Today, we of the Survey Corps held one final council.
Cinder sat in her billet, in the abandoned bar where the railwaymen might once have come to drink, sitting perched upon the bar proper with a book, bound in red leather, sat upon her knee.
She was rather pleased to have found this, or rather, to have had it found for her. She didn't know how Emerald had come by it, but she found this account by one of the founders of Mountain Glenn, one Crozier Bishop of the Survey Corps, who had been part of the team that scouted the city's location and who had stayed on as the city began to take shape.
Hopefully, he had also been present for its fall and had continued to record the fortunes of the colony until the last moment.
It was always a terrible shame to read a story without an end.
I argued, once again, for a location further north, in the valley formed by the spurs of the mountains. Space above ground will be tighter, yes, and we will be even more dependent upon the underground railroad for links to Vale, but the northern location would be far easier to defend, with only one way in that we must guard against the grimm.
Balin does not agree. He prefers the more southerly location, with more open space to expand the settlement, and with not such difficult ground lying between us and Vale. There is land here that can be farmed, land where a city could grow.
Land on which we may be attacked from any direction.
Balin is the leader of this expedition. His recommendation will go to the Council, and such is his reputation, there is little chance they will reject it.
I fear we are about to commit an act of grave hubris.
A smirk blossomed upon Cinder's face.
An act of grave hubris. Yes, building a city in a place with no natural defences and believing that it would merely require will and money to keep the monsters at bay, believing that nature's wrath would kneel before your science and technology, that might be called an act of grave hubris.
So might sending nine children to this place, thinking that they are sufficient to deal with whatever they might find.
So might thinking me beaten, my shot wasted, my sting drawn.
Professor Ozpin, I think you have committed an act of grave hubris all of your own.
And as the hubris of Mountain Glenn had been punished by its utter ruin and destruction, so too would she punish the hubris of Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood and all of those who thought the sun had set on her.
Those who thought her beaten would learn the folly of their arrogance.
Including Sunset. She too was committing an act of grave hubris. They all were, as grave as those old men who had sent them on this quest: Pyrrha, hiding her pride behind a mask of sweetness and humility; Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle with their Atlesian fetishisation of technology; Blake, who presumed to judge the ethics of those like Cinder who suffered more than Blake could dream of.
And Sunset, who was so very proud. Her arrogance was endearing, especially the way that it was seasoned by a healthy dose of hidden insecurities, but she would be punished for it nevertheless. Here, in Mountain Glenn, she would reach the end of vanity.
XxXxX
Rainbow Dash could practically feel her hair turning grey beneath the stern glare of Professor Goodwitch.
"So," Professor Goodwitch said, not taking her eyes away from Rainbow Dash for a second. Her hands were behind her back, holding her riding crop mostly but not completely out of sight, and she cast a shadow over Rainbow and across the room in the desolate house that they had made camp in. "You got a call from your friend after she was released by the White Fang?"
Rainbow considered herself to be an honest person, most of the time. But in this moment, she was very glad that she was not a terrible liar like Applejack. At least, she hoped that she wasn't that bad of a liar. She hoped, very much, that she was keeping a straight face as she said, "That's right, ma'am."
They had decided not to tell the truth; partly because Professor Goodwitch might have the same reaction to what Rainbow had done as Sunset had, and partly because neither of them wanted to upset Blake by talking about Adam. It was best to let it lie and let Gilda take the credit.
Rainbow didn't dare tear her eyes away from Professor Goodwitch to see how the rest of Teams RSPT and SAPR were taking this story – or the appearance of Fluttershy in the house when they woke up that night, for that matter. She'd gotten their surprise, but then Professor Goodwitch had started asking questions, and there hadn't been much time to notice anything else.
Professor Goodwitch stared at her for a moment more, and then abruptly turned away, wheeling on her toes to face Fluttershy. Fluttershy looked as if she was trying to hide behind her long lilac hair; that might have been true; it was a habit of hers. In the light of day, with the sun coming up and the darkness being banished to the underground where they were soon to go, Rainbow could see just what a state Fluttershy was in. In the light of day, Rainbow could see that she was a bit of a mess, her hair frazzled and her clothes tattered and stained and fraying in places at the edges. There were dark lines under her green eyes, as if underlining their unusual shape.
Professor Goodwitch stared down at her for a moment, but when she spoke, it was in a softer tone than she had used on Rainbow Dash. "It's Fluttershy, isn't that right?"
"Y-yes," Fluttershy murmured, her voice trembling. "That's right, ma'am."
"It's alright, Fluttershy," Professor Goodwitch said gently. "You're safe now, amongst friends. I simply want to understand how that happened."
Fluttershy was silent for a moment. "One of the White Fang, her name is Gilda, she was… she was very nice to me. She tried to protect me from Cinder."
Sounds like I owe you one, G.
"So Cinder
is here," Jaune muttered.
"Was that ever in doubt?" Sunset asked.
Jaune shrugged but said nothing.
Professor Goodwitch ignored them both. Her attention was all on Fluttershy now. "And it was this Gilda who let you go?"
Fluttershy nodded silently, her head bobbing up and down. It wasn't even a lie, not really; Gilda had let Fluttershy go, having been holding her up until that moment.
No need to mention Adam, or a fight. With how things had gone down, Professor Goodwitch was certain to disapprove of at least one of Sunset and Rainbow, and possibly the pair of them, so better to prevent a smoother narrative of events without any sharp edges.
"And that's when you called Miss Dash?" Professor Goodwitch asked.
Again, Fluttershy nodded. "That's right. Gilda… Gilda told me that she was here."
"The enemy is aware of our presence," Ciel muttered distastefully. "It appears our efforts at discretion were for nought."
"If they know we're here, then they must have seen our airship land," Ruby said. "And if they saw that, then they must have some idea of our location, so why haven't they attacked us?"
"Because they don't just want us in Mountain Glenn; they want us somewhere specific," Jaune guessed. "We haven't walked all the way into the trap yet."
Again, Professor Goodwitch ignored them, choosing to wheel once more back to Rainbow Dash. "And then you, Miss Dash, decided to go and assist your friend without informing any of your teammates?"
"She informed me, Professor," Sunset said, taking a step forward.
"And you didn't think to pass that information along to anyone else either, Miss Shimmer?" Professor Goodwitch demanded in an acid tone.
Sunset thrust her hands into her jacket pockets. "There didn't seem the need to wake anyone else, Professor. Pyrrha was on watch, I wasn't leaving my post, and everyone needed their sleep while they could get it."
"I don't need sleep," Penny pointed out.
Sunset cringed. "Sorry, Penny, I forgot."
Penny looked at Rainbow. "Did you forget too, Rainbow Dash?"
"No," Rainbow replied. "But I thought that… it might be better if you stayed here, just in case."
"Just in case something happened while both team leaders were absent and unaccounted for," Professor Goodwitch said. "I'm rather disappointed in the both of you, particularly in you, Miss Shimmer. I thought I'd taught you better than this. This might have been a trap set by the White Fang."
"If it was a trap, then surely it was best that not everyone walked into it," Sunset protested.
