SAPR Rewrite - Update 4 · 9:34am Dec 6th, 2021
With the SAPR Rewrite about to start again today it's time for me to do what I should have done some time ago and summarise everything that happened since the preceding update here.
Well, maybe not everything; a lot happened since the last update.
Team SAPR have returned from their vacation in Mistral; Pyrrha is now dating Jaune and on the outs with her mother. Sunset is now armed with Soteria, a famous sword which was once wielded by the Emperor's bodyguard during the Great War; she attempts to persuade Pyrrha to mend fences with her mother, without much success.
As the new semester begins, Beacon is flooded with new arrivals: Sunset's new friend Cinder Fall, Pyrrha's would-be rival Phoebe Kommenos, Pyrrha's actual rival Arslan Altan, and General Ironwood and his Atlesian forces.
Blake, meanwhile, remains determined to stop the White Fang and their campaign of terror. Sunset is, with some reluctance, persuaded to help her out, and the two go to Tukson's to get a lead only for Torchwick and Adam to show up looking to kill him. With the help of Sun and Rainbow Dash, they fight off both Tukson and Adam, and Rainbow and Sunset find out about that his face has been branded with the initials SDC. This freaks them both out, to a greater or lesser extent; Rainbow contacts Councillor Cadance about it, and Cadance promises to look into it.
Blake is exposed as a member of the White Fang, and briefly arrested before Rainbow offers her a deal: she'll be granted diplomatic immunity by Atlas in exchange for helping them stop the White Fang. Without many other options, Blake accepts; the public is told that Blake is an Atlesian spy who has been undercover with the White Fang, and the VPD was unaware of this when they arrested her.
The rest of Blake's team is not very keen to have her back, and Blake starts sleeping in the SAPR dorm room.
SAPR, RSPT and Blake make plans, deciding that the best way to foil the robberies would be to interrupt one in the act. They work out that the White Fang is aware of the contents of trains moving south to Vale from the port of Cold Harbour - likely due to the fact that loading trains is the sort of menial work done by faunus - and plan to hide aboard one such train and ambush the thieves.
Blake and RSPT head out first, joined by a stowaway Sun. SAPR move out later, protecting a train headed north to repair some damage on the line. The two teams meet up in Cold Harbour, and slip aboard a train. As they rumble south again, the teams discuss their motivations for fighting and risking their lives in this dangerous endeavour: duty, honour, ambition, or because they have something to protect. Penny confesses to Pyrrha and Ruby that she is a robot, and is accepted by them both.
The White Fang attacks the train. Rainbow finds out that her old friend Gilda is a part of the White Fang, but lets her go. The group captures Torchwick and Neo. Meanwhile, Team YRBN have had a mission of their own on Vale's outer defences, leading to a run in with a Chill.
Adam attacks the train, catching Twilight and Sunset isolated from the group. Sunset allows Adam to stab her in an attempt to get a kill shot. Unfortunately it doesn't kill him, but she does protect Twilight and Jaune is able to heal her before she bleeds out. It doesn't help with Sunset's fear of Adam at all, though.
The two teams return to Beacon, and celebrate their successful mission. Sunset and Cinder are assigned to work together on an essay for Legends and Fairytales class, and have a flirty study session in an ice cream parlour. Working behind the counter is an old friend of Jaune's, Miranda Wells, who grew up in the same small town as him and is currently studying literature at Kings College. On their way out the two encounter Phoebe, whose very presence triggers Cinder for reasons that she will not explain. Bon Bon harasses Blake for her past with the White Fang, and Sunset responds by hacking Lyra's scroll with Cinder's help and releasing information that humiliates her in front of the school.
Blake goes on a mission with Twilight and Team TTSS (pronounced Tsunami): Trixie Lulamoon, Tempest Shadow, Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst Flare. Although Trixie initially seems like an arrogant blowhard, she displays courage and even a touch of mysterious power in the course of the mission. As the team finds themselves pinned down protecting a group of civillians, Blake risks her own life to destroy the grimm, impressing and worrying TTSS - particularly Starlight Glimmer - in equal measure. On her return, Blake is again harassed by Bon Bon and Cardin, and Sunset responds by leaking a recording of their conversation - a conversation in which various racist statements have been made. Skystar breaks up with Cardin in a fury, and Cardin is left distraught.
Cardin begs for mercy from Sunset, while Phoebe Kommenos attempts to buy the sword Soteria from her. Sunset refuses, and then learns that the bodyguard who carried the sword in the Great War was a Kommenos, and that the possession of the blade has been a contentious issue between the Kommenos and Nikos famillies ever since. Phoebe hires Arslan's teammate Bolin Hori to challenge Sunset for the sword, but Sunset wins the ensuring duel with a bravura display of telekinesis which leaves Phoebe humiliated.
Weiss resolves to become a better team leader after spending a detention with Professor Port in the Emerald Forest. The forest is being set with lures for the grimm as part of a practical excercise for the first years, but Phoebe - one of the older students setting the lures - spreads far more grimm bait than needed in the hope of drawing in excess grimm and killing Sunset.
