> Remnants of Equestria: SSTT
>  by chillbook1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Sunset
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Long ago, before even the Great War, there was a land called Equestria. Within Equestria, there were four warring groups of people. They separated into four villages, which eventually grew to live in four massive Forts: Fort Vale, Fort Mistral, Fort Vacuo, and Fort Atlas. Their hate and distrust for each other attracted the creatures of Grimm, beings of darkness and negativity, who demolished their forts and greatly diminished their numbers. A small band of survivors from Fort Atlas uncovered a secret weapon, Dust, which they shared with the other survivors. The surviving Humans and Faunus battled the Grimm and erected Kingdoms, named for their forts. By this point, society as they knew it was in tatters, and these Remnants of Equestria built a new land, appropriately named “Remnant”. Their walls were guarded by powerful men and women, wielding both steel and Dust as weapons. These guardians had many names. Some called them spirits. Others knew them as half-gods. Today, we call them Huntsmen, but the names don’t matter. Regardless of what they are called, they should be acknowledged as one thing above all else; Legends.

That was the story my dad would tell me, and then my mom when Dad would hunt. I don’t remember the whole story, but I remember bits and pieces. I remember my father’s grin from that last word. Legends. That’s what he wanted to be. He had always wanted to be a legendary hero, protector of the weak, helper of the helpless. That’s what made me know, without a doubt, that I wanted to be a Huntress.

I was always a good fighter, and I flew right through Signal like it was nothing. Dad wanted me to go to Atlas Academy and train with the strongest military force in Remnant. I would’ve done it if he hadn’t gotten laid out like he did. My dad’s paralysis made me stay, if for nothing else than to punish the Grimm responsible. When I first saw my mother wheel him in, I made my decision. I would slay Grimm and become Vale’s greatest hero, just like my father was.


My name is Sunset Shimmer and I want to be a Huntress. 

I was widely considered the greatest fighter at Signal. I only ever lost to my best frenemy, Starlight (rumor has it, she actually did move to Atlas). I owed most of my success to my awesome axe guitar, Rebecca. Becky and I have won hundreds of fights, against students and Grimm alike (even though I wasn’t really supposed to hunt just yet). I was unsurpassed, for the most part. It got really boring after a while.

My story begins like a lot of others: At initiation. Well, about an hour before initiation, actually. That’s when I saw her for the first time since the thing with my dad. She didn’t know my name, but I knew hers. I made it my business to learn her name, her history, everything about her. Despite having only seen her a rough dozen times in my life, I recognized her immediately. Straight, purple hair, that stupid pink highlight, the big, twitchy pony ears on the top of her head. When I look back at it, we were very similar. Faunus children of legendary Huntsmen and Huntresses. We both had massive shoes to fill, even if one of us was more eager to fill them than the other.





I was walking through Beacon’s courtyards, my guitar case slung over my shoulder during my stroll. I needed to do something, anything, to burn time until I could do what I did best: fight. The fresh air was nice, the sun warm enough to make me slightly uncomfortable in my leather jacket. I considered picking a shady tree to nap under and was about to choose one when I saw her.

She was reading a book on Grimm biology when I approached her. She was so preoccupied, I was able to stare at her for several moments without being noticed. She never heard me, despite the big, very functional ears. She was too focused. I grinned slyly, determined to play with my food before I devoured it.

“We're both Faunus, but your mom was human. How does that work? Shouldn't you have one ear or something?” It was a stupid question, but it caught her attention as intended. She looked up from her book, locking her deep violet eyes onto my piercing cyan ones. I smirked deviously, then gently flicked her pony ear.

“It’s based on recessive genes,” she said quietly. “H-hello. I’m-”

“Twilight Sparkle, daughter of Night Light and Twilight Velvet,” I said, smirking at the confused and startled look she gave me. I stepped back, allowing her to get a good look at me. Soak it in, Sparkle. I have the same ears as you. We’re basically kin. I wanted her to remember every detail of my face because she would be staring at my back from that point on.

“Sorry, I don’t know your name,” said Twilight.

“Sunset Shimmer,” I said, my tone false and sugary-sweet. I extended her hand. “My parents knew your parents. Your brother and that girl of his, too.” She stared at my hand nervously for a second, then gripped it and shook. 

“Nice to meet you,” she said.

“So, is it true?” I asked. She looked at me with an expression that spilled confusion. Awesome. “About your dad being a member of the White Fang?”

“What?! No, of course-”

“Ya know, I think he must’ve been. Otherwise, he was just a coward.” I glared at her coldly, hoping my gaze could somehow make her understand the hate I had for her, for her parents.

“My dad was a hero,” she lied. “He was brave and strong. He wasn’t a Fang, and he was definitely no coward.”

“Hm. If that’s so, why’d he run? What kind of a man just leaves his daughter behind?” I grinned darkly. Get it now, Sparkle? You and your dad are worthless. “No man at all. Face it, Sparkle, your pops was a coward.”

“He didn’t run, he went missing.” She gripped the dagger on her hip angrily. “So ungrateful dirtbags like you can be safe.”

“Oh, who told you that? Your brother? What about the team he was working with?” I all but spit in her face at that point. “Did you bother to ask them their side? Why not ask the people he affected, like my dad. You know, he’ll never be a Huntsman again, and it’s all because of Night Light. He was a coward, and he doesn’t deserve the decency of being declared MIA. He went AWOL, to save his own skin, and-”

“You’ve clearly never met my father. If you did, you’d know that he was a brave man.” She stood up and drew her dagger. “You will not talk about him that way.”

“You gonna stop me?” I hissed. “You’re his daughter, and a coward can only make a coward.”

“How about we duel? Maybe we’ll see who’s really the coward,” she said, adopting her battle stance. Right foot forward, dagger in her right hand and facing down. Her left hand clenched slightly and held below the right. It was the most efficient way to use that dagger of hers, Dusk. A long, purple-tinted dagger with a thick crossguard the length of the blade itself. There were little dents along the guard for her to put her fingers in when it transformed. On the end of the hilt was a small amethyst that was vital to her style of combat. That said, I had no clue what that style was. I’d only seen her fight once or twice, and she never transformed it before. In that one regard, I was in the dark. Not that it mattered.

“Sure. I’m not busy,” I said, slinging my guitar to the floor. “That’s a tiny knife, though, you sure that’s enough?”

“You have a guitar, for Pete's sake.”

I flipped open her case and withdrew a large, electric blue electric axe guitar, both an axe literally and in musical terminology. The body was actually a sharpened blade, easily capable of cutting right through her stupid face. I twirled it around, then played a loud, hard rock solo.

“This baby plays some killer chords, huh?” I said mockingly.

“That’s not plugged into an amplifier…” she noted. She was really smart, but apparently had never seen a guitar with a built-in amp before. “How do we do this? Do we count to three or-”

She barely had time to duck my first swing. The next one was no easier, just barely missing her dagger arm. She finally got the lead out of her boots and made her first stab forward. I blocked it with the flat of my axe, tilted it, and wailed out another chord. 

My music blared, knocking her flat on her ass. She recovered, then threw out a left hook. I dodged right, an admittedly foolish move which allowed her to catch me on the side of the face with Dusk’s hilt. I shook the pain away angrily, then played another loud blast of music, this one powerful enough to knock her on her ass. I stood over her, turning my guitar over in my hands before raising it up. This was what it would always be like, Sparkle. I am superior to you in every way and don’t you dare forget it. I would never kill her, but I’d scare her to hell and back. I swung my axe downwards, prepared to stop it a few inches from her nose.

I’m not sure exactly what happened next. All I know for a fact is that Rebecca was flung to the side, as was Sparkle’s Dusk. Then, I felt the air leave my lungs, and I was suddenly on my back a few yards away. It happened so fast, next thing I knew, someone was pulling me to my feet.

“Unless one of you is secretly a Grimm in disguise, I see no reason for weapons to have been drawn,” said the interference. She was a tall, pale woman with a head of long, tri-colored hair. A large, golden scepter in her hand exuded a strange, yet familiar, energy, and marked her as the Headmistress of Beacon.

“Professor Celestia…” I said quietly.

“Sunset Shimmer, I know your parents quite well, so I say on rather good authority that they would be aghast at your behavior,” said the Professor sternly. “They taught you better than this.” She turned to Sparkle. “The same goes for you, Ms. Sparkle. Tell me, do you think your father would want you to get expelled in his name?”

Even though she thought I was going to behead her a few moments ago, that was the scariest part of the day for her.

“E-e-expelled?” stammered Twilight. 

“Students who battle on school grounds face expulsion.” Her stony gaze softened significantly. “However… As orientation hasn't begun yet… I suppose you aren't students. “

“Why?” I asked. Later, I’d ask myself why I would risk expulsion by asking such an unnecessary question. “Why not just boot us out? It’d be easy, and you’d be in the right.”

“Because, much like Blaze, Starburst, Night Light, and Twilight Velvet, I believe in second chances,” said Celestia. She folded her scepter in half, then slipped it through a loop in her belt. “Neither of your families would be happy to know that you are fighting one another in retaliation for events you were too young to understand.”

“She called my father a coward,” she said. She sounded like a child, which was appropriate.

“He was not. You know that, I know that, and even Sunset Shimmer knows that. What happened to your parents, both of yours, was a travesty. Neither party was at fault.” Celestia crossed her arms behind her back. “You two will shake hands, apologize, and wish each other luck in the coming initiation.”

Sparkle and I glared at each other for a bit before we each begrudgingly grasped each other's hands, as if the other would sprout Taijitu fangs.

“Sorry,” she said through gritted teeth. “Good luck with initiation.”

“Right back at you, Sparky,” She clearly didn’t like the nickname, which meant I would use it every chance I got.

“I suggest you both head to the Great Hall for debriefing before initiation,” said Celestia. She turned to walk away but stopped herself. “There are too many enemies in this world for you to make more amongst your friends. Remember that. You are here to fight Grimm, not each other.”

She was right. Of course, she was right. And of course, I was too young, stupid, and angry to care. All that mattered was that Celestia was standing in the way of my revenge. It never occurred to me that Twilight had completely lost both of her parents while mine were still alive and in my life. I never considered the fact that it wasn’t Twilight’s fault for the way her dad acted. It was just so easy to hate her.

Without even noticing, I was slowly sympathizing with the creatures I worked so hard to kill.





“For years, you have trained to become warriors,” said Celestia, standing before us with a sort of expectant grin. “And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest.”

I could hardly contain my excitement. Initiation was about to begin. To either side of me was a line of Huntsmen and Huntresses, totalling at thirty-one other guys and girls. Directly in front of me, standing on the edge of the cliff, were Professor Celestia and her sister, Professor Luna. Luna was like Celestia’s right-hand man, handling things when the Headmistress was busy with other matters. She was also a legendary Huntress in her own right.

“It is likely that you have heard rumors of team assignments,” said Luna. “We stand before you to end your confusion. Each of you will be receiving a teammate, whom you will traverse the Forest with.”

“These teammates will be following you throughout your entire life at Beacon Academy,” added Celestia. “So it would be mutually beneficial if you were to pick a partner with whom you can work well with.” Her smirk went from excited to downright devious. “That said, your partner will be the first person you make eye contact with on the ground.”

“Well, damn,” I muttered. 

“After partnering up, head to the northern end of the Forest. You will encounter opposition. Do not hesitate to slay anything in your path,” Luna said forebodingly. “Our staff will be monitoring you to ensure there is no cheating-”

“Or fighting amongst each other,” said Celestia. Her stare seemed to linger on me and Sparkle, who was just to my right.

“But they will not intervene. You are on your own. Hesitation could mean your death.”

“Once you partner up, you will begin searching for a temple, where you will find several relics,” said Celestia. “Each pair will retrieve one relic, and return here. We will factor in the relic to your overall standing and the partner you have chosen, and you will be given your grade accordingly.” Her grin was a full-on smile now. “Any questions?”

Silence reigned over the students. I think we all just wanted to kill something, and Celestia noticed.

“Prepare yourselves,” said Celestia. I grabbed my guitar case tightly, adjusting my stance a bit. I tapped my foot impatiently on the little square panel I was standing on. Time to show my stuff.

“Good luck, my students,” said Celestia.

“Begin.”

And, just like that, I was in the air. It was amazing, to soar unimpeded through the air. But, soon I’d start falling, and I’d need to prepare for that. I looked down at the sea of green, trying to decide where would be a good place to land. The further north, the better. I titled forward in the air, shooting down like a bullet. Just before hitting the tree canopy, I yanked Becky from her case and swung her down as hard as I could. The blade caught a branch, allowing me to swing forward and land on my feet. I took a second to assess my surroundings.

Trees. Lots of trees. Literally, nothing but trees. I strained my ears to sense some sound of movement, and I didn’t get much back. My hearing was slightly better than a human’s, on account of my Faunus blood, but it wasn’t much to write home about. I moved forward carefully, my hand on my guitar case. Most students hadn’t actually fought a Grimm before, but I was pretty well-versed in dealing with most varieties of monsters. 

I walked in silence for ten minutes, never hearing more than the screech of a Nevermore soaring through the sky. Just as I thought I would never run into a partner, I heard the roar of a Grimm, and the shriek of a student. I booked it in the direction of the noise, hopping over branches and tree roots until I burst into a clearing to save the day.

Twilight was pinned down by a big, angry Ursa. She struggled pitifully under its weight, just barely keeping it from ripping out her throat. I froze because I couldn’t believe the luck. She was stuck under an Ursa, the same monster that crippled my dad. I felt a small smirk spread on my face. All I had to do was sit there and watch. Twilight pushed pitifully one last time, finally catching view of me in her peripheral vision. She saw who had come to save her, and a wave of disappointment passed over her. She thought that I’d just sit there and let her get torn to shreds, and she surrendered. That’s when I had my epiphany. That look of defeat, and hopelessness, that was the same look my dad must’ve had.

I ran forward and slid, wailing on my guitar as I did. Rebecca screeched loudly, with enough force to knock it a few feet away. I grabbed Twilight by the wrist and yanked her to her feet.