"And who would have assisted you when the trap sprung shut, Miss Shimmer?"
Pyrrha, Rainbow thought, but she and Sunset had agreed to leave Pyrrha out of it. So she said, "We… we messed up, ma'am. I didn't behave the way a team leader should. I'm sure the General will agree with you."
"I'm not so certain," Professor Goodwitch sniffed. "James seems inordinately fond of you. You are correct, however; your behaviour did not adhere to the high standards expected of the huntsman academies. I appreciate that Miss Shy is your friend, but youth can only excuse so many mistakes. You put yourselves in danger and risked leaving both your teams leaderless, and you can be sure that my report will reflect that." She paused. "That being said, it is a good thing that Miss Shy is here; we have one less hostage to worry about. Although we do have to consider what we're going to do with you, Miss Shy."
"She can stay in the airship," Sunset suggested. "Midnight can stay to guard her, and she can have the doors locked. If the White Fang haven't attacked us here, it's unlikely they'll attack after we're gone."
"Not if they let Fluttershy go," Jaune agreed. "There wouldn't be much point in doing that only to take her prisoner again later."
"What of the grimm?" Ciel asked. She was glaring at Rainbow Dash as though she was practicing her Professor Goodwitch imitation.
"Midnight can fly
The Bus and operate the weapons if she has to," Rainbow replied.
Ciel's eyebrows rose. "Really?"
"I am honoured by your trust," Midnight said.
"Trust and the fact that we can't spare anyone else to keep watch over Fluttershy," Rainbow said.
"I am honoured by your lack of options."
Blake crossed the room to where Fluttershy stood and placed a hand upon her shoulder as she said, "It's good to see you safe, Fluttershy. Do you remember me? I'm Blake; we met briefly at the end of the spring vacation, when you were about to set off with Applejack on your expedition."
Fluttershy peered at her from between the curtains of her hair. "I… I remember," she murmured. Her whole body shuddered. "I wish that I'd never wanted to-"
"It's not your fault, Fluttershy," Blake said, and it was amazing to Rainbow Dash how she was able to make her tone seem fierce and firm without altering the soothing gentleness of her voice. "What happened to you, what was done to you, it's not your fault. You mustn't let yourself think that it was your fault. It's their fault, not yours. You're not to blame. You can't think that you're to blame." She took Fluttershy's other shoulder with her free hand. "Do you mind…? It would be a big help if you were able to talk about it."
Fluttershy hesitated. "There… there isn't very much to tell. Like I said, Gilda took care of me."
"But did you see anything?" Blake asked. "Did you see where they were keeping you?"
"In a room," Fluttershy murmured. "It was dark, and I couldn't see very well, so if there was anything special about it, I'm afraid I don't remember. And before that, they blindfolded us. I did hear a lot of noise outside, though."
"I see," Blake whispered. She hesitated. "Fluttershy, you said that Cinder was there."
"She's the one who caught us," Fluttershy said. "She said that she was a Haven student, that her team had gotten lost, so we offered her something to eat by our fire, and then…"
Sunset turned away, her ears drooping down into her hair. Well might she take that attitude, in Rainbow's opinion.
"Did you see anyone else in particular, besides Cinder and Gilda?" Blake asked. "Was there a man?"
"You mean Adam?" Fluttershy asked.
Blake frowned. She bowed her head a little. "Yes," she sighed. "I mean Adam. Thank you, Fluttershy. I'm sorry that you had to go through this."
"It is unfortunate that you are not able to provide any fresh insights," Ciel said. "But not your fault," she added quickly. "However, it means that the parameters of our mission have barely changed, save that we must only rescue one person instead of two."
"So what's the plan?" Penny asked.
"Miss Dash, why don't you escort Miss Shy to the airship?" Professor Goodwitch suggested. "Then we can see if you are ready to act like a team leader now."
The fact that Rainbow deserved this – albeit perhaps not for the reasons Professor Goodwitch thought she deserved it – meant that Rainbow had no response but mute acceptance as she stepped towards Fluttershy, holding out one hand to her. "Fluttershy?"
Blake looked at Rainbow but didn't smile as she released her grip on Fluttershy's shoulders. Fluttershy's arm extended out slowly, her hand tentatively reaching out before she placed her fingers inside the palm of Rainbow's hand.
Rainbow's fingers closed over hers, and she led Fluttershy out of the house, allowing the sunlight to fall unfiltered on their faces, and to the waiting Skyray.
"Kind of appropriate, don't you think?" Rainbow said as the ramp extended downwards to allow Fluttershy to climb aboard. "That this should be the place to keep you safe?"
If they hadn't got Fluttershy back, and they had found out some other way that the enemy already knew they were here, Rainbow might have suggested changing their plan to an aerial insertion – after all, what could be more unexpected than an aerial insertion underground? – but they
had got Fluttershy back, and there was no way – no way in Remnant – that Rainbow was taking her back into the undercity, even in
The Bus.
"I suppose so," Fluttershy murmured, as the two of them began to walk up the ramp. "Rainbow Dash, about Adam-"
"Fluttershy," Rainbow said, cutting her off gently, but cutting her off nevertheless. "I appreciate that he let you go, and I… I don't know why he did that, but…"
"Have you seen his face?" Fluttershy asked.
Rainbow blinked. "Yeah, yeah, I've seen it.
You've seen it?"
Fluttershy nodded. "He showed me. He told me that a woman named… Cally Fern, I think, she did this to him."
"You have a
name?" Rainbow asked. "He gave you a name?"
"He wasn't sure that was the right name," Fluttershy clarified. "But it was something like that. Rainbow Dash, how could anyone do such a thing?"
Rainbow was silent for a moment. "I… I don't know," she admitted. "Because Atlas isn't nearly as perfect as we like to act as though it is." She sighed. "But, Fluttershy… Sunset… Sunset's not wholly wrong. Whatever he's gone through, he's still our enemy, and I could put aside the fact that he wants to hurt me for helping Blake, but he also wants to hurt Blake and Sunset. I can't just ignore that. If it comes down to it… he's my enemy. And my job… sometimes involves dealing with enemies." She was very glad in that moment that Fluttershy didn't know that she had let Gilda go. Perhaps she ought to extend the same consideration to Adam, but… he didn't terrify her the way that he did Sunset, but she'd still feel a lot better – for Blake's sake, for everyone's sake – if he was, at the very least, locked up in solitary next door to Chrysalis.
Fluttershy stood upon the access ramp, looking down at the metal beneath her feet. "I know," she whispered. "I still don't like it, but I understand." She swallowed. "You will… Applejack, she'll be okay, won't she?"
"Yes!" Rainbow said firmly, approaching Fluttershy and taking her face in her hands, pressing her forehead against the other girl's. "Yes," she repeated, more quietly but every bit as intensely. "Applejack is going to be fine. You think they can break Applejack?" She laughed. "They haven't got a chance. We're going to get there as soon as we can – me and Blake and Sunset and everyone – and we're going to get her back. We
will be back in Sugarcube Corner one day, I promise."
Fluttershy smiled, but it was a weak smile and trembled at the corners. "I really do wish I hadn't come," she whispered.