The excercise begins, and the students are disquieted to learn that they will be split up from their usual teams and partnered with random students: Sunset with Arslan, Jaune with Flash, Ruby with Blake and Twilight with Sage Ayana from Team SSSN in the first wave. It doesn't take long for things to start going to hell in a handcart as far more grimm than expected start swarming the students. Airborne evacuation is impossible due to concentrations of Nevermores, and Councillor Novo Aris - concerned about the panic that will be caused by the appearance of a colossal screwup - refuses to let General Ironwood intervene with his air power to clear the skies. Pyrrha and Cinder leap off the cliffs into the forest to go to the aid of their friends. Ruby is knocked out and Blake is wounded protecting her. Rainbow Dash gets permission to fly her airship into extract everyone, which she does with the aid of Team TTSS. Flying out, they lure the grimm onto the guns of General Ironwood's fleet, which makes short work of them.
Dove of Team YRBN joins Team BLBL, while Blake joins Team YRBN - for a little while, at least, as she is seriously considering transferring to Atlas.
Sienna Khan sends someone to replace Adam as leader of the Vale chapter: a notorious bomber who killed Flash's father. He is captured by Team WWSR, working with the VPD's elite Flying Squad, and murdered by Cinder.
Sunset and Yang work together to organise the school dance. Twilight asks Neptune out but he turns her down. She decides to work in the CCT that night. This is bad because Cinder attacks the CCT that night, and nearly kills Twilight. She is rescued by Rainbow Dash, who flies in just in time, but is unable to defeat Cinder. Cinder attempts to flee but is interrupted by Sunset, who is incensed at this betrayal. Not understanding why Cinder would do this, Sunset activates her semblance: touch empathy. She learns some of Cinder's past, how her parents and she was abused by her stepsister Phoebe Kommenos, before she murdered her stepmother and other stepsister and fled. Cinder gets away, while Sunset is troubled by the extent of Cinder's anger at the world - and in particular her hatred of Pyrrha.
Sunset, Pyrrha, Rainbow and Twilight learn the truth from Ozpin and Ironwood: about Salem, the relics, and the battle for the sake of Remnant. They pass this information on to Ruby, Jaune, Penny, Ciel and Blake. Despite some misgivings, everyone agrees to help resist Salem.
Cinder calls Sunset up, and invites her to Mountain Glenn. On the way there, Cinder and her allies capture Applejack and Fluttershy.
Everyone sets out for Mountain Glenn, to stop Cinder and rescue their friends. Adam is moved by Fluttershy's kindness, and reminded of when he was a sweet boy, and lets her go.
Various battles ensue in the city of the dead, in which Mercury and Adam are killed, Penny is badly damaged, and Ciel has to carry her back to the airship and get her to safety. Everyone else, joined by the rescued Applejack, attempts to stop the White Fang's train from breaching the defences of Vale. A grimm horde starts following the train. Sunset reaches the front of the train and finds a detonator left to her by Cinder, who points out that blowing the mine at the end of the tunnel is her only chance to save her friends. Sunset agonises, but does it, hoping that the presence of the Atlesian forces will be enough to protect Vale from the grimm. Ruby uses her silver eyes to protect everyone from a grimm in the tunnel, and is rendered unconscious.
General Ironwood, forewarned about the White Fang attack by Twilight, has deployed his forces to fight the White Fang, not the grimm. While he redeploys, SAPR, RSPT, TTSS, YRBN, BLBL, WWSR and Arslan join Winter Schnee in fighting to hold the Breach. They succeed, but Sky is killed and a single grimm escapes the Atlesian perimeter and kills five civillians - six deaths, for the lives of Sunset's six friends whom she saved in the tunnel. As Vale reels in shock, Sunset and Rainbow discuss whether she did anything wrong, with Rainbow vehement that she didn't and Sunset not so sure.
It is...too different from the original SAPR. But I like it! This rewrite can highlight the heavy choice of Sunset Shimmer. Heartbreaking!
And I love it!
Nice. I've been missing my fix of Sunset in Remnant and have been looking forward to the rewrites continuation.
And as a first time reader, whose only knowledge of the originals is stuff from the comments, I do have to ask again on where the planned rewrites will finally catch up with the reworked narrative? I keep seeing that huge block of 173 unread entries and gleefully look forward to the day I can be unleashed on all those unsuspecting chapters.
It will be a day long remembered. [Insert Darth Pony face here]
Thanks for continuing the fight.
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The original plan was to stop at the end of volume 3, but at this point it's going to catch up when it actually catches up, although for the most part changes will get more minor as they get closer to catching up.
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Pretty Please with a cherry on top? 
Ok. Will you at least tell us newbies when it's safe to start going beyond the rewrites?
Shit I was curious about this and I may had accidentally spoiled myself... fuck... oh well, good thing I have a shite memory.