“Don’t quit on me yet, Sparky,” I said. “You still need to repay me for what your dad did.”

“I don’t owe you anything,” she said. I rolled my eyes, then chucked my axe as hard as I could at the Ursa. The blade lodged itself into its chest, killing the beast.

“Yeah, I think you do, Sparky,” I said with a grin. I collected my guitar and slipped it back in its case. “Guess we’re partners, huh? Oh well, I could do worse.”

A surge of heat rushed at me from behind, igniting my arm and scorching my skin. I screamed loudly, batting at it to try to put it out. For some reason, it wouldn’t go out.

“Do something!” I snapped. Twilight was apparently a statue, and couldn’t be bothered to help me. Luckily, I didn’t need her help.

“I swear to God, if you don’t shut up, I will feed you to a Beowolf!”

I recognized that voice. It came from the direction of the fireball, and I was able to hear the faint sound of leaves and twigs beneath feet. I tried again to slap the flames away when they slowly flickered into nothing. I dropped to the ground, clutching my arm in agony.

“Glimmer!” I shouted. The steps quickened to a run, and then she stepped into clear view. She wore all gray, like the Atlas Academy uniform, except with a black equal sign on each shoulder as opposed to the Atlesian crest. Her hair was the same old purple that it always was, along with the turquoise streaks. Her perpetual, ironically-superior smirk was nowhere to be found today. Instead, she seemed barely able to refrain from exploding, and it was due to the girl behind her. She gripped her two-pronged staff (the weapon that had scorched me) tightly, angrily.

This chick was a weirdo. She wore this shimmering blue cape, and a magician’s hat, decorated with stars and moons. She had this weird energy to her, an insane amount of confidence. She didn’t even have a weapon.

“Oh, it’s just you,” said Starlight. “Did I hit you?”

“No, my arm always had third-degree burns,” I groaned. I calmed down slightly, letting my Aura do its job. I felt the skin begin to heal, the burns nowhere near as bad as it looked. “Nice shooting, by the way. You might’ve hit a Grimm if there were any around.”

“Don’t blame me. Blame my idiot partner,” growled Starlight. She jabbed her thumb in the other girl’s direction. “This girl does not shut up, ever! All she does is brag!”

“Trixie cannot help it if she’s so amazing,” said the girl, turning her head up in disgust. “Trixie should be the one complaining! She’s the one stuck with a Huntress as bland and useless as you!”

“So, you and Trixie are partners?” asked Twilight. “Since Sunset and I are already partners, so I think we have nothing to lose by working together.”

“Trixie requires no assistance! She-”

“You don't get a vote, Lulamoon,” said Starlight. She turned to me. “Please tell me, just this once, that you know something I don't.”

“I'm just as lost as you, Glim.” I had no idea where we were, or how we'd get to the temple. “We need to get moving. If we're the last pairs to get relics, we are S.O.L. in terms of being real Huntresses.”

For some reason, everyone looked at me, as if I had some answers. I literally just said I didn’t know where I was going. Still, for whatever reason, I seemed to be chosen to figure it out. 

“So? Where do we go?” asked Twilight. I bit down on my tongue in thought, when a brilliant idea struck me.

“Hey, Sparky, you know about Faunus, right?” I asked rhetorically. “If I were to play a song, would we be able to hear it echo?”

“Um… Perhaps. I’m not sure,” she said. “I suppose, possibly, I could. The trees might cause some interference, but…”

“Awesome.” I pulled out my guitar and a small tuning fork from the case. I slapped the fork against my knee, taking note of how it rang. I tuned my guitar accordingly, then adjusted its amp settings. Now, it’d blast a bit more concentrated, shaped by my Aura.

“Let’s make some noise,” I said. Then, I wailed out on Becky. I went into one of my favorite metal songs, rotating slightly as I went. After about half a rotation, Twilight stopped me. I halted my strings, then strained my ears. Sure enough, I could hear my song come back to me, not like how it normally did when it bounced off of the trees.

“Alrighty, then,” I said with a grin. “Let’s go!”

I slipped Rebecca back into her case and set off through the woods, followed close behind by the other three. I still don’t know when exactly we agreed that I’d take point, but I definitely wasn’t going to say no to it. I was probably the best candidate, honestly. Sparky wasn’t exactly the type to take charge, and Glim was a bit of a tyrant. I didn’t know much about the other girl, but she seemed too stupid and confident to lead a team. So, it was on me.

After walking for five seconds, Trixie started up again. She complained, and bragged, and complained about why nobody noticed that she was bragging. If Celestia wasn’t watching, I’d hit her with Becky and call it a training accident. I tried to block it out and focus on my surroundings.

Ten minutes into our trek, I stopped in my tracks. Twilight did the same, and we both drew out weapons. Glimmer and Trixie stared at us but prepared to fight anyway. Them not being Faunus, they weren’t able to hear what me and Sparky could.

“Yo, Sparks,” I whispered. “You hear em?”

“Yes. I think your music attracted them,” she said. “And don’t call me that.”

“What are we dealing with?” asked Starlight, matching our volume.

“Can’t be sure. I hear a Beowolf, and maybe an Ursa… Wait, I think I hear a T-”

“Do your worst, creatures of Grimm!” shouted Trixie, one hand confidently on her hip while the other pointing in the general direction of the Beowolves. “Come, you foul beasts! Battle with the Great and Powerful Trixie if you think you’ve got the mettle!”

Grimm are attracted by negative emotions. This is common knowledge. What isn’t so much common knowledge is exactly what constitutes as a negative emotion. Anger, tension, and distrust are the most common ideas of negative emotions, but there are more. Depression, lust, and even just apathy can attract and enrage the Grimm.

Oh, and arrogance. The Grimm hate that.

“She’s an idiot!” hissed Starlight. Three Beowolves burst from the treeline, bounding forward for us. Starlight swiped her staff horizontally, sending a wave of flame forward. The Grimm shrugged it off and leapt towards Starlight. 

Trixie jumped in front of them, throwing a handful of little blue orbs. They exploded, which shrouded both her and the Beowolves in heavy purple smoke. I couldn’t really see what happened next. All I know is that the Grimm went launching backwards from where they came, crashing against trees. I heard the snap of one of their spines, and the beast soon started to disappear, like all Grimm did when they died.

“The Great Trixie is quite amazing, don’t you agree?” she said with a smirk. We didn’t have time to congratulate/beat the tar out of her because the remaining Beowolves were back for more. I pulled my axe from her case and held it at the ready. I never even had to swing, because Trixie surprised us all again.

“Enough!” she shouted. Her voice became shimmery, almost slick and smooth. “Have you not wasted enough of Trixie’s valuable time?! Go, shoo, before Trixie sends you to hell to meet up with your friend!”

The Grimm stopped in their tracks, reeling like they had been hit over the top of the head with something heavy. Slowly, but definitely surely, they began walking away. Within a minute, they were gone.

“How the hell did you do that?!” demanded Starlight. “You just told a Grimm to go away, and it listened!”

“Her Semblance,” said Sparky. She tensed up, gripping her dagger even tighter than before. “I was right. There are more coming.”

Something slithered to our right. Something big. It sounded like someone was dragging a tree across the floor. Only one thing could make that noise.

“King Taijitu,” I muttered. “Never fought one of those before.”

“They’re big,” said Twilight. No duh, genius. “And their scales are thick. We won’t be cracking through them without considerable effort.”

“Weak points?” asked Starlight.

“Eyes. Trixie, can you do that thing again?”

“Pah! You expect Trixie to win all of your fights for you?” scoffed Trixie. We glared at her, and she sort of shrank. “Trixie cannot use her Semblance very often or on everything. A Taijitu will be able to resist Trixie’s dulcet tones.”

“We run,” I said. Starlight, Sparky, and Trixie were shocked, and they showed it. “Look, we’re not killing that thing without a solid plan and room to breathe, and we don’t have either. So, we F.O. Glim, you cause a distraction. Trixie, head left. Sparky, follow me right. Glim will follow Trixie when we’re in the clear.” It was a good plan, the best one I could come up with on such short notice. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do.

The massive black head of the Taijitu wormed its way from the density of the trees before us. Glimmer was in action before the giant serpent even stopped; She leapt forward and slammed her staff into the ground, setting the air around the snake’s head aflame. The Taijitu flinched, and I saw my opening. I grabbed Twilight around the wrist and practically dragged her forward, crossing paths with Trixie as I did. We made it past the first head when Twilight made the mistake of looking back.

“Starlight!” she screamed. The Taijitu had raised its head and rushed forward, rocketing towards Starlight too quickly for her to dodge. I grinned.

“She’s fine,” I said, skidding to a stop. The head paused just in front of Starlight, then slowly retreated. It lowered its head back down to the ground, to the point when Starlight set the air around it on fire. The flare re-appeared and sucked in on itself. Starlight grinned, then headed after Trixie. The Taijitu had its head engulfed in flames again, reared itself up, and lunged forward at nothing, burying his head into the dirt. Starlight’s Semblance was probably the coolest thing about her.

“Amazing,” breathed Twilight. We took off running, putting as much distance between us and the Taijitu as possible. Shimmer and Trixie kept heading left while me and Sparky kept on right. 

“Try to keep up, Sparks,” I said playfully. I spared her a small smirk, which was a terrible mistake. I hit something large, dense, and black and fell flat on my ass. I looked up to see the looming, formidable shape of an Ursa. I never even got to reach for my guitar.

Six bolts of purple light collided with the Grimm’s chest, sticking in place. There was a soft whistling sound, like a bullet zipping past, and six daggers of purple light stabbed themselves into its chest. Sparky hopped forward, sticking her knife into the Grimm’s neck, to finish him off. He collapsed onto me, melting away after a few seconds.

“Even?” asked Twilight, offering me her hand. I looked at her for a moment, then accepted her help.

“Not by a long shot,” I said with a grin.





“Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer, Trixie Lulamoon, and Twilight Sparkle,” said Professor Celestia, gesturing to the large screen that was projecting our images. “The four of you retrieved the Magic Elements. From this day forth, you will work together as Team Sunset, led by Sunset Shimmer.”

The students watching clapped politely, and Trixie actually bowed in their direction. She really was hopeless. But now, she was my problem to deal with. We actually were the first ones to retrieve our relics, the Magic Element of Harmony. We were sort of the Team to beat. Lucky, too. We picked a good year to enroll. It was Vytal Year, and we’d be able to fight in the Tournament. Teams would be gunning for us throughout the year. I grinned just at the thought.

Hit us with your best shot, Beacon.
> Starlight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	My teammates were idiots.

If I’m being perfectly honest, Twilight was actually a certifiable genius. She knew the answer to just about any question you could ask, and sometimes she could answer questions that you only meant to ask. And Sunset was pretty clever in her own right. I didn’t especially like the Faunus members of my Team, but they had some redeeming qualities.

Trixie is an idiot. That’s what I was getting at.

Every few days, she found herself getting into fights with other students, normally because she couldn’t keep that big mouth of her’s shut. She lost almost all of them. The worst part? She always bragged. Even after she lost. Especially after she lost. I hated it. She never shut up about how amazing she was, which irritated me to no end. She completely flew in the face of what it means to be a Huntress. Huntsmen and Huntresses should be calm, level-headed, and humble. Trixie failed at all of these, most of all the “humble” part.

Midway through our first semester, I decided to do something about it.

Our dorm was mostly empty, with only me and Sunset there. Trixie was off, probably losing to a third-year, and Twilight was most definitely in the library. She seemed obsessed with some Huntsmen that went missing a few years ago named Night Light, and she spent every spare second learning about him. Sunset was, as usual, sitting on her bed and rocking out with her orange headphones. I waved my hands in front of her to get her attention. When this failed, I pulled my staff, Sameness, from my back and fired a bolt of my Aura, sending her headphones flying.

“Hey! No weapons or Semblances in the dorm!” warned Sunset.

“Whatever you say, Boss,” I scoffed. “Did my package arrive?” Without an answer, she reached under her bed and chucked me a small box, emblazoned with a large gear and a torch inset. The symbol of Atlas.

“You owe me a pair of headphones,” grumbled Sunset. “Those weren’t cheap, Glim. Cost me 300 Lien.”

“I will pay you back when I get money from my parents,” I promised. “And when I pay back everyone else I owe. That probably won’t be for a while, though. These were expensive.”

“Alright, I’ll bite. What are those?”

I popped open the box, letting two square patches tumble out, both decorated with the Atlas crest. I loved Atlas, and I’d happily live there over Vale if I could afford it, but they were obsessed with their symbol. I found it nauseating.

“These are the solution to my problem,” I said.

“Problem being that you’re an obsessive-compulsive psychopath?” asked Shimmer.

I am not obsessive-compulsive. I just hate when things are uneven. Everyone and everything should be level and equal, and it gets under my skin when they aren’t. It’s as simple as that.

“No,” I said dryly. “I was referring to Beacon’s problem.”

“They enroll obsessive-compulsive psychopaths in their school?”

“You know how people say you’re funny?” I asked. “You’re not. These are Inhibitors. These patches send a small amount of specially charged Dust into your nervous system, which all but shuts down your Aura for 24 hours. It’s used in prisoner transport, and they cost me an arm and a leg.”

“Question. What problem is this solving exactly?” asked Shimmer. 

“Lulamoon! This is going to knock her off her high horse!”

“Is that supposed to be some sort of race thing?” Shimmer wiggled her pony ears. “Come on, that's offensive.”

“I'm going to put the Inhibitor on her so she can't use her Semblance,” I continued, ignoring my leader. 

“Another question. How is that gonna solve your problem?” asked Sunset, this time with a little less of her sarcastic, jokey nature. I shook my head, then slapped one of the inactive Inhibitors on my neck.

“I am going to lock her Aura, and my own, and neither of us will be able to use our weapons or Semblances until tomorrow,” I said. “When we are on an even playing field, she will learn humility and she will stop bragging about nothing.”

Sunset laughed. For several minutes. I did not appreciate that laughter at all. She didn’t stop until I drew Sameness and shot a small bolt of fire at her, igniting her hair. Sunset glared at me, and I extinguished the flames with a wave of the staff.