"Once we get Applejack back, you'll change your mind," Rainbow told her.
"Even when Applejack's back," Fluttershy said, and Rainbow was glad that she didn't say 'if,' "then what was the point? Everything that I observed, it's all gone."
Rainbow grinned. "Then you'll just have to do it all again, won't you?" she asked. She paused. "Maybe wait a little bit before you do, though."
Fluttershy let out a little giggle in spite of herself. Her eyes closed briefly as she said, "I think that's probably a good idea."
"Come on," Rainbow said. "Let's get you inside."
Fluttershy followed Rainbow in and sat down on one of the benches in the central passenger compartment. Midnight followed them, her steps clanking up the ramp.
"Hello, Fluttershy," she said. "I am Midnight, a Virtual Intelligence based on the neurological patterns of Twilight Sparkle." Her visor flashed green for a moment; Rainbow didn't know what was up with that. "I will protect you with my unnatural existence."
"Um, it's nice to meet you," Fluttershy said. "And… thanks?"
"I want you to lock the doors," Rainbow said. "So you won't be able to use the pintle cannons."
"If necessary, I will take off and use the oversized weapons with which you have oversaturated the nose," Midnight declared.
"You do that," Rainbow told her as she went into the cockpit and opened up the emergency cubbyhole behind the pilot's seat. Inside was a medkit, a scroll, four MREs, and a pistol. It was the last which Rainbow plucked out of the hole and, once she returned to the main compartment, pressed into Fluttershy's hands.
"You remember your lessons, right?" she asked.
"Rainbow Dash-"
"Safety off," Rainbow said, pressing her thumb against the safety. "Arm straight, aim down the sights, pull the trigger." She smiled. "Simple as that."
Fluttershy looked up into Rainbow's eyes. "I don't want to kill anybody."
"I don't want you to either," Rainbow agreed. "But I want you to die even less." She straightened up. "I'll be right back."
"Good luck," Fluttershy said, her voice rising at the end, tremulous with nerves.
"I don't need it," Rainbow said. "But thanks anyway. Midnight."
"Good hunting, Rainbow Dash," Midnight said.
Rainbow strode down the ramp. It ascended behind her, and as it ascended, the door to the Skyray slid closed. Rainbow turned, catching one last look of Fluttershy, hair dishevelled and eyes wide, before the metal door obscured her from view.
Rainbow turned away and rejoined the others in the house.
"Is everything okay?" Sunset asked. "Is she okay?"
"Of course not," Blake murmured.
Sunset cringed. "Right, I just meant-"
"She's not okay," Rainbow said. "But she's as good as it's going to get."
"We'll get your other friend back," Ruby assured her.
"But we need a plan first," Jaune declared. "We need somewhere to get underground."
"Although the enemy has been alerted to our presence," Ciel said, "nevertheless, it would be best if we could gain the underground without drawing even more attention to ourselves."
"Which means avoiding the grimm and any White Fang patrols," Rainbow said. "Which is why we have Twilight backing us up." She tapped her earpiece. "Twilight, are you reading me?"
There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Yes. Yes, I'm right here, Rainbow Dash. I read you. How's Fluttershy?"
"About as well as you'd expect," Rainbow said. "But she'll be okay. She's more shook up and worried about Applejack than anything else. She's staying in
The Bus, so you'll be able to talk to her, so long as you don't get distracted."
"I won't, don't worry," Twilight said, leaving it unclear whether she was going to talk to Fluttershy or not; Rainbow hoped that she did; it would be good for both of them to have something to calm them down.
"Where are the drones?" she asked, because everyone was watching her, and Ciel might start to get impatient if she and Twilight talked for too long.
"Entering the city airspace now," Twilight said. "I've been seeing grimm below for a while, but none close to your location – which I'm en-route to as we speak."
"Thanks, Twilight," Rainbow said, and muted herself with another tap of her earpiece. "Twilight's drones will be our eyes in the sky, but we should also have eyes on the ground. I'll scout ahead and pick a clear route through the city to an unguarded entrance to the underground; Sunset, you'll lead the main element; Blake, do you want to watch my back?"
Blake tilted her head to one side slightly, as if she was curious, but she said, "Of course."
Sunset's eyes narrowed slightly. "Are you sure about this?"
Are you asking, or are you telling me I'm wrong? Rainbow thought she was right about this; she was pretty sure, but Sunset's words – words which, if she were to be honest with herself, she couldn't really deny for the simple reason that they were true – had her second guessing herself. No. No, she was right about this. Even if she had been avoiding all the stuff she wasn't good at, this was actually one of the things that she was.
She was right about this. "Yes," she said. "I'm sure."
Sunset held Rainbow's gaze for a moment. "Okay."
"We'll mark the route with these paint bombs, to stop any confusion talking to one another," Rainbow added, taking one of the bombs out of a pouch at her belt. Each one was about the size of an acorn, but was designed to have a wide spread across whatever surface it was. "Red is for danger; don't go that way. White means follow. If nothing else works, you can follow a trail of white splashes."
"We won't be that far behind you," Sunset said. "Ten minute head start?"
"Make it fifteen," Rainbow replied.
"Fine," Sunset agreed. She looked around the room. "Pyrrha, you're up front, with Jaune behind. Ruby, you're in the middle with me, then Ciel, then Penny you bring up the rear. Professor… as you like."
"No, Miss Shimmer, as
you like," Professor Goodwitch said.
Sunset's brow furrowed slightly. "In the centre, with me and Ruby."
"Very well, Miss Shimmer," Professor Goodwitch said, in a tone which left it unclear whether she approved or not.
"Don't head down without us," Sunset told Rainbow. "Find an entrance, wait for us to catch up."
"That's the plan," Rainbow replied. To Blake, she asked, "Are you ready?"
Blake drew Gambol Shroud over her shoulder, the black blade transforming into pistol configuration before Rainbow's eyes. "If you are."
Rainbow nodded, pulling her goggles down over her magenta eyes. "Then let's go."
They plunged together into the empty streets of the dead city, where cars lay rusting and abandoned by the side of the road or sometimes in the very middle of the road, empty, turning to scrap metal, or else being slowly colonised by the weeds that were poking their way up through the old tarmac and climbing the metallic frames. Some cars had been moved, formed into barricades blocking off – or trying to block off – the streets of Mountain Glenn, along with buses either upright or overturned which had been turned so as to prevent their long faces to any attackers. Rainbow thought the upturned bus might have been a slightly better idea, if only because it meant the grimm couldn't get in through the windows, but neither had actually worked, as shown by the bodies that lay behind those makeshift barricades.
Even more than abandoned cars, the city streets were full of bodies. They were skeletons now, bones picked clean of flesh by time and scavengers, but they remained, filling up Mountain Glenn with their ghosts. Skeletons with guns and blades and a few with what looked like huntsman weapons lined the barricades or the road nearby, lying where the grimm had taken them; bodies filled the roads in lines, pointing in this direction or that; Rainbow guessed that they had been trying to run, trying to escape, trying to get… where? The underground? The city limits? Both? It seemed from Ruby's story – she probably should have looked this up herself – that almost everyone had fled into the underground when the levee broke, but maybe some of them had tried to get to Vale instead, though they would have done better to have tried to drive than run.
