Identity

(Incomplete chapter)

After her third rally, Sunset had found herself spending time with several of the other faunus living in vale. Who knew there were so many? Most of them had tailored their apearance to hide their non-human traits, survival instinct aparently trumping ratial pride. Then again, perhaps that was part of the inner beast as well, after all the most cunning of animals developed camoflage and mimicry long before humans did. Carefully trimmed and polished claws could pass for painted nails, unusual eyes could hide behind tinted contacts, a silent nature could be a cover for fangs, baggy clothes or constricting headwear could cover extra apendages... Her people were everywhere, Sunset just hadn't seen it. She hadn't known what to look for.

Sitting on the wrong side of the balcony railing watching her namesake sink below the bay, she heard the footsteps of another slipping up behind her. The click of metal-tipped boots on stone gave away who it was. Few of the recruits had incorporated elements of their normal atire into the outfits they had been given, though he and Sunset were both among the exceptions. For somthing that was meant more as a symbol of solidarity than a uniform, way too many treated it as one.

She didn't like the tunic-vest thing, and prefered to wear the jacket open with the hood down, with a tshirt on underneath. She's modified it a little, incorporating collar studs, side guards, and shoulder plates similar to what she had added to her favorite leather jacket. The overall darker color was just more her. Ferran was much the same, only in the oposite direction, adding armor and more white with amber accents to contrast the blue in his hair, making it look more like a tabbard, than tunic.

"Tuckson said I'd find you up here." He said, a note of curiosity in his voice. "He mentioned always finding you in high places."

"I grew up in the mountains, the view reminds me of home." She stated plainly, Momentarily looking over her shoulder. Part of her was wondering why he cared. From what she'd seen, he tended to keep to himself. Other than a brief moment of mistaking him for an aquaintance from home, the two hadn't spoken at all. There was somthing familiar about those eyes...

"What was it like?" he asked, leaning on the rail next to her. Mask off and looking at her with an expression of honest interest.

"It's..." She hesitated. Memories of Yang's reaction to her story holding her tongue, Sunset was slow to answer. Deciding just to go with descriptions. "Home, was built atop a plateau, half way up a mountain. Most of the buildings made from the same stone and ores that used to come out of the mines underneath." She explained, picturing the marble and gold spires of canterlot in her mind, a faint smile forming on her lips as she spoke.

"It sounds like a nice place." He added when she paused a moment, prompting her to continue. Something odd about his tone, but Sunset didn't notice.

"Yeah. My favorite thing to do was head out to the wall and watch the sunset." She continued, she had always felt a special connection to her namesake. Glancing at her audience, his blue broken shield emblem catching in her eye, reminding her of the guardsponies of home. "When you saw the guard atop the wall, you felt-"

"Secure, like nothing could ever touch us." Ferran added, his tone turning sad for a moment.

"Yeah." Sunset nodded. City walls seemed to be comon here, so the sentiment didn't really surprise her. She hardly noticed her usual defenses lowering as she spoke. "Went all around save for a little gap near the waterfall. You knew nothing was ever getting in. I lived near the barracks, mom was a guard, so I didn't go over there much, but I would figure that much water running over a cliff had to be noisy.

"It was, but you got used to it. It took a long time before I could sleep without the sound of the waterfall in the background." Ferran commented, with a chuckle, as Sunset hopped back to the safe side of the railing.

"I know what you mean, I... wait..." Alarm bells finally went off in her mind, cutting her off from her comment about the sounds of the school vs. the castle. Realizing too late that she had said far more about Canterlot than she had intended, yet he'd gone along with all of it. He had even reminded her of details about home she had forgotten... "How..."

"I knew you had to be from Kings Watch. You called me Flash, no one's called me that since... that day. I though I was the only one who got out." Kings Watch... Saffron's home town. There it was again, like a ghost haunting her. She looked at Ferran, her gaze hardening into a glare. Again the flash of memory at seeing those familiar eyes in a strangers face. Maybe it wasn't a coincidence.

