already, but the discussion of it between the two teams is an enjoyable new dynamic. The opportunity to reflect on each other is especially interesting, and that reflection drives a couple members away to their own, more private conversations. Ruby and Penny is, of course, good, yet the rebuilding of Jaune's dream is perhaps the more superior feat, or at least the beginning of it.
And I'm still ten chapters ahead on this reread from where I'm reviewing. It's too hard to just stop!
I'm probably going to sound like a nitpicker (for the hundredth time) but aren't RSPT characters a little... static? -Please, don't hut me
I mean only Penny had some going on- coming to term with who she is, her desire to be famous and finding it less than fulfilling, but Rainbow, Ciel and Twilight stayed the same through the story.
There is Rainbow's internal conflict after the Breach but I'm not sure if it goes anywhere. Ciel and Twilight don't have much going on. Ciel is a religious patriot and Twilight's a scientist interested in magic and that's it. No conflict or self-reflection whatsoever. In comparison SAPR gets tons of character development.
For example: Ciel said she would send her daughter into the military but was barely conflicted with (possible) choices Penny would make. I have no doubts that its something she would choose but rather with the lightness of it at the moment. Feels like a wasted possibility.
I don't know maybe something will change in Part 2. There's lots of characters, after all.
10573672
I wouldn't say that this is nitpicking, RSPT are pretty much the secondary protagonists of the story and outside of Penny they don't have any development.
It is understandable with Twilight, she is the out-of-her-shell version that has already gone though a lot of development in her backstory.
Rainbow has the whole being faced against the things she has always dismissed, between her fears of her friends, the Gilda issue and the Sunset issue, but refusing to learn from her mistakes is a character trait in her case so no surprise that she comes out of the first part of the story with nothing but regrets and shifting the blame.
Ciel is also made as a rock, and you need something BIG to change her way of thinking.
In any case, I have the feeling that we will see all 3 have some serious developments when we concentrate on Atlas after the fall of Beacon again.
Uh, they have Penny
10574165
Yeah, I know, but she also barely participate in any serious conversation sans when Penny's free will is involved. We don't see her point of view on most of the events or even any interaction with other people and seem mostly ignorant to the racism case (would think she's more empathetic). Guess it might be explaned she's still somewhat shy, but it makes her look... flat.
And I still think her acquaintance with Sunset is greatly undeveloped. They share history from CHS, surely they have some stories to tell.
Well said.
No doubt in this. It's just the scene in this chapter. She said she would let Penny go but would she really do it if it was against the order? She has no doubts and I don't know if its a case that Atlas can do no wrong or just Ciel doesn't realise/doesn't take into the account the possible problems.
One can only hope.
10573672
totes nitpicking my dude, there's a meme out there about mindlessly consuming a piece of cake then looking down in shock and rage about there not being more. But on a serious note I don't think every character needs their own screen time for character development, they aren't main characters and it gets too messy and impractical to have to show the growth of every single character. We've already got growth in Blake, Ruby, Sunset, Jaune, Pyrrha and Penny with more characters in the future. There simply isn't enough screentime for a cast this large.
10574608
I would say that RSPT are important enough in the story to demand some character development, they are the JNPR of this story, but I am more than happy to wait until we concentrate on Atlas to get that development, where it will be the most relevant (and when we have some breathing space from the developments of team SAPR+Cinder)
I didn't know Qrow got a sex change...
10574753
Honestly, I don't think RS_T requires Character development, They have grown as much as they KHAAN, Now they only need to let us know the whole of their lives
These people need therapy
10618082
A week in Remnant, and *anypony* would need therapy. And these guys live there.
Ah, and it appears my earlier comment is vindicated.
….Which can be another turn of phrase for redundant, but I’m still glad I could call something I had otherwise forgotten about.
Had Ciel really not been introduced to the gang at this point? God damn. She is one of the most memorable things about this story for me. That’s a surprise.