That was probably where those cars stuck in the road had come from. Rainbow hadn't looked to see if they had… bodies inside.
She didn't really want to know. She didn't want to see the bodies lying where she could see them.
Rainbow wondered how fast this had all been. Had these people known that the city was going to fall before it did? Had it caught them by surprise? It sounded like the grimm had just kept on attacking and attacking until they broke through, but had the people of Mountain Glenn known that was happening? Places like Vale had early warning systems and alarms and all sorts of stuff, and Mountain Glenn probably had them too, but whether or not to use it – whether or not to tell people that the grimm were attacking – was at the discretion of the Council and the delegated authorities. Some places didn't say anything until the grimm actually broke through, preferring to avoid panic drawing even more grimm to join the attack.
Rainbow could see the logic of that. It was the approach they tended to take in Atlas unless an attack was a very high threshold and they needed to get everybody into the shelters – or to prep for evac.
How had nobody seen this coming? Even if the authorities had decided to keep people in the dark about the fact that grimm were throwing themselves at the defences, how was it that nobody had worked out that at some point, the defences were going to collapse and it would be better to get everybody out while there was still time?
"Rainbow Dash?" Blake asked. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah," Rainbow said quickly. "Well, no. I mean, we're in this place for a start. I was just thinking… do you think that the first that the folks living here knew about the grimm attacks was when the grimm got into the city and they all had to run for the underground?"
Blake was silent for a moment. "I don't know," she admitted. "Ruby might, but I don't."
Rainbow shook her head. "If they were going to spend lives trying to defend this place, they should have spent those lives to get everybody out."
"It sounds like they were confident in their underground city," Blake reminded her.
"Something would have got inside," Rainbow said. "Even if they'd avoided what actually happened, the grimm up-top would have gotten down below."
"So what's the alternative?" Blake asked. "To not try?"
"The alternative is to get the people out," Rainbow insisted. "You think Atlas has never tried to plant a new settlement like this before?"
"Has it?"
Rainbow nodded. "It was called Appleoosa. One of Applejack's cousins was one of the first colonists… mind you, you could probably pick just about anything in Atlas, and one of Applejack's cousins would be involved in it somehow."
"Really?" Blake asked dryly.
"Really," Rainbow insisted. "There's so many of them, it's ridiculous, and they're all called Apple Pie! Or... something like that, I don't know how Applejack tells them apart. Anyway, this place called Appleoosa, it was… huh, it was down in the south-west of Solitas, where it's not so cold and you can have a go at growing food naturally. Like this place, they cleared out the grimm who were there already, and then started putting down roots and building up homes."
"And then the grimm came back," Blake guessed.
"Uh-huh," Rainbow agreed. "And they kept on coming back. No matter how many the military killed, there were always more of them. They could replace themselves a lot faster than the soldiers defending the town. Until-"
"The defences collapsed," Blake said.
"No," Rainbow said firmly. "When they realised that the defences
would collapse, the Council ordered an evacuation. They sent in the Sixth and Thirteenth Battalions to take over the defences, supported by a company of Specialists and the cruisers
Archer,
Swiftsure, and
Indomitable. Their orders were to hold the line until the evacuation was complete."
Blake waited for a moment. "And did they?"
"Yes," Rainbow declared. "The infantry suffered ninety percent casualties, the Specialist company was wiped out, and all three cruisers were destroyed; but they held the line, and the evacuation was carried out successfully: no civilian casualties. That… that's how… that's what it means to…" She trailed off. "What am I doing, standing here talking about this stuff, huh? We should keep moving."
The closest subway station to their landing ground was Angel Street – but because it was the closest, it was also the most obvious to anyone who had marked the area where their airship had gone down, and so, Rainbow and Blake steered clear of it. For pretty much the same reason, they also stayed away from the next two closest stations – Snow Hill and Heatherfield – because they, too, were pretty obvious and pretty obvious places for the enemy to lie in wait for them.
Instead, the two scouts weaved a way between those locations, not passing close enough by any of them to be observed by any defenders, leaving a trail of white paint to mark their passage for Sunset and the main group coming after them.
Rainbow had intended to head for a station called Cockfosters, which had to rank pretty high on a list of 'what were you thinking when you came up with that name?' names, but Twilight's drones reported a large concentration of beowolves nearby, and since they weren't here to tangle with the grimm, the two huntresses turned away – marking that route with red paint – and headed a little more to the north than they had planned.
It was the same story at Bank Station; the change in direction had gotten them a little away from Twilight's drones, into a sector of the city that hadn't been subject to aerial recon, and so, Rainbow saw the beowolves herself, fortunately before she rounded the corner and let them see her. They weren't doing very much – they weren't even on the move – they were just sort of standing there, or sitting there, growling to one another as they soaked up the sun. A couple of them prowled around on the edges of the pack, but none of them strayed very far. The alpha sat in the centre of its beowolves, scratching its claws idly upon the ground, making gouges in the tarmac.
Blake peered around the corner. "They don't seem to know we're here," she observed.
"Good," Rainbow replied, pulling a red paintball out of her pouch. "Let's keep it that way."
Blake frowned. "What do you think they're doing?"
"Nothing, by the look of it," Rainbow said.
"Doesn't that strike you as odd?"
Rainbow hesitated. "We can talk about this when we're a little further away from them, yeah?"
Blake hesitated. "Sure," she agreed, and Rainbow marked the route as a no-go before they made their exit, unseen and unhindered, to find a safer route.
It was as they were scouting that safer route, with Twilight's drones flying all over the city to give them advanced warning, that Rainbow said to Blake, "What do you mean, about it being odd?"
"I mean that grimm don't usually sit around doing nothing," Blake explained. "They're not lazy; quite the opposite. Grimm are driven in ways that we can barely comprehend, and yet, that pack was just relaxing? Not even patrolling, just sitting there?"
"Come to think of it, Sunset and I didn't come across a single grimm when we went to get Fluttershy. Neither sight nor sound." That probably ought to have seemed stranger to them than it had, what with this being a hive of grimm; Rainbow had just had other things on her mind last night, so she hadn't really thought about it. "What are you thinking?" Rainbow asked.
"I'm thinking that our enemy, our ultimate enemy, is not the White Fang or Cinder, but Salem, the mistress of the grimm," Blake reminded her. "What if she can make them turn against their own nature? What if she's making them sit idle, so that we can be-"
"Denied access to the underground," Rainbow guessed.
"I'm worried that it might be worse than that," Blake said. "What if we're only being denied access to certain entrances to the underground, herded towards the entrance that Salem – or Cinder – wants us to use."
Rainbow was silent for a moment. "Makes sense," she said. "We knew this was a trap walking into it."
"Did we expect that it would be that much of one?" Blake asked.
"Maybe we should have," Rainbow muttered. "But what choice have we got? It's either go on or turn back, and we can't turn back, not with Applejack still out there and not with so much we still don't know."
"So we just walk into the trap regardless."
