Chapter 33: Golden-Yellow
The door to JNPR’s dorm opened, and in walked Jaune, a little bruised, exhausted, and worn out, this wasn’t the first time, Jaune had been coming in late for a little under a week now, but never as hurt as this… “Jaune! What happened!” Pyrrha shouted, concern flickering in her eyes…
“Oh, umm…” Jaune said, flustered, “Just did a bit of late training, trying to get better…”
“Why are you all bruised up!”
“Oh, my aura just broke right as we were doing hand-to-hand combat… I-It’s fine…”
“Did Cardin do this?”
“O-Oh, no, not at all… Apple Bloom… We’ve been training together, she’s really strong…”
Pyrrha was silent, happy that Jaune was finally taking his training seriously, then she paused, “Well, you should get some rest then, perhaps I can come along tomorrow to help with your training,” She smiled, although, she also wanted to make sure this wasn’t some excuse.
“Sure…” Jaune yawned, “Well I’m off to the shower…”
“Good night, Jaune,” Pyrrha muttered.
The first shipment had come in yesterday, gemstones, gleaming and refined, as well as the highest-quality metals and some liquid rainbow… Ponies, mostly unicorns, but many other earth ponies as well, worked the machinery… Fillydelphia was the industrial bastion of ponykind, a metropolis of industry, surrounded by pegasi-populated cloud banks that kept the pollution centralized on the city itself, and so it could not contaminate the countryside. Built so that the rest of the kingdom could enjoy the fruits of industry, such as railways and mass production, without tainting the land with factories and smog.
New orders had come in, nearly a week ago now, that new weapons were being developed for the Equestrian Guard… The spear and crossbow production facilities were to be remodelled to produce these new weapons. With the best mages and an army for workers, it still took four days to rig the equipment to stamp and shape metal according to the new blueprints, they were extremely intricate and filled with arcane machinery… Still, by the end of the fifth day, they were ready to produce the shells of the weapon, the actual assembly would need to be done by hoof, or preferably, by horn.
Finally, a worker, a young unicorn called Party Favor, shifted the last gemstone into place, and magically imprinted into the frame, the numbers “0001”
Dawn broke through the curtains, it was their day off, and both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle wanted to lay in bed and do nothing, then came the dreaded shout “Get up blank-flanks! We need to get more training in today!”
“Uhh… Ah-” Came a shout from Scootaloo’s bed, as Diamond pulled her out of bed, dumping the filly on the floor. Sweetie was already getting up and putting on her armoured coat, “H-Hey… Where’s Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo muttered.
“I don’t know, but at least she’s more active than you lot…” Diamond scoffed, picking up her sword and running her finger along the edge, feeling her aura tingle at the sensation. “Come on, today, the auditorium is open all day for anyone who wants some more training…” She muttered… The rest of the team, minus Apple Bloom of course, wandered down to the auditorium, where, Jaune had just walked out into the field, Cardin on the other side of the room.
On the count of three, Cardin charged, mace, burning with fire dust, smashed into Jaune’s shield, but, Jaune knew what to do here, thanks to Apple Bloom. Once he blocked the strike, he lunged forward, stabbing at Cardin’s head, who narrowly avoided the strike, and Jaune backed away, not wanting to push forward and risk a counter-attack. Then, Cardin stepped forward, swinging his mace downward, and Jaune leapt out of the way, slashing as he did so, but his sword only pinged off Cardin’s plate armour.
Cardin twirled around and smashed Jaune in the back of the head, slamming him into the ground, and causing his body to shimmer for a bit with white light, but Jaune got back up quickly, and rammed forward, shield-bashing Cardin hard. The bulkier kid could have taken it, had he a lower center of gravity, but, with his stance the way it was, she was shoved to the ground… Cardin lurched back up, Jaune still atop him, and shoving him off. Jaune crouched, holding his shield in front of him, and, as if smacking a golf-ball, Cardin slammed his mace against Jaune’s shield, sending him sprawling across the ground, panting, but he got back up.
