Spark to Spark, Dust to Dust

by Cyclone

Reposted from Spacebattles. Barely a month into her time at Beacon, Yang Xiao Long made a fateful purchase. Little did she know that this would lead her into a war fought in the shadows and a life in which everything is more than meets the eye.

49. V3E8: Esprit de Corps, Part III

Volume III: Episode 8: Esprit de Corps, Part III

---

"Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen!" boomed Professor Port into the microphone from where he sat in Amity Colosseum's announcer's booth. "Today, we will be holding the second- and fourth-year doubles matches for the Fortieth Vytal Festival Tournament!"

"Now, we do realize that there have been a number of controversial events during the first-year doubles matches yesterday," Dr. Oobleck continued at his typical rapid-fire pace, "and the less said about the third-year doubles matches, the better, but despite the accusations made and investigations pending, the Vytal Tournament will continue on as scheduled."

"Indeed!" Professor Port bellowed jovially. "It'll take more than that to interrupt such a fine tradition as the Vytal Festival! We are, after all, a resourceful people, a resilient people, and the show must go on!"

---

Morning in the territories and settlements of Atlas continued on much as the previous night did-

"Down on the ground!" shouted Fluttershy as she slammed the unarmored hooligan with her aura-enhanced strength. He winced in pain as he hit the pavement. "Oh, I'm sorry," Fluttershy cried, her tone softening immediately. "I didn't mean to hurt you; we're just trying to prevent any disturbances and keep everyone as safe as possible. I'm sure you understand."

-strangely.

"Thanks for the help, girls. That should be the last of them," said Officer Copper Top of the Canterlot Police Department appreciatively as she handed the ne'er-do-well off to the policeman in the prisoner transport van.

"You can't protect the SDC forever!" shouted the new prisoner defiantly. "Starlight Glimmer is going to wipe the slate clean! Everyone will be equal! All will be-!"

The monologue was cut off by the soundproofed doors closing.

"Again, thanks," repeated Officer Copper Top. "If you girls want my advice? Enjoy the returning calm and take the day off."

With that said, the policewoman departed to the front of the van, and the vehicle was soon rolling along towards the nearest precinct building.

"Pfft, Equalism, what a load of hooey," summed up Pinkie Pie in what she felt was a very succinct manner.

"At least he didn't try to… you know, us like that Volcanist did," comforted Fluttershy with a suppressed shudder that the other two mimicked.

"It really does feel like the world's gone mad, doesn't it, darlings?" asked Rarity rhetorically as they began to walk down the icy sidewalk back to where their homes were.

"I just can't believe that there are people who want to disband the Huntsman Academies," lamented Fluttershy.

"I can't believe that they want to do that because the SDC was accused of operating slave factories. I mean, what sense does that make?!" complained Pinkie loudly with large gesticulations. "Where's the logic?!"

"There isn't any," replied Rarity in a voice that was beginning to show how tired she was. "Five hours ago, I was stabbing Grimm in the dark. Five minutes ago, I was trying to stop someone trying to firebomb a dust shop and kill us all. Why wasn't that man out on the front lines, fighting the enemies of mankind with the rest of us?"

"Because he's too busy drooling over those hussies, Starlight Glimmer and Robyn Hill," theorized Pinkie bitterly, throwing her arms behind her head as she did so. "I swear, those meanies wouldn't have a hundredth as many followers as they do if they weren't young women using their feminine wiles to steal away the hearts of young men. They're giving Atlesian women everywhere a bad name!"

"I don't know if I would phrase it quite like that," said Rarity with unsureness, though her tone changed at Pinkie's look, "but I do understand the sentiment."

"Ugh, let's just forget about it," moaned Pinkie. "It's the job of the regular police now. All we have to do is figure out how to spend our day off."

"Shower," answered Rarity instantly.

"Shower," agreed Fluttershy just as quickly.

"Shower," concurred Pinkie, rounding off the group. "What about after that though? Want to watch Twilight and Jasper's matches?"

"If the tournament is still on," allowed Rarity.

As luck would have it, the tournament was still on, and the Apple family was looking forward to having them at the farm for the viewing party after a very crazy night. So it was that they once more made their way to the barn, where they found all those who had visited before seated about and ready for the show. This was a great relief to them, not only because it promised some kind of normalcy, but also because none of them were missing any body parts.

"I never thought I'd see the day," said Granny Smith, the owner of Sweet Apple Acres and the head of that branch of the Apple family that included the leader of Team JSPR with a fair bit of reverence. "General Colton, back from the dead. Before he passed, my husband used to always insist that he was still kicking, but I admit that I didn't think so. Well, guess he got the last laugh on that one."

"Don't be so quick to think that this will end well," warned Vice Principal Luna darkly, seeming to loom over the drink in her hands. "With Colton back - assuming he is the real Colton - there's sure to be a power struggle between him and General Ironwood over the position of Commanding General. That will not be good for any of us."

Principal Celestia giggled. "Oh Luna, I think you might be surprised. I'm sure everything will work out fine."

Those eyes, dark as the night time sky, glared at the two older women. "I'm telling you, something bad is going to happen, and when it does, you can count me on General Ironwood's side."

Before they could inquire further, Pinkie entered the fray. "Oh, hey, girls, how's it hanging?"

Principal Celestia turned and smiled at the pink-haired young woman. "'Girls'? You've been out of school for how long, and you're already calling us that?"

"Why not?" asked Pinkie curiously. "I mean, what else would I call you? Oberst? I'm not in the military, and you're retired. Principal? Not in school. Missus? You're not married."

A most unladylike - and almost certainly faked - expression overcame Principal Celestia's face. "For your information, I'm married to my job. I have the paperwork to prove it and everything."

An involuntary laugh escaped Pinkie's lips. "Oh, Celestia, you're too funny to be married to your job."

"Pinkie Pie, I like the cut of your jib. Always have, really. Guess it comes with the territory of possibly maybe being a fourth cousin twice removed by a fifth cousin," said Granny Smith with a pointing finger.

"Ah, well, see you around then! I'll go join the others to watch those Crystal City savages get their big dumb faces beaten!" said Pinkie cheerily before skipping off.

As soon as she was gone, Luna's face fell afresh. "Death ekes ever closer to us."

Celestia sighed heavily. "Is this going to be like the day you retired at oberstleutnant?"

---

"I'm still not sure bringing me forward to the doubles match was such a good idea," murmured Lavi as they waited for the summons to the arena.

"It was either that or send the twins in," Rain reminded him. "They're good, but they lack... subtlety."

"Maybe," the sniper conceded, "but this kind of fighting isn't exactly my specialty. The twins are good at this head-on thing."

"I don't exactly trust either of them to comport themselves properly if they make it to the semifinals."

Lavi winced. He couldn't exactly blame him, given how... impulsive the twins were.

"Will the competitors from Teams Fairstar and Ruffle please make your way to the arena?"

His cat-eared team leader gave him a reassuring look as they began to walk down the tunnel toward the stadium. "Besides, as much fun as this is, Black Out, victory is not the mission. Remember that. No need to show this world everything we can do."

"Right." Lavi nodded, walking straighter as they emerged out into the arena. He cracked a smile. "With a pep talk like that, no wonder you didn't want the twins on this." There was no way the twins would be willing to hold back if it looked like they were going to lose; "restraint" was barely a word in their vocabulary. It just wasn't how they were wired.

Lavi studied their opponents as they squared off: Sunny "Radstorm" Flare was the resident radiation specialist whose expertise had proven unexpectedly valuable in the wake of the planet's first nuclear weapon going off, and it seemed she'd traded her signature radiation gun for a less lethal laser rifle; Twilight "Magic" Sparkle was a drone specialist and general techhead whose innovations were pushing the limits of drone technology.

"For our first second-year doubles match," boomed Professor Port, "we have Sunny 'Radstorm' Flare and Twilight 'Magic' Sparkle from Atlas against Rain 'Vanguard' Bailey and Lavi 'Black Out' Stall, also from Atlas!"

"Indeed!" Dr. Oobleck continued excitedly. "Although teams from the same academy are prevented from facing each other in the team matches, all bets are off for the match randomizer from the doubles round onward! This may be the first time two teams from the same academy will be facing each other in the arena in this year's Vytal Tournament, but it will most certainly not be the last!"

"To have it happen this early in the tournament is quite unfortunate for Atlas Academy's overall prospects for victory in the second-year bracket," Port commented jovially.

"Whoever wins," Doctor Oobleck continued, "Atlas loses."

"Or whoever loses, Atlas wins," Professor Port suggested.

"Excellent point!"

The holographic representations of the biome randomizers spun, finally settling on swamp and ice behind Lavi and Rain and geyser and gravity islands behind their opponents. Lavi tensed as the arena reconfigured itself to match. Game time.

"Three two one begin!" declared Dr. Oobleck, and Black Out tuned out the announcers.

He and Vanguard leaped backwards, diving into the swamp behind them. Black Out saw Radstorm shimmer out of view with her semblance, not unlike Vanguard's, though the circumstances precluded his team leader from using it, while Magic began deploying flying disc drones from her backpack, sending them forward to pursue them into the swamp. He brought Lea up to his shoulder, peering through the scope. Cutting edge optics swept across the arena, searching for any flaw in Radstorm's semblance. Seeing no sign of Team FIST's leader, he instead zeroed in on one of Magic's drones, a single powerful shot from Lea more than enough to punch through its aluminum frame.

"Aloysius!" Magic cried out in apparent anguish... just before Vanguard burst from the swamp again and closed the distance on her, slashing at her with Mouser, currently in dual claw gauntlet configuration. Magic shrieked in what looked like panic and scrambled away as her drones swarmed closer, almost colliding with each other as they jockeyed for a clear shot, a clear shot they wouldn't be getting if Magic couldn't get some distance.

Black Out filed them to the back of his mind as he returned to searching out Radstorm. Given the terrain arrangement, Radstorm could be moving through the gravity islands toward the swampy area he was holed up in, or she could be cutting straight across the center of the arena for the mostly open ice field. The geyser field was unlikely; her semblance, as impressive as it was, was unlikely to be good enough to compensate for-

There! His advanced optics picked up photons scattering across near-invisible dust particles in the air as Radstorm's laser rifle fired, lancing out towards the one-sided melee between Vanguard and Magic.