“What’s so funny?” I asked. She snickered slightly, shaking her head in disappointment.

“Alright, where to start? First off, that’s gotta be against the rules,” said Sunset. “Luna will give you detention until graduation if she ever found out that you messed with another student’s Aura. And if you get us banned from Vytal, I will literally murder you.”

“She won’t find out, and I promise that we will be perfectly able to compete in the Tournament,” I promised. 

“Secondly, how is blocking her Aura gonna stop her from using her weapons?”

Trixie Lulamoon was an absurd, overconfident, flamboyant, extravagant little girl who thought she was a Huntress. Her weapons matched her personality quite well. Were you to ask her what they were, she’d say “The Great Trixie has no need for weapons!”. In actuality, she has a bag of party tricks. Razor-edged and Dust-lined playing cards, smoke bombs, tiny fireworks, “magic” coins and God only knows what else, all hidden within the sleeves of her cloak. Her weapons weren’t like mine or Sunset’s; She could ostensibly wield them without any use of her Aura.

“I’ve done some research, and her Aura is directly linked to all of her little tricks except the smoke bombs,” I explained. “It’s just like how you could use your guitar without using your Aura, just not how you would like to.”

“And the smoke bombs?”

I marched over to my bed, lifted the mattress, and raised a small burlap sack, which I threw to Sunset. She opened it and retrieved one of the small blue orbs it contained.

“Seriously?” she asked.

“I’ve been planning this for weeks,” I said, failing to withhold the pride I felt. Sunset shook her head again, then leaned over to retrieve her headphones.

“Jesus, these are busted to hell and back,” she grumbled. “Okay, Starlight Glimmer, master strategist, I got one more question for you.” She put the broken headphones on again for some reason. “What makes you think that Trixie will learn any lesson from this?”

“Any reasonable person would be humbled by this sort of experience,” I said.

Sunset started laughing again, so I angrily left the room. What she thought was irrelevant. All I had to do was find Lulamoon so I could activate the Inhibitors and shape that show-off into the perfect person, just the way I want her.

Alright, perhaps I was a bit of an obsessive-compulsive psycho.





Trixie is an idiot.

I had several plans in mind to get the Inhibitor on her neck. I spent a lot of time and money on various measures I would use in case she ended up being difficult. One particular plan involved a handful of Dust, 30 Lien, and one of Shimmer’s spare guitar strings. However… Trixie made all that planning and shopping unnecessary.

I saw her in the hallways, on the way to class, when I saw an opportunity I couldn’t resist. We were all alone, and she had her back to me. I crept up behind her, the other Inhibitor in my left hand.

“Hey!” I shouted. “Lulamoon!” She turned, which gave me a prime opportunity to slap the Inhibitor directly onto her forehead.

“What in the world are you doing?” asked Trixie. She went to pull off the patch but wasn’t quite fast enough. I pulled out my Scroll and tapped the Inhibitor’s activation app.

A shocking pain ran through my body, dropping me to my knees. It ended as swiftly as it started, and I wasn’t the only one affected. As I struggled back to my feet, I could tell that my partner was doing the same. She gripped her head in pain, leering at me suspiciously.

“What did you do to Trixie? Was this some sort of attempt to assassinate her?!”

“You have to be important for it to be an assassination,” I said with a sinister grin. “But you’re not. You’re just like the rest of us, Lulamoon. Hopefully, this will teach you that.”

“Hm. Whatever you did to Trixie, she suggests you apologize,” said Trixie. She flicked her wrist, letting a card slide into her hand. “Now.”

“And if I refuse?” I asked. She glared at me and threw her card as hard as she could.

It flew half a foot and dropped to the ground.

“What?!” demanded Trixie. She slid out another card and threw it at me. This time, a small gust of wind blew it to the right. She was getting frustrated, drew three more cards, and threw them. This time, she got lucky, and one of the cards managed to hit me. 

It bounced off against my nose like a paper ball.

“Oh, what’s the matter, Trixie?” I asked evilly. “You seem to be lacking some of that Great and Powerful flair I’ve come to expect.”

“Trixie… Trixie doesn’t understand… Her Aura is supposed to push the cards… So… You! You turned off Trixie’s Aura!”

“Which seems to have the side effect of heightened brain function, because you came to that conclusion rather easily.” I pulled Sameness from my back and aimed it at my adversary. “Now see if you can run your mouth when we’re on even footing.”

“Have you bumped your head?! Even without Trixie’s Aura, she could sweep the floor with a Huntress as weak and talentless as you!”

“You don’t get it, do you? I’ve made it so that we’re the exact same! We’re perfectly equal!”

“So what if you’ve made yourself Trixie’s equal?” She flipped her hair, then adopted her favorite pose; her left hand on her hip with her right pointing forward accusingly. “Trixie is still superior to you in every way!”

I’ve said it before, but I think it bears repeating; Trixie is an idiot.

“Then prove it, Lulamoon,” I said. Trixie flipped out one of her cards and primed to attack, but a voice interrupted her.

“There will be no fighting in these halls, especially today!” I quickly reattached Sameness to my back, hiding my weapon just before Professor Luna turned the corner. All it took was one look at her to tell that she meant business.

Her long sapphire hair, which she normally let loose down to her neck, was tied up in a tight ponytail. She had donned dark black gloves with her navy blue war jacket and pants, and her normal black heels were now knee-high boots. Most startling was the presence of her weapon, Nightmare. It was a large, smooth mirror with a razor edge and a strap on the back so that she could hold it like a shield. I had never seen it used, but I’d been told that it lives up to its name.

“Gods be damned, it’s you two,” she grumbled. “Very well, you’ll have to do, follow me!” She took off and, after glancing at each other for a second, Trixie and I followed her.

“What’s going on?” I asked. I pulled my staff from my back, preparing for a fight.

“What’s ‘going on’ is a small Grimm invasion,” said Luna. “We have an inordinate amount of Grimm in the Emerald Forest, and they are moving closer and closer to the school. We need your help to battle them back.”

I had never really considered that my plan might blow up in my face, which may have been arrogant of me. I glanced at Trixie, who was trying her best to conceal just how afraid she was. I didn’t have the courage to tell Luna what I had done to Trixie. 

“Trixie hopes you have a plan,” whispered my partner.

“Working on it,” I hissed.

“Now is not the time for chit-chat,” snapped Luna. “The Grimm are marching ever-closer, and my sister can only hold them back for so long.”

This was all Trixie’s fault.





“Glad you could make it, sister dearest,” said Celestia not taking her eyes off of the Forest’s perimeter. I could almost feel the Grimm marching. “And I see you picked up the cavalry.”

“They were not my first choice, but they’ll have to do until the reinforcements arrive from Vacuo,” said Luna. “Ms. Glimmer, Ms. Lulamoon, you will be remaining here and dealing with any Grimm that manage to get past.”

“Luna and I will try to thin the herd, so to speak,” said Celestia. She waved her scepter and three golden spheres floated from the surrounding bushes, hovering around her. “Just like old times, eh?”

“Yes, quite,” said Luna. In a flash, her and her sister were gone into the Forest. Trixie waited until they were gone, then flicked me on the forehead. Hard.

“Ow!” I rubbed my head gingerly. “What was that for?!”

“Are you insane?!” demanded Trixie. “We are going to die because of you! What did I ever do to you to deserve this?!”

I shouldn’t have smiled. This was a serious matter, and one or both of us could easily die there. This was my first real Huntress situation, and I shouldn’t have had time to be amused by my partner.

But I did.

“I’m sorry, what did who do to deserve this?” I asked venomously. Trixie didn’t seem to notice, instead just pacing nervously.

“I just wanted people to respect me, is that too much to ask?” she lamented. “Just a little bit of respect, that’s all I ever asked for! Now, I’m going to die because you couldn’t let go of your ego!”

“My ego?! You’re the one who waltzes around the place, talking as if you’re God’s gift to Huntsmen!” I snapped. “You realize that I wouldn’t have done any of this if you were just a normal, humble Huntress instead of a stupid…” I struggled to find the right word. “Peacock!”

“Peacock?”

What we had forgotten while arguing is that our negativity was being picked up by Grimm. We didn’t notice their advance until they were marching just a few meters away. The only reason we looked up from shouting at each other was the loud roar of an Alpha Beowolf. It was massive, twice my height, baring its fangs and snapping angrily. It led a large pack of other Beowolves and various Grimm, all of which were advancing slowly.

“Give me your Scroll,” said Trixie. I looked at her curiously. “Give Trixie your Scroll!” I flinched in surprise but tossed her the Scroll nonetheless. Trixie flipped through it for a second, looking for what I could only assume was an off-button.

“There’s no way to turn it off, okay?” I said. “These are meant to not be able to be turned off!”

“Trixie isn’t trying to turn it off, she knows that’s impossible,” said Trixie, apparently more than comfortable with her former way of speaking now. “But, if Trixie was to work some of her magic…”

The patches activated again, this time only making me stumble from the pain. Trixie caught me before I tripped, a superior grin on her face.

“What did you do?” I asked.

“You know, Trixie’s father programmed Scrolls for a living,” she said. “And, over 17 years, Trixie was bound to pick up a few tricks.” Her grin widened. “Trixie managed to tweak the Inhibitor’s application just a tad. We should be able to use about half of our typical power.”

“That’s not going to be enough,” I pointed out. She raised a card, the Ace of Spades, flipping it between her fingers.

“Light this card for Trixie,” she ordered. I didn’t bother asking questions, I just waved Sameness to ignite the card. To my surprise, the flames that erupted were black.

“What in the world…”

“Trixie has a few tricks up her sleeve. Now she needs you to get them bunched up and keep them still. Do you think you can do that?”

“My Semblance, but… Five seconds may not be enough to get in and out,” I said. “If I had my full ten, then maybe, but…”

“Do you know what your problem is, Starlight Glimmer?” Trixie asked. “You are too content with mediocrity.”

“What are you even talking about?”

“You hate Trixie for bragging when you should be bragging yourself.” She flicked her other wrist, a black wand sliding from her sleeve into her left hand. “Instead of shooting for the stars, you try to drag everyone down to Earth.”

“I just want everyone to be equal,” I grumbled.

“And we will be. On our own time. We just won’t be equal on the ground. We will soar together,” said Trixie. “Trixie suggests you don’t get left behind.”

I wasn’t happy with how much food for thought this stupid magician was giving me, but I stowed her advice away for later use. For now, I grit my teeth and tightened my grasp on my weapon.

“Alright, I’ll do it,” I said. Trixie placed her hand on my shoulder.

“Here. Trixie will lend you some of her power.” I felt a wave of warmth flow through me as Trixie flooded me with her Aura. It was like mixing two different flavors of pop, both familiar yet completely new at the same time.

I ran forward, firing bolt after bolt of fire at the line of Grimm, igniting chests and pissing them off. They seemed to forget that Trixie was just a few dozen feet behind me because they all jumped me. I dodged a Beowolf’s slash, forcing its claw into the belly of its friend.

One.

An Ursa made a swing for my head, which I avoided with a duck. I slapped its knee with my hard wood staff, though, that only seemed to annoy it.

Two.

What was Trixie planning to do? I couldn’t possibly hold these Grimm of for a whole three more seconds! I was outclassed, outgunned, and outnumbered.

Three.

I felt the sting of claw against my cheek, the sharp bone managing to pierce my Aura and draw blood.

Four.

I avoided the next swipe and slammed my staff into the ground, igniting the air around me.

Five.

I felt myself lurch forwards, then backward as I repeated my actions, but in reverse order. My rewind normally had a maximum of ten seconds, which was normally more than enough. But with only half my Aura, I could only go back five, which may not put me in a safe place.

I managed to go back eight.

“Starlight, get out of there!” Trixie called. From outside of the mob of Grimm, I took a second to admire my work. The Grimm swiped and clawed at nothing, and they were really surprised when they spontaneously combusted.

“Whatever you’re going to do, do it now!” I called, sprinting back to her. “That won’t kill any of them!” Trixie just smiled, then stepped forward. I stopped beside her, feeling her Aura leave my body and return to her.

“Watch in awe, Starlight Glimmer,” she said. She threw her flaming black card as hard as she could, sending it rocketing like a bullet. The card dropped just in front of the group of Grimm, which looked like a miss to me. Trixie just grinned and waved her wand. I can only guess that she was activating some sort of Dust mechanism, because the card rose, leaving a ring of fire that was growing in height. Trixie moved her wand like a conductor at an orchestra, each movement manipulating the fire in some way. With a downward flourish, the fire collapsed in on itself, scorching every Grimm that it contained.

She flicked her wrist, and the card emerged from the flames. It flew back to her hand, completely unscorched. She twirled, bowed, and offered it to me.

“Is this your card?” she asked.

Trixie is an idiot. But, I suppose, she was my idiot to deal with.
> Trixie
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I felt my Scroll vibrate in my pocket, preparing for a message from one of my many, many adoring fans. It was actually a call from Starlight Glimmer, which was about the same as I predicted. I answered my Scroll and put it to my ear.

“Hello, Starlight Glimmer,” I said. “What has you calling Trixie’s number?”

“Stop referring to yourself in the third-person!” snapped my partner. “We’re supposed to be sparring, aren’t we?”

“Oh, of course! Trixie almost forgot that you begged her to help you train your Semblance.” I grinned slightly, imagining Starlight’s reaction. Though neither of us would admit it, the two of us had become quite good friends. She still couldn’t quite get over being inferior to me, but she was definitely warming to the idea. She even asked to train with me from time to time.

“I knew I shouldn’t have asked you,” she grumbled. “Just get to the roof as soon as possible.”

“Trixie will be there as soon as she gets some breakfast.” It didn't matter that it was 2 in the afternoon, Trixie wanted breakfast, so breakfast she would have.

“Well, hurry. Twilight might have some muffins leftover, if you hurry.” She disconnected the line, leaving me alone and growing ever hungrier.