"Isn't that what we planned to do?" asked Rainbow. "Sometimes, you just have to be tougher than the trap. Sometimes, that's all that you can do." She hesitated. "All the same, it was smart of you to pick up on that with the beowolves. Stuff like that is why…" She trailed off.
"Rainbow Dash?" Blake murmured.
Rainbow shook her head. "Let's keep moving," she said. "We still don't have a way down yet."
They led the way deeper into Mountain Glenn, out of the suburbs and into the city itself, where detached houses with their own gardens – or at least the remains of their own gardens, to go along with the remains of the empty, silent, decaying houses with the windows smashed in and the door torn off their hinges and the skeletal remains bleaching in the sun as they lay where they had fallen – made way for rising apartment blocks and shopping streets.
Not all of the apartment blocks were finished: some looked only half-built; others looked as if they had only just begun to rise, the mere skeletons of scaffolding like spears lancing up towards the sky. The rotting cars and buses were now joined by abandoned trucks, some toppled over to make barricades like the buses, and by leftover cranes and diggers from the construction sites, the yellow paint peeling off as the rust claimed them.
Some of the streets, they found blocked off by makeshift barricades, wood and metal and stone thrown together to block off the street completely against the advance of the grimm. Rainbow put her hands on her hips as she regarded it.
"I could fly over there," she said, "and I'm guessing that you could make it over there too, but I'm not so sure about everyone else."
"Mhmm," Blake murmured. "Jaune might struggle, and Ciel."
"So we'd better find a way around," Rainbow said. "Hopefully, some of these stores have rear exits."
XxXxX
At this point, you're probably starting to think to yourself 'isn't this a little too easy? Aren't these grimm being awfully passive? Is it possible that we're being herded in a certain direction?' Cinder thought.
Well, you are, obviously, but it would be best if you didn't think too hard about that. Which is why I've placed something in your path to take your mind off it.
XxXxX
It was Blake who found the alternate route. Blake had a gift for this kind of thing, on top of the other gifts that she had; she was surefooted – doubly so, considering that she was wearing heels – and graceful, her steps, her every movement silent or nearly silent. And she had a nose for finding her way as well.
Is there anything you can't do?
I sure hope not.
Twilight kept them informed of grimm concentrations to avoid, and when she didn't spot anything via her drone, the two scouts spotted it and could avoid the grimm without fighting.
Until her voice rang in Rainbow's ear. "Rainbow Dash, are you okay?"
Rainbow unmuted herself. "Yeah, Twilight, we're fine."
"Good," Twilight said, her voice possessing an edge of impatient concentration but not sounding panicked in any way. "Because I'm under attack."
"What?!" Rainbow yelled. "How did they find you? Can't Tsunami-?"
"Wait, sorry, no, not me personally; it's my drones that are under attack."
Rainbow sucked in a deep breath. "Well, that's a pretty big difference, don't you think?" she snapped. "Don't panic me like that again, Twi; this place has me enough on edge."
"Sorry."
"So, what's happening with the drones?"
"Small nevermores," Twilight said. "They're too small to be a threat to you, but they're enough in numbers to pull my drones apart."
"Can't you shoot back?"
"Am I allowed to shoot back? I thought you didn't want-"
"Yes, you are allowed to shoot back if the alternative is that we have no recon," Rainbow said firmly.
"Okay," Twilight replied. "Engaging now. I may not be able to spot everything while I take care of this."
"That's okay," Rainbow said. "Let us know when you're back online; we'll manage for now." She muted her earpiece again. "Did you get that?" she asked Blake.
Blake nodded. "Do you think it's a coincidence that the nevermores decided to attack now?"
"You think Cinder's trying to blind us?"
"I think it's a possibility," Blake replied.
"But why now?" Rainbow asked.
Blake thought about it for a moment. "I… I'm not sure."
"Me neither," Rainbow said. "Maybe it isn't a trap – not so much of a trap – as we thought it was; we just got lucky before, and now our luck's run out?"
"Maybe," Blake murmured.
"Anyway," Rainbow said, "I told Twilight we'd carry on without her for now."
And carry on they did, marking the way as they went, avoiding a couple of ursai who were too lazy to pursue them even if they did not notice the two huntresses, and making their way – without the benefit of Twilight's drones, but without trouble either – to another barricade, set up at the end of another retail street, just beyond a couture boutique of the sort that Rarity hoped to own one day. Indeed, it was a testament to the fervent nature of Rarity's dream that Rainbow knew the words 'couture boutique' purely from hearing her say them often enough.
The name was faded from above the store, and the windows were smashed in, with the remains of some kind of painted sign completely unreadable on the remaining shards of glass. The blue paint – the same shade as Rarity's eyes – was peeling off the door.
The sunlight came in through the broken windows, illuminating the remnants of a smashed display, toppled mannequins and shredded dresses, but it couldn't reach in very far; a lot of the store was shrouded in shadow and darkness.
Still, a big place like this was bound to have another way in and out.
"Through there?" Blake suggested, echoing Rainbow's thoughts.
Rainbow nodded and led the way, pushing the paint-shedding door open – it opened without a sound, which was good, but at the same time, there was a part of Rainbow that would have hoped for a creaking hinge to disturb the silence – and entering the gloomy boutique.
There were no signs of any bodies here, just fallen mannequins that looked a bit like bodies at first glance, lying on the ground with their arms and legs splayed out at uncomfortable angles, until you realised that any real bodies wouldn't be in nearly such good condition – as all the skeletons outside proved. It seemed like nobody had wanted to take refuge in a high-end clothing store, although that hadn't stopped the grimm from giving it a bit of a trashing on principle.
Rarity would be having a fit if she could see the state of this right now, with the displays knocked over and the clothes torn off the rails and everything just lying strewn across the floor with no consideration.
"No, no, no, darling!" Rainbow could hear her voice inside her head.
"This simply will not do! We must get everything properly reorganised before reopening. Now what I'll do is-"
Rainbow found the commentary from the Rarity that existed in her mind comforting; listening with half an ear as she babbled away drove off some of the creepiness of this place, and in spite of the lack of bodies, it
was a creepy place. In particular, Rainbow really hated the mannequins that were still standing up. It was like they were watching her and Blake, waiting for their moment. She had to keep looking at them to remind herself that they hadn't moved while her back was turned.
Rainbow had put on her goggles to protect her eyes against the bright summer sunlight, but as that light was fading so quickly inside the store, she tapped one of the miniature buttons on the right hand side to activate nightvision – there was also an infrared mode, but grimm didn't show up on it.
The darkness was revealed to her as she scanned the store, advancing cautiously, Unfailing Loyalty swaying from side to side as she glanced first left and then right. Blake had Gambol Shroud in pistol mode, and she occasionally turned to check behind them as she followed Rainbow through the store.
"Hello?"
Rainbow stopped, her ears pricking up. That was a voice. That was a
child's voice. But… that wasn't possible. No child could have survived here in Mountain Glenn, and even if they had, they wouldn't be a child any more, not after twenty years.
"Hello?" the voice cried out from the darkness again, unmistakably young, a little girl's voice, younger than Scootaloo, maybe five or six?