Trusting his team leader to hold his own, he traced back the shot, much to his disbelief. Incredibly, it seemed she had chosen to try and make her way through the geyser field; he could see her as her semblance took effect once more, concealing her against the background... but doing nothing to prevent the falling water from silhouetting her outline. It was the same mistake they'd made in their team match.

He hesitated. Or was it? Was this a trick? A holographic decoy, perhaps, intended to get him to reveal his location?

He mentally shook that worry off. That kind of doublethink second guessing would get him nowhere, and if it was a trick? Well, then it was a trick that was good enough to earn Team FIST their victory. Besides, decoy or not, what he had in his sights was shooting at Vanguard.

He took the shot. At this range, relatively close for Lea, the shot still hit slightly off from center mass due to Radstorm's evasive maneuvers. She spun with the impact, bleeding off energy and minimizing the drop in her aura, and allowed her semblance to drop.

Already, Black Out was moving to reposition as she brought her laser rifle up and began methodically sweeping a spray of laser pulses left to right in his general direction. He ignored the incoming fire and suppressed the instinct to take to the air. She didn't know where exactly he was - that was why she was spraying fire around - and so long as that held up, he had the advantage.

He dove behind a log and waited. The problem, of course, was that by moving, he was leaving traces of his presence. There was a balance to be found between moving quickly to escape the kill box she was focusing her fire on and moving stealthily enough to avoid being tracked.

As he shifted to a more discreet movement, crawling through the muck, he couldn't help but wonder where Magic's drones were. They would be the ideal solution to flushing out his position. Surely, they weren't all tied up with Vanguard, were they?

He quietly sent a request for an update on the drones' positions.

"They're currently occupied, trying to keep me from Magic." All right, maybe they were. Still, he could sense a bit of uncertainty in the reply.

Better to remain vigilant.

The unaimed laser fire had died down, leaving him with no cues as to Radstorm's position or whether she had been able to trace his position in turn or not. He considered his options as he neared the ice biome. The glacial plain boasted long sight lines and little concealment, but it also offered substantial hard cover in the form of large ice spires thrusting up toward the sky.

His gaze swept across the icy field, Lea instinctively tucked up to his shoulder. A laser flashed and chipped away at his aura briefly before he rolled away, swinging the bolt-action rifle around. The silhouette of Radstorm's shape was shimmering into nothingness... but she couldn't move that fast.

He fired, rather than take the time to center the shot, then feverishly worked the bolt and fired again. And again.

The shots weren't accurate by his standards; they weren't elegant, but they were fast and accurate enough. Three high-powered rounds slammed into Radstorm, causing her aura to dip significantly as she staggered from the rapid-fire impacts. The pain apparently disrupted her semblance, giving him time to center his shot, then fire again and again and again. Then three more rounds after that before he reached back for a pair of stripper clips.

The buzzer sounded.

"Sunny Flare has been eliminated by aura depletion!" announced Professor Port.

It sounded again.

"And just moments after, Twilight Sparkle has also been eliminated by aura depletion!" called out Dr. Oobleck. "Leaving Rain Bailey and Lavi Stall victorious!"

The battle over, Lavi blinked.

We won?

Rising to his feet, he stepped back into the arena's central octagon, shooting Rain a quizzical look as they accepted the cheers from the relatively few people in the stands.

"Something's not right," Rain murmured as they slipped within earshot. "Magic was too emotional and overprotective of her drones."

Lavi gave a slight nod of agreement. "Radstorm flubbed up, went through the geyser field. Rookie mistake, same mistake they made in the team round."

"Unless it wasn't a mistake," rumbled Rain.

Lavi had to agree. That made more sense than the two of them suddenly losing all tactical sense.

But why would Team FIST throw the match?

"Go, Lavi!"

The familiar voice derailed his worrisome thoughts, and his expression lit up as he swept his gaze across the stands, quickly zeroing in on a familiar face framed with brown hair and topped by a pair of rabbit ears. He smiled cheerfully and waved back at her.

Whatever Team FIST was up to, if it was a problem, they could deal with it later.

---

Rarity poured herself a cup of tea from out of a blue vacuum flask decorated with silver sparkles. She drank, feeling the warm liquid cascade down her throat. It was easier to drink than to confront her conflicted feelings on the matter: it was a pity that Twilight had lost, of course, but... well, quite frankly, the rest of that team were such a brute company that she was rather glad that none of them would be making it to the singles rounds. Imagine having Sunny Flare representing Atlas in the eyes of the world! Perish the thought.

But, all the same, it was a pity about poor Twilight. She'd done very well, but... these things happened, she supposed.

A little part of herself of which Rarity was somewhat ashamed felt as though it was a kind of payback for all the times that they had so gleefully humiliated Canterlot in the Friendship Games.

Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna were discussing something in hushed whispers, as though they had found something odd or strange about the fight, but Rarity couldn't pay too much attention to them because Pinkie was displaying a distinct lack of her usual, well, Pinkie-ness today. Her hair in particular was lacking a little of its usual voluminousness.

"Pinkie dear?" Rarity murmured, placing a hand on Pinkie's shoulder.

"Huh?" Pinkie gasped. "Oh, hey, Rarity. Pity about Twilight, huh?"

"Yes," Rarity murmured. "You're not still worried about her, are you?"

Pinkie smiled sadly. "I just can't shake it, you know? That feeling like when you're hungry but it doesn't get better no matter how much you eat. And I've been trying to eat."

"I've told you, there's nothing to worry about," Rarity reassured her. "Where would Twilight go, anyway? Cheer up, darling; soon, it will be Rainbow and Applejack's fight, and you won't want to be distracted for that."

---

"Hey, Radstorm, Magic, wait up!" came the worried voice of Lemon Zest as the group walked down the corridors.

Sunny turned around to meet the green-haired faunus and the rest of Team SSCL as they came running to a stop.

"What happened out there? Did something go wrong?" inquired Sour in one of her sugar-sweet kind voices before her expression shifted and the berry-themed girl leaned forward with rage on her countenance. "Did you throw the match?"

Her friend reminded Sunny of one of her surlier uncles after he had gotten a bit too much new wine into him when she got like that, and the leader of Team FIST wasn't afraid to let her amusement at that show in her face.

"Easy there, Sakura; your blood vessels are showing again," chided Sunny with a smirk. When Sour replied to that with a roll of her eyes, she decided to continue. "As for throwing the match, you should know that sort of thing is against the rules and can get a person barred from participating in future tournaments, right?"

"That's not a denial," pointed out Jet.

"No, it's not, but you should take as one," reasoned Sunny succinctly.

"You four should know that we always have the honor of the Shadowbolts at heart," said Twilight in that comforting tone of hers with a face as warm as honey coated toast in front of the fireplace.

"Well, yeah, of course we know that," confirmed Lemon with a sad smile. "Just… I don't know."

"What she's trying to say is that we're going to avenge you," promised Sour. "We won't let the Shadowbolts lose out there. We're going all the way to the top, and when we do… we're bringing you with us."

"Yeah!" Lemon declared eagerly, punching a fist into her other hand's palm. "You just watch, and we'll take those prizes."

"We'll be pulling for you," offered Twilight with a nod.

"That's right," confirmed Sunny.

With that, the two groups said their final goodbyes and went their separate ways. One walked toward conflict and the other toward revelation. They were some distance apart and out of sight of each other when anything else was finally said.

"Haaaaah," hissed out Twilight, tears in her eyes. "I don't know how much longer I would have been able to keep that up."

"Neither do I," confirmed Sunny with her own roiling emotions. "Let's… let's just go make sure Straight and Daiku have things packed and our transfer papers filed."

Twilight nodded and choked out, "No sacrifice, no victory."

---

"Coffee, coffee, coffee. You'll never find a more disgusting blend of arrogance and incompetence," dryly commented Sunset Shimmer as she rolled her shoulders.

"I hear that," agreed Lightning Dust. "Surprised Adel didn't put herself forward into the doubles match."

"No kidding," Sunset snorted. "She's got the ego for it."

Neither noticed the irony, and so, Sunset went on.

"Velvet Scarlatina, though… she's the real deal, and she's been getting better," admitted the fire-haired Havenite sourly. "So, she's going to be the first one we take out."

Lightning turned to glare at her. "So I'm going to distract the big guy with the sword while you snag all the glory taking down the wunderkind."

Sunset twisted to glare at her. "That's the opposite of what I'm proposing. You're faster, that's all, and that means you can end this quickly. I've spent a lot of time watching people, and Velvet almost always spends the fight in the background or fighting hand to hand until…"

"Until she does what she did in the four vee four," finished Lightning grumpily. "So you need me to take her down fast before she can pull something out of her hat. Yeah. I can do that. Been saving up for a moment like this."

At that, Lightning Dust took out some… well, some lightning dust, out of a pouch on her suit and flashed them before putting the crystals back into their pocket.

"Got more already in place. This suit is wired for destruction," continued Lightning as she rolled her shoulders much like her compatriot had done. With an expression turned melancholy, she looked down the corridor to the arena. "Hey, Sunset, do you think anyone's watching out there?"

"I'm still caught up on the fact that you used a magician pun about a rabbit faunus," answered Sunset flatly.

Lightning let out a nostalgic laugh. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess I did. Seriously though."

Sunset turned to look down the hall as well. "I have no idea. It's been a busy two days, after all. People are probably still going gaga over that spoiled brat or that SDC exec getting arrested or General Joseph B. Colton returning."

"It is pretty hard to top Atlas's greatest hero coming back to life," agreed Lightning before shaking her head. "I hope there's someone watching, though. I want the world to see when we prove that Professor Lionheart made a mistake when he put this team together."

Sunset cocked an eyebrow. "Explain."

"Well, he was a traitor, right?" asked Lightning, and when Sunset nodded she continued. "So he was setting us up to fail. That's why our team is set up the way it is, why we're together at all. We're supposed to get each other killed."

"Come on, let's show them how great we really are!"

"Dusty, help me!"

"You took back Nafrot Hill, but I don't know if you have the strength to hold it now."

"You got my sister killed, butcher."

"Of course we'd be willing to have someone with such a prestigious record at Haven. It should be just a formality. After all, you proved who you really are during the recent Grimm incursion in Atlas."