There were very few areas in which I deemed myself incapable, and cooking was one of them. I never could cook, and I didn’t care to learn how. It’s not like I needed to. Once I became a world-famous Huntress, which would be quite soon, I would hire people to cook for me. For now, Twilight Sparkle would have to suffice.

I set off for the library, where I knew Twilight would be. She was always in the library, unless she was in class, actually hunting, or cooking for the Team. That girl wasn’t the best fighter, but she was quite talented in the kitchen. The muffins that Starlight Glimmer spoke of were delicious, and often ran for north of 30 Lien. Twilight never charged, but some greedy patrons decided to create a market once they realized that demand would always exceed supply. Regardless of the clamoring masses, Twilight always made good to set aside three muffins for her Team. If I hurried, there should have been one awaiting me.

I hurried down the hall, my cape billowing behind me luxuriously in a futile attempt to keep up with my extravagant gait. Professor Luna often attempted to lambast me for running through her halls, but I always made my case that Trixie cannot help but run. If she were to walk, she’d be dogged by her hundreds of adoring fans.

I didn’t really have any fans, except for a few trainees I saved before I left. Snips and Snails didn’t really count, though. Those morons would worship a lamp if it could hold a gun. I was just a below-average Huntress with above-average hubris. My therapist tells me that it’s a defense mechanism of some sort, but he’s wrong. I don’t need defending from anything. I just need to tell everyone that I’m better than them until it becomes true.

Maybe I should talk to Starlight about it.

I shoved my personal problems to the side for the time being. Starlight would help me once I found something to eat. It was a short jaunt to the library, and an even shorter stroll to find Twilight. As per usual, she had her nose buried deep in a book. What was different today was that she had company. Standing beside her, looking over Twilight’s shoulder, was a short, tubby Huntress with an explosive mess of pink hair. I didn’t know her well, but she had quite the reputation for wild antics and admirable combat prowess.

She was also eating my muffin.

“Hiya, Trix!” said Pinkie Pie, somehow knowing my name. “How’s it going?”

“Sorry, Trixie. I owe Pinkie a favor, and all she wanted was the last muffin,” said Twilight, not looking up from her book. “I’ll bake another batch soon, I promise.”

“Do not nickname the Great and Powerful Trixie,” I snarled. “And that muffin was not yours to take!”

“Huh? Didn’t Twilight make these?” she said innocently, much to my own annoyance.

“It matters not who made the muffins,” I said frowning. “All you need to know is that that muffin is Trixie’s muffin. You will hand it over immediately or-” Quickly, the girl finished off the muffin by chucking the remains into her mouth, leaving me agape. 

“Mmmmmm!” she said licking her lips almost temptingly. “That was soooo good! Thanks Twi!”

“You’re welcome, Pinkie,” she said paying no attention to the situation at hand. 

“You!” I yelled, flicking my wrist and sliding a card into my hand. “You dare mock the Great and Powerful Trixie! I hope you are prepared to pay!”

“Pay?” she asked in confusion. “Sorry. I don’t have any money.” Her voice poked me uncomfortably. “That’s why I came to Twilight. She’s always nice enough to give away free muffins. I mean, come on! It’s free muffins!”

“Silence!” I flung the card in her direction, sure that it would nick her Aura. At seemingly the last second, she leaned to the right leading the card to miss. “W-what?”

“Whoa, Trixie!” she said with a smile. “That’s a cool skill! Where did you learn that?” I frustratedly flicked both of my wrists, throwing two cards at her, both of them missing. 

“Why can’t I hit you?!” I yelled. “You’re right in front of my face!”

“Well, I am faster than you,” she said with no remorse. “That, and they weren’t going really fast.”

“I will teach you to badmouth the Great and Powerful Trixie’s tricks.” I threw card after card, each one failing to reach their mark, every one adding to my anger. Her dodging became playful, almost effortless. By now, a few students trickled in to watch the battle.

“How many cards do you have in there, anyway?” asked Pinkie. 

“More than enough to defeat you!”

“Gee, I dunno. You haven’t really hit me with any yet, so I can’t tell for sure.” She caught one just before it hit her nose. “Ooh, you almost got me that time!”

“Come now, girl, why not try actually fighting Trixie?” I asked mockingly. “It’s easy to avoid getting hit!”

“Hm… I don’t want to accidentally hurt you, though,” said Pinkie, almost nervously. The small crowd we had attracted chuckled at my misfortune, which made me throw my cards even more wildly.

“Fight me!” I snapped. “Fight me, fight me, fight me!”

“But you could get hurt, and I don’t want that to happen!” What made me the angriest is that she meant it. She wasn’t trying to insult me, she genuinely thought that she was that much better than me!

“Only you will be getting hurt!” I slid five cards into each hand and threw them forward with all of my might. Pinkie caught all of them, took in a deep breath, and threw them back. My cards had somehow melted together into a length of rope or wire that wrapped itself around my ankle. The free end ran up my chest, shooting for the ceiling and tying itself somewhere in the rafters. I squealed uncontrollably as I felt myself yank into the air, dangling helplessly upside down.

To make matters worse, the wire was apparently made of my cards, which meant it was razor-edged. So, when the wire rubbed against my chest, it split my clothes right in half. My cloak, blouse, skirt and undergarments all fell away onto the ground.

“Ohmygod, I’m so sorry!” squealed Pinkie. The crowd watching had apparently grown to account for all of Beacon’s freshman! Several students stared, even more pulled out their Scrolls for pictures or videos, and one even stole my torn panties.

“G-get me down from here!” I hollered with embarrassment. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is not meant to be on display!” Pinkie paused, probably to admire her good work. Twilight was the one to act, drawing her dagger and severing the rope. I fell to the ground, slamming onto my back and looking even more vulnerable than before. The spectators around me cheered, clapped, a few of them wolf-whistled. I froze, sprawled out on the floor and unable to move out of shock. Again, Twilight came to my rescue; She flipped her dagger into a wand and sent out several layers of bright purple light that covered my body at my strategic locations. She helped me to my feet, and covered me as much as she could as she led me out of the library. Before she could even open her mouth, I was gone. I ran to my dorm, and I didn’t look back until I got there.

This could not be happening to me, not again. I was not a laughingstock again! I swore to never let myself fall like this again.

I hated them. Every single person who laughed at me, never giving me a sliver of a chance to prove myself. That girl, Pinkie Pie. She was on the top of the list. She embarrassed me! I could never, ever, ever forgive her!

Then, in the back of my head, I had a thought. A thought so incomprehensible, I’d have thought it a forgery. 

Maybe it wasn’t their fault.

I opened the door and closed it behind me, slowly dragging myself to my bed. I plopped myself onto the bed, covering myself in its sheets. I couldn’t ponder the thought, but was forced to pay in attention. All my life, I’d be been branded as a stupid girl with nothing but the same old cheap card tricks. 

“So, this is what the Great and Powerful Trixie has become? A snivelling, whining baby?”

I ignored my partner, instead focusing my energy on self-pity. Starlight Glimmer was just like them. 

“No witty retorts?” she asked. I heard her close the door behind her. “No stunning verbal ripostes?”

“Go away,” I grumbled.

“No.” She marched her way closer to me. “Twilight told me what happened.”

“I imagine the entire school knows by now. Now get your seven laughs in at my expense so you can leave me alone.” 

“So, you lost to Pinkie Pie?” asked Starlight. “There are far worse opponents to lose to. Pinkie Pie is actually quite a good fighter. Perhaps better than Sunset.”

“She didn’t fight me. She avoided me and humiliated me,” I said, looking up at her angrily. Starlight stood with her arms crossed impatiently. She looked at me not with pity, nor with amusement. She looked at me with disappointment in her eyes.

“Only because you let yourself be humiliated. Once, when I was a child, I had an accident in daycare. All the kids laughed at me, and my mother gave me a sage piece of advice,” said Starlight. She leaned forward and flicked me on the forehead. “She told me to suck it up and deal with it.”

“And she was an awful parent,” I snapped, rubbing the spot on my forehead.

“True enough. Still, I believe that applies here.” Starlight shook her head, then walked over to my dresser. She grabbed me some replacement clothing and threw it at me. “I’m tired of looking at your butt while you feel sorry for yourself.” I begrudgingly slipped into the new clothes, but couldn’t help the feeling sorry part.

“Thank you,” I said quietly. I instinctively patted my pockets in search of my Scroll, even though I knew it wouldn’t be there. Starlight held it up and offered it to me.

“I grabbed it from Twilight,” said Starlight. “She’s trying to stop the videos from spreading, but…”

Even as she said this, my Scroll vibrated. I opened it to find an email from an anonymous student who had attached a photo of me hanging naked from the library ceiling.

“It’s an uphill battle, as you can no doubt tell,” finished Starlight. “In any case, there’s no point in hiding away like this. Beacon will not forget about this on account of you hiding. So grow up, stop acting like a baby, and do something with yourself.” She pulled her staff from her back and pointed it at me. “Like training up for a rematch.”

Starlight was not a gentle person. She didn’t believe in sugarcoating things. She despised pity and those who searched for it. In those ways, she was far superior to me. I wasn’t aware of how much I appreciated that trait until that moment. I reached beneath my mattress and grabbed two spare decks of cards, both slotted in their launching mechanisms. I strapped them to my wrist and covered them with my sleeves.

“Let’s go,” I said curtly. Starlight smirked slightly, then set off for the roof. I sighed deeply, then followed her. She was right. There was no point in dilly-dallying. I needed to get better, and I needed to get better soon.

Pinkie Pie would regret embarrassing me the way she did. That much, I was sure.





“Come on!” shouted Starlight, deflecting a card with a wave of the staff. “Where’s that vigor you showed me when I had the Inhibitor on you?”

“Somewhere with my dignity and smoke bombs,” I panted. “Cut me some slack. I’m not my usual self.” Starlight fired a bolt of her Aura forward, knocking me back a few feet.

“Get over yourself, Lulamoon!” shouted Starlight. “Don’t tell me you’re still upset over the library thing! That was a month ago!”

“And it’s still humiliating, Glimmer!” I snapped. Two cards fell into each hand, and I threw them as hard as I could. Glimmer slammed her staff into the ground, igniting my cards and burning them to ash.

“So everyone saw you naked? So what?!” Starlight fired a shot of compressed Aura at me again, slamming me further into the ground. It didn’t especially hurt, but it was a bit disorienting. “Do you know how many times Sunset had to kick some idiot out of the dorm because they think they’re in love with you? You’re finally being adored, just how you wanted!”

“But this isn’t what I meant!” I ran forward, swiping at Glimmer’s face with my bare hands. She dodged me easily, but felt too pressured to try to counterattack. “I will be adored, but not like that!”

“Fame is fame, isn’t it?” snorted Starlight.

“All my life, I’ve been teased and mocked!” I raised a knee to Starlight’s chest. “And nothing I’d ever done was good enough!” I blocked her swing with my forearm and threw a card  at her neck, scratching her Aura. “I will be respected!”

“Who will be respected?” asked Starlight. I smiled in spite of myself. 

“The Great!” I swung into the side of her head, knocking her silly. “And Powerful!” My foot connected with her chest, sending her stumbling back. “Trixie!” I flung one last card, slashing her across the face and reducing her Aura to 15%, according to the Scroll mounted on my wrist. If this were a real duel, Starlight would’ve been considered K.O.’d. I won.

“Not bad, Lulamoon,” huffed Starlight. “Quite good, in fact. You’ve grown a lot in a few weeks.” She shoved me playfully. “Do you think you can take Pinkie?”

“Of course! The Great and Powerful Trixie can overcome any challenge!” I declared, a wide grin on my face. “Trixie will battle any Huntsman who dares challenge her! The Spectacular, Sensational, Incredible, Great and Powerful Trixie cannot be stopped by a mere first year Huntress!”

“You are also a first year Huntress,” noted Starlight. 

“Trixie is more than your average first year!” I was so excited that I pulled off my Scroll and dialed Pinkie’s number, right then and there. After a few seconds of waiting, the line connected.

“Pinkie Pie, The Great Trix-”

“Hold on a sec!” she grunted. “Aaaaand 1,000! Rainbow, I’m gonna take a little break. Add another 80 pounds. Ooh, make it 90, I like 500 better. That’s a nice round number.” I could hear her sit up and squirt a jet of water into her mouth. “What’s up, Trix?”

“Trixie has been training lately,” I said.

“Oh, that’s cool. Me too, I actually just finished my first set on the bench. I’m up to 410 right now, but I think I can get out 500 before the day is up.”

“Trixie demands that you accept her rematch!”

“Sure, why not?” said Pinkie. 

“If you don’t, Trixie will accept your refusal as a for-...” I paused for a second. “Wait, what?”

“Yeah, I’ll fight you. I’m bored, anyway. Let’s go in ten minutes, in the cafeteria,” said Pinkie brightly. “Bring your best, okay?”

“Trixie’s worst is more than enough to overtake you!” I declared. “I’ll be waiting, Pinkie Pie.”

I hung up the Scroll, then flicked my wrist, activating the mechanism in my cards that caused them to float up and into my hands. I slid them back into my sleeves, a wide grin on my face.

“Good luck, Trixie,” said Starlight.

“Trixie needs no luck!” I said. “But she thanks you nonetheless.” I actually didn’t need luck. I had gotten better. I could defeat Pinkie, and there was nothing to do now but actually beat her.

I bid Starlight farewell, then set off down into the school, my destination being the cafeteria. My goal? Redemption.





“She mopped you,” said Starlight Glimmer, leaning forward to examine my face. I could hardly see her through my black eye. “I actually think the floors are a bit cleaner thanks to you.”

“Decimated you,” added Twilight.

“Handed you your ass,” chimed Sunset. My three teammates were all huddled around me in bed as I groaned in agony. Pinkie had popped my Aura almost instantly, and accidentally threw me into a wall so hard that my ribs cracked.

“But… But I got some good hits in, right?” I wheezed.

“Sure, why not?” Starlight shrugged. “You burned her mane with a card, so that was something.”

I grinned. I may not have won, but I at least fought her this time. That was a form of respect in of itself.