Cardin cockily walked toward the boy, and Jaune readied himself to charge… He did so, slashing downward, but Cardin moved out of the way, but, after getting kicked in the ass by Apple Bloom, he knew what to do, and raised his shield behind him, which blocked Cardin’s counter-attack… He would have been thrown through the air if it weren’t for that, but, it did knock him to the floor, and he lost his grip on his shield, hand hurting too much.
Cardin gave him a solid kick to the chest, muttering, “This is the part where you lose.”
Jaune growled and shoved his sword at Cardin’s unarmored groin. Cardin shouted and kicked Jaune in the chest again before staggering off, and Jaune rolled out of the way of Cardin’s next mace strike… Jaune got back to his feet, but not quickly enough, as another slam of Cardin’s mace against his chest knocked Jaune over again… This time, he lost his grip on his sword, and Cardin slammed his boot into Jaune’s crotch this time, raising his mace above his head.
The buzzer sounded, and Glynda’s voice spoke as the lights returned to normal “Cardin, that’s enough,” She walked on to the stage as Cardin stared at the teacher, then backed away, “Students, as you can see, Mr.Arc’s aura has now dropped into the red, in a tournament-style duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle and that the official may call the match…” Glynda paused for a second, “Mister Arc, you should gauge your aura more often, but, I do applaud your focus on defensive combat, you have been doing much better these past few days…”
Cardin grunted and walked off the stage.
Jaune and Pyrrha walked out into a courtyard, Jaune had just come from an impromptu training session with Cardin, and his aura was still recovering... Here, Apple Bloom was standing, “Hi Jaune! Hi Pyrrha!” Apple Bloom waved, “Ready for your training…”
“Yeah…” Jaune mutters, drawing his sword and shield.
“Three… Two…” Apple muttered as Pyrrha watched, a smile on her face, seeing Jaune make friends and train. “One.” Apple Bloom lunged at Jaune, who raised his shield to block her strike, Apple Bloom wasn’t carrying her hammer, and simply smacked the shield with her fists, but it was enough to stagger the boy, and he nearly lost grip on his shield, but he held it fast. Jaune swung his sword, slashing at the air where Apple Bloom stood, but she had already jumped out of the way of the slash, and Jaune pressed forward, slashing some more. Apple Bloom moved to kick Jaune in the gut, but, seeing this, Jaune lowered his shield, and, while he was unharmed, he was knocked back a good dozen meters, landing on the ground with a thump, but he got right back to it.
Pyrrha was watching, impressed with how far Jaune had come in just a few days. He slashed at Apple Bloom’s chest, and managed to clip her gut, sparking off a bit of orange-red aura, but Apple Bloom retaliated with a punch to Jaune’s chest that knocked him to the ground, “You left yourself open there… Remember, don’t attack if you’re leaving yourself open to attack… That was something Yang drilled into us over and over again…”
“Y-Yeah…” Jaune coughed, “Ahhh!” He shouted as he charged and slashed again.
After a short battle that ended with Jaune getting knocked to the ground, Pyrrha chimed in, “Breakfast will be starting in an hour, afterwards, Apple Bloom, would you mind partaking in some hand-to-hand combat with me?”
“Sure, I was getting tired anyway….”
“Uhh…” Jaune moaned as he got to his feet, “D-Did someone say something about food…”
Pyrrha laughed, but Apple Bloom simply gave Jaune a pat on the back, and together, the three of them walked off to the dining hall. There were a few other students present, all sitting and eating, more would be filtering in soon… Apple Bloom saw a pale-skinned arm in a fluffy coat waving to her and she waved to Jaune and Pyrrha as she walked over to sit with her team.
“Ah, Apple Bloom, I wonder where you were, not slacking off or neglecting your studies I presume?” Diamond said.
“No, I’ve been helping Jaune out…”
Diamond scoffed, “Assisting our opponents… Typical blank flank behaviour…” She muttered under her breath.
“It isn’t a competition you know…” Apple Bloom muttered.
There was a long pause as everyone simply ate, then Diamond said to her team, “I have taken the time to read through our syllabus for the year.”