No, you were wrong, traitor, silently vowed Lightning. I'll show you and everyone else that my past is not today. Most importantly, I'll show myself.

"Is that why you were put in charge?" needled Sunset.

Lightning bared her teeth at her teammate. "Look at us, Sunset," she snapped. "Do you really think it would have made any difference which of us got named leader?"

"Between the two of us?" Sunset asked, a smirk crossing her face as she tossed her fiery mane. "Obviously, one of us was the superior choice, and the other-"

Lightning growled wordlessly.

Sunset rolled her eyes. "It could have been worse, I suppose. Lionheart could have made Sunburst the team leader."

Lightning snorted. "Or Trixie."

Sunset groaned, covering her face with one hand. "Gods preserve us. I guess Lionheart wasn't without mercy, even if he was worshiping a Grimm in the school basement." She chuckled softly. "To answer your original question: I actually think we'll get some crowd. We might even draw a few more eyes than the four on four."

"That wasn't what you thought yesterday," Lightning pointed out. "It wasn't what either of us thought."

"I've had a little more time to think about it," Sunset said.

"After everything that's going on, you think that people are going to care about us versus Team Coffee?" Lightning asked, a little incredulity creeping into her voice.

"I think it's precisely because of everything that's going on that people are going to…okay, maybe they won't really care, but they'll turn up anyway," Sunset explained. "The world's got so shocking and serious all of a sudden, people are going to want to escape from it all for a little bit; they might not like us, but they'll take what they can get if it means getting taken out of themselves."

"And not put back?" Lightning asked.

Sunset grinned. "Nobody ever wants to get put back into themselves once they've been taken out," she said. "Not if they can avoid it."

"Sunset, if we make it through this round-"

"When we make it through this round."

"I want you to go on to the singles. You're the most versatile among us, so you'll have the best chance against any other possible contenders we could run up against," finished Lightning, ignoring Sunset's confident statement.

"Will the combatants for Team Coffee and Team Dust make their way into the arena?" Doctor Oobleck demanded.

Lightning clenched one hand into a fist. "We're up," she said, anticipation lending her voice an edge.

The two of them strutted into the colosseum as though they owned it; they might not have been a crowd favorite even before Atlas decided to drop a few more bombshells and thin out the crowd - although Sunset was right, the place wasn't as empty as Lightning had expected; apparently, people really did want to forget their troubles and watch a fight for a bit - but that didn't change who or what they were. They were the supermodels of the huntsman world, and this was their catwalk. There was no way that Team CFVY could compare.

Velvet and Yatsuhashi made their way out confidently, but not as impressively as the DSST girls had managed to do. Bizarrely, Yatsuhashi decided to forego the usual pre-match stare-off; instead, sat down on the floor with his legs crossed and started to meditate.

Mistralians were weird, some of them anyway; Lightning had been living there for two years, and she still hadn't got used to all of their funny habits.

"Hey," Sunset called. "You know what they say about guys with big swords, right?"

Their caffeinated opponents looked more exasperated than annoyed.

"What?" Sunset said. "You can't just sit there and ignore us and expect me to take it."

Yatsuhashi sighed as the biome randomizers whirled away around them, eventually settling on geyser and gravity islands for Team CFVY's side of the battlefield, and forest and volcano for the side behind Team DSST.

Yatsuhashi picked himself up off the ground. The crowd hummed in anticipation. Most of them, as far as Lightning could hear, were cheering for CFVY.

Her tail twitched in irritation. Let them cheer. It didn't make a bit of difference to how this fight was going to play out.

"Three!" Professor Port boomed.

A ripple of electricity crackled up and down Lightning's bodysuit. Sunset pulled out her antique pistol and, with a flourish of her other hand, produced her short sword; all of the rounds in the former's magazine were filled with fire dust because Lightning wasn't the only one with a specialty.

"Two!"

Yatsuhashi gave his enormous blade an experimental swing through the air, a heavy whooshing following it.

"One!"

Velvet closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Begin!"

Velvet flung out her arms, and in her right hand, Lightning could already see her weapon set to work, creating a copy weapon for her out of glowing blue light.

Like we're just going to sit here and give you the chance!

The two members of Team DSST raced forward; lightning cracked across Lightning's entire body, while smoke began to rise from Sunset as the flames consumed her. They were less like Huntresses and more like elemental demons out of some video game, spirits of fire and lightning, as they closed the distance with their opponents, both of them bearing down on Velvet, even as she tried to conjure a weapon in time.

The big guy tried to get between them, but although he was able to block Sunset's rush - just about - the lumbering ox was nowhere near fast enough to intercept Lightning too, and she slipped past him fleet as a thunderbolt. She left Sunset to it, wreathed in flame, dodging the heavy strokes from that great blade; Sunset was quick enough and tough enough, and even if he did land a hit on her, then her semblance would ensure he paid for it in kind. Lightning heard the snapping blast of Sunset's fire dust blade, the ring of sword on sword, even as she raced on, closing the distance with Velvet even as the latter tried to retreat to the gravity islands.

But Lightning was faster, and Velvet's weapon had only just finished forming.

She'd chosen the scythe from that first-year girl with the red hood - Lightning hadn't paid that much attention to all of the first-year matches, but there were a couple of teams that everyone said were something special and Lightning had found her curiosity piqued; something about her rushing into a three-way firefight and getting shot? - and while she might have been hoping to fend off Lightning with the greater reach, it was already far too late for that; Lightning was inside the guard of the over-long weapon, her fist wreathed in crackling sparks as she ducked beneath Velvet's stroke and drove said fist hard into the other girl's gut.

Velvet cried out. The scythe dispersed as she was thrown upwards and into the air by Lightning's blow, electricity crackling across her brown outfit. She spun in the air, throwing out her arms once more as she sketched new weapons into her hands: the Belladonna girl's blades; Lightning recognized them from yesterday. She flung out the sword, missing Lighting - on purpose, Lightning realized, as the blade of light buried itself in the surface of the arena - and Velvet used the ribbon to drag herself backwards, cleaver in hand, to slash Lightning across the side.

She landed in a crouch and was already switching weapons as Lightning unleashed a burst of electricity in her direction, snapping and crackling as it crossed the little space between them. Velvet conjured the Arc boy's sword and shield, covering herself with the latter as she took the lightning blast upon it. Since her weapons were made of light, not metal, she was better protected than she would have been with an actual shield, which was why Lightning went on the attack again, her whole body spitting electricity. Velvet stepped forward to meet her, thrusting her shield out - she meant to hammer Lightning with it before following up with a blow from the sword in her other hand - but Lightning nimbly stepped aside from the shield stroke, turning on her toe as Velvet's attack carried her past Lightning, exposing her to a blow to the small of her back-

-which didn't land, because Velvet twisted aside from the blow with a surprising nimbleness as, all of a sudden, it was Pyrrha frickin' Nikos's shield that she was holding in one hand and Pyrrha's spear in the other, and suddenly, she was moving with the speed and dexterity of the Invincible Girl herself, and it was Lightning who was on the back foot, literally stumbling backwards as she looked for an opening.

There wasn't one, and to be honest, there wasn't much of a window for Lightning to not get hit either, so Lightning stopped retreating and let the blow come.

And as the blow came, Lightning let her namesake explode out from her body, erupting in all directions, slamming into Velvet even as Velvet's blows slammed into Lightning so that they were both hurled backwards and away from each other, striking the arena surface and rolling away.

Lightning was a little quicker to regain her feet; her semblance had flickered, but she reactivated it quickly. It was a drain on her aura, but she was fortunate to have a lot of aura to drain; she was only just entering the yellow now.

Lightning glanced towards Sunset, who seemed to be holding off Yatsuhashi... right up until she wasn't. Sunset stopped, and on the big screens, Lightning could see that she looked confused, dazed; her semblance flickered out, the flames dying. And as Sunset stood there looking like she couldn't remember where she was or what she was supposed to be doing, Yatsuhashi hit her with a slashing stroke that would have sliced her in half if it hadn't been for aura; as it was, with aura, it just punted her into the geyser field as though she didn't weigh anything at all.

The blonde Havenite boggled and unleashed another surge of lightning as she sprinted across the battlefield to check in on her squad- teammate, her teammate.

"What… what the hell was that?" Lightning yelled as she came up next to where Sunset was getting to her feet in the middle of the geyser field. "Seriously, what was that?"

"I blanked out," Sunset muttered.

"What do you mean, you 'blanked out'?"

"I mean I blanked out; what else do you want me to say?" Sunset snapped.

"I want you to-" Lightning leapt aside, grabbing Sunset and throwing her to the ground as a thunderous shot made a chunk of the arena floor explode in a shower of splinters. Velvet had retreated to the gravity islands, and in her hands, she held a monstrously oversized rifle of the kind that Lightning thought she'd seen carried by one of the Atlas students.

"Ugh," Lightning grunted. "Just stick to the plan!" She surged to her feet and began to charge, trusting to her speed to let her dodge the shots from Velvet's gun.

"What plan?!" Sunset demanded, yelling after her.

"'Wha-'? The plan you came up with!" Lightning yelled back, and if they hadn't been in the middle of a battle, she would have stopped to tear her tail out in exasperation. "Come on!"

Yatsuhashi barred her way out of the field, but Lightning wasn't too worried about him. The big guy was strong, sure, but he was slow to make up for it. She dodged his first swing with ease; she could get past him and then-

And then…

And then…

What was the plan again?

A shot from Velvet's rifle slammed into Lightning's side, sending her spinning like a top as she was hurled backwards, landing with a thump at the edge of the forest biome.

"We need to take cover!" Sunset cried, dashing past Lightning and into the trees, leaving Lightning to follow as another shot from Velvet destroyed one of said trees with a single round, reducing it to splinters.

Lightning and Sunset retreated deep into the forest, using the screens as their guide to what was going on in the rest of the arena: Velvet was on overwatch, waiting with her rifle for either of her targets to emerge; Yatsuhashi was pacing back and forth, his sword swinging gently up and down in one hand.

"I blanked out too," Lightning admitted.

"That guy must have some kind of mind semblance," Sunset said.

"Greaaaat," Lightning bemoaned. "So what do we do?"

