Fillies and Monsters

by Solaris Vult

Chapter 5: The Golden Girl

“Hello, I am Diamond Tiara Rich, and these are my companions, Sweetie Crumbles Belle, Apple Bloom Macintosh, and Scootaloo Holiday Allgood.” Diamond said, pointing to each pony in turn, the Crusaders each took poses that they no doubt thought was cool, but were simply silly, as their names were called. Diamond scoffed, “Can you three please take this seriously, introductions are important!”

The yellow-haired girl gave a single chuckle and said, “Yang Xiao Long… You all got funny names? Where are you from?”

Ruby cut in, “They’re from some village outside of the kingdoms, they’re here to join Beacon.”

“Sweet, I hope you get in,” She said, shaking Diamond’s hand.

“So, what was that big boom and guy flying out of the window?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Oh, just some wannabe gangsters getting their butts kicked…” Yang replied, “Too bad I didn’t get what I came here for though.”

“Will he be ok?” Asked Sweetie, moving a little closer to the unconscious suited man on the ground, “That looks like a pretty rough hit.”

“He still has his aura, I doubt he’ll even be bruised come morning, but that should at least teach him not to mess with me again…”

Diamond spoke up, “We’re heading back to our hotel to gather our stuff, we only had enough lien to pay for the day, and I will not have anything of mine left behind.”

“Oh, right, that reminds me,” Ruby began, “I was thinking they could spend some time with us and dad, at least until they go off to Beacon… It’s been forever since we last had guests.”

“That’s nice of you Ruby, but I’m sure we can manage on our own,” Apple Bloom said.

“This wouldn’t be the first time we got stuck in a town we bearly know without any money,” Sweetie continued.

“Any friend of Ruby is a friend of mine,” Yang replied, “And it sounds like you girls don’t have anywhere else to stay, so it’s alright with me.”

---

“Discord!” Rarity shouted, her largest sewing needles all aimed at the chaos god, “You bring my sister right back here this instant!”

Rarity had, at last, reawoke from her faint, and had quickly gathered every needle she owned, even the recently broken ones, and had summoned the chaos god into her home. “As I said before, I’m afraid I can’t do that,” He replied.

With an anguished yell, the unicorn flung all the needles at the deity with as much power as she could muster, they all proceded to pass clean through the creature as if he were a hologram. “You clearly don’t grasp the concept of incorporeality…” The snake said.

With a shout, the unicorn began, “You will bring Sweetie Belle back, you hear me!”

“Please… I’ve already had enough of this from Applejack and Fluttershy… I won’t be sending any more fillies to Remnant, yes, yes, yes. But she’s going to school there, and-”

“I saw that beastly beast you brought in to the library, I won’t have my sister fighting more of those ghastly things!”

“Come on, that thing was a weak one, not even an alpha, it was practically a baby!”

“That was a baby!” Rarity nearly fainted again. Then, with even more rage than before, she grabbed a mirror and levitated it over her head like a bat ready to be swung.

“If it makes you feel any better, here… Now if you excuse me, I believe it’s time for me to get this talk from Rainbow Dash now… Auf Wiedersehen!” With that, Discord vanished in a flash of light, leaving behind a little white device with a diamond-shaped button on the center, painted to look like Rarity’s cutie mark. Enraged, the mare flung the mirror with all her force toward the nearest window.

---

Soon the two human girls and the fillies found themselves back at the hotel room, the man at the desk helpfully reminding them that their time was almost up. Entering the room, the two humans took notice of the girls’ armour which they quickly began equipping, it was certainly easier than carrying it around. “What’s in those boxes?” Yang asked.

“Oh, just some metal bits, screws, nuts, pipes, and all kinds of metal plates.”

Looking around the room, Ruby turned to the ponies and asked, “Where’re your weapons?”

“Weapons?” Scootaloo asked.

“Yeah, weapons, any good huntsman or huntress has awesome weapons!”

“We really don’t have any weapons,” Sweetie Belle said.

“I have this stick,” Scootaloo said, drawing the same wooden stick she had used back in the forest from a pocket inside her jacket.

“You kept that?” Apple Bloom said, supprised.

“Wait… Really? You don’t have any weapons?” Ruby asked, shocked.

“We really didn’t need any when we got jumped by those black wolf things,” Apple Bloom replied.

“You fought off beowolves without any weapons?” Yang asked, disbelief and astonishment mixing in equal measure in her voice.

“A few days ago I got jumped by an ursa while training and Yang could bearly take it out, even with Ember Celica!” Ruby said.

“Ember Celica?” Apple Bloom asked, confused.

“Ursa!” Sweetie shouted.

Smirking, Yang rolled her hands into fists and her massive golden bracelets extended outward and backwards, revealing a series of red cylinders around her wrist, and a metal tube extending from the front. Meanwhile, yellow armoured plates extended backwards over her arm.

“Woah!” Scootaloo said.

“By Celestia, that’s cool,” Apple Bloom remarked.

Diamond looked closely, intrigued. While Sweetie stared intently at the red cylinders, feeling the magic coming off them.

Yang’s smirk turned into a face-wide grin as she raised her arm and punched the air, eliciting a loud bang, a flash of orange light, and a concussive shockwave that rippled through the room, ruffling the fillies hair. They all jumped back, startled by the sudden burst. As Yang’s arm recoiled, an empty glass shell was ejected from the bracelet’s side, clattering to the ground, the dust inside expended.

“I can’t imagine getting hit with that, think what the blast would do to a person…” Diamond muttered.

Scootaloo yelled, “AWESOME!” She paused, gathering her breath, “Where can I get something like that! That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, I bet it feels awesome to hit something with that, it’s soooooo cool!”