Rainbow's spine tingled. She couldn't see where the voice was coming from. There was a lot of clutter near the back of the store, boxes and stuff all piled up. Places where someone could hide.
She kept Unfailing Loyalty raised and pressed against her shoulder, even as she glanced back towards Blake.
Blake's golden eyes were wide; they gleamed in the darkness. Her mouth was open, but no words came out. Her feline ears were as straight and as pointed as daggers, reaching for the ceiling.
"Hello?" The voice was more insistent now, or seemed so.
"Is anyone there?" Another voice, a young boy's voice, coming from… it sounded like they were coming from around the same place as the little girl.
Maybe… maybe someone did survive the fall of the city, and they've been squatting in the ruins ever since, and they had kids. Maybe there are more survivors here in Mountain Glenn than anyone thought.
"Hello?" she replied, calling back into the darkness. "Yes, yes, I'm here."
"Hello?" the little girl called.
"Hi, yeah," Rainbow said. She took a step forward. "I'm right here. My friend and I are huntresses. We're here to… you don't need to be scared; we're not going to hurt you."
Blake took a couple of silent steps across the floor of the boutique, moving closer to Rainbow Dash; Gambol Shroud was pointed at the ground as she turned side on to Rainbow. "Are you sure about this?" she hissed.
"We can't just ignore them," Rainbow whispered.
Slowly, two figures emerged from behind the boxes at the back of the store. They were both children, a young boy and girl at about the age Rainbow had thought, five or six. They were filthy, their faces pale and matted with dirt, their hair stringy and dry and looking like it might fall out if you pulled it. Their clothes were falling to pieces off their bodies. They walked forward calmly. There was something about their eyes… it was weird, but Rainbow couldn't quite put her finger on
why it was weird.
"Hello," the little girl said.
Rainbow grinned as she knelt down, descending to a height closer to their own. "Hey," she said. "Are you two hungry? I think I have a candy bar somewhere-" She released her shotgun with one hand and started to reach into her pocket.
"Is anyone there?" the little boy asked, although he was now standing only feet away from Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow frowned. "I'm right here, kid, and so is my friend. What are your names? I'm Rainbow Dash and this is my friend Blake. Are your parents anywhere around?"
"What's going on?"
Rainbow jumped a little as what she had taken to be a mannequin spoke, revealing that it was not a mannequin at all but a woman, a woman who had been standing still in the shadows, waiting, because that wasn't creepy at all.
Twenty years trying to survive in a place like this, I'd probably lose a few screws as well.
"Hello there, ma'am," she said, rising to her feet. "I'm Rainbow Dash, this is Blake Belladonna; we're huntresses from-"
"What's going on?" she said, walking towards them.
"Well, if you'll let me finish-"
"Is anyone there?" the little boy asked.
"Rainbow, get back!" Blake cried, as she raised Gambol Shroud and shot the boy clean between the eyes.
His head snapped backwards, but his body remained upright.
"Is anyone there?" he asked.
"What the-?"
"They're chills!" Blake yelled.
Rainbow bit back a curse under her breath, her shoes squeaking on the floor as she scrambled backwards, away from the chills and their possessing grip.
"Hello," the little girl said, walking forwards and holding out her hands towards Rainbow Dash.
Their eyes. They had dead eyes; they weren't really looking at anyone or anything, that was what was wrong about them.
"What's going on?" asked the woman as she bore down upon the pair of them.
Blake shot her three times, but she kept on coming, her lifeless body absorbing the rounds like a sandbag. Unfailing Loyalty barked twice, blasting the little girl and the boy backwards, but they just picked themselves up and kept on coming.
"I thought I heard something," said a man, or what had once been a man, a possessed husk coming out of the dressing room. Rainbow turned and shot him too, but as she did so, she tripped over a mannequin and landed heavily on her backside.
She scrambled backwards, panic making her heart race and her breath come quick and fast as the chills advanced upon her. She kept firing her shotgun, but she might as well have been spitting on them for all the good it seemed to do.
"Hello."
"Is anyone there?"
"What's going on?"
"I thought I heard something."
"Rainbow Dash!" Blake shoved a new magazine into Gambol Shroud, red fire dust rounds. Her face was grim, set with determination as she sprayed fire in all directions, the fire dust igniting all the clothes that lay in heaps and fragments on the floor, the fashionable attire that still hung from the racks or mouldered on the mannequins.
As a wall of fire rose between Rainbow and the chills, neither of the huntresses noticed that, for just a moment, Blake had two shadows.
As the fire began to spread, as the smoke rose, as the flames began to consume the bodies of the chills, Rainbow got to her feet. She ran back towards the door. Blake seemed frozen now, transfixed by the flames, unable to move, so Rainbow grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her out, through the doorway and out into the street.
Rainbow let go of Blake as they emerged into the sunlight, the bright light of the sun overwhelming her goggles – still set to nightvision – and blinding her until she tore the goggles off her eyes and stood, blinking, until she could see again.
"That was close," Rainbow said, as the fire inside began to devour the boutique. "Chills. Worst grimm ever, no doubt about it." She took a deep breath. "We'll have to backtrack; we can't ask the others to come this way in case that fire spreads."
Blake did not reply.
Rainbow frowned. "Blake? Are you okay?"
Blake looked at her. Her eyes of gold, so brilliant and so bright, were now dull and lightless. "Rainbow Dash," she said.
Rainbow's eyes widened. Unfailing Loyalty dropped from her hand to land with a clatter on the ground. Her goggles slipped from her trembling fingers.
As Blake raised a hand towards her, Rainbow Dash leapt back.
How? None of them… unless there was another chill in there, one that wasn't possessing anyone until-
"Rainbow Dash," it said, and seemed almost to take a smug, sick satisfaction out of saying it.
No. No! No, this couldn't be happening, not to Blake! Not to her, not to Rainbow's hope, not to the one who could actually do all the things that Rainbow only talked about. Not to Blake, who shone so brightly.
Tears pricked at the corners of Rainbow's eyes. Not Blake, not her, not…
A thought struck her. A memory. A possibility. Blake couldn't have been possessed more than a couple of minutes ago, which meant… maybe.
It wasn't something she'd learned in class, but class wasn't giving her many options right now.
"Hang in there, Blake," Rainbow said. "I've got you."
And with that, she sped forwards, a rainbow trail glowing behind her, crossing the distance before the chill in Blake could properly react. Before she could grab Rainbow Dash, Rainbow had already slammed into her, and as she bore Blake to the ground with her impact, she slammed her palm against Blake's chest and sent a pulse of aura through her.
Through service, we ascend to glory. Through discipline, we rise above fear. Through virtue, we set fury flying. Upon my shoulders, I raise you high and free your soul to soar.
It was like she was trying to activate Blake's aura. Blake's aura was already unlocked, but it was suppressed right now, overwhelmed by the darkness of the chill. But, just like when the General had given Rainbow's aura the kick it needed to come out of its shell and racing to the surface, so too did Rainbow give Blake's suppressed aura the jumpstart it required. As she struck the ground, Blake's body jerked and writhed like she was having a fit. Her mouth gaped open, and a shadow, a screeching shadow, erupted out of it in a dark cloud, screaming as it emerged into the sunlight, and still crying out in a gratingly high pitch as it fled, seeking a dark refuge to recover in.