"We need to take him out, or he'll just keep hitting us over and over again," Sunset said.

Lightning looked down at her hands. I'll show you, Lionheart. I'll show you what I really am, and it's nothing like you could have imagined. "I'll take care of it," she said. "Once I've engaged him, you go for Velvet. Can you get there?"

Sunset considered it for a moment. "I think so."

"Okay then," Lightning said. She raised her fist. "Washouts for life."

Sunset boggled. "What did you say?"

"Come on, it looks really cool when the Atlas kids do it."

"I would rather die than call myself a washout," Sunset declared.

"Oh, come on, that won't make it any less true," Lightning snapped. "We- none of us could get into Atlas, so we wound up at Haven; the least we can do is start owning it."

Sunset rolled her eyes and bumped Lightning's fist with her knuckles.

"Say it."

"Don't push it."

"I'm not going anywhere until you say it."

Sunset exhaled loudly. "Washouts for life," she said, through obviously gritted teeth.

"Hell yeah," Lightning said, as she turned away and strode out of the forest.

Electricity wreathed her hand, stray bolts leaping out and to the ground, making a sound like the chirruping of a thousand birds as she broke from cover and sprinted across the central octagon. Her lightning scarred the surface of the arena as she charged, yelling at the top of her voice. Velvet fired at her, but Lightning was moving too fast, and the shots from the other girl trailed behind her as she rushed towards Yatsuhashi.

The big guy swung his sword at her, straight down in a cleaving stroke. Lightning blocked the blow with both her hands, her whole body shuddering to a halt, her arms and legs quivering as she pushed against his monstrous strength.

Gods, this guy is as strong as an Ursa Major.

Lightning considered herself to be no slouch - she worked out twice as hard as any other member of her team, and she had aura to burn - but this guy. This guy. Lightning could feel herself being pushed backwards, her feet slipping and skidding on the surface of the arena. She growled, her voice rising into a snarl as she pushed more and more power into her semblance, her whole body rippling with lightning that leapt past and through Yatsuhashi's blade to tear into his aura.

Sunset is counting on me.

I will not let my teammate down.

Not again!

Lightning threw back her head and roared as she put everything she had into her semblance, an explosive blast of thundering plasma that burst out of her in all directions; Lightning's suit sparked and fizzled as she overloaded it, the lightning dust crystals embedded into it exploding to tear her raiment to pieces. Her aura ran dry down to the very last drop, but even as the buzzer rang for her elimination, it was sounding for Yatshuhashi too as he was thrown, lightning snapping across his body, backwards across the arena, his aura dropping into the red.

"Double knockout!" Professor Port declared. "Lightning Dust and Yatsuhashi Daichi are eliminated simultaneously! I've never seen anything like it!"

Lightning knelt down upon the ground, panting heavily; the draining of her aura and the fact that she had broken her own suit - the fact that she routinely pushed its capacity to its limits probably hadn't helped much - meant that her movements were stiff and awkward. Her limbs felt heavy. She was so tired...

Nevertheless, she forced herself to watch as Sunset dueled with Velvet.

Sunset had gotten up onto the gravity islands, and now, she was consumed by fire once more as she hurled herself at Velvet, who was using the rapier of Weiss not-Schnee to fend her off. Lightning had to admit; the girl from Team CFVY was good. Really good. Her movements were as precise as the snowflake princess herself as she countered Sunset's strokes, blocked her shots. But she was having a hard time getting any hits in on Sunset, and she was getting hit by Sunset's fire dust, and it seemed like her semblance was pretty aura intensive, because she was in the yellow and dropping steadily.

Perhaps that was what inspired her to drop her hardlight weapon and pull out a knife from behind her back, slashing at Sunset's eyes as she counterattacked.

Sunset parried the knife with her short sword. There was a bang and a blast of fire dust as the knife flew out of Velvet's hand. Sunset leapt back, leveling her pistol and emptying the magazine into her opponent until the buzzer sounded.

"Velvet Scarlatina has been eliminated!" Doctor Oobleck declared. "The pairing of Lightning Dust and Sunset Shimmer are victorious."

Lightning couldn't help but smile as her gaze lingered on the victorious Sunset Shimmer and the defeated Velvet Scarlatina. We did it, she thought with joy. We actually managed to do it.

Sunset was looking up at the crowd and raising her sword, looking for all the world like one of those conquering heroes of Mistral's past that she admired so much. It should have vexed Lightning to have so much acclaim and praise fall upon someone else, but it was not so. Perhaps, she assumed, it was because so much praise was already falling upon her. She assumed, of course, because she found she was having trouble moving her head.

There was a flurry of footsteps, and then her vision was taken up by the profile of one of Beacon's medics as he looked down on her. "Ma'am, we have a stretcher for you. Can you move onto it under your own power?"

The smile continued but took on a certain cheeky quality. "You're really going to make the winner of the match move on her own?" Her voice was strained and hoarse for some reason. "In Mistral, I would already be on a palanquin."

The medic recognized something in her tone and smiled in turn. "Well, let's carry you away then, victor."

With that, Lightning felt herself being moved about, and soon, she was looking up at the sky from a very soft bed. She certainly didn't feel any pain. She was too cool for that. She was just lying down to enjoy the ride.

There was another set of footsteps running in, and then Sunset was in her field of view, walking beside the hovering platform. "By the gods, Lightning, what did you do to yourself?"

"Nothing, absolutely nothing," insisted the blonde faunus woman. "Just being carried around by a punch of hunky guys."

Sunset blinked in disbelief. "Are you crazy? In denial?"

"Oh, very much so," answered Lightning without delay or shame. "Say, speaking of which, my tail's still there, right?"

Sunset glanced to the side. "Yes."

"Good. Hate to end up like Berrytwist," said Lightning, even as she began to feel pain spreading throughout her body from the admission. "Girl was good, 'til she wasn't. Everyone thought she would win it all. Then she lost her squad, her tail, and her self-respect."

"Are… are you really doing this?" asked Sunset in even greater disbelief.

"Ma'am, would you like us to administer a sedative?" inquired one of the medics.

"Would I?!" replied Lightning happily, and with that, a hypodermic needle was quickly and expertly plunged into her skin.

"Apparently not," muttered Sunset as she watched her team leader get pumped full of drugs and carted off to the infirmary.

---

Velvet's ears drooped as she and Yatsuhashi made their way out of the arena. They'd been so close! She'd thought they'd had it! Yatsu's subtle use of his semblance had destroyed what little cohesion their opponents had had, and her own semblance, coupled with Anesidora, made her a fighter of unparalleled skill and versatility... but it just wasn't enough.

She'd been working on not relying so heavily on her semblance, but clearly, she still had a long way to go. Like Pyrrha's, Ciel's skill set had felt off somehow, and she was beginning to wonder if there was some underlying reason for it. Once she figured out what it was, she'd be able to compensate for it, she was sure.

She was startled to find herself swooped up into a hug, and she blinked a bit, before a smile split her face, piercing through the gloom at their loss.

"Hey, Lavi," she greeted her boyfriend shyly, wrapping her own arms around him. "I guess I won't be seeing you in the finals."

Lavi snorted. "I'm not heading into the singles rounds anyway," he said. "I'm more of a support guy myself." He tightened his arms around her. "It's okay, you know?"

"Hmm?"

"Losing," he clarified. "I mean, it's the Vytal Festival, just a tournament, really. Victory isn't the mission. Nothing really important was on the line, right?"

"Speak for yourself!" And that was Coco. "We wanted to win!"

As Velvet peered at the others, Coco held her hands up, palms facing backwards over her shoulders.

"Yeah!" the twins from Lavi's team chorused as they gave Coco simultaneous high fives.

The rest of both their teams were there, of course, and it was Rain who spoke up next, pointing back down into the arena. "There is always a price for victory. It's not always worth it."

Quizzically, Velvet turned her head and traced the direction his finger was pointing to see...

Lightning Dust on a hover stretcher, being gingerly carted out of the arena by a pair of medics.

Lavi, looking down in the arena himself, murmured quietly, "'No sacrifice, no victory.'"

Velvet leaned away for a moment to look at him squarely. "What was that?" she asked.

"It's something Magic says a lot," he answered. At her curious look, he added, "She's from Team Fairstar. It's... a family motto, I think?"

"A wise one," Velvet reflected. There were layers to it she could see. Sacrifice didn't necessarily mean in the moment, after all. Training was a sacrifice as well: of time, of pain, of resources. Sometimes, the sacrifice wasn't physical. Sunset and Lightning had swallowed their pride, and for some, that surely was as great a sacrifice as any injury.

"Besides," Lavi reassured her, breaking her thoughts, "there's still next time."

Velvet nodded. In two years, she vowed, we're taking that title.

---

"I must confess," Rarity declared, "that was a rather impressive display, albeit from a somewhat odious individual."

"Sunset... isn't the nicest person in the whole world," Fluttershy murmured, "but it seems that doesn't stop her being good at what she does."

"Maybe, but just think how much better she could have been if she hadn't been such a meanie-pants," Pinkie wondered aloud. "Maybe almost as good as Rainbow Dash!"

"'Almost,'" Scootaloo said with emphasis.

"Miss Dust deserves her share of the laurels and more," Principal Celestia reminded them. "Sunset struck the final blow, but it was Lightning Dust who gave her the opportunity. Which isn't to say that Sunset didn't do very well herself." A smile played across Principal Celestia's lips.

Luna chuckled. "You're proud of her, aren't you?"

"I'm proud of all my students, when they deserve pride," Principal Celestia replied, "but in Sunset's case... well, look at her teamwork in this fight, and in the one before that? Would you have ever thought it possible of the Sunset Shimmer we knew?"

"No," admitted Luna. "I would not."

"I'm very glad," Principal Celestia said, "that she seems to have found her place in this world."

In her mind, though, she struck a different tune. I'm sorry, my fateful student, my little sunbeam. I'm sorry that I couldn't give you the place you wanted. I… I pray that you really have changed, and that I will be able to offer you that spot in good conscience. Now that the general is back, we're going to need all hands on deck to push the darkness off Remnant.

---

"You realize we only get one shot at pullin' this off, right?" Applejack asked.

