The world came into focus around Trigger just as her frame came into focus within it. The orange mare's Robo was... well, there was no getting around it: she hadn't been shortselling it to Penny or Rivet when she'd called it a little pitiful. It was as bare-bones as it was possible for one of the avatars to get: it was practically nothing more than an outline of Trigger's own body, albeit covered by a catsuit of fluted armor with cyan light glowing softly from the seams. *Must be all that power core juice that doesn't have anywhere to go,* she thought to herself as she took a moment to take stock of her surroundings: she'd loaded in on top of a solid neon pink cube about the size of a small apartment, around which she could see the glowing wireframe landscape stretching out until it came to an abrupt end in a roughly rectangular shape. There was some more terrain like the cube she was standing on scattered around, making for something of a maze of a fighting arena. *Makes sense. Gotta make it hard to blitz someone right off the bat or wait them out with bombardment,* she reasoned. 

*"Cripes,"* said Penny; it sounded like she was right in Trigger's ear - which made sense, as she technically was - and yet speaking from the bottom of a well - which also made sense, since Trigger's mind was busy piloting an avatar in an isolated pocket of digital space - which was enough to make the lithe Robo glance to its side. What was most striking about it might have been how it still had Trigger's own turquoise eyes, with hints of that orange coat peeking out from what little wasn't masked by the Robo's helmet.

"What?" Trigger demanded.

*"You weren't kidding. You really don't have a better plan than 'Go in with a half-***** Robo and hope for the best'?"*

"Yeah, well, it's not like I can really go out and ask for a loaner," the unicorn grunted as she hopped down from atop her lofty cube to land on the glossy black tileset of the arena. 

*"Fair enough,"* Penny conceded, though that hint of concern was still present in her voice. *"How did you even get into this school if you don't even have any parts?"*

"Yeah, about that," Trigger said after a moment, the interim filled by her being more occupied with peeking around a few columns to try to snoop out her opponent. "Remember when I told you before the commencement ceremony that I'm good with computer systems? Like, really good?"

*"Yeah?"*

"Academic records aren't really an exception to that."

*"-- You CHEATED?"*

"I prefer to think of it as a Kobayashi Maru situation."

*"Trigger, you cheated to get into the most prestigious Robo academy on the continent and you don't even have basic parts!"*

"No," replied the Robo with Trigger's voice, sounding a little firmer than she'd intended. "I changed the rules of the game to give myself a shot at doing what I want with my life."

*"Not only does everyone here have a head start on you in both experience and parts they can use, you're not even-- Trigger, you could probably go to jail for that if somebody found out!"*

"Well, I better hope nobody finds out, then," Trigger breathed.

*"Trigger--"*

The explosion that lifted Trigger's Robo off its feet and sent it spinning backwards through the air brought an end to that conversation.

*"Trigger!"*

"Found him," the orange unicorn growled as she got back to her feet. The Robo across from her own was advancing at a leisurely pace, letting her get a good look at it: Shining Fighters were a practical chassis, all-rounders that could take a hit and had the power output for decent offensive power as well. This one's angular armor looked like it had a forest camo motif, its user's eyes covered by what looked like night vision goggles. As opposed to her eyes being visible, she could see the glowing outline of the pegasus colt's almost midnight-blue muzzle. She'd taken him for a bit of a sleepy dope; right about now, though, she wasn't liking the looks of that grin. Definitely a military brat.

"I know we were supposed to go easy on each other the first few weeks," he called from where he was standing, "but I think you went a little overboard." He leveled the gun he was holding in one hand - even Trigger knew enough to recognize it as the basic three-burst weapon available to any off-the-shelf Robo - and took aim. "Easy win for me, then. Thanks for the warmup."

He was ready for Trigger to try to dodge, or retreat behind one of the pieces of terrain, or maybe even just stay there and surrender- probably the last option, all things considered. What he wasn't expecting was to be suddenly bull rushed by a Robo whose midsection was still glowing orange from impact damage.

"What the--"

"How's this for a warmup?" Trigger barked, planting one hoof forward to put her weight into a palm-open swing to knock his weapon to the side. The distinctive *BWAT-BWAT-BWAT* of energy fire sounded out in her ear as three bright yellow bolts zipped up into the false star field overhead, quickly vanishing; she had no time to admire it. She was already stepping forward again, driving her elbow into the camo Robo's chest with the crash of digital metal into digital metal. He stumbled back, shaken but unharmed, holding up the weapon in his other hand to try to get a bead on her. Trigger's eyes went wide at the move. A *bomb launcher* at this range? She moved to get close again; hopefully even he would see it as suicide to use a portable artillery piece at *point-blank*--

He didn't.

Trigger's armored midsection was still glowing orange from impact damage when she hit the ground. She didn't see the other Robo with a quick glance; any longer risked being seen and she couldn't fight at range. She rolled, sitting up with a grunt and throwing herself behind cover.

*"Are you okay?"* came Penny's voice.

"What are we looking at?" Trigger asked, ignoring the question.