Rainbow lay on top of Blake, hand resting on her chest, feeling suddenly so tired that it was all she could do not to put her head on Blake's shoulder. Instead she watched, looking at Blake, whose eyes were closed, waiting for them to open.
"Blake?" she asked.
"Rainbow Dash?"
Rainbow breathed in and out. "Could you please say something else?"
Blake was silent for a moment. "Thank you."
Rainbow let out a sigh of relief as she collapsed onto the road beside the other girl.
Thank you. Thank you, whatever gods are out there. And thank you, A. K Yearling.
"I didn't know you could save someone from a chill like that," Blake murmured.
"I don't think it works if you leave it too long," Rainbow replied.
"Still," Blake said. "Did you learn that in Atlas?"
Rainbow let out a slightly nervous chuckle. "Not exactly."
"Not exactly?"
"
Daring Do and the Adventure of the Azure Amulet," Rainbow admitted. "Daring Do saves her friend Marcus from a chill that way."
"Your plan to save me came from a story?"
"Beacon has a whole class teaching stories," Rainbow reminded her. "And it worked, didn't it?"
Blake was silent for a moment. "Yes," she admitted. "I suppose it did. Thank you."
"Don't mention it," Rainbow said, getting to her feet. "No, seriously. Don't mention it. I don't want to think about that again if I can help it." She looked at the burning boutique. "This doesn't seem like such an easy ride now, does it?" She held out a hand to Blake.
Blake took it and allowed Rainbow to help her to her feet. "No," she agreed. "No it does not."
"Are you…?" Rainbow trailed off. "I mean, do you need a minute?"
Blake looked a little paler than she had been before, but she shook her head nevertheless. "I'm fine. We've got a job to do, and the others are counting on us." She paused. "We should probably backtrack away from that fire."
Rainbow grinned. "Good thinking."
XxXxX
They backtracked for a little bit, and then – with Twilight's help and eyes restored to them – resumed their course. They moved through the streets, they took as few shortcuts through stores as they could, they marked a safe way for the others to follow, until their steps brought them eventually to New Street Station. At least, that was what it said on the front, above the doors; it also said Grand Central in big letters mounted on the roof facing east, so maybe they hadn't quite decided on a name yet. It was marked New Street on the map; maybe they'd been planning to change it but hadn't gotten round to updating everything yet.
It looked big enough and, well, grand enough to warrant the name Grand Central; despite the years and the decay and everything else, it still looked like the product of an Atlesian architect: a sprawling glass creation the size of a small town, with panels of reflective glass making up the roof, the sunlight of this clear summer day gleaming off them so bright that Rainbow was glad of her goggles. The ceiling above the main entrance, above the faded blue sign proclaiming 'Mountain Glenn New Street Station' was bulbous, like a whale's head, bulging out above the doors to provide some shelter from any rain.
The maps said that there was a whole shopping mall attached to the station, and another one underground as well. Through the shattered doors, Rainbow could see cafes and fast dining places for people waiting for their trains, as well as convenience stores for everything that you might need but had forgotten to pack.
The doors were broken; they had probably been glass like everything else about this place, but the glass was shattered now. There wasn't any sign that anyone had made any efforts to keep the grimm out, and Rainbow Dash could see why: there wasn't a single solid wall to be seen.
This is just what I was talking about; how were the grimm not going to come through here and get below?
If there was an obstacle she couldn't see yet, then it must have been a sturdy one.
However, there wasn't any sign of the grimm here right now. No sign of the White Fang either. It was completely deserted.
"They've been here, though," Rainbow said.
"How do you know?" asked Blake.
"The bodies are gone," Rainbow replied.
Blake closed her eyes and shuddered. "And you don't think that this area was spared?"
"Have we seen anywhere else that was spared like this?" Rainbow asked.
Blake shook her head. "You think the White Fang cleaned up?"
"Wouldn't you, if you had to live here?"
Blake didn't reply, but she didn't contradict Rainbow either. "So, what do you want to do?"
Rainbow pulled Unfailing Loyalty over her shoulder and cocked it. "Let's take a look inside."
They did, after all, need to get underground somehow.
So they advanced, passing under the bulbous front jutting out above them, walking over the broken glass that filled the space around the shattered doorframes – the frames that no longer operated automatically, so it was a good thing that the glass was broken – and walked inside, sweeping their weapons back and forth as they scanned for any sign of hostility.
A vast skylight formed the ceiling, and the light of the sun was as bright inside as it had been on the outside, causing the white tiles to fade into a sickly yellow colour. Nature had not yet begun to intrude in here, and with all the grisly evidence of Mountain Glenn's fall cleared away by the White Fang, it was possible to imagine that nothing really bad had happened in here. It was as if the city was gone but the station had been spared, trapped in another world where Mountain Glenn had never fallen, where instead of scouting through the scene of a bloody catastrophe, Rainbow and Blake had just arrived early for their train; so early, in fact, that the station wasn't properly up and running yet.
That was why there were no trains up on the board, that was why the ticket barriers weren't working and Rainbow and Blake had to jump over them, that was why there was no one working at the Lista Para Comer that dominated the centre of the concourse, that was why there was no one around at all, and not a sound to be heard.
It was a nice idea, but completely not true. It couldn't explain why the blank and powerless boards were starting to fall off their brackets. It couldn't explain why, even if they were early, there wasn't even a janitor in sight.
It couldn't explain why somebody – and Rainbow had a good idea who – had picked the shelves clean of all the bottled water.
Still, there was no sign of any grimm or any White Fang presence lingering here. They checked the upper balcony to be sure but found no one there either. What they did find was a hole in the wall helpfully laboured 'Staircase to Underground.' A safety notice advised that there were 800 steps and that people should use the elevator if possible, but that wouldn't be a problem for huntsmen and huntresses.
It looked as though a blast door – or something like it – had sealed off the passageway, and there were claw marks on the metal as proof that something had tried to get through, but since then, the entrance had been opened up again.
"What do you think?" Blake asked.
"It looks a little suspicious," Rainbow admitted. "But I wouldn't exactly call those chills making it easy for us to get here."
Blake looked like she was trying to repress a shudder. "No," she murmured. "No, I guess not. So… we're going to go down there?"
Rainbow was silent for a moment. "If you want… do you want to go back to
The Bus? You can wait with Fluttershy until-"
"No," Blake said firmly. "No, I… I'm fine. I can do this. I will do this. I have to do this."
"You don't have to do anything," Rainbow told her. "You don't owe him a damn thing, not even your sword."
"Maybe not," Blake murmured. "But I owe you more than to hide in an airship."
"Nobody would blame you after what you've been through."
"You're wrong," Blake replied. "I'd blame myself."
"Yeah. Yeah, I bet you would," Rainbow muttered.
What am I going to do with you?
I'm really one to talk, aren't I?
Rainbow said, "Hey, Blake, while we're waiting for the others… I don't really want to press you about this Atlas thing, but-"
"But you're about to press me about it anyway?"