"I know it's a little bit of a long shot," Rainbow admitted. She grinned. "But how awesome is it going to be when we do pull it off, huh?"

Applejack shook her head. "Twilight would say that this is a nuts plan."

"Hey! My plans are not nuts," Rainbow replied. "My plans are crazy in all the best ways. I saw you do this at the summer rodeo last year."

"No one was trying to shoot me at the summer rodeo," Applejack pointed out.

"Nobody's going to be shooting at you now; they're going to be shooting at me," Rainbow reminded her. "Trust me, this is totally going to work, and more importantly, it's not like we have another way to get past her semblance." She folded her arms, and a scowl marred her features momentarily. "Besides, Twilight's playing for the other team on this one."

"She wouldn't like to hear you say that," Applejack said.

I don't like seeing her with them but it doesn't stop her. "Doesn't make it any less true," Rainbow murmured. "She belongs to them more than she does to us. 'Shadowbolts forever.'" She looked outwards, to where the light from the arena began to spill into the tunnel. Maybe a breath of wind got into the tunnel, but she felt... it was weird, like a chill.

"You okay, sugarcube?" Applejack asked anxiously.

"What? Yeah," Rainbow said quickly. "I just...never mind. Let's go. We can't keep the crowd waiting."

They walked out into the arena to the muted cheering of a muted crowd. Normally, the Amity Colosseum was full to the rafters, but today, there were so many empty seats that you could have turned up at any time and practically had your pick of where to go. It was all Weiss... Weiss's doing from yesterday; nobody cared about a few fights anymore when the SDC was committing war crimes... or whatever they were called when you weren't actually at war.

Rainbow couldn't really blame folks for not caring about the tournament much. She cared, because she believed in taking competition seriously and always giving her best, but she wasn't about to demand that everybody else care too, especially if they were just watching.

"Versus Sour 'Sakura' Sweet and Lemon 'Reverb' Zest, also of Atlas!" Professor Port declared, and Rainbow realized that while she'd been ruminating, she'd missed her and Applejack's names being called.

"Once again, two teams from Atlas will be pitted against each other," Doctor Oobleck said excitedly as the two members of Team SSCL made their way out of the other entrance and strode across the barren arena to confront Applejack and Rainbow.

Rainbow didn't like the Shadowbolts. And it wasn't just the fact that they were a bunch of jerks or that she didn't see what Twilight saw in the whole pack of them; there was something skin-crawlingly wrong about them. Every time she looked at them, she felt... it was like her equine instincts kicking in, like a wild mustang confronted by a pack of wolves.

How do you feel safe around these guys, Twi?

"Hey, you two," Sour said in a cheery voice. "Isn't it just great the four of us meeting up like this? It's going to be just like the Friendship Games all over again."

Lemon nodded, although how she could hear what her teammate had said when she had all four of her ears covered up by a set of chunky headphones, Rainbow didn't know.

Rainbow bared her gritted teeth just a little as a wordless growl escaped between them. The Friendship Games between Canterlot Combat School and Crystal Preparatory Combat Academy was a sore spot, one that had started long before any of them were born and would assuredly continue long after they died. Granted, her first time at them, neither side had exactly covered themselves in glory, and Twilight had called them all out on it. They'd parted ways then with an... understanding, even if they still didn't like each other. For Twilight's sake.

But the next three years of being consistently beaten into the ground had driven out what goodwill she'd had for them rather thoroughly.

For the honor of Canterlot, she thought, we cannot afford to lose this.

The biomes rose out of the ground on the four quarters of the arena: ice and geyser field behind Sour and Lemon; forest and wheatfield behind Applejack and Rainbow. They rose, grinding out of the depths of the arena, and locked into place with a series of clicking, thudding sounds.

I think we can work with this. Rainbow glanced at Applejack, who gave a barely perceptible nod of the head.

Barely perceptible, but Sour perceived it nonetheless. "Oh, look, I think they have a plan, isn't that precious? It's not going to work."

Lemon was standing to attention as if she was on the parade ground instead of the arena; there was just enough music leaking out of her headphones for Rainbow to recognize a Weiss Sch-... Weiss number... was that "It's My Turn"?

Nope. It's our turn now. This is Canterlot's vengeance.

We've come this far, and we're not going back.

Prepare yourself, 'cause we're- no, no, I need to focus.

So long as they don't notice the lasso on Applejack's belt, we'll be fine.

There was no sign that they noticed it yet.

"Three!"

Lemon swung her weapon - a large, blocky sonic cannon named Housecrasher - off her shoulder, holding it in two hands with a chainsaw grip like a rotary gun. Sour's bow, Tri-Cross Champion, fell into her hand.

"Two!"

Applejack pulled her One in a Thousand over her shoulder, holding it lightly in both hands. Rainbow produced her SMG, Red Shift, while her free hand moved to grip the hilt of her sword, Blue Shift. She didn't draw it, but she was ready to do so.

"One! Begin!"

Rainbow surged forwards, leaving a rainbow trail behind her as she accelerated across the center of the arena, charging straight for Sour before the latter could fit an arrow to her bow; she didn't stop to fire, she didn't draw her sword, she just ran-

A blast from Lemon's sonic cannon hit her square in the side, the sound waves like rings knocking her to the ground as she was sent skidding across the arena surface. Lemon had her weapon trained on Rainbow, ignoring Applejack even as the latter brought her rifle to her shoulder.

Applejack fired, One in a Thousand barking; Lemon's body glowed with a lime green light. There was a flash, a twinkle against that light, before Applejack had to duck hastily as her own shot was flung right back at her.

"And Lemon Zest has just used her semblance, Echo Shield," Professor Port informed the audience. "By burning up some of her aura, she can reflect attacks back at her attackers, like that bullet just now."

That was why she was ignoring Applejack; she could focus on keeping Rainbow away from Sour, smug in the knowledge that she couldn't be touched.

Except that, as Rainbow skidded along the surface of the arena into the field of tall wheat that lay upon the right-hand side of the arena, she thought that Lemon might have overdone it just a little bit.

Because now that she was in the wheatfield, she couldn't be seen, while she could see Lemon and Sour perfectly; thank you, those big screens that she'd never seen the point of up until now.

She could see both of her Shadowbolt opponents looking into the wheatfield as though they could see through it: Lemon swung her cannon back and forth; Sour had an arrow fitted to her bowstring.

Another sharp report from One in a Thousand alerted them both to the fact that Applejack was still around as her second shot rebounded off Lemon's semblance. Her aura wasn't at any kind of danger level just yet, but they must have worried that their plan was to make Lemon use her semblance until her aura ran out because both of them turned on Applejack.

That was Rainbow's cue to emerge from out of the wheatfield, Red Shift blazing as she sprayed fire at both of them. Lemon's body was covered in that lime green glow as Rainbow hurled herself back into the wheat and to the ground as her own bullets whizzed through the spot she had been standing, cutting through the stalks of grain like it was harvest time. Rainbow rolled to her knees, firing at Sour, whose body seemed to shimmer for a moment as she disappeared from view, transformed into a swirling cloud of cherry blossom petals through which Rainbow's bullets passed harmlessly.

"And Sour Sweet has also used her semblance, Blossom Bypass!" Doctor Oobleck proclaimed excitedly. "As you can see, she can transform herself into cherry blossom petals, although movement in that state is rather slow," he added, as Sour Sweet - or rather, the petal cloud that had been her - drifted slowly leftwards.

Lemon swung Housecrasher back towards Rainbow, soundwaves blaring forth as Rainbow retreated into the wheatfield; she sprayed the wheat with sound like it was pesticide - and Rainbow was the bug, obviously - trusting in her semblance to protect her from Applejack.

Applejack who had just dropped her rifle to the ground with a clatter.

Rainbow reached for the cluster bomb at her belt. Ninja training wasn't just about stealth or weapons or close combat; theatricality and deception are powerful agents to the uninitiated, as Professor Snake Eyes was wont to write. Rainbow had rigged this canister, painted in a distinctive rainbow pattern, and filled it up herself with a mixture of fire - for ignition - and earth - for smoke - dust crystals. Not even Twilight knew that she had this.

Until she threw it out of the wheatfield towards Lemon. The shadowbolt saw the bomb coming, her body flickering as green as her hair as she turned on her semblance to shield herself from the blast.

The bomb went off, the first charge scattering dust crystals through the air like candy from a smashed pinata as the canister burst; the dust flew outwards in a wide cloud before fire and earth dust crystals alike went off one after the other in a series of blinding flashes and clouds of dusty smoke that surrounded Lemon, blinding her in light and smoke alike.

Lemon was a tough nut to crack. You couldn't shoot her, you couldn't hit her; she'd just reflect it right back at you. You could try and make her use her semblance so much it went into the red, but unless you were really lucky, she'd put you in the red before you got the chance to do that, and Sour was there to back her up. But Rainbow had once seen Applejack lasso a long-horn steer - she thought that was what it was called, all these cows tended to blur together a little bit - blindfolded, and she'd thought, well, getting a rope put around you wasn't an attack at all, was it? What were you going to reflect back with that?

And so, while Lemon was blinded by the explosion, Applejack took out her lasso, twirled it a couple of times in the air above her head, and dropped it around the Shadowbolt with perfect precision.

Lemon had just about a second to realise what had happened before Applejack had wrenched her off her feet - Housecrasher dropping from her fingers to land with a clatter on the arena surface - and started dragging her by the aura-infused rope towards the edge of the arena.

Lemon thrashed in her bindings, having about as much luck as the average hog-tied varmint had in getting loose, even as her aura flashed green again and again with the use of her semblance. "Let go of me, you… you savage!"

"Nope!" Applejack said cheerily. "Settle down, sugarcube."

"This is such a Canterlot way to fight! Sour, do something!"

Sour began to reform, her cherry blossoms coalescing into a human shape, her bow - Tri-Cross Champion - raised and drawn back as she took aim at Applejack.

Just as Rainbow charged out of the wheatfield, firing Red Shift as she ran, her semblance's rainbow streaming out behind her.

Sour turned to meet her charge, her bow transforming into a staff as Rainbow drew Blue Shift in a slashing stroke that slammed into her opponent's weapon with a metallic ring and a shower of sparks. Rainbow stepped back, a grin upon her face as she swung her blade again. Once more, Sour parried... just about. Sour had always been the better shot - which was why they'd tried pretty hard not to give her the opportunity to let fly - but Rainbow was better in close combat than the other girl.

