[b]Pink![/b]

"How did you want to test something like that?" asked Pink. "I'm obviously not a reliable witness, and I'm also still probably not okay to go to ground level...?"

[b]Yellow![/b]

She closes her eyes for a moment. She felt for a moment she might have wafted away on the breeze. It would have been easy to find the reason; why, for this cantankerous slave to an empty aesthetic? She didn't need a cultist, she needed... what did she need?

Unfortunately, in the depths of her soul, Yellow needed to be Right On The Internet.

"Humanity does not object to the presence of kings and queens," said Yellow, eyes closed, like a prayer. "Humanity objects to the absence of fairy godmothers."

She opens her eyes. This isn't a speech, she hasn't prepared the performative aspects. This is purestrain, deep id Ideology.

"This has been the doom of every civilization since the dawn of man," said Yellow. "In the beginning the people love their kings, love their presidents. They love them for being the best, the bravest, the brightest, the most victorious. They love them for destroying their enemies and sharing their wealth. And then, with the passing of years and generations, the elite ossify and become stagnant. Becoming a mere tribune feels as far away as the stars, let alone a senator, let alone a consul. A ruling class has formed and it defends its rights. The illusion of glory falls from the peoples eyes, and the nation falls soon thereafter."

"We all mock the idea of pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps - in other words, lifting oneself up by the shoelaces. An impossible task. But people crave it nevertheless. It's what Communism always failed at: the collective good may be morally correct, but each human has their own dreams and they're more powerful than what is right. A king emerges when the people dream of the king; a nation falls when the last sleeper awakes."

"Historians have called this decorum, or unwritten laws, or traditions. Sulla attempted to carve the dream of Rome into stone and laws but it didn't work. The perfect legal code means nothing if it is not believed to be righteous. So far, none of this is controversial - this is the cycle of empires. But for most the analysis stops there, perhaps with some sort of vague call to national self renewal. Now we enter the realm of my own proposal."

"What do the people dream of, in these dying days of liberalism? To be blunt, they dream of the lottery. You won't find an office on the Station without some sort of collective betting pool. It's the purest form of social mobility there is. Look around and you'll see the lottery reflected imperfectly everywhere. What do the cryptocurrency people dream of? Social mobility. What do white nationalists dream of? Social mobility. What do socialists dream of? Social mobility. Wallstreetbets? Amway? Hustle culture? Everywhere you look you see people trying to figure out how to become great in a system with 2,000 places available at Harvard every year."

"I think it is the greatest offense to the human spirit that those dreams are all lies. That the road to power is knowable and it begins with having powerful parents. My administration will rest its legitimacy not upon its righteousness but upon its ability to make dreams come true."

"The stepsister who drudges in the cellar will be given a crystal gown and made a princess. The sovereign citizen will be treated to a new, special court in Admiralty gold. The quiet girl to whom nothing ever happens will meet an enchanted cat who needs her to save his kingdom. Wealthy lords will be cursed for failing to show hospitality to beggar witches. A politician who votes for war will be sent to fight on the front lines. A society of secret lizard people will be sent to influence politics, and if properly confronted they will be forced to capitulate to the public will. Sing the right song to a vending machine and you drink free. Work hard and you'll have a comfortable life. Monster attacks will give heroes a chance to prove themselves. There will be [i]dragons[/i], and they will have hoards filled with gold and jewels enough to make any woman a queen. There [i]will [/i]be hidden treasure behind [i]every [/i]waterfall."

Yellow, at last, closed her eyes again. "I will fulfill humanity's dreams. I will fill the world with secrets and adventure. And then I will spread out to the stars, populating planets in advance of their coming. The galaxy will not be a cold and lifeless place of sterile rocks. When they arrive they shall find ancient ruins, alien civilizations, warlike monsters, sexy alien princesses, everything that they have ever dreamed of. When I ascend to divinity I will solve divine problems. Existentialism. Doubt. Boredom. Loneliness. Purpose. I will fill the universe with wonders and leave them for others to discover. I will become a better world."

[b]Red![/b]

Unfortunately for Crystal, she is up against the greatest student of Euna Kim. (Sorry Cinders.)

Red kind of sucks in the classroom itself. She blunders everything and zones out for extended periods and doesn't seem to take any of it seriously. But afterwards, each colour who learned something comes to her and helps her understand it, helps her internalize it, helps her embed it in her deepest instincts. Every lesson November internalizes sinks into Red like repetition builds muscle memory, and even if Red isn't a good student the rest of her is. She learned all of Euna's lessons: consider the situation, the environment, your opponent and do not take any combat risk you don't have to.

So her opening play is to pull her gun.

Crystal's training crashes into itself. Her leg sweep turns into a dive roll. Red arcs wide, putting the nailgun down on the counter as Crystal's mind catches up to the idea that she's still wearing armour and, besides, [i]rude![/i] She comes out of the roll into a perfect crouch, horn glinting like a spear. By the time she has Red has unraveled her true weapon: a length of weighted rope, heavy bolas on each end, that she's wrapped around both arms. She doesn't smile as she spins it right and left at once. She's [i]concentrating[/i].

Crystal has reach, weight and strength on her, in addition to the suit of armour. Red's at a raw physical disadvantage, especially with no other colours to coordinate with. Already Crystal is judging the weight and force of her rope, thinking about catching it and using that to overpower Red. Red needs to act in the moment when she has that thought and before she can have any of the others.

She lunges forwards, throwing the right side of the rope forwards at full strength. Exactly on cue, Crystal's hands come up in that human instinct to catch - not even becoming a unicorn could get that out of her. Red, still running forwards. releases the left end of the rope, aimed down to wrap around Crystal's ankles. Crystal's hands are full, she can't block Red as she passes at a dead sprint. Red leaps up, both legs forwards, a Green-style finisher kick - except it's not aimed at Crystal. She dives off to the side, away from Crystal's reach, and the rope pulls Crystal from both above and below.

They both go crashing down. 

From there Red's plan is to roll and climb on top of Crystal, grasping her by the mane in a sign of dominance. She's hoping the sheer audacity of the move is enough to make Crystal forget that she still has a strength advantage and could easily roll and overpower Red in turn.