“Next time…” I gasped. “I’ll get her next time…”

My team shared a look of concern with one another, then looked down at me.

“Well, maybe by then, you’ll be forgotten as the naked girl who got destroyed by Pinkie,” suggested Sunset.

“Are the broken ribs worth it?” asked Starlight. 

I took a second to consider it. I had gotten seriously hurt because of my own stubborn pride. What’s worse is that my bruised ego was further damaged by this loss. So, by all logic of profit, this was a net loss.

“Totally worth it,” I said with a grin. “Totally worth it…”
> Twilight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I’m not special. I’m really, really not special at all. Honestly, I’m just an average, typical, run-of-the-mill student who happens to kill monsters in her spare time. I have flaws, just the same as everyone else. I’m extremely forgetful, and I often lose myself in a book and ignore a whole day around me (though that hardly worked against me and was, in fact, often a benefit when dealing with Trixie). Sure, my grades were slightly higher than most of my peers (actually, they were absurdly higher than literally everyone else in the school). On the reverse, I was a bit on the raw side when it comes to combat (although, to be honest, I’ve gotten a lot better from watching Sunset). What I’m trying to say is that, despite the glaring evidence, I’m really not that special.

My dad disagreed.

That’s why he taught me how to fight, about history, and, more importantly, about Grimm. As a teacher, my dad had a talent for seeing potential. He saw something in me, some little spark of greatness, and he wanted to help me grow it. I wish he could’ve seen how much I’ve grown. 

Both of my parents were huge nerds, just like me. As a child, family time meant statistics and history trivia. I knew everything there was to know about Remnant, Dust, and the intolerant bigots of the White Fang. To dispel the rumor now, no, my dad did not join the White Fang. The fact that people keep asking me is, frankly, very disrespectful. And a little bit racist. I could go on and on about my parents, especially my father, but that’s not really what I was getting at.

I’m not special. Anyone can achieve anything I ever accomplished. Which is why the constant cheating and shoddy academics of my Team was so baffling to me. All of them, especially Sunset, would copy my homework and sneak peeks at my tests. It was fairly annoying, but not altogether something I felt the need to bring up.

Until the Vytal Exam. The most important test I could take this year. 1,000 questions and ten essays, all in one day. It would likely be the most challenging academic event in my entire life.

Naturally, I forgot about it until the week before.





“Sparks!”

Whenever I looked up from a book, I was prepared for the scene to have changed dramatically. Luckily, this time, I was in the clear. The library was still more or less how I left it. A stack of books to my left (the ones I wanted to read), a stack to the right (the books I already read), and a bottle of water that mysteriously and periodically made its way to my mouth without much conscious effort. The only difference was my read book stack seemed to have shrunk a bit, no doubt by some fellow Huntsmen in the pursuit of knowledge. Oh, and there was one more thing new.

A very, very irritated Team leader.

“Hm?” This was normally the most complete thought I could form while easing myself out of the realm of my book. Sunset glared at me, and, judging by the grip on her guitar and the look on her face, she was only a step or two from swinging her axe into my neck.

“I’ve been yelling for, like, ten minutes,” said Sunset. 

“Oh? Well, this is a library,” I noted. “You shouldn’t be yelling at all.”

“I just wanted to make sure you were prepared for the Exam.” I peered at her in confusion. “The Vytal Exam.” Still nothing. “Are you serious?! How could you have forgotten about the Vytal Exam?!”

“Er… Vytal Exam?” I racked my brain in thought, tiny details coming back to me. “Oh, we need that to register for the tournament?”

“We need that to participate! Seriously, Sparks, what’re you doing?!” demanded Sunset. I pulled out my Scroll and searched the Vytal Exam. Within seconds, I had a list of likely topics it’d cover.”We’ve got to pass it, or we don’t get to compete in the Vytal Festival Tournament!”

“Okay,” I said.

“Are you ready?”

“Sure.” I returned to my book, the memoir of one of the first Faunus who thought to rebel against the humans. It was truly fascinating.

“Don’t just go back to reading!” Sunset yanked my book from my hands and closed it. Luckily, I memorized the page number. “What do you mean ‘sure’? Like ‘Sure, I am ready and could pass the test right now’ or ‘Sure, give me a couple of weeks, and I’ll have it down’.”

“Well, a little of both. I’m sure I could pass it right now, but I’d like a few weeks to study to see if I can ace it,” I said. “When is it?”

“Next week!”

“Oh. Alright, sure.” I drew Dusk and flipped it into its wand form. With a flick of the wrist, a thin lasso of purple light shot forward, grabbed the book, and returned with it in tow.

“Seriously?” asked Sunset.

“Seriously,” I said, flipping open my book.

“You’ll be able to pass the test?”

“Sure.” By this point, I was just responding to questions I assumed she was asking. I wasn’t really paying attention.

“And what about us?” asked Sunset. I flipped my page, shrugging while I did.

“I dunno. What about you?” I heard Sunset pull up a chair and sit down. Two soft thuds told me that she kicked her heels on the table.

“Well? You gonna help us?” I could tell by the way she spoke that I was irritating her. I begrudgingly closed my book, giving up on the notion of reading for the time being.

“Help you how?” I asked.

“Yeah, me, Glim, and Trixie are trying to decide where we should sit,” said Sunset. “Hey, and try not to write so small, it’s hard for us to see sometimes.”

“You… You want to cheat?” I asked. The look on Sunset’s face would have given the impression that I had disrespected her deeply, or brought a plague unto her house.

“No duh, Sparky. What, you think I’m gonna be able to retain any of this test content?” Sunset scoffed. “Be real. We’re obviously gonna cheat off of you. It’s the only way for us to pass.”

That annoyed me a great deal, for two reasons. Reason one being that they shouldn’t have assumed that I would let them cheat off of me. I wasn’t just a cheat sheet. I was a legitimate Huntress, and I would not be contained to the simple task of passing tests and baking treats for my Team.

The second reason I was irritated was that Sunset said that I was her only chance of passing, and that simply isn’t true. Not to say that I had especially high expectations of my Team or anything. I don’t think any of my Team was stupid, or anyone in all of Beacon, really. There may well be very few students who could go toe to toe with me in an academic decathalon, but everyone had the potential for improvement. Anyone could pass this test.

I decided to prove it.

“No,” I said. “You three will not cheat on this test.” I stood up, pulled out my Scroll, and sent out a three-way call to Trixie and Starlight.

“What are you…” began Sunset. I cut her off with a wag of the finger. Shortly, the lines connected, and the two best friends were talking over each other.

“What do you want, Sparkle?”

“Trixie is busy, Twilight Sparkle, this better be good!”

“Yeah, busy working to beat Pinkie, which will never happen.”

“Starlight, Trixie cannot help that you’ll never have-”

The receiver on a Scroll reacted very poorly when exposed to Dust crystals. Something about the frequency of the waves emitted by the crystal greatly interferes with the CCTS waves from the Scroll. They clash together like cymbals, clanking against one another and bouncing to and fro. So, when an exposed crystal of Dust, like the one at the bottom of my dagger, the Scroll created a loud, screeching feedback that was very useful at shutting up a yappy Team. 

“Are you two done?” I asked, ignoring the ringing in my ears.

“What?” said the other three in unison.

“Good. Meet me at the edge of the Emerald Forest,” I said. “I’m going to tutor you three so you can pass without cheating.”

I had already began formulating a lesson plan that should cover everything on the Vytal Exam. History, mathematics, battle strategy, Dust physics, and, my personal favorite, Grimm studies. Honestly, I was getting excited. This was what my dad must have felt like, that ecstasy you could only really get from sharing your knowledge with another. 

I was prepared to teach my students all that I knew, just as I knew they were prepared to accept my teachings.





“So the maximum of seven times sine of four times x-pi divided by six plus one is…” Sunset stared at the sheet of math problems with a strained expression on her face.

“Er… The Faunus Rights Revolution was… How many years ago?” asked Starlight.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn’t understand why she must study this… this nonsense!” Trixie slammed her fist against her Scroll angrily. “Burn, burn uncut, burn twice-cut, cut unburned, what’s the difference?!”

“Burn means the Dust was melted and reforged into a crystal,” I explained. “Uncut means that it wasn’t cut from the quarry and perverted with another Dust type, twice-cut means it was cut with two types of Dust, and cut unburned means it was cut with at least one different Dust but used raw and not reforged.”

“Why do you know this?!” demanded Trixie.

“The Faunus Rights Revolution was fifty-three years ago,” I said to Starlight. “Remember the date, it lasted ten years.”

“You have too much time on your hands, Sparkle,” said Starlight, marking notes on her Scroll. 

“It’s my heritage,” I said with a shrug. “And, Sunny, the max is 8. That’s pretty basic math.”

“Only if you’re an Atlesian Knight,” grumbled Sunset. 

“Seriously? This is some simple stuff, guys,” I said. We had been sitting outside of the Emerald Forest for about an hour, just like we had met the day before, and the day before that, for five days. Two days was all we had left to cram everything we needed for the Exam, and my Team wasn’t looking like they would make it. But I refused to quit. I was my father’s daughter, after all. I could teach anyone anything.

“This is absolute trash,” said Starlight. “We’ll never be prepared for the Exams. I was beginning to look forward to the Tournament.”

“We’ll pass the Exam,” I promised.

“No, Twilight Sparkle.” Trixie threw her Scroll down angrily. “You will pass the Exams. The rest of your Team, however, will struggle and fail!”

“If we haven’t gotten it yet, what makes you think we’ll get it anytime soon?” asked Sunset. “Face it, Sparks, we’re just not as good as you are. Not everyone is able to do what you can.”

“Nonsense. You just need to try harder,” I promised. “Let’s move on to something a bit more your speed; Grimm Studies.” The girls groaned, hanging their heads in defeat. “What?”

“That’s more of your thing, Sparks!” complained Sunset. “We know the basics we need to kill the damn things. We don’t know or care to know how they get along or what they eat or how they breed!”

“Oh, I know. That’s why we won’t be covering any of those things. Not how you would expect,” I said. I dialed my locker on my Scroll. “You guys might want your weapons. We’re going to be killing some Grimm.” My Team eagerly called up their lockers with their Scrolls. A few seconds later, four large, rocket-propelled lockers shot from the east, impacting the ground a few yards from us. 

“Now we’re talking,” said Sunset, practically canoodling her precious guitar. “Let’s kill some stuff!”

I chuckled as I dug through my locker, pulling out my dagger and several devices necessary for the next exercise. I planted a large box just next to my locker, then typed in some last second settings and configurations.

“What’s that?” asked Starlight.

“Negativity Emitter,” I said nonchalantly. “My dad was working on a way to easily attract Grimm to a specific location, and he left me his notes. I recently finished it and I thought now would be as good a time as any to test it.”

“Cool.” Sunset Shimmer nodded in approval. “How does it work?”

“Well, basically, the NE records the frequency of our negative energy,” I explained. “Then, it tunes itself to mimic that negativity, and increases it if necessary.” I hit the start button, which caused the machine to hum. “Grimm should be here in a few moments. Everyone ready?”

Sunset wailed on her guitar, throwing her head back and raising a fist to the sky. Starlight twirled her staff and slammed it against the ground, causing a ring of fire to burst around her. Trixie waved her hand over her head, causing little fireworks to explode around her head while she adopted her favorite pose of pointing forward confidently.

With all that confidence, I probably didn’t even need the NE.

The Grimm trickled in, a Beowolf here, a small Ursa there. We dispatched them easily. When the numbers started to increase, and my Team actually had to start focusing to avoid being hurt, I started quizzing them.

“Which of Equestria’s villages were the first to declare war against the others?” I asked. Without skipping a beat, Starlight Glimmer answered.

“Mistral!” She dodged an Ursa’s paw and set him ablaze.

“Good! Now, someone else, what was the first Dust-based weapon?”

“A hand-cannon!” answered Trixie, igniting one of her cards before flinging it at a Beowolf. Sunset rammed the same Grimm with her shoulder, then swung her axe into its neck.

“Eight plus x over negative-four equals five.” I blasted the Beowolf with one of my light daggers. “Solver for x.” Sunset bobbed and weaved for a while, a grin spreading wide on her face when she found her answer.

“X is twelve!”

This went on for several hours, and I realized that this was the best way to study with the girls. They all excelled at fighting, while I excelled at academics. It only made sense to combine the two. I smirked internally. It seemed that I had indeed inherited my father’s knack for teaching. We would all pass the Exam, and we would all do it honestly.





“What do you mean, you cheated?!” I demanded.  Sunset shrugged, collapsing onto her bed. 

“Geez, shout it a little bit louder,” said Sunset sarcastically. “I have family in Atlas who may not have heard you.”

“Don’t patronize me, just explain yourself!”

“Sure thing, Team Leader.” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “We were gonna do the test legit, but we forgot everything we went over. So, instead of failing the test, we just cheated off of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Glim is getting our scores right now.” I groaned, burying my face in my palm.

“You guys failed… Why would you copy them, of all people?” I groaned. “If you weren’t confident in your abilities, you should’ve just-”

My train of thought was interrupted by the ringing of Sunset’s Scroll. She answered it, and put it to her ear.

“So, how’d we do?” she asked. “Oh? We passed? I see, so Rainbow and Pinkie cheated off of Fluttershy and Rarity? That makes a lot of sense, actually. Yeah, I know we thought about that already.” She stared at me expressionlessly. “I’m just proving a point. Get over here, we need to celebrate.”

I groaned in defeat. I guess some of us are good at some things while some of us aren’t. Maybe some people are just smarter than others, and no amount of studying or effort could change that. Could that mean that I’m destined to be a weaker Huntress than my peers?

“Wait, what?” said Sunset suddenly. “I aced the essays? We didn’t cheat on the essays, did we? Then how…? Huh. I guess some of what Sparks taught us did stick… Who’d have thought?” I smiled brightly. It wasn’t perfect, but teaching them something was better than nothing. 