“How are you allowed to carry something like that around? Isn’t it dangerous?” Apple Bloom muttered.

Yang laughed, “Yeah, my little Ember is awesome ain’t she… As for Bloom’s question, normally you need a license to make, sell, or own weapons, but you get one as part of joining a combat school… At least that’s how it is here in Vale, don’t know what the law’s like in Mistral or Vacuo, but I do know that Atlas is a bit harsher about stuff like that.”

“Do you have something cool like that!” Scootaloo turned to Ruby, who was blushing.

“Well, I kinda don’t have Crescent Rose with me right now… It needs one of the rotors replaced, so it’s currently lying in a bunch of pieces back at home.”

“Aww…” Scootaloo sighed.

“Well,” Diamond began, “Sounds like if we want to go to Beacon we better get some weapons of our own… Do you know where we might be able to buy some, and how much they cost?”

Ruby burst out laughing, Yang just chuckled a bit, “If you want the boring stuff!” Ruby replied.

“Sure, pistols and knives and swords you can get at any dusty old weapons shop, but you won’t be wanting any of that,” Yang replied.

“All students at Signal forge their own weapons, the school has an entire wing dedicated to blacksmithing and machining…”

“Yeah, it took a while, but a few weeks of work and I made Celica, and you should see the over-engineered monster, Crescent Rose.”

“When we get back home, I’ll take you out to the shed and we can start working on weapons for you… It looks like you already have plenty of parts,” Ruby finished, gesturing toward the boxes.

---

A great cyclone of wind disturbed the trees and sparks of electricity filled the sky. From a tree sat a lone blackbird, the crow’s crimson eyes staring out over the plains… In the distance, the mountains of south-east Sanus could be seen looming in the background, along with a winding dirt road that led from Vacuo to Vale. Carried on the wind, the crow heard the sounds of thunder in the distance, and saw the golden bolts of energy striking downward from the rolling clouds… This was no natural phenomenon, as the bolts, three or four, all struck the same place, over and over, followed by the distant crack of gunshots, and a powerful gust of wind that disturbed the leaves, howling like a hoard of apathy.

The crow took flight, realizing something was wrong and flew toward the source of the disturbance. In the distance could be seen a fight that any normal huntsman would awe at. A woman floated in the air, lifted by a column of wind that kicked up dirt and dust, firing a swarm of frozen leaves toward a pair of attackers. As the crow flew with all its might toward the battle, it saw the woman unleash a bolt of fire at another assailant, only to have the attack be thrown back in the form of dozens of shards of glass.

Thrown to the ground, the woman staggered as her foes ran forward, soon engaging in a fast and violent melee. One of the attackers drew a bow and fired a volley of ornate arrows at the brown and white clad woman, each impacted the ground and unleashed a fiery explosion that sent the woman stumbling to the ground, screaming.

The crow flew low to the ground, diving to increase its speed. Another burst of wind scattered the woman’s attackers, followed by bolts of lightning and fire, and the woman retrieved her dropped staff, stumbling to the green-haired girl, who she perceived as the primary threat.

As the crow passed above the ground, it transformed, beak shortening, wings growing longer and losing their feathers, legs turning from scaled bone to human flesh, and torso becoming more like that of a human man as his tail-feathers disappeared into his body.

The woman raised her staff, preparing to impale, but she herself was impaled as an arrow shot through her back, shattering spine and protruding from out the other end with a gout of blood. Still alive and biting back the pain, she lay there, paralyzed, as her assailants drew closer. One equipped a white glove adorned with arcane symbols like those seen on the bone-masks of grimm. And as the gasping woman was held in the arms of her other two foes, the woman in her red dress launched a stream of black ichor from her glove.

The crow-turned-man drew a sword, easily as long as the man was tall, from his back, and charged. Meanwhile, the woman still held captive, face coated in spidery webs of black sludge, screamed in pain. He lept and slashed, cutting the black inky tethers that linked the two women.

---

Once everything was packed, Ruby and Yang, followed by the ponies, packed themselves on the boat heading to the island of Patch, a sizable landmass not too far from Vale’s shoreline, according to the human sisters. The ship was a little smaller than expected, not much bigger than the schooners vanhoover fishermares used. They loaded their boxes into the cargo bay aboard the little dust-powered paddle-steamer. The front of the vessel had a rotating metal box with big metal tubes sticking out the end, Ruby said that they were there to keep any oceanic grimm at bay.

There were dozens of similar ships entering and leaving port, and the fillies found themselves rather impressed by the size of some. Thus, leading to their disappointment when they found the ship taking them to Patch. With the ear-splitting sound of the ship’s horn, it departed, dust-powered paddles churning the water as it left the Valsian docks, and the city behind. Way off in the distance was the big tower overlooking the city from its position atop the cliff, looming.

As Diamond watched the city go, she couldn’t help but feel that something was watching them from that tower, although she wasn’t sure whether that feeling was good or bad.

Comments

[Comnislasher]

“Ursa!” Sweetie shouted.

Wrong Ursa, Sweetie, wrong Ursa. But the funny thing that RWBY also has an Ursa Minor and Ursa Major.

[Zapper Frost]

As Diamond watched the city go, she couldn’t help but feel that something was watching them from that tower, although she wasn’t sure whether that feeling was good or bad.

Does Ozpin know?

[alfonso_rd_33]

9926124
as long as "Standard Issue Ursa" is not a thing I think they'd be safe
9926560
He's Ozpin... He knows EVERYTHING but how to beat Salem...

[Zapper Frost]

9926838
That's just because he asked Jinn the wrong questions

[alfonso_rd_33]

9926865
yes, but one should cut him... some slack... the dude's so ancient senility is a good plausibility

[Zapper Frost]

9926925
Now if only he had Velvet's semblance