The cadet roughly threw her helmet at the ground before kicking it at the aproching form of her squadmate, trying to prevent his attempt at talking her out of leaving.

"Go back to playing soldier with the others, Sentry. I'm leaving. I'm not gonna be a guard." The shrill voice came in a screech. Her voice. The humiliation of being the only pony there with a blank flank, even at her age, rather than a battle-themed mark winning out over the mental image of mother's disapointed face.

"Actually, I just wanted say 'good luck', Sunny."

She remembered applying to celestia's school days later, creating her signature spell in a burst of inspiration during the exam, earning her half-sun. It had little to do with Flash, but in the two years since that day, those memories had become inseperably intertwined. And now she was staring at his double.

A part of her wanted to hit him, wanted to take out her anger at being forced into that damn lie again on him, at being trapped for the second time in her life trying to be something she wasn't because of someone else's expectations, but instead she stopped. Her gaze softening as she remembered somthing else. The town was wiped out... There was a sole survivor... Flash and I are both from canterlot, So why wouldn't Safron and Ferran be the same? He believed in me once, maybe a little hope isn't a bad thing, even if it is false.

"I... wasn't there. Things, went wrong for me back home, so I ran away. Within a few days it was too late to go back. Now I'm here." Sunset explained. Technically everything she had said was true, though omitting she had run away from Canterlot rather than Kings Watch, would no doubt twist their meaning. Still, having someone she could tell a part of her story to, talk about home to, and believe her, not just assume she was burying memories behind a fantasy, felt good. It was the same lie. She was still pretending to be Safron like she did with Yang. Yet, when she let go of that initial anger, it didn't feel like it at all.

Maybe being Safon doesn't have to be a bad thing...

"That's not home anymore Saff, this is." Ferran pointed out, gesturing at the city and the bay. Sunset's thoughts drifted to canterlot for a moment. She had spent her entire life there. Everypony she had grown up with was there... and so were the ponies who had cast her away, betrayed her. She had friends here. She had a purpose as a warrior in training. She might even have a future as one of those huntresses Yang's little sister loved to go on about, only time would tell.

Do I really need to go back? Do I want to?

"I guess you're right. Vale is home now."

"Well, Somebody's in a good  mood." Yang commented as the wooden shaft of Sunset's training weapon clacked against her boxing glove/hockey pad/arm things. They were still an odd sight to Sunset. She'd been refusing to use the training weapons ever since they started catching on fire when her aura kicked in, but the instructors had insisted she have something to defend herself, so she'd improvised. It looked ridiculous, but credit where credit's due, it didn't catch fire, and Yang was getting better at blocking with them.

"It's just good to have things back to normal." Sunset stated, making one more thrust with the glaive, before backing off, and heading to the storage rack on one side of the gym to put it away, while Yang wandered off to put away her own gear. A dozen other students headed the same direction. Meeting back up with yang afterwards the two managed to make it down one hallways before a rather grumpy looking wall of a teen blocked their way. He looked vaguely familiar, but at first Sunset couldn't place it.

And there's the other horseshoe, am I not allowed to have a good day or something?

(Sunset VS Cardin Scene goes here, it's not clear why he hates her, but it is clear he does. It gets her thinking about how she used to be.)

(first half of final Scene goes here)

As much as it hurts to admit it... Celestia was right, I wasn't ready. I thought I had all the answers, that I knew what my fate was, that others were just tools to be used. The idea that I would need my friends support to succeed, or that friends were anything but a handicap would never have occurred to me. Images of Yang, Lin, and a dozen others played through her mind as she thought about that, bringing a smile to her face. I was an idiot.

This isn't about 'winning' any more. Trying to retake what was 'mine' instead of working on what I already had was holding me back. This is about me, about becoming a better pony. Sighing, and looking away from the now dark horizon, she got to her feet. Careful not to slip on the watchtower's tiled roof. Below her she could hear barks and howls as the denizens of the forest came out to hunt.

“I guess it's time.” She said, a smirk gracing her lips as she picked up the steel bladed glaive she had brought with her. Time to prove I can do this.