Now, if only I could get them to stop copying my homework… 

> Sunset
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight stared at the box in front of her with a mix of shock, nostalgia, and dread. She hardly processed her Team talking around her, all of her mind devoted to the contents of the large box. She thought that it was gone. She thought she’d never see it again.

“Hey, Sparkster,” said Sunset, just noticing her partner’s preoccupation. “What’s that?”

“You’ve been staring for ten minutes,” added Starlight. Trixie just kept talking as if nothing had changed.

“I just got a package from my brother,” said Twilight, her breath catching in her throat. “I think it might be my dad’s stuff.” Now, Sunset was very interested. She still wasn’t sure about Twilight’s father, but this would be a great way to potentially get some answers. Twilight obviously thought the same.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” Sunset tapped her wrist impatiently. “Open the freaking box!” Twilight gulped, then pulled off the top. She was prepared for a lot of things to be in that box. It could’ve been anything. She was expecting a collection of books or notes from her parents from before their disappearance. 

What she wasn’t expecting was the pair of long, thin, rounded rectangles that sat atop a bed of assorted documents. Hands trembling, Twilight lifted them both from the box, laying them gently onto the floor. 

“What’s that?” asked Sunset.

“My dad’s weapons,” whispered Twilight. One was longer than the other by a sizable amount. They appeared to be sheathed swords, the longer one decorated silver with a light streak of purple down the edge. The other, shorter sword was glistening bright blue, shining and twinkling in the light.

“Daishō,” said Trixie. The three others looked at her in confusion. “The swords. They are daishō. It means ‘big-little’.” Still, no one reacted. “Is Trixie the only one who does her Weapons History homework?”

“You’re the only one who takes that class this semester,” remarked Starlight.

“I know what the weapons are called, obviously,” said Twilight. “I’m just surprised that you do.”

“And these are your dad’s?” asked Sunset. Twilight nodded.

“The shōtō is Halley,” said Twilight. She lifted it and pulled the sword slowly from its sheath. The blade was just as shining and blue as its sheath. “Named after the comet. The daitō is Velvet.”

“Your mom,” noted Sunset.

“His true loves. Astronomy and my mother.” Twilight returned Halley to the ground, then grabbed Velvet and raised it up. She loved this weapon probably the most out of any weapon she had ever seen. “Brace yourselves.”

Without giving her team a chance to do as she instructed, she wrenched the sword from its sheath. As soon as the sword was away from the sheath, the room trembled as if a bomb had been dropped. Everything lurched forward, some things more affected than others (Starlight merely lurched forward, whereas Trixie literally fell forward out of her seat).

“What the hell?” Sunset clutched her chest. “What was that? The sword?!”

“It was. It uses your Aura to manipulate gravity,” giggled Twilight. “The edge can surround itself with your Aura, too. It helps it cut through just about anything. Then, when you sheath it…” She slammed the katana back into its home, and a similar blast burst outwards. This time, everyone fell backwards, launching the documents from the box into the air (and shattering the bedroom window).

“I don’t know how to use it, obviously,” said Twilight sheepishly. One of the papers caught her eye; As opposed to the others, which were typed, this one was handwritten. Immediately, Twilight recognized who it was from, and snatched it up.

The paper seemed to be a series of math problems, several of them unsolved. The unsolved ones were random, and out of order, which wasn’t like Night Light at all. On the rare instance in which he struggled with an equation, he stopped everything until he solved it.

“He left me a code,” said Twilight. “Someone, give me a pen, and a sheet of scrap paper.” Starlight pulled a pen from her pocket and tossed it to Twilight, while Sunset reached under her bed, grabbed her diary, and tore a sheet from the back. As soon as Twilight had the materials in her hands, she began solving the equations.

“It looks as though your father left you math homework,” said Trixie.

“My dad was working on these, but he didn’t finish some,” explained Twilight. “He should have had no problem with them, so I reason that he left them blank intentionally. Why would he do that?”

“He wanted someone else to solve em,” said Sunset. Twilight nodded in agreement.

“I believe that, once I have solved all of the equations that he left blank, I will have the 
key to a code of some sorts. Now shush and let me focus.”

Team SSTT watched as their most studious member poured over her work. The only sounds were the scratching of pen on paper and Twilight’s occasional hum or grunt of thought. After ten minutes of silent concentration, Twilight set her pen down and held the paper up in triumph. She looked at the numbers for a second, and then instantly understood.

“Yes! I figured it out! Quick, another piece of paper!” demanded Twilight. Sunset supplied her with another torn sheet. “Look, look, the answers to the blank questions tell you which question to go to to find a letter in a string.” Her team didn’t follow, much to Twilight’s annoyance. “Look, the nineteenth question. The solution is x equals four. Which means we go to the fourth equation.”

“The answer to the fourth equation is r equals negative two,” read Sunset. “So the negative second letter is r?”

“No, no, no, you’re thinking too much. Nineteen is the first question that he didn’t answer, so the first letter is r. Somebody write that down.”

“On it,” said Starlight. She actually did one better, and typed it into her Scroll’s notepad. “Keep going.”

“Twenty-six is a is equal to thirty-six.” said Twilight.

“Thirty-six is ‘E’.” Sunset pointed to the equation.

“Got it.” Starlight and Trixie had no real dog in this race, but even they were getting excited. “What’s next?”

And so this continued for several minutes. Twilight had no clue what she was about to uncover, but she knew it was important. Some small part of her mind understood that she could very well be on the cusp of learning something she could live without knowing. This could be evidence of her father’s death, or worse, his betrayal. Still, she couldn’t bear not knowing. Even if it was terrible, Twilight wanted to know for sure.

“And the last letter is d,” said Twilight finally. “Starlight, read that out to me, please.”

“Return to the place where Legends are Bred,” recited Starlight. Twilight literally jumped with joy, punching the sky.

“Quickly, a Scroll, gimme, gimme, gimme!” Starlight hesitated for a fraction of a second, then tossed Twilight her Scroll. She tapped through the menu, eventually sending out a call to the Headmistress’ Office. Once the call was dialing, Twilight gave it to Sunset.

“Request an audience with Professor Celestia,” said Twilight. Sunset shrugged, but brought the Scroll to her ear nonetheless.

“Hello, Professor Celestia speaking.”

“Hey, Professor. Sunset Shimmer of Team SSTT,” said Sunset. “We’d like to talk to you, if you don’t mind. We’ve come across… Well, something. We think it might have something to do with Night Light’s disappearance.”

“I see. Bring what you’ve found with you to my office. I await your arrival.” Celestia disconnected the line. Twilight grabbed her dad’s swords, as well the notes and the code.

“What just happened?” asked Trixie.

“I’m not really sure,” said Sunset. “But I think we’re about to go out on our first real mission.” She grinned widely. “Well, Team. Let’s go! We have a meeting with the Headmistress.”





The elevator’s door slid open, letting Team SSTT step out and into the Headmistress’ office. Only Trixie had been there before (several times after fights with other students), so the other three were awestruck. The room was vast and round, intricately decorated on three fronts: the ceiling, the floor, and the walls. The floor displayed an ornate celestial map, detailing hundreds upon thousands of constellations of stars. The ceiling had the gears, arms, and symbols of a very complex astronomical clock (it seemed to actually work, too). The walls were of mosaic glass panels, each showing the image of a zodiac sign. The Headmistress of Beacon Academy sat at her desk (in front of the Leo panel), filling a mug with coffee from a kettle. A bit to the side was Professor Luna, standing in front of the Libra window, her arms crossed over her chest and an expectant look on her face.

“Team SSTT,” noted Luna simply. 

“Please, come in, come in,” said Celestia. She spoke cheerily, but still with a tone of urgency. “We have much to discuss.”

Twilight stepped forward first, clutching her father’s weapons tightly to her chest. Her Team followed close behind, but chose to let Twilight explain. She seemed to understand the situation best.

“My brother sent me a box containing my father’s swords, and a set of notes,” explained Twilight. “At first, it just seemed like things he was working on. Upon further inspection, it showed to be a code that I believe he left to direct whoever found it to his location.”

“I see,” said Celestia. “If you wouldn’t mind terribly, I would like to look over them before I send them into a code breaker.”

“Actually, I’ve already cracked the code.” Celestia raised a questioning eyebrow, but didn’t interrupt. “It says ‘Return to the place where Legends are Bred’. Don’t worry, I know what that means. I’m convinced that my father is, or was, on the island of Menagerie.”

“How do you figure that, Sparks?” asked Sunset.

“The term ‘where Legends are Bred’ is something my father would often say in regards to the island. He read me poems and stories about the Legends’ Breeding Ground. He said he’d like to visit some day, and I believe that he escaped capture to Menagerie and, for whatever reason, cannot escape or contact society.”

“Are you sure of this?” asked Luna.

“Come, sister, look at the girl,” said Celestia with a small smile. “That is not the look of a girl with any reservations. That is the look of a girl with certainty. A girl who has a goal and is willing to do anything to achieve it.”

“We’re going to go rescue him?” asked Starlight. “That sounds dangerous.”

“It would be. Menagerie is a dangerous place.” Celestia took a sip of her coffee. “Plenty of dangerous Grimm, with nothing to hold them back or restrain them. I would not recommend that anyone take a visit, let alone a first year student.” Twilight all but ignored the professor. She was aware of the danger, and she was aware of the resistance she would face from Celestia. She was also determined to make it to Menagerie.

“With all due respect, Professor, I’m not especially concerned by wild Grimm,” said Twilight. “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but my Team has some of the strongest Beacon has to offer. Sunset is a great leader, perhaps an even better fighter, Starlight is a match for Sunset, and her weapon/Semblance combination is even more versatile, and Trixie has tricks up her sleeve that even we don’t know about. Combine that with my admittedly extensive knowledge of Grimm biology and Menagerie’s geography, as well as my Dust know-how, I believe that-”

“That’s not what she’s worried about,” Sunset interrupted. Twilight turned and stared in confusion. “Well, it’s not, is it? Back me up here, Prof.” Celestia didn’t respond, so Sunset decided to take that as confirmation. “What do you know about Menagerie, Glim?”

“Large island off the coast of Mistral,” recited Starlight, off of memory. “Originally something of a Faunus prison island, the epicenter of the Faunus Rights Revolution, and a safe haven for bandits, killers, terrorists, and, supposedly, the White Fang.”

“We can handle some White Fang, I’m sure,” said Twilight. “As I said before-”

“Are you dense, Twilight Sparkle?” This time, Trixie was the one who cut in. “That is not the issue either.”

“If Menagerie is an island of Huntsmen who lost their way,” said Sunset. “Why would your dad be there?”

The pieces slowly fell into place, and Twilight was unfamiliarly gripped with anger. She felt herself squeeze the swords in her hand tightly.

“What exactly are you implying, Professor?” asked Twilight. “Because, based on what my Team is saying, you all seem deluded with the idea that my father is a criminal.”

“Twilight, I have quite a bit of faith and trust in Night Light,” said Celestia carefully. “I know him to be a good man with a good heart and an even better mind. However…”

“Your father is intelligent and skilled. It would be foolish of us not to consider that he may have defected,” said Luna.

“He didn’t. I know he didn’t.” Twilight didn’t know how she knew, but she did. Something in her heart told her that her father was a good man, and she wasn’t about to let anyone tell her otherwise.

“I want to believe that, Twilight. I really do,” said Celestia. “But I cannot know for sure.”

“Let me prove it. Let me bring him back and prove that he’s a good man.”

Celestia glanced at her sister for just a moment, reading on her face the same realization that she had already made; Twilight Sparkle was just like her father, and she would stop at nothing to prove herself right.

“Professor Luna, please escort Sunset, Starlight, and Trixie back to their dormitory,” said Celestia. Luna nodded, then crossed the room in a few long strides.

“Come, students,” said Luna. 

“We’re not just going to leave Twilight here,” said Sunset.

“That is not for you to decide. Go.”

Luna shepherded the three remaining Huntresses into the elevator. She met eyes with her sister again just before the door closed. Celestia made no change in expression, but Luna recognized that she was about to make a very drastic decision.

“Professor, I-” Twilight began. She was halted by the Headmistress’ raised palm. Celestia produced another mug from her desk, then filled it from the kettle.

“Would you care for some coffee?” offered Celestia. Twilight didn’t react immediately. “Well, you must be tired. When was the last time you had a normal night of sleep, Twilight Sparkle?”

“I don’t really see what that has to do with the situation,” said Twilight.

“You’re tired. As a result, you are not considering all of the possibilities,” said Celestia. She took a deep sip of her coffee. “You are only considering that you are correct. However likely that may be, you must consider that you may be wrong. Again, I do not believe Night Light to be impure or corrupt. I just fear that you are creating a god out of a man who can just as easily be a devil.”

Twilight remained silent. She didn’t want to disrespect Professor Celestia, far from it. Twilight just didn’t know what to do with this, and she could only think of rude things to say. Celestia noted her student’s silence, then inexplicably reached into her drawer and withdrew her wallet.

“Even if I was 100% confident that Night Light can be rescued, I could not possibly allow such inexperienced Huntresses to be the ones to do the rescuing,” said Celestia. She withdrew a small card with her picture and a barcode on the face, setting it down on the table. “I cannot clear a Bullhead pilot to drop you on the island of Menagerie. Even an automated one would not bring you.”

“But, ma’am, I-” 

“Please let me finish, Twilight, I was about to ask you a favor,” said Celestia. She took another sip of her coffee. “I need to ask that you inform me if you come across my Bullhead pass. I seem to have misplaced it. As you no doubt are aware, that pass gives me free reign over almost all of Remnant. If it were to fall into the wrong hands, a student could do something as foolish as… say, take a trip to Menagerie.”

Twilight blinked, staring at Professor Celestia curiously. Celestia gave a small smile and swivelled her seat around, sipping her coffee quietly.

“Professor Celestia?” said Twilight. “Are you… Are you trying to tell me to take the card?” Celestia chuckled.

“Of course not, Twilight. That would be reprimandable. In fact, if I were to find out that a student took the card to take a trip to Menagerie, I would have no choice but to give that student some form of detention, perhaps an extended study program under my teaching. That student would have to decide how much that detention is worth it. They would also have to decide how they want to experience a possible dark truth: First hand or through the filters of those more mentally and emotionally equipped.”