And they both knew it too.

"Oh, look at that, you think you can take me," Rainbow growled as she drove Sour back with a flurry of swift slashing strokes. "That's adorable."

Now it was Sour's turn to respond with a wordless growl as she was driven backwards towards the geyser field. She was parrying - for now - but every time she blocked a stroke, her window to do so closed, and if it kept on closing, Rainbow was going to land a stroke that she wasn't fast enough to block.

Rainbow slashed, stepping forward. Sour transformed into a cloud of cherry blossom petals through which Rainbow burst, scattering the petals around her before they began to reform, behind Rainbow. She turned, her body twisting, bringing Blue Shift around to parry the stroke from Sour's staff. Rainbow pushed back on her, shoving Sour back a pace and a little off-balance before slicing through her aura with a crosswise slash.

The buzzer sounded for Lemon's elimination as Applejack dumped her out of the arena.

We can smell your fear, we can see you sweat.

Hope you didn't spend money 'cause you're losing that bet.

Sour used her semblance once more, transforming into a petal cloud as she began to retreat, trying to put some distance between her and her opponent where her bow would serve better than Rainbow's sword.

But she was moving so slowly, and there was something Rainbow had always wanted to try. She dashed forwards, a rainbow trailing out briefly behind her as she burst at high speed through the midst of the cloud of cherry blossoms, scattering the pink petals in all directions as the wind of her passage blew them away. Sour's aura dropped into the yellow as she reformed, off balance and out of position, a dizzy look in her eyes. The rainbow wrapped itself around Dash like a cape as she stopped, spinning on her toe to land a solid kick into Sour's side that sent her flying with a cry of pain through the air to land with a thump... right on top of a geyser.

Rainbow hoped it would go off before Sour could get off, and she was not disappointed.

"Sour 'Sakura' Sweet has been eliminated!" Professor Port declared. "Jacqueline 'Spurs' Apple and Rainbow 'Boomer' Dash are victorious!"

"Yes!" Rainbow yelled, pumping her fist as she leapt into the air. You may have won the Friendship Games every single year, but we won this! You got nothing on us!

She turned, sprinting across the arena towards Applejack as the pair enveloped one another in a crushing hug. No matter what happened in the one on one round, they could take satisfaction from the fact that, here and now, in this fight, they had done Canterlot proud.

I wonder what Twilight's going to say about this?

---

"Woohoo!" Scootaloo cried, raising her hands up in the air. "Now that was a match!"

"She roped that Crystal Prep varmint like a no-good cattle rustler," Apple Bloom crowed.

And even that might be paying them too much of a compliment, Rarity thought as she rewarded her friends with a round of genteel, polite applause.

Confetti exploded upwards from Pinkie's seat, most of it covering the pink-haired girl. "Go, Rainbow Dash! Go, Applejack!"

How is your stomach now? Rarity almost asked, but it was too good to see Pinkie having recovered her usual high spirits without putting it in jeopardy by reminding her that she had been miserable just a little while ago.

So she just continued to applaud her faraway friends on a job very well done.

"Bravo, darlings, bravo," she declared. "Canterlot avenged and Crystal Prep put in its place at last."

And a Wondercolt representing Atlas in the final round with not a Shadowbolt to be seen?

Bravo, indeed.

---

Sunny "Radstorm" Flare tried to keep her face stoic as she marched with the rest of Team FIST through the White Fang base, their belongings piled into packs on their backs and the hoversled between the four of them.

The irony of their location was not lost on Sunny, her mind flashing back to earlier that day when Blake had declared that only a member of the White Fang could be so passionate about faunus rights. It was an unfortunate result of her royal upbringing, clearly, but she was a Shadowbolt now. She'd learn. A lot of people didn't understand them, didn't understand that a bunch of upper class kids from Solitas could be outraged at their fellow citizens being denied the meritocratic chances that others got and even form a bond of friendship with a laidback faunus girl from their own class…

The lilac-haired woman flinched away from the thought. Lemon and the others would be holding down the fort in Solitas, keeping their families safe. Sunny had to keep her focus on her mission, her mission to keep Twilight's genius out of reach of the Decepticons… and then swing back around to kick their big fat alien butts off of Remnant.

"So what do you think of our ride?" asked their guide, Twilight's cousin Spike, as opposed to her dog Spike, who was trotting along beside them.

Their "ride" as it happened, was an airship that looked vaguely like a Skystriker in principle, but different in form and function. Like a Skystriker, it had a prominent tail fin and truly immense wings built around a central body that made the whole thing look vaguely like a bird, but that was where the similarities ended. Unlike the Skystriker, this airship's tail fin was shaped like a T that reminded Sunny very much of a whale, quite like the flukes of the humpbacks that had saved Jet Set and Upper Crust from those Grimm and inspired them to get married before entering Atlas Academy. Indeed, the humpback whale analogy seemed especially apt, for the wings were mounted so high on the body that they formed a quite noticeable bump, as if the wings were a single piece and merely taped to the top as an afterthought instead of being built in. It was under those wings that were slung four prominent turbine engines, as opposed to the two internal engines of a Skystriker fuselage. And the fuselage of this craft was different as well, for instead of the rectangle and pen shape of the Skystriker, this craft's body was shaped vaguely like a short flute with the "mouthpiece" end in actuality being the cargo ramp and the other end being a rounded cap with a prominent transparent section on the lower half of the nose whose purpose she could only guess at.

"That's where the navigator sits," said Spike into her thoughts.

"Let me guess, your first question too?" asked Sunny.

"No, my first question was, 'how safe is it?'" corrected Spike, and to Sunny's horror, he kept talking to answer his own question. "Turns out, it's a prototype, so they're still working some of the bugs out. They've had some help with the design, though, so it should be as safe as any airship."

Sugarcoat looked up at the aircraft anew, and Sunny could already tell what she was doing.

"I'll talk with the engineers. They did a great job, but there's still room for improvement," commented the bespectacled girl. At Twilight and Sunny's looks, she explained, "I'm sorry about what I did this morning, but I'm also being honest here. This thing isn't half as dangerous as the ship we flew to Vale in."

"We flew in on the Furchtlos," Indigo reminded her coldly.

Whatever Sugarcoat might have said, the words died on her lips, and a frown crossed her face. Indigo did likewise, looking away in shame. Twilight and Sunny were at a loss of what to say. Spike the dog whined despondently. Luckily, Spike the human was on the bounce.

"Hey, you don't know what you don't know, and nobody knew where that Cinder lady went off to with the bomb," he told them compassionately. "Atlas, Vale, the White Fang, the Oktober Guard, MARS, who knows how many other people, people you've never heard of. Everyone was looking for her, and nobody could find her. And if you think that one more set of eyes would have made the difference just because they were yours, then Sugarcoat, I ain't going to lie to you, that arrogance is the first thing the teachers at Shade are going to try to beat out of you."

"I think the Grimm already took a pretty good stab at that during our final year at Crystal Prep," Sugarcoat replied bluntly before flashing a smile. "Thanks, though, I appreciate the reminder."

"Anytime," acknowledged Spike the human.

By now, they had gotten underneath the big fluke-like tail of the airship, and Sunny could look up and see an armored glass observation window below which was a ball turret with two double-barreled guns - likely one-inch autocannons - protruding from it. It was well armed, if nothing else, though there was a small part of Sunny that was worried about whether or not it would be enough.

They walked up a massive cargo ramp that looked to be made out of part of the tail and met with the loadmaster - an uncommon position, but one that still existed in some airships - and under his direction properly secured their belongings such that they would not accidentally cause the aircraft to tip over. The others that filed in - Sunny recognized Colonel Brekhov, but the other faces were new to her - did likewise, and together, they all took up seats near the front of the long circular interior, with Team FIST taking up those on the port side next to the wall of the fuselage and Spike the human sitting across from them with Spike the dog strapped into the seat next to him. Just when it seemed like they had everyone, a green VAMP rolled up to the rear cargo ramp that they had walked up and then likewise moved itself to be caught in mooring clamps on the wheels that the loadmaster ran forward to check. Sunny couldn't see the driver through the tinted windows.

Soon - too soon for Sunny's tastes, and yet, at the same time, the wait was agonizingly long - the ramp at the back raised up to close with a rather final clunk. The captain of the aircraft was speaking over the intercom in Metropolitan Vacuan, but she could only understand part of what was being said; Atlesian students, herself included, tended to focus more on languages out of Mistral and Vale when learning the minimum required to pass combat school. Twilight seemed much more attentive, but that was no surprise, not with her having family in Vacuo and presumably having learned the language for her own enjoyment.

The aircraft started moving, and just outside the few windows, she could see the light shifting as it exited the hangar. She looked down, and Sunny could see then that Sugarcoat's hand was trembling ever so slightly, though her face was impassive. Quietly but firmly, the leader of Team FIST reached out and embraced the hand of her compatriot. The shaking stopped, if only because of the iron grip of a friend.

"We'll go back for them," Sunny promised, her voice soft but resolute. "I have already given my promise that we shall return, and I always keep my promises."

"I… thank you, again," muttered Sugarcoat.

"Well, look on the bright side, you never really saw your family much while we were at Atlas Academy anyway, so being on another continent really won't change much," offered Indigo unhelpfully. "Unless something crazy happens and the CCT goes down or something."

Sugarcoat paused for half a second, exhaled, and then elbowed the goggled girl's gut.

As her teammate was letting out a hack and a cough, Sugarcoat sniped back, "Shut up, orphan girl."

"Don't get my hopes up," wheezed Indigo, earning herself another elbow, this time from Twilight.

"What a terrible thing to say," chided the lavender Huntress.

"Maybe, but it sure lightened the mood, didn't it?" asked Indigo rhetorically.

"Yeah, by ruining it," shot back Sugarcoat.

"It was a terrible mood; you're better off without it," insisted Indigo defiantly.

"Why I outta…" threatened Twilight, shaking her fist at her combative compatriot.