"I need..." Rainbow paused. "Gilda and the White Fang didn't just let Fluttershy go."
Blake's eyebrows rose. "I'm shocked," she said in a voice as dry as Vacuo.
"Was it that obvious?" asked Rainbow.
"You're not a bad liar," Blake said. "But I know the White Fang. Gilda… had her delusions, different to mine, but nevertheless."
"How do you mean?"
"I turned a blind eye to the wrong that we were doing, the evils that we were committing; I convinced myself that we were morally in the right," Blake explained. "Gilda… I think that she convinced herself that so long as she adhered to a personal code, then none of the broader evils of the White Fang would stick to her. Perhaps she still believes that; I don't know. Perhaps that would be enough to make her defend Fluttershy, but I don't think it would be enough to make her defy Adam and release her without his approval, and he would never just let her go. Not unharmed."
"Actually… he kind of did," Rainbow replied.
Blake stared at her. "He… he let her go?"
Rainbow nodded. "I don't know how she did it, but… Fluttershy always wins, I guess."
Blake raised her eyebrows. "Huh?"
"It's a private joke," Rainbow explained. "For somebody who looks like a total pushover, Fluttershy somehow always manages to get her own way. Or at least, always when it's something important. Important to her… a right or wrong thing; I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's not as selfish as I made it sound; it's not some passive-aggressive thing; it's… like, when the Apples had a bat infestation in their orchards two summers back. Applejack just wanted to shoot them and have done with it, but Fluttershy said no. Now, this was Apple land, their honest to goodness Apple orchards, their… it's where Applejack's strength comes from,
her land… but Fluttershy won, and we found a way to get rid of the bats without killing any of them. Because Fluttershy always wins. It's like a superpower."
"Sounds almost like a semblance," Blake observed.
"I'm pretty sure that's the 'talking to animals' thing," Rainbow replied. "Maybe it's magic."
"If magic allowed you to get your own way, Sunset would use it all the time," Blake observed dryly.
Rainbow snorted. "Yeah, I guess."
Blake slid down the wall, until she was sitting down with her knees level with her face. "Whatever it, this power… it changed Adam."
"Who said anything about 'changed'?"
Blake was silent for a moment. "I used to think that I could change him," she murmured. "It wasn't a switch turning on, the moment when he stopped being the man I fell in love with and became a monster; it was… it was gradual, little things that happened and paved the way for bigger things… at first, he did things and made excuses, and then eventually, the excuses stopped. And I watched all of it, and I… I thought that I could get him back. I thought that I could… save him. I thought that it was my responsibility to save him, as… as the-"
"The girl?" Rainbow asked. "I ought to take those trashy books off you."
"They're guilty pleasures."
"That sounds like more than a guilty pleasure," Rainbow replied. "It's not your responsibility-"
"If Fluttershy could reach that part of him, then why couldn't I?"
"I don't know, and it doesn't matter anyway!" Rainbow cried. "Fluttershy didn't save Adam; she didn't make him into someone else; she got out! She got out, by herself, without Applejack. I'm not blaming her for that; I'm just putting things in perspective before you get all… she got out. Like you got out. She isn't any stronger or better than you because she was able to convince him to let her go. Blake… his fall is not your shame."
Blake did not respond immediately. Eventually she said, "So, if Adam let Fluttershy go, then what?"
"I went to meet him," Rainbow said. "It was Adam that called, not Gilda. He gave me the location; I left my guns-"
"You left your guns?"
"I didn't want to give him any reason to go back on his decision," Rainbow said. "Not with Fluttershy's life at stake. What if he'd seen a gun and decided not to let her go after all?" She paused. "Sunset thinks I'm an idiot."
"How does Sunset fit into this?" Blake asked.
"She followed me and observed the exchange," Rainbow said. She decided not to mention Cinder. "She thinks that I should have tried to kill Adam when I had the chance."
"That, I can understand you not doing," Blake replied. "Not with the risk that Fluttershy would get caught in the crossfire. But I agree that going alone and without your guns was… not the smartest thing to do."
"Maybe it wasn't," Rainbow admitted. "I am a stupid person, after all; I am a dumb stupid idiot who doesn't think, and I don't practice what I preach, and I don't put enough effort into my homework."
"What?"
"This is why…" Rainbow trailed off for a moment. "I can't command Atlas, Blake, not as I am now, maybe not ever. But you can."
Blake took a step back. "You want me to go to Atlas so that I can… become General?"
"I think Atlas would be improved by having a faunus with two seats on the Council," Rainbow said. "I think that it wouldn't hurt our military to have someone like you in command either; you're smart, you read lots, you work hard at everything, you're committed to the cause, you talk well-"
"I'm not a leader," Blake said.
"Yes you are!" Rainbow insisted. "You were born to lead! You're Chieftain Belladonna's daughter-"
"And I ran away from my father and my mother because I wanted no part of their legacy," Blake said.
"And where did you run to?" Rainbow asked.
"The White Fang, you know that."
"Where in the White Fang?" Rainbow pressed.
Blake was silent for a moment. She looked away and would not meet Rainbow's eyes. "Sienna Khan," she admitted.
"You are the daughter of one leader and the pupil of another," Rainbow declared.
"That does not make me a leader too."
"No, the fact that you're a leader without even trying is what makes you a leader!" Rainbow shouted. "Do you really not see it? Do you really not get how absolutely
everything you are? You've got me, Sunset, Twilight-"
"I thought you were my friends."
"And why is that?" Rainbow demanded. "Because you inspire loyalty in us, in Starlight, in Trixie..." She paused for a moment. "To each of us falls a task, Blake, and the more that I look at you and everything that you've got, the more I think… it might be my dream, but I'm starting to think that it's your destiny."
"What if it is not the destiny that I desire?" asked Blake quietly.
"You want to change the world, don't you?"
"Change the world, yes," Blake admitted. "But bearing the weight of it on my shoulders is something else."
"Nobody's asking you to do it alone," Rainbow said. "Let us be your armour, all of us like little scales, turning you into a giant."
"Huh?"
Rainbow sighed. "Imagine an old-fashioned suit of armour, yeah? Like fish scales? Only, they're not scales; they're all of us: me and Twi and Ciel and Penny and Team Tsunami and everyone else, all little people making up your armour. Only, we're not little; you're huge, and you're wearing all of us. No, wait, you're huge
because you're wearing all of us; we protect you, and we make you stronger, strong enough to bear the weight of the whole world on your shoulders, just like the General, because that's what it means to be the General, to wear the armour-"
"The armour of little people?" Blake murmured. "You're not making any sense."
"It makes perfect sense; I've seen pictures!" Rainbow insisted. "But the point is… the point is that you
will be strong enough; you will
always be strong enough because you'll have the strength of all of us. Look, it doesn't matter if you get what I mean or not, so long as you understand that I'm asking you to… to become what you were meant to be, for the sake of the whole of Remnant and… and everything in it that matters to me.
"I'm asking you to do the things I can't."
Blake opened her mouth, but before she could respond, the quiet of the dead city was interrupted by the sound of gunfire.