Twilight nodded, knowing that Celestia couldn’t see her. It was mostly to psyche herself up. Even though she wanted to find her father more than anything, she was scared. Maybe Celestia was right. Maybe her father wasn’t as amazing as she thought.

But she would hate herself if she didn’t find out for sure.

“Thank you for your consideration, Professor,” said Twilight, swiping the Bullhead pass. “And I appreciate your advice.”

“Of course, Ms. Sparkle. Anytime,” said Celestia. “Please, take the coffee. You may well need it.”

Twilight nodded, and grabbed the mug from the desk, taking a deep sip of the dark, bitter drink. It was both hot and refreshing, and Twilight finished the mug in a few moments. With a new sort of energy, Twilight set off for the elevator, pulling out her Scroll and dialing Sunset’s number.

“Meet me in the locker room,” said Twilight, stepping into the elevator. “Send Trixie to gather food and supplies. We have a day and a half long trip ahead of us.”





The Bullhead hovered over the swampy marshland for just a minute before flying off to the designated landing point a few hundred kilometers north. Team SSTT, safely down below on the ground, would need to send a call in for it to come back and pick them up, hopefully with Night Light in tow.

Sunset stood with her guitar strap slung over her shoulder, straining all four of her ears for some sort of noise. The rest of the team stood just behind her, doing last minute checks of their weapons. Twilight especially took a moment to tighten the straps that kept her father’s daishō attached to her hip and back. If she had to use either, she would more than likely reach for Halley on her back. At least she knew how to properly wield that one. It was more like her own dagger than anything once she thought about it.

“Alright, Team,” said Sunset. “This is the southeastern end of the island. If Night Light is anywhere, then he’s going to be closer to the center. So, we head northwest. Anyone got a compass?”

Trixie flicked her wrist, a compass sliding into her palm. She handed it to Sunset, then withdrew her wand and a playing card from her sleeve. 

“Let’s go,” said Sunset. She was a perfect fit for leader: calm and steady, even in this dangerous and unknown situation. She led them forward through the dark, dank mud and brush in the direction of northwest.

“What should we expect?” asked Trixie. “Not that Trixie is concerned. The Great Trixie can take on all the dangers that this dirty, muddy, mucky swamp has to offer!”

“Trixie, I will burn you alive,” snapped Starlight. “We’re supposed to be avoiding the enemy, not attracting them!”

“Mistral is known for a large population of Creep and King Taijitu,” said Twilight. “The occasional Boarbatusk wouldn’t be out of place, either. Strangely, Mistral has a far more consistent mix of Grimm when compared to Vale, which has a bit of everything, but in much larger numbers. I imagine Menagerie is no different.”

“Tips and tricks?” requested Sunset.

“Creeps have poor balance. A good push can send them right on their side. Taijitu, as you might recall, have thick scales but soft, gooey eyes. And their teeth can be shattered with a bit of effort. As for Boarbatusks, they are far quicker than you would think at a glance. Very, very thick back armor, so go for the belly.”

“Anything for rogue Huntsmen?” asked Starlight. Twilight thought on it for a second, then nodded in confirmation.

“Ask them to make it quick.”

“And on that depressing note, we should really shut up,” said Sunset. “This island isn’t that big. The enemy can be anywhere.”

No sooner did Sunset speak, a roar echoed throughout the trees that surrounded the team. Each of them drew their weapons, with the exception of Trixie, who put her hands on her hips and laughed heartily.

“Looks like you’ve angered fate, Sunset,” said Trixie, drawing a card and slipping it into her hand. “Good thing I am well versed in fate’s ways. I’d say-”

“Just shut up and fight, Lulamoon,” said Starlight. Trixie deflated slightly, some of her joyful pride replaced with burning anger.

“When the Grimm are finished with, Trixie will deal with you, Starlight Glimmer,” growled Trixie.

A large, two-legged Grimm leapt from the brush, roaring loudly to alert its kin. The Creep snarled, snapping its jaws and swinging its tail menacingly. This one was older, as evidenced by its intelligence. It saw that it was outnumbered and, rather than attack now and risk its own life, it would wait for reinforcements to level the playing field.

“You wanna take this one, Sparks?” offered Sunset. “Try out your dad’s swords?” Twilight nodded, gripping the handle of Halley. Three more Creeps emerged, standing behind the first. Twilight walked forward slowly, pulling the short blade from its sheath. The shining blue blade instantly sapped a small amount of her energy, just enough for her to notice, and used it to coat its edge. Twilight grinned, gripped the sword with both hands, and grounded her feet down. She took a step and shot forward, holding the sword out in front of her. The tip cracked through the boney mask of the first Grimm, killing it immediately. Quickly, Twilight grabbed Velvet with her other hand and wrenched it from its home. The resulting pull of gravity yanked the remaining Grimm forward, knocking them on their sides. Twilight crouched slightly and spun on her heel with her sword down at a slight angle, splitting the Grimm right down the middle. When she sheathed the weapon, Grimm halves went flying.

“That… That was amazing…” panted Twilight. “And exhausting. But mostly amazing.” She collected Halley from the ground. “I shouldn’t do that again. It used up a lot of Aura.”

“It was cool to look at, though,” said Sunset. “Fine. Twi, stay near the back, I want Glim and Trix on either side. We’ll walk for twenty minutes, then we’ll take a rest. Ready? Let’s go.”





Eight large tents sat in a large clearing amongst the marshy brush, several yards away from one another. After watching from a tree for the last three hours, Starlight Glimmer decided that the rearmost tent was likely where Night Light was. It was furthest from the others, and the only one that was consistently guarded. Two armed White Fang were posted outside at all times, clutching their guns in wait for some sort of disturbance. Starlight ruled out the idea that the tent in question held any sort of physical goods, based on the lack of traffic to it. The only time any other member of the criminal organization found their way over there was to switch out shifts, and that only happened the once. Starlight slid down her tree and trekked back about a quarter mile, where her team had set up camp. She sat down and gratefully accepted the granola bar that Trixie handed her.

“Southernmost tent seems to be the one,” reported Starlight, chewing on her snack. “They seem to swap shifts every couple of hours, so we wait for the next set of guards, knock em out, and then investigate.”

“Good work, Glim,” said Sunset. “It’s about crunch-time, team. If you’re ready to go, we can move out now.”

“Is this really a first mission worthy of the great Team SSTT?” asked Trixie. “This is horribly easy! Trixie could have done this rescue by herself!”

“There’s still a lot of time for things to go wrong,” said Twilight. “And besides, this isn’t about glory. This is isn’t even just about my dad. This is about doing our jobs and becoming the very best Huntresses we can be.”

“Let’s go,” said Sunset. She reached into her pocket and withdrew two guitar strings, one of which she handed to Trixie. The team marched forward silently for a quarter mile until they reached the clearing that Starlight found. After a few minutes of silent patience, the two guards checked their watches and walked off. New guards would be there soon, so Trixie and Sunset would need to move quickly. 

They crossed to either side of the tent, waiting patiently. Two new White Fang guards marched over to the tent’s entrance. As soon as they went to turn and face the rest of the camp, Trixie and Sunset rushed into action. They wrapped their guitar strings tightly around their targets’ neck, choking them into unconsciousness. Starlight and Twilight hurried over and helped drag the two bodies into the tent. Twilight looked up, not knowing how to react to what she saw.

Strangely, the first thing Twilight noticed was his hair. It was far messier and longer than he would ever let it get. It was only after she absorbed that did she notice that one of his pony ears was missing. She lost all breath at that, and things only got worse as she looked. The navy dress shirt he always wore was torn in several places, exposing gnarly scars on his back. While Night Light never looked up from whatever he was working on at the table he sat before, Twilight compared him to her memories. This man seemed so much thinner, more broken. 

“Ugh. If you truly want me to finish the damn repairs, perhaps you should let me work!” complained Night Light. “I can only work at half my normal speed, thank you very much.”

“D-daddy?” Twilight couldn’t stop it from leaving her mouth. Night Light froze in mid-movement, then slowly turned around. Twilight was at the point of tears before, and she was truly shocked she didn’t break down upon seeing her father from the front. He had lost a lot of weight since she last saw him, and he wasn’t especially large to begin with. He had a few new scars on his face, and his glasses were cracked.

Twilight didn’t notice any of that.

“Twilight?” said Night Light with a small grin. “Holy heaven, you’ve gotten big.”

“Dad… Your… Your arm…” stammered Twilight, pointing. Night Light looked at his left shoulder, which was devoid of the limb in question. He sighed deeply, touching his stump with his existing hand.

“There was no way to leave that in code, I’m afraid. Yes, I lost my left arm. But don’t worry, Twilight,” said Night Light. He grinned manically. “I’m all right now!”

Twilight bit her lip in an attempt to keep it in, but soon failed, and her giggles filled the tent.

“Dad, that’s not funny! Your ear, too. Dad, what happened to you?”

“I pissed off some White Fang and they fed it to a Boarbatusk. But it’s okay, baby girl. I have ears to spare.”

“Ahem,” coughed Sunset. Night looked up, just noticing the girls around his daughter. Something about Sunset struck him as familiar, but he couldn’t quite say why.

“Oh? So this is your team?” asked Night Light. “Introductions are in order, I believe. I’m Twily-bug’s father, Night Light.”

“D-dad!” stammered Twilight, trying to ignore the snickering of her team. “Must you really do the pet name thing? Now?”

“The angry one is Starlight Glimmer, the idiot is Trixie Lulamoon,” said Sunset. “And I’m Sunset Shimmer. I actually already know you.”

“Sunset Shimmer… Sunset Shimmer… Oh! Star and Blaze’s kid!” Night deflated slightly. “Oh. I’m… I’m so sorry. They were good Huntsmen, and they didn’t deserve to die just yet. They had many more good years in them. If only I would have been able to act…”

“Wait, wait, what? They’re not dead. My dad’s injured really badly, but he’s alive, and my mom’s perfectly fine. She’s on a mission right now.” Night Light’s eyes grew wide.

“In that case, I owe someone 50 Lien,” said Night in awe. “A little wager between Blaze and I.”

“Trixie hates to interrupt this horribly sweet moment,” Trixie cut in. “But this is neither the time nor the place to be doing this. We need to be getting out of here!”

“Right, yes, Ms. Lulamoon is correct. We need to leave. I take it you have a Bullhead on standby?” asked Night. 

“We can call one. It’ll be here in a few minutes,” said Twilight. She unstrapped her father’s swords from her person. “Here. You might want this.” Night shook his head.

“Inhibitor,” he pointed at a small patch on his neck. “My precious Velvet is basically useless right now.”

“Trixie can help,” said Trixie. She pulled out her Scroll and quickly began hacking the Inhibitor app.

“You can hack an Inhibitor?” asked Night.

“Trixie can do anything, Night Light.”

“Except talk properly, I presume,” said Night. Trixie glared at him, which brought a small smile to his face. “Oh, I’m only teasing, Ms. Lulamoon. I’m quite sure you have some fascinating things to say.”

“Gotta say, Twilight’s Dad,” said Sunset. “You’re taking this a lot better than I thought. I kinda expected you to either be totally insane or… Well, let’s just say that I was banking on this being a capture mission rather than a rescue. I don’t get how you can be making jokes at a time like this.”

“Ms. Shimmer, it has been four years since I last had a conversation with an intelligent creature,” said Night Light. “I’ve been waiting for a chance to make that ‘all right’ joke for a year and a half. I’m just happy to see a Faunus without a mask.”

“Trixie’s got it!” said Trixie triumphantly. She clicked a button on her Scroll, and Night looked as if he had been shoved slightly. He rolled his neck, then returned to his table.

“Thank you, Ms. Lulamoon. Now, before we go, I need to attach my arm. You wouldn’t happen to have a flathead screwdriver, would you? They confiscated mine. Of course, why would you be carrying a-” Trixie flicked her wrist and slid a screwdriver into her hand, which she handed to Night. “Well, okay then. Why exactly do you-”

“My card mechanisms stick occasionally.”

Twilight was in her own little world. Her dad was back, and he wasn’t a traitor, and he hadn’t changed at all. Her life was getting back to normal. She couldn’t wait to spend a day with brother and his wife, Night, her own mother.

Twilight Velvet.

“Dad?” said Twilight gently. “Where’s Mom?” Night froze for a second, but quietly returned to work. He grabbed his project from the table, a prosthetic arm. The limb was made of dented gunmetal grey steel, the joints of the wrist, elbow, fingers, and shoulder consisting of some sort of plastic. 

“Twily-bug, would you kindly hold this up to my shoulder?” requested Night. Understanding that her father had dodged the question, Twilight grabbed the prosthetic and held it to Night’s shoulder. Night Light took the screwdriver and tightened it in place. The limb fell limply against his side.

“Dad, I-”

“Halley, if you don’t mind,” said Night. “And a Scroll.” Twilight was now a bit more confused by her father’s intentions than anything right now, but gave him what he asked for. Surprisingly, he put Halley in his mouth, biting down onto the firm leather of the sheath. He pressed a few buttons on the Scroll, then held it up to his arm.

“What is he doing?” asked Sunset.

“Prosthetics of that intricacy are normally tied to nerves,” said Trixie. “So, if I were to guess, I’d say he’s-”

“GRRRFFFFAAAAARGH!”

“Reattaching them,” finished Trixie. Night dropped his sword and tied it to his right hip.

“Stars and heaven, that hurt!” Night held a hand to his shoulder joint, then tapped on his forearm. A small display appeared, and he began punching numbers. “Come on, work, work, work…” The display flashed red, and Night snapped. “Son of a bitch!”