A few of the Oktober Guardsmen snickered or chuckled at their antics. This drew flushed embarrassment from Twilight, attempted stoicism from Sunny and Sugarcoat, and the world's biggest fecal matter consuming grin from Indigo. It also drew, to their surprise, a chuckle from the VAMP as its headlights flashed on and off.

"So, you four are the Atlesians I've heard so much about?" asked the VAMP.

Team FIST looked at each other in confusion. The Oktober Guard weren't ill at ease from this. Was this sort of thing normal in Vacuo? Did Vacuo of all places have some super-secret AI car program?

"I guess?" replied Twilight.

"Great! My name's Hound," the VAMP introduced itself before the wheel clamps unclamped, and the VAMP's body began to rise up and twist around in an incredibly painful-looking torsion that ended with a mechanical head popping up out of the front of the hood. "We really could use all the help we can in Vacuo. Things-"

"What are you doing?!" yelled the loadmaster with incredible volume as he stalked back towards the transforming robot that brought to mind all too clearly the descriptions of the Decepticons. "Get back in place! We are not crashing this thing just because you wanted to make an impression! Get back in there! Do you want to die?! This thing tips over in flight, and you'll be falling out the side into the mouth of a passing Grimm!"

The robot had already transformed back into a VAMP halfway through the loadmaster's rant, but he kept going until after the big guy had been locked back down again and then went away grumbling.

Sugarcoat looked at her friends, and then grinned smugly. "I was right, wasn't I?"

Spike sighed in defeat. "Guess it doesn't matter now. Team Fairstar, meet Hound of the Autobots. They've been fighting the Decepticons for close to ten million years, and I guess this is just one more battlefield for them."

"This planet is trying to eat us!" protested Hound.

Indigo shrugged. "Well, yeah. Why wouldn't it?"

The VAMP robot was silent for a moment before replying, "Maybe the others were right about people on this planet being crazy."

"Eh, you like us, I can tell," insisted Sugarcoat with that grin still plastered to her face.

"You said you needed our help in Vacuo?" asked Sunny pointedly, redirecting the conversation back around.

"Yeah. There's some weird stuff going on there," confirmed Hound eagerly. "There're sensor ghosts that appear and disappear, mysterious figures that stare at you from miles away, and there's a whole big area where strange occurrences just happen, like appearing back at the place you started at after traveling in a straight line."

"That's just the way the desert is, Hound," insisted Spike. "You'll get used to it eventually."

"That's a load of scrap," cursed the green Autobot. "I'm telling you, this isn't natural, and I've got the sensor logs to prove it. If we had some surveillance satellites in orbit, I'm sure we'd be able to figure it out. There's a doings transpiring."

"'Doings transpiring'?" quoted Sunny, putting her hand to her chin in contemplation. "Well, gang, it looks like we've got another mystery on our hands," she said to her team in a tone similar to what she said while selecting missions. With another glance to the side she added, "Okay, Magic, you can ask your questions now."

Twilight, whose eyes had been bugging out with barely restrained inquiry that was held in check by a bit lip and clenched hands, exploded forth in a flurry of excited questions for the Autobot called Hound. It was a familiar note to leave out on. As the aircraft rose into the air and began to climb tens of thousands of feet into the sky to fly back to Vacuo, Sunny couldn't help but feel like they could use a bit more of the familiar.

---

"Hey, Twi. It's me, Rainbow. Call me back when you get the chance."

There was a click, and Rainbow "Boomer" Dash felt the hand that held her scroll drop to her side. That was the third call she had made to Twilight since she and Applejack had kicked Shadowbolt butt, and still, the only reply she could get was an automated message that, "The number you are trying to reach is currently unavailable in your location. Please relocate or try again later." She was worried; they all were worried.

Luckily, they were on their way to get answers.

At the moment, Team JSPR was on their way back to the guest dormitory assigned to the Atlas students. Theoretically, they could have tried calling Twilight's teammates, but that would require them to have had any of their scroll numbers, which... they didn't.

"I don't like you hanging out with those Shadowbolts, Twi," Rainbow Dash murmured as they walked through the halls of Atlas Academy. "They're like a pack of tame wolves."

It was great that they got to attend the Academy with each other, but it was a lot less great that Twilight had wound up on a team full of those Crystal Prep jerks who set off Rainbow's nerves so badly. Not that she would trade her team for anything!

"Awoo," was Twilight's cheeky reply.

"Don't be a pest," rebuked Applejack with a scowl.

The bespectacled girl smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

Team JSPR suddenly stopped in the hallway in front of the dormitory assigned to Team FIST, and Rainbow found herself unconsciously moving to the side, her team spreading out to flank Applejack. In the hallway across the dorm room door from them, Team SSCL - lousy Shadowbolts! - were similarly spreading out, the two teams instinctively squaring off against each other.

"What are you doing here, Canterlot scum?" growled out Sour Sweet.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "We sleep here? This is where all the second-year Atlas students are crammed in."

Sour's eyes shifted, obviously defeated by superior Canterlotian logic. "Point."

"This is still Shadowbolt territory," protested Seal, one of the ancillary Shadowbolts who thought she was cool just because she managed to find the man of her dreams and settle down to get married before ever entering the academy. Not that Rainbow was jealous! After all, friendship was far better than marriage!...

...man, I'm glad I didn't say that out loud; that sounds pathetic, thought Rainbow in embarrassment.

"She's right," her husband said, backing her up. "Your dorm's down that way. Did you actually manage to get lost?"

"We're precisely where we need ta be, ya varmints," declared Applejack, hooking her thumbs into the small gap between her belt and her pants. "We're here to check on Twilight. She hasn't been answerin' her calls."

"You stay away from her," Sour hissed. If Rainbow hadn't known better, she would have thought Sour sounded protective of Twilight. "You've caused enough damage around here with your false accusations and rumor mongering."

They all bristled at that, but it was Flash that got the reply in first. "What are you talking about? We haven't done anything of the sort!"

"What do you call accusing Weiss of joining the White Fang?" barked Lemon.

"The truth, or close enough to it," bit out Rainbow, thoroughly done with those rich snobs from all the way over in Crystal City.

"Because she cares about your sorry hide, that makes her a terrorist?" demanded Lemon hatefully, her headset twitching back slightly as her ears tried to make some sort of expression of aggression. "Talk about ingratitude."

"What?!" Rainbow growled, tensing to attack.

"You heard her," said Seal. "Weiss is doing everything she can for the faunus, every faunus, including you. She doesn't deserve any hate or slander sent her way for any of that!"

"I didn't ask the Great Weiss Schnee to help me," the multicolor-haired faunus hissed. "I don't need some high and mighty type condescending to offer me assistance just so she can pat herself on the back and tell herself what a good person she is."

"You think it's an ego trip?" interjected Maverick incredulously. "Are you listening to yourself? Did you even pay attention to what she did yesterday? She disowned herself to expose the SDC's crimes!" he continued, his tone almost sounding jealous by the end of it.

Rainbow opened her mouth, but before she could unleash another scornful retort, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"That's enough, Boomer," Applejack said warningly.

Rainbow turned in surprise. "But Spurs-!"

"Weiss gave up her family for this," her team leader interrupted softly but firmly. "Least ya can do is respect her sacrifice."

She felt her mouth run dry, but then she nodded and turned back to the Shadowbolts. "Okay, so the girl has guts; I'll accept that. That doesn't mean she's on the straight and narrow."

Sour snorted in bemusement. "What? Because she likes to read what the other side has to say? Because she visited a bookstore you decided to burglarize? Between you and Weiss, one of you committed a crime, and it wasn't Weiss."

The girl with the multi-colored hair felt her blood run cold at that. "What did you just say?"

"You heard us," said Lemon, living up to her Reverb callsign in the process.

"Lady Belladonna told us all about it," Seal informed them smugly. "In Vale, all speech is protected speech."

"And you listened to her?" asked Rainbow harshly. "A leader of the White Fang here on campus, and you're listening to her?!"

"Former leader of the White Fang and current First Lady of Menagerie," corrected Sour.

"I can respect that," said Applejack quickly, her hand tightening on Rainbow's shoulder.

"Besides," Sour continued, "Magic double-checked, just to make sure she wasn't mistaken. Lady Belladonna flew all the way to Beacon to check on her daughter. You know, the girl you accused of faking her death just because she left campus for special ninja training."

It was then that another person ambled up to the confrontation.

"Oh, hey, Maud," Sunburst Flare said with a cheerful wave. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Sunburst," Maud replied with a nod in greeting.

Rainbow frowned at the Haven student, then blinked at her deadpan teammate. "You know this guy, Maud?"

"We met through a dating app," Maud replied. "It didn't work out."

has crashed. Restart? Y/N.

Maud dated? Maud used a dating app?

"But we still remain friends!" Sunburst added cheerily, stroking his beard. "But... why is everyone standing outside Team Fairstar's room?"

"Your cousin isn't answering her scroll," replied Sour. "None of her team is, not Indigo, not Sugarcoat, not Twilight."

has crashed. Restart? Y/N.

Maud dated a filthy Crystaller?! One of those... those savages?!

"Oh, well, she's not answering my calls either, just straight to voicemail," confirmed Sunburst before walking between the two teams up to the door to Team FIST's room. "Maybe they left a note on where they were going in here."

With that, Sunburst waved his scroll in front of the lock, and the door hissed open without further ceremony. Maud followed him immediately inside. The rest of Teams JSPR and SSCL required half a second of stunned silence before following him in.

The room they found was… empty. There was not a soul there, nor was there any sign of there having been anyone there. The beds were immaculately made, the shelves were clean, and there was not a spec of any waste to be seen. There was nothing there… nothing, it turned out, save for four letters resting on top of a box.

With a blur of multicolored motion, Rainbow dashed for the letters, quickly picking out one labeled "From Twilight" in her handwriting and snatching it up, tearing the envelope open.

Before she could begin reading, the rest of the large group slammed in around her in a crowded effort to read all the letters at once. Somehow, someway, Rainbow managed to read Twilight's letter. Well, she and a few others she couldn't properly see.

Hey all.

I'm not sure who's going to find this first. I mean, Team SSCL, you guys are probably going to notice something's up first, but you're willing to trust us to stay safe. I appreciate that. And Team JSPR? I love you guys, but you do tend to be a little quick on the draw when you think something's hinky. Plus, you already know I've been poking around in some dangerous things.