“Y-Year?” Apple Bloom muttered, “Discord never said we would be staying here for a year!”
“Isn’t it obvious, that dreaded snake hasn’t shown up again since three weeks ago… And we did want to go to a monster-hunting school…”
“B-But, Rarity!” Sweetie Belle almost shouts.
“And Rainbow Dash, I wonder if they even know why we’re gone!” Scootaloo shouts.
“Silver Spoon would have told them, she’s still back in Ponyville…” Diamond informs them…
Apple Bloom was silent, she had never been away from her family this long, ever… She almost felt like crying, now that the realization was starting to sink in… They would be here for a long time… Finally, she spoke, “S-Sweetie, a-are there any spells in that book that tell you how to send messages, t-the way Spike does?”
“I-I’ll check, once lunch is over…” Sweetie mutters.
Diamond continues, undeterred, “Starting tomorrow, we’ll be having field trips and team sparring exercises every week, leading up to next month when something called the ‘Vytal Festival’ happens… Apparently, there will be a tournament between a chosen number of teams from each of the kingdoms of Remnant… So yes, Apple Bloom, they are our opponents…”
Apple Bloom looked over at Diamond, “I’m still helping Jaune, he needs the help…”
Diamond scoffed, again, “I am the leader, and you do what I say, you are not allowed to assist the competition…”
“You ain’t my leader!”
Right as it looked like Diamond was going to draw her sword, Sweetie chimed in, “Stop it! Both of you!” She shouted, “Ahhh! I can’t stand this right now!” She slammed her face into the table, hard enough it made her pale pink aura shimmer around her head. “Oooooh…” She muttered into the table.
Everyone was quiet after that… And slowly, the dining hall started to fill with students, none of whom were really paying attention to one another… Nora was muttering some kind of story to her team, and team RWBY, the only part TASS caught was Nora shouting “Dozens of them!” from over in their corner of the hall… Most of team CFVY was nowhere to be seen, probably getting more training done, except for the bunny-eared girl, Velvet if Apple Bloom remembered correctly, who was all alone. Koa was laughing with some of his senior friends up on the other end of TASS’s table, meanwhile, Lavender and her team were off playing chess while eating, and Cardin’s team had just entered from the cafeteria, carrying their trays of food and sitting down.
Then, after a few seconds, some laughter caught some of the student’s attention, namely Cardin moving toward a girl with bunny-ears and making fun of her. Sweetie was reading through some books, Diamond didn’t care, and Scootaloo was lost in a daydream, not noticing… But Apple Bloom noticed and stared disapprovingly at Cardin, and his team’s, antics.
A few moments later there came a shout of “We’ll break his legs!” From Nora, of course, but Apple Bloom was still staring at Cardin, who clearly didn’t notice the faunus staring him down.
“Ooww, that hurts! Please stop!” Velvet shouted, and Apple Bloom practically lept from her chair, marching over to Cardin, who had seized the girl’s ears and tugged on them, hard.
“I told you it was re-” Cardin began, then he turned around, staring straight into the face of the, rather short, but still intimidating Apple Bloom, growling. “What do you want, mule-face…” Cardin spat.
“I told you, back on the ship, that I shouldn’t be catchin’ you doing somethin’ like that.”
“What are you going to-” Cardin began… Then, a punch to the gut sent him flying back, and skidding across the floor, breaking tile. He growled and got back to his feet, but Apple Bloom was already dashing toward him, rage in her eyes. She grabbed Cardin by the neck, hoisting him up, squeezing so hard his crimson aura was sparking violently where her fingers touched his flesh. Cardin tried to choke out an insult, or possibly a plea for mercy, but then Apple Bloom ran as fast as she could, and slammed him hard against a wall, hard enough that his aura shimmered, then broke. “G-Gah! What the-” Cardin began, now that Apple Bloom’s grip had loosened ever so slightly, but, his words were cut off by a punch to the side of his face, a light punch, Apple Bloom didn’t want to kill a student, but there still came the sound of bones cracking, and Cardin coughed up some blood on to Apple Bloom’s sweater.