“Dad, what happened?” asked Twilight again. “You’re not telling me anything! Where’s mom, what are you doing, how-”

“She’s gone! I don’t know where, but she’s not here!” Night yelled. He brought his prosthesis down onto the table, cracking it. Twilight immediately pulled a small sack from her pocket.  “And I found her, so I locked the data in my arm, and those savages ruined my sensitive instruments! Her location is gone, she could be on the moon for all I know, I-”

He would’ve said more, but Twilight interrupted him by waving a sugarcube in front of his face. For a second, Night Light couldn’t believe what was happening. Seeing the small, slightly tearful smile of his daughter made all of his anger melt away. He grinned, grabbed the sugarcube, then held it between his teeth.

“Everyone, take a sugarcube,” said Twilight, offering her team treats from the bag. “And hold it in your teeth like my dad.”

“Why?” asked Sunset. Being a Faunus with pony characteristics, she never said no to a sugarcube, but this seemed odd.

“Family tradition. Everyday, before school, dad and I would hold a sugarcube in our teeth, count to three, and crunch at the same time,” said Twilight. “You guys are family now, so I thought you’d like to participate.”

The three members of her team shrugged, but put the cube between their teeth nonetheless. Twilight followed suit, then counted down.

“3, 2, 1!”

CRUNCH!

“Ohhhh!” moaned Night Light. “Sugarcubes…. I haven’t had a sugarcube since… Well, I got here. I could do with more sweets in my life. When we get home, Donut Joe’s. My treat.”

“Mr. Light, you’re making it really hard to hate you for crippling my dad,” said Sunset with a small smile. “Alright, team. We need to start thinking about an exit. We got in without being noticed, but I promise that we will not get out like that. We need to move quick. What’s the most obvious way to the bay?”

“Southwest,” said Night.

“Then we go northeast.” Sunset called the Bullhead and gave it approximate coordinates. “If we move quickly, we might be able to get a head start on them.”

“INTRUDER! IDENTIFY YOURSELF!”

“My sword, please,” said Night Light. Twilight handed him the katana, which he tied to his other side. Then, calm as can be, Night Light stepped forward and walked out of the tent. SSTT followed just behind him, drawing their weapons at the crowd that had amassed.

Thirty perfect Faunus soldiers stood before them, some with guns, some with swords, and all with the white tunics and intimidating Grimm masks of the White Fang. Amongst the group of soldiers were two massive mechanical titans, colossal battle armor known as Atlesian Paladins. As Team SSTT and Night stepped forward, every enemy in the area aimed at them.

“That is quite enough, prisoner.” A voice echoed through the crowd so shimmery that it must have been artificial. The army parted, letting a lone woman step into view. Instead of the normal white typical of her organization, she wore a flowing black cloak, and a massive flamberged zweihander on her back. Her mask was very different as well. Resembling the face of a mantis or spider more than a typical Grimm, it covered her entire face with a smooth white steel. Instead of stopping before the mouth like other White Fang masks, her’s had sharp pincers like an insect.

“How unfortunate,” she said, her voice dripping with venom. “Two more sisters corrupted by human scum.” She shook her head as if disappointed. “Surely you must understand that they’re beasts?”

“Coming from the chick with a bug mask,” shot Sunset. “Who the hell are you, anyway?”

“Names are irrelevant, considering the fact that our meeting will be very short,” said the woman. “But, if you truly must call me something, I am known as Lady.”

“Lady as in ‘listen here, lady’?” inquired Night. “Or Lady as in the feminine of Lord? It doesn’t matter, neither applies to you. I can tell just by looking that you are exceptional.” Night Light snickered. “Exceptionally stupid.”

“Lay down your weapons,” said Lady. “I would truly hate to have to hurt you. You’re quite the asset to the White Fang.” Her tone brightened, as if smiling behind her mask. “Do you know how many filthy humans have been eradicated because of your contributions? Would you like to?”

“Do not try to anger me, Lady. It won’t work.”

“These girls here, what are they? First year Huntresses? And this is what the humans send to rescue you? Clearly they don’t care much about you.”

“We may be young, but we’re some of the best Huntresses you’re likely to see,” said Starlight. “I’m not the bragging type, but you will not ignore us. We are not beneath you just because of our age!”

Lady chuckled slightly, reaching around her back. She grabbed her massive sword and held it on her shoulder menacingly.

“Arrogant, arrogant humans! Answer me this, human, because I would like to understand,” said Lady. “What do you know about being beneath? What do you know about being looked down upon?!  Age? That’s your concern? You’re seventeen now, but soon you will not be. As for us?” She raised her fist to the sky.

“Faunus in Cradle! Faunus in Grave!”

“We don’t grow out of this! This is who we are, and you humans…” Lady silenced herself. If she didn’t stop now, who knew when she would. “This is not about politics. Leave the island now while I am feeling that charitable.”

“We’re not leaving without my dad,” said Twilight. Lady looked from Twilight to Night, studying their faces carefully.

“I see the resemblance. If you’re half as smart as your father, you will be quite useful to our cause,” said Lady. “I am going to give you one last opportunity. The humans may leave, but you two stay to aid our cause. We will crush the humans beneath our boot, and ascend to a certain status of supremacy that mortal men can only dream of! Night Light, think about it. That massive intellect of yours is wasted in a human world! You’ll never be as respected as your human peers, even those less extraordinary than yourself. I’m giving you the opportunity to be what you are deep inside: great.”

Night Light slowly took a step forward, and then another. He slowly started making his way towards Lady, shaking his head as he did.

“I understand your pain. I understand your hatred for humanity. More so, I even sympathized. How could I not? I used to be just like you. Hated the world and everyone on it. I wanted others to hurt as I did. To be frank, I was seconds away from joining your ranks, when something miraculous happened,” said Night Light. “I grew the hell up. I stopped blaming others for my problems, and I’ve learned to accept the fact that this world we live in is far from perfect. Idiots like you are doing nothing to improve its condition! You violent brutes, who kill and destroy to prove a point, you are the reason humanity looks at our kind in that way. You are a disgrace to Faunus, so much so that you don’t deserve the name. You deserve to be called that which you are acting like: filthy, rabid, stupid animals!”

Twilight had never seen her father so angry before. It was equally terrifying as it was awe-inspiring. Night stood between them and a small army, and he still had the courage and mental fortitude to chew them out. The man was many things, but a teacher above all.

“Capture Night Light,” ordered Lady, a tinge of disappointment in her voice. “Break the daughter’s legs. Kill the others.” Team SSTT readied their weapons, as did Night. 

“You will not harm any of them,” said Night. “Least of all my daughter.”

“I’m not going to kill her. Just beat her and torture her and break her,” said Lady, a small laugh in her voice. “She will forget about pleasure. Her reality will become pain. I will ruin her until her mind falls apart in my hands. And if I am feeling charitable, when your daughter is thoroughly broken, having long since forgone screams of pain for incoherent muttering and begging for death, I will allow you to end her misery. You will watch and you will suffer with her. This is what happens when you defy me.”

Night Light laughed, so loudly that Twilight was genuinely concerned for his mental state.

“I was wrong, Lady,” said Night Light, grinning slightly. “It worked a lot.”

With speed the human eye could barely process, he ripped Halley from her sheath and swiped her through the air. A comet of his Aura launched forward, bowling through a group of White Fang and exploding. Twelve bodies flew in multiple directions, and most of them didn’t get back up.

“Attack!” Lady pointed her sword forward and her army charged. Team SSTT froze in shock, and it took their leader to get them going. Sunset herself was frozen, but snapped out of it when a shot whizzed by her head.

“Starlight, Trixie, start on one of those Paladins!” ordered Sunset. “Sparks, we need to get the other. Mr. Light-”

“I can handle the rest. Just be sure to buckle up, kids,” said Night. He grabbed the hilt of his longer sword. “We’re in for one hell of a ride!”

The team split, Trixie and Starlight  heading for the left Paladin. As they ran, Trixie threw cards at White Fang who attempted to get too close. Starlight supplied support, sending shots at those that her partner failed to notice, and she occasionally rewinded an enemy out of striking them. Trixie drew a card, which was laced with ice Dust, and threw it into the air. Not missing a beat, Starlight shot her Aura at it with Sameness, activating it. Then, with a flick of a wand, Trixie sent the card directly at the Atlesian Paladin.

A loud blare erupted from Sunset’s guitar, knocking many of her enemies to the ground. Twilight flipped her dagger into wand form and waved it through the air. A plane of thin purple light surged forward, pushing through the crowd. Their path now clear, Twilight manufactured purple light platforms in a staircase. She followed Sunset up the footholds, jumping and leaping onto the Paladin.

“These girls are stronger than you give them credit for,” said Night, pulling Velvet from her sheath. The resulting implosion eliminated a quarter of the remaining forces, but hardly made Lady flinch.

“As am I,” said Lady. She swung her sword down, just barely missing Night. Her opponent twirled around and stabbed his sword backwards. Lady leaned to the side and swung her free arm into Night’s face.

“Alright, that was a good hit,” said Night. “I’ll grant you that. But I wager that you won’t get another one.”

“You underestimate me,” said Lady. 

“You’re not giving me a lot to work with.” Night slashed diagonally with his longer sword, just barely missing her chest. “Tell me about yourself. Leader of the White Fang, so you must have a colorful life.”

“Not the whole Fang. Just this cell.” Lady hefted her sword up and stabbed forward, skimming Night’s Aura. “And I’m just a Lady with a plan.”

“Man makes plans, and God just laughs,” remarked Night. He realized that he wouldn’t beat her this way. He would need to learn first.

“You never struck me as the religious type,” said Lady. She avoided Night’s next stab and countered it with an overhead swing. Her target managed to block it with his shorter sword just in time.

“How can you stand for this?” asked Night, ignoring the statement. “You’re attacking children right now! Is this what you think Faunus stand for?”

“Faunus do not stand, they lay down and crawl. That’s the problem. These drastic measures, this violence, I don’t think it’s right!” Lady swiped twice with her massive sword, missing both times. “It’s fair! Necessary! I stand for this because no one else will! And the girls know what they signed up for. We all do.”

Night paused for just a second, which was all Lady needed. She brought her knee up to his gut, slashed across his chest, and kicked him to the ground.

“Humans, arrogant humans, make assumptions. They assume that the White Fang see themselves as heroes. We don’t.” She stomped firmly on Night’s leg. “We are far from heroes. We are evil. But we are necessary. You see, the world as we know it is going to end soon, whether it be by me or humanity. Fire or ice. I prefer fire.”

Lady felt something freezing strike her legs. She looked down just in time to see the bright blue light surrounding her legs  burst into large, freezing crystals of ice. Night spared a glance at his daughter, who had already returned her attention to destroying the Paladin.

“But, for destruction of the world? Ice is perfectly fine,” said Night with a small smirk. He slipped his swords back into their sheaths. “Now, give me one good reason not to kill you right here. Something other than the whole ‘good guys don’t kill’ thing.”

“I interest you. If you kill me now, you’ll never know all there is about me,” said Lady. “You’ll never know all that I’m capable of.”

“Surprisingly, I don’t actually care all that much about you.”

“How about your wife?” Night grabbed Lady by the throat, digging his fingers into her neck.

“Where is she?” he said.

“Somewhere safe. But, if I die here, her execution will be broadcast all over Remnant,” threatened Lady. “The White Fang will be calling for human blood after a Faunus murder.”

“It’s not murder if it’s on the battlefield,” said Night, drawing his shorter sword.

“It is if you’re me. I’m special.”

“Clearly. But why?” asked Night. He grabbed his sword threateningly. “Out with it.”

“Telling you now would be the easy way. Your daughter, however… She’ll figure it out soon enough,” said Lady. “In about three months.”

“Three months? What’s in three months?” demanded Night Light. Lady just cackled, swiping her sword futilely at her opponent. “What happens in three months?! What is…”

The pieces soon fell into place. Night swore quietly under his breath when he realized it. Then, incredibly, a small smile spread on his face.

“Sunset! What’s the ETA on that Bullhead?” demanded Night Light. Sunset smashed her guitar into the Paladin’s cockpit, ensuring its destruction, then pulled out her Scroll.

“Ninety seconds, and it’ll be right over us!” she called.

“Excellent. Lady, you will be coming with us,” said Night. Lady laughed, shaking her head.

“My mask is special, as you have no doubt have noticed. Explosives are fitted on the inside,” giggled Lady. “If I leave this island, they will detonate. Same goes if anyone tries to remove it without my permission. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you, but Twilight Velvet and I are linked in that way.”

“What are the rules on knocking you out?” asked Night. Lady turned her face slightly and tapped her cheek tauntingly. Night concentrated his Aura around her fist and launched it into Lady’s face. She slumped under her own weight.

“Bullhead inbound!” shouted Sunset. The ship could be heard approaching. “We need to go.”

“Twily!” called Night. He pulled his daitō from his hip and tossed it to her. “Clear the area!”

Twilight caught the sword, then focused her Aura. She ripped the sword from the sheath, then slammed it back into place. The air around her exploded outward, sending enemies flying back. The Bullhead zoomed into view, lowering down and opening its cockpit.

“Kick gravel, guys!” said Sunset. Team SSTT ran for the Bullhead, their first mission behind them.





“I heard you two talking about fire and ice,” said Twilight. The sun had set and her team were laying in the Bullhead in preparation for sleep, leaving her to silently admire her father’s presence. “What was that all about?” Night Light sighed tiredly, then wrapped his arm around his daughter.

“Some say the world will end in fire,” said Night Light. “Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think that, for destruction, ice is also great and would suffice.”

“Oh. What does that mean?” asked Twilight.

“It means that, one way or another, our world is coming to end. Whether it be by us or them, it matters not. It is ending. Our White Fang friends would prefer it be in the fire of revolution. Or some radical nonsense like that.”

“Do you think we’ll run into her again?”

“You will. In three months,” said Night tiredly. “Lady is a student, probably at Haven Academy.” He chuckled slightly. “You’re probably going to fight her in the Vytal Tournament.”

“That’s not good,” said Sunset. “She seemed really strong.”

“Sure was. But you can handle her,” said Night Light with a small smile. “If you’re anything like your parents, you’ll do just fine.”

The buzzing of the Bullhead was the only sound to heard as the team whisked themselves back to Beacon Academy, slowly closing in on the Vytal Festival.