*"Basic gun and basic bomb launcher; if he's using pods or secondary launchers, then I don't see them equipped. Basic mobility boosters, too. Nothing fancy at all."*

"So my big worries are being shot and being blown up at range," she sighed. "At least I don't have to worry about stepping on a landmine, then." Seemed manageable enough. That was about all she had time to think: basic boosters was still better than the nonexistent boosters she was working with, and the sun-yellow blaze of rocket boots was all the warning she was given before Camo was on her again.

"Gotcha!"

She leaped to the side and dove into a combat roll. She didn't look back, didn't stop until she'd heard three shots from his weapon and three impacts on the ground behind her. *Stay out of the open,* she thought. *He can move. You can't.* 

He saw her coming and tried to boost backwards on instinct, but he came up against the cube Trigger had initially arrived on top of; she got in close, grunting as she grabbed him and put all her weight into an over-the-shoulder throw. The crash of Robo on wireframe was satisfying: the distinct lack of damage wasn't. She looked down at her avatar's hands, squeezing her fists with frustration as if willing them to hit harder; whether she knew it or not, she was looking roughly down at the watch. The reason she was here at all. The only thing she had left of Dad.

*You can't do it.*

*I have to.*

*You shouldn't be here.*

*But I am.*

*You let him down.*

*Not yet I haven't.*

"Cute moves," snarled Camo, getting to his feet and readying his loadout again, "but you're just wasting my time. Just throw in the towel now and spare me the trouble, will you?"

She wasn't listening- not intently. She was listening enough to grit her teeth with frustration. *I didn't come this far just to lose to this dopey, sleepy pegasus brat,* she shouted at herself. *I'm not done yet, Dad. Not yet. Not yet--!*

Back in realspace, something happened. A small, blue light on her watch began to blink.

Something happened.

And everything changed.

https://youtu.be/_eMvgO8qbBQ

Camo cried out and lifted a hand, shielding his visor with his gun as Trigger's Robo vanished in a digital thunderstorm. The unicorn gasped as power surged through her avatar, previously pitiful readouts suddenly surging with green activation lights. She looked down at her hands as sky-blue armor sprouted from the electricity racing up and down her form, gauntlets clenching and greaves planting into the tileset as raw energy coalesced around her sub-basic avatar into something that looked far more like a Robo.

*"A Shining Beauty?"* Penny breathed, awestruck. Trigger didn't answer; she was too busy watching, awestruck, as the last few vestiges of lightning shot up her arms, forming into basic weaponry of her own in her hands. She gripped them tight as her Robo's readout read all systems nominal, and then? She turned those brilliant blue eyes of hers right back on the Shining Fighter.

"Round two?"

He was leveling his gun. She was already gone. The Shining Beauty leaped up- then leaped again. She spun through the air, pirouetting gracefully to effortlessly dodge the Shining Fighter's attacks as she put a few three-round bursts of her own into his chest. He had expected an easy fight: where had she learned to move like that? Where had that Robo *come from?* He swung up his bomb launcher, fired, and cried out again as her weapons fire cut right through it and caused it to blow prematurely; right in his face. He was knocked back, hitting the wall hard and his vision shuddering from the multiple hard impacts. Trigger landed, raised her own bomb launcher.

"Seeya."

Camo vanished in a plume of digitized fire and smoke, his frustrated shouting drowned in roboticized static as his Robo deconstructed and his consciousness was pulled back to realspace. Trigger was breathing hard, but underneath her Robo's faceplate, she was grinning ear to ear. *I did it. I did it!*

*"So when were you planning on pulling THAT out?"* Penny demanded.

Trigger's grin widened. "I figured I'd play it close to the chest," she teased; in private, though, she was wondering much the same thing. Her mind was still racing, even as the resolution of the arena began to blur and she felt, like being roused from a daydream, the sensation of being pulled back to realspace herself. The academy's sparring room swam into focus even as digital space fell away, letting her see the pegasus' friends leading him back to their dorms- not before he could shoot a glare at her, though. She grinned and wiggled her fingers in a 'Ta-ta!' gesture.

"That's probably not gonna make the story any better when it starts getting around," Penny warned from where she was standing next to Trigger's place at the console. 

"What?"

"Pulling out a preset Robo mid-fight and then taunting him after you thrash him like that."

She mulled over that. "Yeah, well," she concluded after a while, "I'm sure I can make something up to make it sound good. I'm good at that." She gave Penny another grin. "Seriously, did you see that?"

"Oh, I saw it," the kirin mare chuckled. "Believing is the hard part. It was like you just..." She shrugged. "*Willed* a Robo into existence. I've never seen anything like it. What were you even doing to make that happen?"

Trigger frowned. "... refusing to give up, I guess," she admitted. Penny cocked her head, prompting the unicorn to continue. "I dunno how to put it any better than that. Honest."

The kirin sighed. "'It's the first day at a new boarding school,' I said. 'How weird could it possibly be?' I said. As if I was daring the universe to manifest a roommate who can spontaneously create Robos in the middle of a fight after cheating to get into a school for Robo battles, a thing which she has no prior experience with."

"Well now you're just rubbing my face in it," Trigger snorted, punching Penny on the arm. "C'mon, let's get back to the room. There'll be time to figure all this out later."

As they exited the sparring chamber and the lights shut off, she hesitated and looked down at her watch one last time. *I won't let you down, Dad,* she repeated.