Behind her, the door slammed open, and Glynda yelled across the room, “Miss Macintosh!” The voice made Apple Bloom drop Cardin to the floor, who was still coughing and bleeding, “Come with me this instant young lady!” And Apple Bloom felt magic wrap around her body, as a purple field suddenly pulled her back toward the door.
Celestia stood atop a podium, overlooking all of Cannterlot… Thousands of ponies were lined up, a great speech was scheduled for today, and many who had heard the rumours coming from Ponyville, Fillydelphia, and the scientific institutes of Canterlot, all had some vague idea of what it was about…
Celestia’s guards had strange weapons mounted to saddles, like spears, but shorter, mounted to boxy bases, glowing with energy. Luna was there too, as well as Fleur, but it was the princess of the sun who took center stage, her mane gleaming with light… She had even moved the sun behind her, shining light down on the ponies in Canterlot, to emphasize how important this speech was to be, for, undoubtedly, this would change the fate of ponykind… And not just ponykind, but all of Equus, even the fates of other planets…
“Ponies of Equestria and beyond, I am Princess Celestia of the Sun, the Morningstar, as was my title in the ancient days!” She shouted, and all the ponies below cheered, “Simmer down my little ponies! For what I have to say is important, and is something all of you need to hear and understand… The rumours from Ponyville, of Discord, the lord of chaos, sending ponies to another world, are indeed true… But there is more to this story than that! This other world is populated by beings known as Humans and Faunus, beings as intelligent as us, my dear ponies.” She paused to let the gravity and implications of what she just said sink in, “This has answered a question that has plagued ponykind since the days of Starswirl the Bearded, that we, as sapient creatures, are not unique to this world… For this other world is not one behind the veil of time and space, existing in another plane, or universe… Indeed, these creatures dwell in our very own universe, our own galaxy even... And there may be many more worlds out there bearing such life.”
Luna conjured an illusion, showing the pictures taken from the alien world, as Celestia continued, “These images were captured by our very own Princess Twilight Sparkle, who has journeyed to this world with the help of Discord… But, the god of chaos will not assist me any further, so, I will make it the top priority of all Equestria, to find this other world, and I hope the other nations of our beautiful planet will assist us…” She paused for a second, “I know many of you have been wondering about the government’s seizure of the gem mines and liquid rainbow production, and rest assured, all workers of such institutions will be receiving triple wages, for their work will be critical in our upcoming future.
Luna dispelled her illusion and walked up to the podium, her turn to talk, “We have done this because those resources will be important in finding and venturing to this other world, as portals will undoubtedly need to be constructed… But, we ask all able unicorns to offer their arcane skills to the discovery of this other world, we know that its moon is damaged, and we know what kind of star it orbits, but it will still take a lot of time and effort to identify this star, so we may teleport to it…”
Celestia continued talking, “Establishing a link between our worlds is crucial, to get these ponies back to their homeworld, and to further our understanding of the universe…” She finished, and suddenly, every pony cheered, as whispers spread through the crowd, wondering what these aliens were like, what profit could be made through interplanetary trading, and, the more cynical ponies were wondering if a war would come between the two worlds.
Finally, Celestia walked back into the castle…
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Slight problem with this chapter, when ponies started cheering for Celestia, she shouted 'silence' to calm them. She wouldn't do that. Could you change to "Simmer down my little ponies" or something along those lines, that'd be a lot closer to Celestia's personality.
10052403
Yeah, that seems more Lunaish... Fixing that right now...
I have a hard time to believe that Luna could pull off something like this without Celestia knowing. "Royal Problem" shows us that it's Celestia who rules over Equestria while Luna just does her "sleep protection" thing. So if Luna tries to waltz in and start to nationalize things I'm one hundred percent sure that everyone first runs to Celestia to make sure rather than just do what Luna wants them to do.
10052407
Thanks.
10053066
Honestly, I didn't know whether I wanted Luna or Celestia to give that speech at first, and I got their personalities mixed up in my mind a bit...