If it's Professor Snake Eyes who's reading this, I swear, we filed all the paperwork ahead of time!

And Sunburst, if you found this while checking in on Radstorm, I guess I owe Straight twenty lien.

Anyway. We're headed off to Vacuo with my cousin Spike. There's a lot of bad stuff going down in Atlas, and we can't be anywhere near it when it all goes belly up. Besides, we all got jobs waiting for us when we get settled in at Shade; that'll be nice to put on the resume.

When things do blow up, though, we're confident that you eight (well, ten, assuming Weiss and Blake answer the call, but I bet they'll be pretty busy defending either Vale or Menagerie) will be able to save Atlas while we do our part in Vacuo. I'm sure you'll do great and won't die horribly will make sure all our friends and family make it through all right.

And guys? Please, all of you, at least TRY and get along? For me?

Love,
Twilight

"I appreciate that she's confident we won't all die horribly," commented Seal after she had finished reading the message.

Rainbow looked over and glared at the ancillary Shadowbolt, who kept that same stupid grin on her face.

"Spurs," Sour said, her tone eerily calm, "what the devil is she talking about? What dangerous things has she been poking into?" She whirled on Team JSPR's leader as fury seeped into her voice. "What in the world did you drag Twi into?"

"She… we… listen, it's complicated," hedged AJ nervously.

"You…" Sour leaned in close to the blonde's ear, "bitch."

"Hey, you want to know what we were doing, Crystal Trash?" snapped Rainbow. "We were trying to follow a rabbit hole that started when Weiss Schnee used her as a meat key to get into Park Place and stir up trouble."

"Her callsign is Firebrand; I suggest you use it," Maverick snapped right back.

Sour held up her hand to stop him, and then her next words were constructed out of cold fury. "This was an internal Shadowbolt matter. Twilight's one of ours, and so is Firebrand. You overstepped your authority and your jurisdiction by sticking your noses into it."

"We were only following orders," insisted Applejack. "General Ironwood asked us to talk to her. He's the one that started us on this path."

"Well, then he overstepped his authority too," insisted Sour with a voice as hard and as cold as the armor of a northern Solitas bunker. "We Shadowbolts have grown up together, fought together, shed blood together. We're a family, and no one, not even a general, has any right to come between us, not like this."

Before the argument could continue, Sunburst suddenly spoke up very rapidly. "Oh hey, would you look at this! The letter underneath is from my cousin! I'm going to read it out.

"My friends,

"I must apologize for the suddenness of our departure, but it was necessary. We have learned that a great and powerful enemy has infiltrated the highest levels of Atlesian society, from the SDC to the government, and therefore, we can provide no details, for fear that such information might be unintentionally leaked onto the CCT network and draw their attention upon you.

"We have left for Vacuo to fight this great enemy with newly discovered allies, but do not fear. This is not goodbye; it is only farewell. We shall return, all of us shall return, for we cannot bear to be apart from you, our beloved friends, forever, nor can we stand to be apart from our families for the rest of our days. Please tell my parents that in person and tell my little sister to dry her tears.

"To my cousin Sunburst, know that I draw from your example the strength needed to set out on this journey. I will need that strength, for this cruelty strains my heart to leave you all now when the Shadowbolts have just grown by two.

"Team SSCL, watch after them and keep them safe, for they will be in far more danger than us in the coming time.

"Until we meet again, Sunny 'Radstorm' Flare."

Sunburst paused, shaking his head. "I still don't believe it. Vacuo? That just doesn't sound like Sunny at all. She hates sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere."

"Twilight did say that they had jobs lined up," pointed out Maverick.

The bearded Havenite shook his head. "No job is worth that much sand, not to Sunny. No, there's definitely something bigger going on here."

"Two more," said Flash in worry as Lemon took the next letter in the pile and opened it up.

Rainbow skimmed it. It was from Indigo, farewell, grand adventure, gonna be awesome, blah blah blah. A lot more upbeat than Twilight and Sunny's letters had been, so at least it wasn't all doom and gloom.

The next letter was from Sugarcoat and was less of a letter and more of a directory. As it turned out, the box the letters had been resting on was filled to capacity with more letters, and every single one of them was addressed to a different member of Sugarcoat's family. It was nuts! Just how many brothers and sisters and cousins and on and on did she have, anyway?

Oh, and there was a personal note in the letter. Rainbow didn't really get it, but it made the Shadowbolts tear up when they read it. Must have hit like a ton of bricks.

Rainbow shook her head as the crowd broke up, the two teams naturally gravitating away from each other. "Twi," she muttered, "why didn't you tell us?"

Flash answered quietly. "We were insisting Twilight keep her team out of it, so I guess she didn't want us to know when she brought them in."

CRACK!

Rainbow's semblance was speed, but without it, she was no faster than any other totally awesome Huntress, and she had apparently blinked at the wrong moment, because between one second and the next, Sour had crossed the gap between the teams and now stood, tears - tears? From Sour Sweet? - leaking from her eyes, open hand outstretched in a followthrough, and Applejack was on the floor, surrounded by cherry blossom petals, nursing her cheek.

Rainbow snarled, wishing she had her weapons. Instead, her hands rose, balling up into fists, and she could sense Flash and Maud moving to flank her.

"Stop," ordered Applejack. "Ah deserved that." Her voice dropped. "We deserved that."

The multicolored Huntress's head whipped around, and she stared at her team leader incredulously. "Excuse me?!"

"They're family," Applejack said simply. "Ah guess we were just too darn mule-headed ta see it."

"But-!"

"Dashie," Applejack interrupted, coming to her feet, "just imagine how we'd feel if Twi had cut us out like that. If she was a part of our team, even, and she chose to cut us out like we had her do ta her actual team? 'Twasn't right, what we did."

Rainbow snorted, pointing at the letters. "C'mon, AJ, none of 'em told Team Scarlet what's going on."

"Not in those letters," Lemon retorted confidently.

"They'll find a way to tell us what's going on," insisted Sour. "They're not going to leave us in the dark, not after all we've gone through together."

And... Rainbow couldn't help but believe her. The Shadowbolts... she'd never seen them like this before. The lack of condescending smugness was... downright unsettling.

"Yes, but how?" mused Sunburst, both literally and figuratively walking into the middle of the conversation with one hand stroking his beard. "I mean, it's not going to be any obvious place, and of course, they didn't tell me, so that leaves out any couriers at the school, which means…" The fire-haired man turned to face the rest of them. "Well, that just means we've got another mystery on our hands, gang."

What? Rainbow thought in confusion. Why does that sound like a canned line from him?

Whatever it was, it wasn't enough to stop Sour from compulsively looking at her scroll.

"We'll, uh, we'll leave you to it," said Applejack in a conciliatory tone as she motioned for the door.

They had barely taken two steps when Sour broke the short silence. "Firebrand was right."

Seal was the first to reply. "What do you mean?"

Sour looked up. "They just found Joshua Joyce dead in his cell. They're calling it a suicide."

---

"'Vacuo'?" Rarity repeated dumbly. "She left...to go to Vacuo? But why on Remnant would... there's nothing there!" She could have understood running away to Mistral; it would still have been a beastly thing to do, but at least she could have understood it: the sophistication, the glamour, the high society. But Vacuo? Vacuo? To abandon her friends for a patch of barren sand?

The world's gone completely mad.

"I... I can't believe she's gone," Pinkie sobbed, her hair deflating visibly as tears welled up in her eyes. "She... she can't be gone; this... this has to be... but pranks are only funny when everyone's laughing, and I... this is real, isn't it?"

Fluttershy nodded glumly. "I'm afraid so, Pinkie."

"But I was going to throw a welcome home party!" Pinkie wailed. "And then I wanted to hear all about it from everybody, and I was going to make a video of all the footage so that they'd all have something to remember the tournament by, and we were going to have ice cream, and... and why did she have to go?"

Fluttershy reached out and enfolded Pinkie in a hug, holding her close as the pink-haired girl sobbed into Fluttershy's chest. "I don't know, Pinkie," Fluttershy murmured, "but...we have to believe that whatever her reasons were, they were good and important. After all, Twilight wouldn't just leave without a reason. Twilight... wouldn't treat her friends that way."

There was a horrified gasp, and they saw then that Vice Principal Luna had become stricken with a terrified grief, her eyes locked on the image displayed on her scroll.

"No, General Ironwood… James," she muttered hoarsely. "No!"

---

Author's Note 1 (Cyclone):

So, uh, this one kind of ballooned on us. So very glad we decided to split this up. Given the lack of main characters in this segment, we're not expecting a particularly positive response, but we just have so much fun writing the second-year secondary cast.

I'll be honest, for all the planning we put into this story, the plan is still evolving. For example, when we started this project, I never thought I'd be writing a bunch of characters from a high school AU of a cartoon aimed at little girls. I certainly never thought I'd enjoy writing such characters so much.

---

Author's Note 2 (Cody MacArthur Fett):

Many many thanks to ScipioSmith, who was a critical asset during this operation and without whom this chapter never would have been completed.

There's a lot of hints of the future chapters and even volumes going on here, and a lot of them only last for a line or two. I'm curious to see how many people will pick them up. And if you're reading this right now and didn't see anything go back and look to see if there's any lines that hint at something greater.

Like Cyclone, I'm also predicting that not a lot of people will care about this chapter, but it was a necessary series of events to happen. After all, we needed Team FIST in Vacuo for events in Volume 5 and 6, and we needed to set up JSPR and SSCL for… well, that's super classified but will probably be volume 4. Team DSST, of course, needed their fight because they needed to be the anchor for more interaction between CFVY and RFFL, and to set up a joke in a big project that will be announced later. Yes, all of that, for a joke; it'll be a funny joke though, I assure you.

On a personal note though, I just like writing these versions of the Shadowbolts. There's just something about a dysfunctional family like that which is endearing. All of them, I'm surprised, are people I've gotten attached to.

At the very least, though, I hope that now that they've met with Hound, people understand that we have a reason and a plan behind them being where they are. And it's not like a BSG plan either. It's not just marketing, we really do have one and… well, it's kind of fiendishly complex.

Like, really really complicated. If it was all laid out in a chart… well, we'd need more than one chart.